Inter-race couple
Eat breakfast, lunch or dinner.
So? One bill or two?
The above haiku is my “wordplay” on something that kind of bugs me. About 50% of the time that Firda and I go out for dinner we are always asked it we want one bill or two. What I would like to know is if other couples get this? Couples who are in their early 30s.
What I feel is that because Firda and I are of different races they make the assumption that we are just friends and not a couple. I don’t want to call it racist – since these people are just making an assumption, but it kind of bugs me.
Nas and Kaley. Does this every happen to you (being another interracial couple)? How about the rest of you?
5 Comments
Man, I’m so poor that the kind of places i go to these days only ask if i want fries with that…
Kidding aside, I can’t recall ever getting that question in a restaurant setting – but i’ve noticed (though kaley might not have seen it) the occasional ‘stink-eye’ from a random person as we go down the street hand in hand.
But i can be a bit hyper-sensitive about these matters, too.
Ha, I’ve noticed the occasional stink-eye, too! Every time I mention it to Troy – who doesn’t usually notice it – he’d just shrug it off and say “whatever”.
funny how the brown halves of these couples have racist-radar. am i being racist now? god, it’s getting so a person can’t make sweeping generalizations anymore…
So much goes into people’s assumptions – I might throw gender issues into the mix as well. White women with asian men have a particular ‘type’ in Britain – it’s an old stereotype but I think still prevalent, particularly in the North. If you have seen it, think of ‘East is East’ – if not, it’s really funny and the two eldest sons are well fit . It’s funny cause that film – and the ‘type’ i’m talking about are very solidly lower-middle/working-class but the other type would be the Jemima/Imran Khan or Liz Hurley/Arun Nayar – that is, the exoticised (eroticised, or ‘orientalised’) East. We are, alas, neither – just aspirational students as yet. In our neighbourhood tho, we are known purely because we’re mixed race.
I forgot to mention – a couple of years ago BBC ran a documentary special that dealt, in part, with mixed race couples – but only black/white mix and only (if I recall correctly) black men with white women. I think that white/asian is still, in many ways that are covered up by blustering Liberals, more troubling to a lot of people. (‘Asian’ in Britain = anywhere east of Turkey…problematic in the extreme – I’m talking about what in Canada we’d call ‘Indian’ and ‘south east asian’ (no less problematic)).