For decades, crossing the racial lines while dating has been a taboo within the Black American community. However, within recent years our tolerance has progressed, and it is no longer an anomaly to see a Black man and a white woman walking hand in hand. Now, does this same distance exist among Blacks from different parts of the Diaspora? Most students agree that there is limited interaction among the different cultures represented at Howard University, especially when it comes to dating. Carribean, African, and Black American students rarely cross the cultural boundaries in social interaction. Can this be attributed to differences in culture, dating mannerisms, or even dislike or fear of another culture?
Dr. Edna Greene Medford, associate professor in the Department of History does not believe that student apprehension about dating outside of their culture is any different than students being unsure about dating someone of another socioeconomic status or religion or even region of the country. "There are certainly cultural differences to some extent. Background differences can cause clashing in any relationship."
However, most people are not against dating someone outside of their culture, as long as the person shares similar values.
"As long as a person is respectful then it can work. It is most important that we have the same values and the same goals," said Darcelle Charles, a Senior Spanish and French major from Trinidad.
Dr. Medford agrees. "Love conquers all, and if people understand there are difference whether it's cultural, or religion, or different philosophy of life. If they understand that going into the relationship, and they're willing to work through those issues, then I don't see it being a long term problem," says Dr. Medford.
In addition to the cultural differences that may cause clashing, there are also stereotypes and pre-conceived notions that may keep the distance between the cultures. Black American men are often accused of being less respectful, while Black men from the Caribbean and Africa are thought of as being controlling.
"The beliefs about the roles in the relationship are really different. What a woman is supposed to be in a relationship and what a man is supposed to be in a relationship varies tremendously, and that is hard," says Meilani Clay, a freshman English major from California.
Dr. Petronella Muraya, a Kenyan geographer in the Department of History, agrees and even attributes the differences in roles to the negative stereotypes that Black American men face.
"In the Caribbean and Africa, the men are the head of the household, so a woman that comes to America and sees all these Black men that are in trouble legally and all these Black men that are being raised by a single mother…then, they wonder why the Black men are like that and it becomes the fear of the unknown and a lack of knowledge not knowing that all Black American men are like that."
Family may also be an influence in students' decision to date outside of their culture. Although some students insist that their families would not have problems with them crossing cultural boundaries, others do have thoughts of what dating someone from another culture would be like, especially older family members who may not have had exposure to Blacks from various cultures.
"I was talking to someone from Africa earlier this year and then later I was talking to someone from Jamaica and my grandmother would be like 'don't date them, they're bossy and abusive to their women,'" said Bianca Grant, Freshman Psychology major from Washington DC.
"I don't think that we should minimize the extent to which cultural differences might cause clashes," Medford said, "but I don't think that those differences are insurmountable,"
