Jackapoos, Yorkipoos, Puggles, Labradoodles, Sheepadoodles, Goldendoodles, Cockadoodledoos ( I’m just messing with you on that last one to see if you were paying attention; no way would a rooster mate with a poodle, a St. Bernard maybe, but a poodle…?)
Growing up, I was given the not so subtle message that I was to “stick to my own kind” when it came to dating and eventually to marrying. I know that in many other cultures the message is even more clear than in the American culture. However, even in the United States, Asians and Chaldeans, to name a couple, are very stringent when it comes to dating and marrying outside of their own kind.
In our book Black and White Like You and Me, I wrote lightheartedly that I wished one of my children would marry a tall African-American to stop the albino pygmy direction that the Daniels’ lineage was heading toward. Breeding dogs with another breed is done to improve the result, such as no shedding or fewer health problems or a better temperament. Yet when it comes to mixed marriages, the idea of a beneficial result is rarely considered. Here I must relate an irrational stereotype concerning mixed marriages. The white genes would support an intelligent child, and the black genes would support an athletic child. What kind of crazy thinking is that?
It wasn’t until 1967 that the law against inter-racial marriage was finally struck down in the last remaining states primarily in the South. Therefore, perhaps the future will indicate a much more accepting viewpoint on this issue.
So, what gets in the way of mixed marriages? Well, for one thing, L-O-V-E! Dogs breed by instinct not because they love each other. They have the means, motive, and opportunity, so they go for it. How is a black woman going to love a white man if she has never let herself meet many white people? How is a white man going to love a black woman when society has frowned on that type of relationship?
Our book’s message is quite clear … The races must be given opportunities to meet and learn about each other.
For Cookie Marsh and me, the opportunity was basketball. What if our Saturday afternoon geezerball had been exclusive to blacks only or whites only? “Stick to your own kind”? Why? We need more Afrocasians or Caufros. Well, you know what I mean.
PHOTO CREDIT: A rally in protest of the desegregation of Little Rock Central High at the state Capitol, August 20, 1959. Library of Congress, U.S. News & World Report Magazine Photograph Collection.
