Oh, ZipperJJ, I’m so sorry.
I think I would have divorced my family in that situation. I do not EVER want to be put in that sort of position.
Dated used as a euphanism for “enjoyed the intimate company of” then yes I have, but dated used in the traditional sense no. Several male members of my immediate family are rather openly racist and I’d never subject anyone I cared about to that.
I’m married to a redhead.
It was odd - my wife was 1/2 Korean and 1/2 Pole, and even though she had epicanthic eye folds and a moon-face, I didn’t see that she was Asian until she told me, I knew at first sight she was Polish because of the way she carried herself. (Just something about those Slavic princesses)
Hubby and I are both of Northern European descent.
As hard as it seems to believe, we’ve been together for 24 years now (I’m 46, he’s 48), and both of my parents were alive when we started dating.
While I don’t think my father would have much cared if I’d dated outside of my race, my mother would have had heart failure. So I didn’t much think about it, let alone pursue it.
But, I am Baha’i. We believe, strongly, in the equality of all races. Last weekend, I was away at a Baha’i Summer School (cool, I get a membership extension for a time period I couldn’t have posted in, anyway! 
) and one of the things I love about these Summer Schools is the ethnic diversity.
We have black/white, black/asian, white/asian, white/Iranian, black/Iranian, etc. etc. ad infinitum.
I can honestly say that the kids in the Children’s Classes at the Summer Schools are very diverse looking.
In short, I wouldn’t have ruled out dating outside my race had my mother not been so opposed. But had you known my mother, you would have understood my belief that she could call the thunder upon me at any moment that I crossed her will.
OTOH, if any of my kids (three daughters, ages 21. 17 and 8) decided to date outside their race, it would get a big “meh” from me and my hubby.
Veronique was half French, half Chinese, cute, sexy and dirty as hell, and for some reason seemed to respond to me even though I was seriously scruffy that night in the pub. For whatever reason I omitted to get her phone number and I have never seen her from that day to this…
:smack: 
:smack:
Otherwise it’s just never come up.
I’m Japanese-American and grew up surrounded by Asians, so the guys I was interested in were Asian. I could see myself dating a white guy, but not so much a black, Hispanic, Middle-Eastern, etc. one., for no real reason other than I didn’t know much about them and my chances of meeting one, much less hitting it off with one, seemed astronomically tiny.
My SO of 4 years is Caucasian. I met him online, so neither of us knew the other’s ethnicity until we asked, and by then we were already interested. So the ethnic difference was not a factor in our attraction, and it wasn’t an obstacle for us. It actually was the opposite-- I was intrigued by his blond-haired, blue-eyedness, and he’s always liked Asian girls.
No one has said anything negative to us about it. His parents are pleased and intrigued by the idea of hapa grandkids. My parents, fortunately, are not the type who wanted me to bring home a nice Japanese boy and ONLY that. I guess it helps that my mom used to lust after Caucasian celebrities when she was a teenager.
I’m pretty much free-ranging. I’ve got a type I like, and if you’re that type you’re in. Race doesn’t matter, but my type is more common in some races than others. Sorry. No, actually I’m not. I think my parameters are sufficiently non race based. But if you don’t have what I’m looking for, oh, well.
I’m white, and all of my serious long-term relationships have been with white guys. However, now that I think about it, I (briefly) dated 2 guys in high school who were of Latino ancestry, and I thought they were super hot. I also dated a half-Thai guy (very briefly) in college who was really cute (though he looked more Native American than Asian - maybe it was his long hair). But in general I have never been all that attracted to Asian guys. Now, I have seen some really hot black guys (ya know, like Will Smith, Denzel, etc., and some in real life) but as someone said above, there is a huge cultural difference there. Most black people I know are into hip-hop & rap, and I am strictly a rock n’ roll gal, and music is very important to me, so I don’t think we would mesh very well culturally. But I would never rule it out.
ETA: Another interesting observation: It seems like I am the type of girl that black and Latino guys love… most likely due to my curvaceous, hourglass figure (read: big hips and round butt.) It seems like black guys are much more into curvy girls than white guys are (who seem to prefer the toothpick-thin figure that most of the popular white actresses and celebrities have).
Anyway, my current SO (my high school sweetheart and guy who I have been in love with since the first time I saw him when I was 16) is white and is absolutely gorgeous and perfectly my “type,” so I’m pretty happy!!
I like girls who are smart and pretty. My girlfriend of some two and a half years is both brilliant and beautiful.
What, you say she’s Asian and I’m white? Whatever. It’s weirder that she’s Canadian and I’m American. 
More generally, race doesn’t matter to me, but I will also admit that the things that I am attracted to tend to be more common in some races than others. I have absolutely nothing against black girls, but any that I would end up dating would probably have more of what are (stereo)typically thought of as “white” characteristics, both physically and culturally.
I’m a white boy and my girlfriend is Puerto Rican. We met while on vacation in London earlier this year.
I was thinking of starting a thread similar to this, as usual beaten to it.
White guy here - I’ve dated a guy from Iraq (he didn’t look all that Arab to me) but the language barrier was too big so I eventually broke it off. He’d lived here for 8 years and if he couldn’t speak the language properly now he was never likely to, his awesome body just didn’t compensate enough for the utterly lacklustre conversations we had. Funnily enough I went on a date tonight with another Arab guy, although he was born in the UK. Didn’t really hit it off that well, won’t be seeing him again. I was all set to date an oriental guy (we chatted for a while on a website) but it never materialised.
My attraction generally runs pretty exclusively to white/European guys, and as my faves are the Scandinavians then guys of other races tend not to score that highly for me. I’ve seen very few black guys that I’ve been attracted to, and haven’t seen that many oriental guys that I’ve really liked either. Asian/Indian guys on the other hand I often like quite a bit (they’ve always got great hair), but I’ve never had the opportunity to go out with one. I don’t really consider Hispanic guys as not white, unless they have very heavily native American features or something. I just think of them as Mediterranean. I’ve never slept with anyone who wasn’t white/European, but again it’s not because I’m averse to the idea. 
In my experience interracial coupling is a much bigger issue in the US than it is in Europe. I don’t know anyone who would consider two people of different races dating as anything worth commenting on (certainly not within my generation).
That is pretty much a dealbreaker.
Race is a mostly artificial concept; beauty, and more importantly, intelligence and charm, transcend skin color and eye shape. However, there are certain ethnic upbringings and beliefs that I think I would have a significant problem relating to. But hey, I’ll try anything once except for heroin and scatologically-themed sex.
Stranger
I see dopers say this all the time (usually they say “race is a myth” - same concept, I think), but what is that supposed to mean? I’ve yet to see two Chinese people have an Indian baby, or a two Nigerians have a kid who looks like Fabio. You’d think if race was a myth/social construct/artificial concept, something like this would happen, you know, at least every once in awhile.
Trying to find a reliable cite, but didn’t Dinah Shore have a black child?
You are conflating genetics with race, here. Race is not a quantifiable concept. Sure, we can look at some phenotypical features and fold them into a clade, or we can examine genetic markers and identify someone as (probably) originating from this region, but the notion that there are distinct “races” is nebulous at best. For instance, you mention “Chinese” people; does this mean that you think that there is a “Chinese” (or East Asian) race? The occupants of modern China include dozens of ethnicities with distinct cultural, linguistic, and physical distinctions. Where would we draw the line between a Chinaman[sup]*[/sup] and a Korean or a Vietnamese? And if we include a Vietnamese into the group, where does a Malay fit in? Is he Chinese-Asian or Indian-Asian? What about Africans; there are a vast array of physically differentiated tribal groups which most people lump in their minds into the category “black” or “Negro”. Are Europeans all one race of Caucasians (even though many Western and Northern European stocks did not derive primarily from the peoples of the Caucasus and don’t speak a Caucasian-based language).
Speaking of race is, at best, a misleading substitute for “ethnic identity” or “association with a phylogenetics unit”, and at worst, an obtuse and uneducated attempt at suppression and pointless differentiation. The Nazi eugenic das Herrenvolk was an extreme of this kind of absurdity (the German people aren’t directly derived from Persians and Deutch is not derived from the Indo-Aryan language family), but less lethal arguments based upon supposed “race”–for instance, the concept that it is preferred to place an orphaned child with a family of his same “race” rather than a family of different racial background–is counterproductive and obtuse as well.
Stranger
*Also, Dude, chinaman is not the preferred nomenclature. Asian-American, please.
I find many rumors and mentions on blogs, but I can’t seem to prove or disprove it. According to this, she had a black grandmother.
Stumbled across this about Carly Simon:
Simon’s father was Richard L. Simon (co-founder of Simon & Schuster, Inc.), a pianist who often played Chopin and Beethoven at home. Her mother was Andrea Louise Simon (née Heinemann)[1], a biracial (black and white) Jewish civil rights activist and singer.
Sure I have, growing up my sisters used to tease that I took Jesse’s rainbow coalition thing as a personal challenge.
I’m your basic mixed Euro heritage generic white mutt. I dated black guys, mixed guys, Hispanic, Norwegian, it wasn’t a big issue for me. It was a big issue for some of my relatives, oy there were some fights, but not for me.
My ex-husband is Mexican and Native American, we have a beautiful son who’s got that Keanu blendy look that confuses people. He’s been asked if he’s black, Latino, Asian (lots of guesses for Asian) and once someone was convinced he was Burmese.
My fiance is Venezuelan and Jewish, which turns out to be my exact favorite. 
I’ve dated plenty outside my race (Asian and Latino guys) and I’ve never really given much thought to it or heard a single word about it. In California it’s something that comes up pretty naturally and is not something anyone would really worry about.
I don’t get this idea of “cultural differences.” Me and my half-Filipino boyfriend listen to indie music and eat nachos together. My Brazilian ex-boyfriend and I went out to the punk rock shows and enjoyed watching bad comedy movies.
Of course you aren’t going to date people with vastly different interests than you, but it’s not like everyone of a different race lives such a completely different life that we wouldn’t even begin to comprehend them. I’ve had problems with cultural differences with first-generation immigrants, but not with your average Asian dude, whose family is probably more “all American” than mine will ever be.
My long-term relationship before Mr. Mallard* was American but not white (Native American & Asian). Mr. Mallard is white but not American. Ethnicity wasn’t a factor in choosing either one; it was just who I happened to meet at the time. Cultural differences brought some challenges to both relationships, but they have been minor, no worse than dating white Americans from different class backgrounds (one upper, one near-homeless… long stories). Of course, dating another man may have been scarier to my family than the hue of the man in question, but they’ve been pretty good about it all.
- PS: He’s not wild about the cat, either, but they tolerate each other.