Anyone interested in Interracial support DU group?

The group would be for anyone that is interracially married, children of an interracial couple (i.e. multi-cultural individuals), those presently dating interracially, and any other individuals or couples that may fall into this category that I can't think of right now.

The thread I just saw in the DU Lounge about interracial relationships/marriage issues made me think about starting a group. So I am trying to gauge if there are enough of us here to even create such a group and keep it busy.

Personally, I have sometimes just wanted to talk to others that are involved in such a relationship to discuss any challenges they may face, to vent, etc. Dh and I are also considering a major move in the next couple of years so we will be looking for communities that may have large numbers of interracial couples (i.e. Northern California, Seattle).

So if you are interested in such a group, please check in on this thread. If you are not interested, but just read this, please kick this for me. Thanks!

I'm in an inter-religious, inter-ethnic relationship (I'm anglo-saxon Christian, my boyfriend is ME Muslim). It would be great to be able to talk to others about certain issues that my friends just don't get.

I would be interested.
Sounds like a cool idea.
I'm Italian and my boyfriend is Puerto Rican.

I am African American and my wife is Caucasian.

I'm always looking for people I have things in common with.

...we can get as many members as possible to see this! :)

All Welcome! The more the merrier!

:kick:

irish indian with 3 biological kids and adoptive parent of 3 hispanic siblings

their relationships entirely, and if I found a non-white gay man, I'd be open to a relationship with him.

May supporters of interethnic relationships be included in this group? If so, please count me in.

(My one gripe is that it's called "interracial". We are all human, just different ethnicities. IMHO, of course.)

It's okay with me :hi:

:hi:

i am caucasian, my girlfriend black...been dating for about a year....i'm game....

one more kick!

through the weekend, as some may be away from the boards now due to the Holiday.

:kick:

I am very interested in such a group.

I will help give it a :kick: for the weekend crowd!

:hi:
I'm hoping we get enough interest to make this a reality.

Thanks again for offering to kick! LOL!

Enjoy your weekend--
Bliss

I'd join your group.

Welcome aboard! Hold good thoughts that we can get this off the ground.

Bliss :hi:

I'm Latina and my man is a white country boy from Oklahoma, a democrat
:loveya:

Love your screen name, btw!

Bliss:)

I'm a white Jew, and my girlfriend is nonexistent.

It's tough on both of us. Well, me, mostly.

wonderful sense of humour!

I am not currently in a relationship, but I tend to favor men of other ethnicities than me, so I more than likely will have input at some poiunt!LOL! Also, my white bother and black sis in law have a beautiful family... total modern day Brady Bunch... each has three kids from a previous marriage (three black kids and three white) and one mixed race gorgeous little baby girl. And my best friend is also in an interracial relationship, and they will probably be getting married. So, I feel right at home in interracial environments.

Your input in such a forum would be appreciated! It sounds like you would be a great contributer with the experiences you've had and your dating preferences.

Welcome!
:hi:

My father's white, my mother's Latina. They've got 36 years and going strong! :hi:

:hi: and thank you for expressing interest in the group!

Me in.

Thank you

But I don't think we need a support group. Hell, I live in Virginia, and it's still not that bad.

Just sayin'....

I'll be an active participant.

:)

I'm caucasion and raised my biracial son by myself. He's a freshman at college now and started calling himself "multiracial" because of the African-American, Native-American, and European ancestry.

We encountered some racisim during his childhood which helped shape and mold him into the loving man he has become.

and Welcome to Democratic Underground! I appreciate your interest in this group, we'd love to have you!

Congratulations on raising a child on your own. That is no small feat, adding the fact the the child was biracial probably had it's own set of challenges. So good for you!

Bliss

I'm continuing to kick this thread for others to see through at least Monday evening/night. I hope this will give any that may have been away from the boards a chance to see this and post if they are interested.

On late Monday or sometime Tuesday I will contact the admins about the group and provide a link to this thread, so they can see how many are interested.

Thank you to all that have expressed interest thus far. Here's hoping that we can make this possible group a reality!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
Bliss :)

I'm African American and I date a bi-racial guy. Does that count?

Thank you so much for expressing interest, I appreciate it!

Anyone else?

I'm half of an interracial marriage. Blended families are tough! I find culture and language more difficult than race itself.

the community would appreciate your input. Thanks for expressing interest!

Orthodox Jew with a British Carribean girl friend!

Welcome!

:grouphug:

Thank you for expressing interest in this group!

:hi:

I am Caucasian and my fiancée is African American and Japanese. One issue that we are negotiating and navigating through is that her mother is not too keen on our relationship, often voicing her misgivings. Slowly but surely we will win her over though.

Also, this is my first DU post, so hello all. :)

And thank you for expressing interest in our group! I will definitely be in touch, letting you know if we are approved or if we need to do anything prior to actual approval.

Congratulations on your engagement! It's such an exciting time!

Bliss :hi:

Hi All,
I contacted the admins and their response was favorable for our group! Yay! All we need now is a mission statement. So what do you guys think of something like this:

The Interracial DU group is a place to give and recieve support for individuals that are part of an interracial marriage, relationship and/or partnership.

If you are or have been interracially married, prefer dating interracially, are the child of an interracial relationship/marriage, have been adopted by parents that don't share your cultural background, are considering adopting outside of you or your spouses race, have raised or are raising a biracial/multiracial child or children, or would like support for an inter faith relationship --welcome!

If you agree with such a mission statement, pls weigh in on this thread. If you would like to see the statement altered in any way state so here as well. This is a group for all of us. I am not the leader or dictator, merely the facilitator to bring us all together, so please speak up and share.This group will be for all of us--let's make it what WE want it to be! :)

p.s. I don't know if it will be necessary, but we can also speak to the admins about posting some sort of statement letting people know that if they don't agree with IR relationships, inter-faith relationships, etc. don't bother posting here as admins will be alerted and they will probably be deleted. I say this because I have seen evidence of some bigots, racists and people that make hating a way of life frequenting other internet forums and trying to harass members. I don't really fear that here as I know DU won't tolerate it, but we are still a public board so if as a group you are all more comfortable with such we can certainly attempt to address it.

bliss_enternal (and everyone!). I was hoping that this group would get off the ground (I haven't been checking DU as often recently because I've been studying for finals :puke:).
The mission statmeent sounds good to me. :hi:

:thumbsup:

If anything to make a mention of, I prefer the phrase "multiethnic" over "interracial". We're all human, but this is merely semantics.

Hypno Toad--I actually like multiethnic better, too! So if anyone else is reading this--how do you feel about us saying multi-ethnic instead of interracial? Or we could also say interracial/multi-ethnic for any that may not be hip to multi-ethnic yet :)

Legally blonde--Good luck with finals! Thanks for checking in!

better than interracial. I think that ethnicities are more encompassing than races. It also brings to mind cultural diversity. :hi:

I have a problem with only one part: "or would like support for an inter faith relationship." I fear the forum may be diverted to topics about religion. I've been in a number of inter-faith relationships, but that was a lot different than the problems I faced with interracial coupling. If others here want to include inter-faith in the mission statement, then I will abide.

peace

Looks good!

I prefer "multiethnic" too. "Interracial" seems to me to imply a binary, and the reality is so much more complex.

Maybe one thing I'd like to see added to the mission statement is that this is also a place to celebrate the rewards such relationships can bring. There are problems that come with it, of course, but I don't see multiethnic families or relationships as being made up primarily of problems! (Not that I think you really said that--I just don't want the support-group focus to unbalance the potential advantages of the cultural understanding and empathy we can come to in such a personal way.) If that makes any sense.

Thank you for addressing this! I don't think any of us would stay in our respective relationships if the positive didn't outweigh the negative aspects we sometimes face and are challenged by.

I look at people like all of us as ambassadors for the rest of our nation. We are showing the world that love has nothing to do with what's on the outside, contrary to what many would have us all to believe. Sure we are all attracted to certain physical aspects of people, but true love is color blind imo.

Again, thank you for reminding us that we are also about sharing what's good about our relationships, what we've learned, taught, the day to day joys, etc. I am excited and encouraged to see such an interest in a forum like this!

Yay-ness,
Bliss

perhaps the only thing I might add would be in the first sentence, to include 'intercultural' as well as interracial, as I feel that is a big impact on relationshipes also. I might be alone in this, so it's not a deal-breaker for me.

I've been in an interracial relationship for a number of years (I'm African American and my boyfriend is a white Australian), and have dated every shade under the rainbow.

Can't seem to find a decent discussion group either. :(

On Edit: I agree with your mission statement, and I would definitely want to add some kind of disclaimer that the group is not a place to talk about how such relationships are bad, against the word of the LAWD, etc. The discussion groups I've seen are always brought to their knees by people like that.

Thanks so much for expressing interest! Welcome! :hi:

I will make a point to let the mods/admins know that we are interested in a disclaimer. I hate to hear that other groups are disrupted with such nonsense, that's so insane to me.

We all also have to be cautious and mindful of such stuff too. If any of us see's someone even suggesting such crap--hit alert and let admins know. The admins here are awesome, I don't believe they will tolerate any of that. That's the nice thing about having a group like this under the umbrella of DU, imo!

I just have to make my donation through paypal and I'm in

thank you for expressing interest in this group! The more the merrier!

:hi:

sure would love to talk about some of the obstacles we've had, hopefully they will help and encourage younger members!

Thanks for working on this!

i am from seattle, but have moved north to an island with my eclectic family, have stories, advice and support for others in all my pockets, and will welcome the dialog and support from others.

interracial. kinda turns me on personally....}(

:kick:

I agree with Swamp Rat in that personally I don't want to see our forum get bogged down in religious issues, which it could if we open it up to inter-faith in the mission statement. So I'll leave that out.
Since some of us like multi-ethnic and others are cool with interracial, let's keep both.

By keeping both we can attract others that are part of DU that may not be aware of 'multi-ethnic' as a term that identifies their relationship. We'll also add inter-cultural as this is important too.

So how about this: :hi:

The Interracial DU group is a place to give and recieve support for individuals that are part of an interracial/intercultural/multi-ethnic marriage, relationship and/or family.

If you are or have been interracially married, prefer dating interracially, are the child of an interracial relationship/marriage, have been adopted by parents that don't share your cultural background, are considering adopting outside of you or your spouses cultures, have raised or are raising a biracial/multiracial child or children --welcome!

Let's share and support one another in our struggles and challenges. Let us also share the rewards that are part of bringing together several rich cultures and diverse backgrounds. Whether you are already part of a relationship like this, just thinking about it, or support others that are we welcome you to our forum.

Disclaimer:
While we are a supportive, close-knit and open community and welcome others that are interested in the issues that we share this is not a dating service. This is also NOT a place where attitudes that are not supportive of multiethnic families and relationships will be tolerated. If you feel such relationships are inherently wrong, go against your personal religious beliefs, standards, etc. do not post here, flame or attack our members. If you do, you risk having your posts deleted and being blocked from our forum and possibly DU (see DU standards of behaviour, etc.). As we are under the umbrella of Democratic Underground all standards of forum use still apply.

Bigotry, racism and remarks of hatred for ANY cultures will NOT be tolerated here.

How's that guys? Any thoughts--changes?

Hugs,
Bliss :)

Seems like you've mentioned everything relative at this point.
I can't come up with anything new to add!

Thanks for the PM!

with your feedback--I appreciate it!

:)

kick for any other members that may be interested that haven't seen this yet
:)

Hits all the angles I can think of right now. Thanks so much for doing this!

:-)

So, I'm interested.