Interracial Couples?

Golden Ticket for Script Frenzy Donors
kiltlover

101 pages

Posted
avril 20, 2008 - 7:29pm

Interracial Couples?

Anyone else writing an interracial romance? I'm wondering how you much importance to put on it? I don't make it as much of the theme as "Something New", but I don't want to disregard it all as in "Run Fatboy, Run".

Thoughts?

Golden Ticket for Script Frenzy Donors
lesleyinfreo

107 pages

Posted
avril 20, 2008 - 7:35pm

RE: Interracial Couples?

My hero is Turkish and my heroine is Canadian and the story is based in Istanbul. The difference in ethnic background is not the main conflict between the couple but I am using it as a source of internal conflict and it arises in a couple of subplots.

NANOWRIMO 2007 - The Spoonmaker's Diamond

When shall we live if not now - Seneca

Golden Ticket for Script Frenzy Donors
kiltlover

101 pages

Posted
avril 20, 2008 - 7:46pm

RE: Interracial Couples?

That's good to hear. Yes, definitely internal conflict. It's rising up with an ex here and there. I guess I should finish and then worry about the strength of it all in the revision stage!:)

Thank you.

SLM
"In it to win it!

Elisha Colter

58 pages

Posted
avril 21, 2008 - 11:05am

RE: Interracial Couples?

I think it depends a lot on the couple, the circumstances, and the setting. In some places, interracial couples still raise eyebrows (although from my experience this is less and less the case). But, especially if you're in a more urban area with a racially mixed population, I don't think it's as important to most people as it would have been in the past. It also depends on what your plot focuses on overall. If it's about the struggles of the couple, or meeting each other's families, etc, the issue of race could factor in as another obstacle to their relationship. If it's about, say, trying to run a marathon to win back your ex, I don't see any real reason to focus on race as it doesn't play a role in the characters' motivations or problems.

So, for example, my best friend is white and dating someone who is Asian (granted, they are a gay couple, so that's where more issue comes in). In their day-to-day life and among friends, race isn't an issue other than my friend occasionally commenting on how often they use their rice cooker. When it comes to dealing with each other's families, though, a lot more comes out. His boyfriend's family is very traditional so there is some culture clash there. Still, the issues aren't strictly about race, but about the different traditions they were raised in. On the other hand, when I once dated an Afrikaner, he was consistently amazed that my roommate was black since he'd been raised in a place where that would not be the norm. And, on the far end of the spectrum, a friend once got upset watching Bend it Like Beckam because, while her family had no problem with her traveling thousands of miles and rarely seeing them to go to college in the States, they would never forgive her if she dated a white guy even if he did play cricket. Basically, some individuals and cultures make a bigger deal of interracial dating than others. Someone who has lived their whole life in urban America probably wouldn't think twice, while traditional Sikh parents from Calcutta could throw a fit.

So I'd say make race an issue only if you want it to be a major point in the plot and the conditions warrant it. If you want to include a few references just for realism but don't want it to be a big deal, a couple of off-hand comments could do it (don't know what races your characters are, but the example of grocery shopping with my friend and him saying, only half-joking, "And, of course, I have to buy more rice because I'm living with an Asian man," comes to mind). But, generally, I don't think race has to be an issue unless the setting and characters make it one.

"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn't have come here."

Golden Ticket for Script Frenzy Donors
kiltlover

101 pages

Posted
avril 21, 2008 - 11:57am

RE: Interracial Couples?

Great response. Thank you!!!! My couple spends most of their time in Scotland, so there's room for all kinds of issues to come up, not just their different races and backgrounds. I'm already throwing in the random comments and outsiders bring it up here and there, but I'm keeping it low-key between the lovers so far:)

SLM
"In it to win it!

Golden Ticket for Script Frenzy Donors
susan.kelly7

115 pages

Posted
avril 29, 2008 - 2:36pm

RE: Interracial Couples?

What did you ultimately decide? I guess I'd look to real interacial couples as my point of reference. In my experience issues arise. People don't pretend they's no differences. Yet real couples don't over emphasize it unless one or both have some kind of issues.

"Make no little plans. They have no power to stir men's blood." Daniel Bernham

Cartoongal

101 pages

Posted
avril 29, 2008 - 6:09pm

RE: Interracial Couples?

It's more a cultural thing than race - in mine anyway.

That's all it is in real life too... skin color is nothing (we're all of one blood). But it's the culture issue that makes things interesting.

Mine is about a boy in small village China and a western girl. Normally the opposite rings true and Chinese girls marry western men but it shakes up the family traditions when it's the opposite (money-wise and etc).

Golden Ticket for Script Frenzy Donors
kiltlover

101 pages

Posted
avril 30, 2008 - 8:49am

RE: Interracial Couples?

That sounds really intriguing.

SLM
"In it to win it!