Different Races, relationships, and parents...
 

I was just looking in the 'different races' thread and it made me think back and ponder this....

An Ex of mine what chinese and her parents were never allowed to find out that we were seeing each other (I am a white male), Apparently her brother once dated a white girl and that caused big problems within the family. (Keep in mind that this was only about 3 years ago, in Canada) Anyone else experienced these 'traditionalistic' values? (I wouldn't call it racism... more just not wanted to change their culture/what they were used to...).
Figured could be an interesting thread as well! comment away!

Why isn't it racism? It's discrimination based on the color of a person's skin, yes? I mean, it was "tradition" to have black people use a different bathroom and sit at the back of the bus not too long ago, but that seems to have been phased out. So I think it's safe to say that the tradition argument is bullshit.

My parents probably would want me to marry a Jewish girl, but I wouldnt personally consider it a factor in who I dated or ended up with, and I dont think they would ever put any overt pressure on me.

I personally have no problem with dating someone of another race, and my parent's don't mind either. The "tradition" of marrying someone of the same race is outdated.

I've dated out of my race, and I do think it's racist, that a family doesn't want their daughter dating a white man. They call it preserving a culture, a heritage, while here in the US, we call it racism. Now it's okay for another race to penalize you based on color, but if a white man does it, it's wrong.

A guy I used to work with came from a very traditional Chinese family. He married a white gal and became a Mormon convert.

His family held monthly "family" meetings; they were uneasy about inviting him and she certainly wasn't allowed.

Crazy shit. :hmm:

I knew several people that are and were in different mixed relationships. One girl I knew was east indian and when she married a white person she was disowned by the family. They wanted nothing to do with her.
I got a friend shes white and married into a black family, and I knew another girl that was dating a black guy.
Some cultures it is very frowned upon for dating outside their race and religion as well as having sex before marriage, there are still some places that still do have pre arranged marriages. If you dont follow those beliefs then chances are your family will disown you as well as everyone else.
Everyone here might think it is strange, dumb and totally unbelieveable that stuff like this exists. But we werent raised in that culture. It kinda falls into the put yourself in their shoes. If you were raised with a heavy up bringing of any one religion or culture you wouldnt think of it being wrong for being told that you can not date someone outside your race or religion.
I personally dont have a problem with people of different religions or races dating. I wish all people could get past the colour of skin and look whats inside the person before passing judgement on someone just by looks but the world isnt like that.
I also know that in some states mixed couples mostly meaning a black person and a white person are not really welcome and it is unsafe to travel to them. But then again I also know some small towns that if you were not born and raised there you arent welcome in them either.

Well im from a simple white family and im dating a chinese girl, my brother is dating an indian girl and my other brother is dating a jewish girl. So its pretty mixed.

one good thing is that my G/f parents dont know a word of english so i dont have any awkward speeches and they have no idea what im saying what ever i say. Also my G/f is teaching me chinese so i can understand what they say, so i have a good advantage. hehe

I am mostly Chinese. My father is half-Chinese, half-Caucasian. Because he was a mixed child, he was illegally put up for adoption. So, I can say with some (obviously biased) knowledge and expertise in the area that traditional Chinese families are often racist because it's part of their values. Chinese are raised to "keep the blood yellow," so to speak. It is not unlike their German Aryan counterparts. It isn't something that is taught explicitly, though. For example, in the Chinese language, Caucasians are often referred to as ghosts or white devils (literal translation). Oftentimes, those who hold with traditional values don't have any trust for Caucasians (read: unequal treaties and treaty ports). But this discrimination isn't just against race, but also class. It's pretty much verboten for a Shanghainese to date a Cantonese. (Well, they might consider that a race thing, also because they're from a different province, different language, different culture, etc.)

Cross-cultural relationships can be extremely difficult.

Interesting stories. I had no problem AT ALL with it, and if i was single and the right person came along then sure it really wouldn't make a difference to me. I'm lucky enough to have a family that'd support me no matter what! (and a great gal !!!)

I had a black girl friend in college. Her brother was there also and we'd hang out with him and his white girlfriend sometimes. They got along well and were a sweet, not gushy couple. Her parents came to visit. I don't think she'd informed them of his skin color. They flipped out and told her if she didn't break up with him they'd force her to come and and refuse to help with any more college. Pretty harsh. And they said all this in front of him. He was an A student, smart and clean. The only gripe they had was his skin color. Pretty sad as she did break up with him.

My parents told me that if I ever wanted to date someone from a different race of culture they would support me. My mother told me outright to be careful though in that someone from a completely different culture would have different ways of looking at things and maybe even communicating. Marriage is hard enough without facing a type of culture shock as well. I did date a deaf guy for a while and was even engaged to him. Not only did he have a different culture but he was exactly 10 years older than me. Our places in life were different too. The combination of differences made it hard. Eventually after he'd insisted on ANOTHER week OFF (not seeing each other to "test our relationship") I told him I'd had enough and broke off the engagement.

Different cultures can make it hardbut not impossible. Different colors should not be considered I think.

So true, so true.

On a slightly related topic, I attended a lecture given by a well-known feminist (whose name escapes me at the moment) talking about cross cultural issues. She said that the fastest possible method to force everyone to deal with this issue face to face is for white women to date men of color (color, meaning not just black). She said it doesn't work the other way around because when a white man dates a woman of color, she's exoticized, she's his pet, so it doesn't work in most cases because in most cultures women are supposed to be demure. Obviously, people shouldn't go out and breed based on color to eliminate the issue, but it's an interesting theory I thought I'd bring up.

My ex girlfriend was Korean, and I was scared shitless of her parents for nearly the entire time we were dating. Then I found out that her brother was dating a caucasian girl, her sister was dating an Indian, and her uncle was German. Certainly eased things up for me, but they were still a very strict family, and it sure took me a long time to gain their trust.

Regardless, I stand by my argument that just excusing it as your culture doesn't make it right. The Aztecs thought it was great to take prisoners and cut their hearts out, but I don't see too many people standing up for that. The Nazis just wanted to reunite the homeland and run the mud people back into the Earth, but not everyone seemed to want to endorse their culture. The South just wanted what was best for the poor Negro, so they forced them to be their slaves, but somehow that didn't stand the test of time either. The Taliban only wanted to kill women for tempting the males in society to immoral behavior, but somehow the West just couldn't let it go.

Don't fall victim to cultural relativism. It is not OK to discriminate against a person for anything other than the content of their character. Race, creed, and social status have nothing to do with it. I don't care how old and "honorable" your culture is, I'll tell anyone to their face that their society is horseshit if it includes racist values.

Since it is unclear to whom you are responding, I thought I'd clarify that if it's me, then you might want to consider re-reading my post because you're preaching the choir. Comparing traditional Chinese values to that of Aryan Germans was not intended to be a "good" thing. Likewise, if I was explaining foot binding to someone and compared it to female genital mutilation, it would also not be a "good" thing. The only thing I was attempting to do was give some insight to "'traditionalistic values'" HockeyGuy was talking about.

I'm currently in an interracial relationship that has been going on for two years, four months, and two days now.

My parents have no problems with her being white because they know that love is colorblind. Also, her parents seem to like me and be cool with us being together (but at times I do wonder if it's only because my parents are medical doctors). I have met most of her family and they were polite towards me (even though it wouldn't surprise me if some of them disapprove of our interracial relationship).

Odd thing is though that her oldest sister is dead set against us being together because she is racist. And to this day, her sister refuses to acknowledge that my girlfriend and I are in a relationship, and not once has she ever spoken to me even though we've met twice.

I'm glad you aren't letting that stop you from being happy and I hope *her* (oops, see below) sister can learn to open up her mind. Good luck.

motdakasha, I hope you mean "her sister" because it's not his sister that has the problem.

Anyway, I'm mostly Chinese but I've never been able to get a Chinese girl interested in me. None of the parents of the women I have dated have ever had a problem with my race but I live in Canada, so perhaps racism isn't nearly as bad here?

I've been going out with a black girl for about 4 months now, and my father, who doesn't know that she's black, would absolutely not be down with it. I've gone out with mostly white girls, a Japanese girl, and another girl that was black & mexican. My father freaked about the black/mexican girl, so, I'm not really planning on telling him about my new gf for the time being. It's going to suck though. I agree with what was said before though, it's really uncomfortable to use the word racist when it applies to your parents, but it's true. My father is italian; from what I hear Italians aren't down with dating black folks. But like I said, it seems like people don't understand the subtleties of racism. We're so far removed from actual slavery but only 2 generations from the civil rights movement. There are loosely defined and well-known(though not overtly discussed) tactics used by every level of society to subtly screw over people of certain races. I never think of my dad as a racist until something like this happens and I'm just like, oh man, wtf?

I've actually met a lot of asians (girls and guys) That have strict parents and grandparents that basically forbid them to date out of their race, even some forbid them to have friends out of their race. This probably happens with other races as well, but I have noticed it is predominately with asians. I think the whole things stupid. It doesn't matter about your race, just about who the person is.

I once had a date with a chinese immigrant girl of 18. After a couple of hours together, she asked me how old I was. I told her 30 years. She freaked out. She said her parents would nearly kill her if they learned. She was apologetic, but caught a ride home with someone else, and that was that. No discrimination against me for being white, but for being to much older. Oh, yeh.

Now, I've been a stepparent to 7 girls, and one boy. And a natural father to 3 other boys. I can tell you that what an unbiggoted parent wants is their children to find relationships that will make them happy in life. Interracial, interfaith, intercultural relationships will cause stress, and reduce the chances of that happiness. Then again, some parents are bigoted.

Well, I'm ethnically hispanic, but culturally pretty damn white, and I've only really been in relationships w/ white women. I don't think it's really anything I planned - it's just sort of how it's worked out. I have no philosophical objections to dating anyone of any race - personally I'd have much more of a problem w/ being w/ someone of particular religions...

I would never hesitate to date someone outside my own race. I would hesitate to date someone outside my own religion (which is "keep your religion to yourself before I eat your baby".)

LOL... it is because of posts like this that i love this board. where can i sign up to be converted, brother?

i'm a white guy and i've dated a rainbow collaltion, but i ended up marrying someone who matched my ethnicity. i guess we just meshed, and a lot of that was cultural common ground.

i was once living in jamaica and dating a local black girl, and we got harrassed mercilessly by local black men when we would go out in certiain neighborhoods. i also met a lot of racisim when i went through europe with a black girlfriend, actually getting into a fight with some really wasted finnish guys who just couldn't let it go.

my parents, although they are old school and pretty conservative, never posed much opposition to any one in particular. but they've seen a lot in their long lives and it takes a lot to phase them. they may have taken a different stance if they thought things were getting serious, but i imagine it would have just been more concern that a mixed relationship was going to have problems with other more pin-headed people in the world than their own racial hangups. on the other hand, i did have grandparents who were way uncool about it. my grandmother actually referred to black people as "darkies"... shudder.

we are pretty much living through the transition in perspective on this issue. some states had actual laws against mixed marriages up until recently. when i think of all we have tried to undo about racism and discrimination, it absolutely amazes me that people are actually pushing for a constitutional amendment to keep gay people from marrying. no matter how far we have come, we still have so much farther to go. sometimes i think we will look back on this period of american history as one of our most shameful.

As long as people cling to racial superiority ideas or to negative stereotypes about other ethnicities prejudice will always remain, and people will always have beef with interracial relationships.

Well, ideally speaking, hopefully people will learn to let go. Back in the day (and I'm talking GrecoRoman times) it was language. The term barbarism was originally a derogatory term in regards to language. It mocked the sound, bar, from an "inferior" language. That is much less prevalent, almost nonexistent, today. So, I think there's still hope.

Racism has been around for so long, that the sad truth of the matter is it's not going to disappear overnight. While it may be easy to enforce the majority to be open about it, it'll take longer for notions to take root in smaller, rural areas and such.

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So basically I'm seeing two perspectives on crosscultural relationships:

1) If you intentionally select people for relationships based on their race (or other features like religion, etc, but that's IMO) then you are actively discriminating/racist/xenophobic/whitewashed/pick a term any term.

2) If you date people, and they tend to be of a particular group (often your own, or Caucasian), then it is just preference and how things worked out. You are not actively weeding people out based on appearance.

i've only dated within my race once. didn't like it. didn't like the baggage that came with it...

i told my parents from then on that i would not be marrying an asian girl. i married a white jewish girl

not necessarily.
it is still tradition in a lot of asian cultures.

on my trip to the philippines, i found it interesting that they'd always ask if i've ever dated a filipino. i said no and didn't go further but it's really because i live in a place dominated by white americans. it's not because i'm racist. it's because i'm NOT. i don't look at race to make my decisions on who i go out with and feel that if i'd be going out with someone based on race, i'd be objectifying them to such labels. "asian", "african american".

the fact that my friends in the philippines asked me that question really alienated me because i thought it was a shallow question, but i guess i see where they're coming from. everyone wants to look for similarities and for minorities, it's easier to stick with your own race for that. for me, being raised out of asian or asian american culture, i'm prone to looking for similarities based on interests. not skin color.

I'm caucasian, I date a Chinese girl, and nobody had any problems with the interacial thing. My family never even brought up the fact that we were from different races.

However, my sister once dated a black guy and I remember that some people in my family asked her a lot of questions about it.. Oh well. :/

I am a caucasian female, and I once dated an Indian guy. He wouldn't let me meet his parents because they were very traditional and he didn't think they would like his dating "someone like me". Once I went into a coffee shop and he was there with his father and he completely ignored me. That was when I decided that the relationship wasn't going to work out.

I dated a black woman once. I was fairly seriously about it, though we didn't get too far. We worked together, but since that office was extremely racially mixed nobody thought a thing about it.

The deal was, she had worked her way out of welfare to a real office job in civil service -- and good for her -- but the rest of her family were still part of the welfare culture, and they were around _all_ the time. I liked her, but I didn't want them being part of my life, especially since she didn't have any problems with the little scams they were always running (even though she didn't do so herself anymore.) I didn't pursue the relationship past a certain point, because that wasn't a world I wanted to have to deal with. Although I don't know if the deal-breaker here was so much cultural differences as class differences. Maybe a bit of both.

I am new to this site. I am having problems with my family because I am in love with a great guy who is very far away. I was raised Catholic and he is Muslim. The problem I have is that they don't know he is Muslim, but they assume he is because he lives in Morocco and he speaks Arabic. They have tried to interfere with past relationships and succeeded in ruining them, and I refuse to let this happen again. I love him and loves me and is willing to provide for me forever. What if anything can I done to make them open their minds to this and finally leave it and us be. They will only be alienating themselves from the family we wish to create. Help! you can email me at my username minus the numbers at hotmail.

i am chinese and my parents never have a problem of who i date. i think they even kinda happy that if i date foreigners. i got kinda surprised about it . but for myself i will never date any of my own races. i dont think it matters what races cos if you are happy that most important

joahman, can you tell us more about why you are so far apart? Why can't he join you here in the US? How did you meet and how long have you been together?

I come from a Christian background, and I am dating someone from Lebanon (though he is technically Muslim, his belief system is actually agnostic-atheist). We live in the US, though, in the same state... met in graduate school. My family didn't know much about the Middle East, but the more time my family spent around my boyfriend, the more comfortable they became with him.

It sounds like your family isn't even trying to give him a chance... but have they met him? Has he tried to get on their good side? How much time have they spent together, just asking questions and getting to know each other?

'abaya' - I met him through his brother who lives here. He was here briefly, just for a visit when we met...and we clicked right away. His brother and I are planning a trip to Morocco next year...he goes to school now. Mustapha and I talk all the time both via email and on the phone. We talk on the phone every week. I've spoken to his parents and they love me.

They haven't met him, my father met his brother and liked him...but whatever my mom says is what he goes by. Even though he may think differently, because he doesn't want to upset her. But I wish he there was some way he could speak up to her without making her mad.

naaah it's not racism. there's no degredation based on colour or race. There only a very strong (traditionally based) desire for us to keep to our own kind. As a CBC, though, it is something that I struggle against. And therefore have to educate my traditionally minded parents.

Please note that they don't wish for white people to sit at the back of the bus, but just want their daughter to stick within what they know.

nope, not racism.

If I were to date or marry a woman of another race, I think that some members of my family might care and others wouldn't. I'd doubt that any family members who were bothered by it would be so rude as to actually say something in front of me and/or my hypothetical girlfriend/wife, but I wouldn't be surprised if some comments were made about us in private.

This probably won't ever be an issue though, since I tend to be more attracted to woman of my own race.

But is Judaism a race or a religion? Or can it be both?

no they just want other races to seat at the back of the bus j/k

yea i live in the same city as you and i used to like a chinese girl but she told me her parents would kill her if she gets into a relationship with me.

I'm a latin girl, dating a white guy, and what sucks so much is that I was raised completely and entirely here in Canada so I have all the canadian values which spanish boys that were mostly raised back home dont have. My boyfriend is totally Canadian as well but I feel I always have to straddle both cultures in relying messages to each other, cause what seems like a rude behaviour or thought to a Canadian is normal and very polite in my culture :S It's caused a LOT of conflicts between my parents, my boyfriend and me .. and my boyfriend and me have been together for 3 years, 3 months now. I don't think it's ever going to change, and the conflicts will probably get worse. *sigh* looking forward to that

So what's keeping white women from being "exoticized" (whatever that means) by men of other races? I think this well-known feminist is displaying her bigotry towards white males and little else.

Sorry, but this is completely racism whether you want to acknowledge it or not. This is the basic justification for every manifestation of racism anywhere in society. Somehow in your mind if someone uses this idea to justify seperate drinking fountains based on skin color it's racist, but when it's used to disallow boys and girls of different colors from kissing then it's not racist?

I've had a fair amount of experience with this topic myself. In high school I dated an east indian girl and it basically never went anywhere because she was so deathly afraid of her parents finding out. After we stopped seeing eachother we were both on the cross country team and my parents would talk to hers if they saw them at a race. She asked me to tell my parents not to talk to hers, to which I naturally said "no." She quit the team soon after.

My sister married an Hispanic man. My first marriage was to an Asian woman. My parents did not approve of either marriage. They did not attend either wedding. My father told us both that we made mistakes getting married. My daughter is of mixed race as are my nephews. My parents have not spoken to my daughter (their grand-daughter) in over 6 years. I don't know if it's because of her mixed race or if it's just because they're assholes.

5 years ago I remarried a Caucasian woman. They were not invited to that wedding.

The family I choose is far more important to me than the family I was given. They are what matters to me. While it sounds harsh, my belief is that my parents can go to hell if they have issues with who I love. I choose who I love and who I'll be with, not them. They have not been a part of my life in years due to their behavior. I'm okay with that now.

I've never been a big follower of tradition for tradition's sake, so that never really plays a part in the decisions I make. And frankly, if people feel the need to tell me who I should and shouldn't love, then I feel the need to tell them to go fuck themselves.

My understanding is all people with Jewish relatives or ancestors strongly identify themselves as Jews, and it's something you can never escape, regardless if you actively practice the religion or not. So in that respect it is kind of an artificial 'race' with strong bonds to fellow Jews. Although, there are racial differentiations of jews, like Azkenazi (sp?) etc

Now, people who convert to Judaism are also Jewish, and thus don't have the same rules apply, but other Jews occasionally don't consider them to be as Jewish.

This is what I've picked up growing up around a synagogue.

My SO is a Japanese woman (I live in Japan) and we have been living together for 6 years AND I have never met her parents. Can you believe it?? My parents came over for 2 weeks last year and had a great time with her but her parents would disown her if they found out she was seeing a "gaijin" or foreigner. It's totally bizarre and after 6 years, kind of frustrating. Oh well, that's the way it is for many of us here.

I've met a number of guys who married J-girls whose parents will have nothing to do with them now; have never seen their grandkids...nothing.

I will probably see them someday at the funeral home...isn't that a shame.

I agree with locobot completely. white women are "exoticized" all the time and i hear the term humped and dumped constantly. to use that to further her argument just dissproves her point even more.

it is a form of racism. When a KKK member wants to preserve "the WASP culture", its racist. when someone else wants to "preserve the culture", its completely justified. its a big double standard.

i have dated people of other races and cultures not because i found it to be "exotic" or a thrill, but because they had very good personalities and i found them to be attractive. that was all that it took.

First off, theres a big difference between racism and prejudice. Racism is believing in the superiority of one race over another. Prejudice is predicting how people will act based on their appearance or other information you've gathered. They can both support each other but are completely different things.

If you see a guy in a suit riding a bike, you might guess he's Mormon. Thats prejudice, because you've based an opinion of him on his appearance or actions. If you say one race is automatically better than yours, because the other race its always doing something. You are using prejudice to justify your racism.

I dont think its automatically rascist for parents to want children to date within the same culture/race/religion, because they want their children to continue their values. But it is Prejudice of them to assume that someone from another culture/race/religion will automatically have different values.

well in my previous post when i said "preserve the culture", i meant that you do not marry anyone outside of the ethnicity. i just dont understand how if some white guy were to say " i dont want you to marry anyone of color" is any different if any other ethnic group were to say the same thing.

It's no different. Just like it's still racism when black people hate white people.

I'm married to a Hawaiian woman of Japanese descent, and her parents have never had the slightest problem with my being white, perhaps because once you accept that your daughter is a lesbian, the race thing is a small hurdle.

My parents, if they could get past the lesbian thing, would have objected to my dating an Asian guy, but would have less objection to my brother dating an Asian girl. I'm not sure why, except maybe there's a perception that the male is a stronger influence in transmission of the culture than the female, as evidenced by the tradition of the female taking the male's name.

Gilda

totally have to disagree with you. It is absolutely not racism. There no apartheid happening. It is traditionalism. comfort level. Note that I am not this way, the old folks are.

That is totally racism. Examine why they want their offspring to stay within their own race and you should understand how it is racism.

Janey please explain to me your feelings regarding this.

If a white guy and an Asian girl went out and the family of the white guy said that they don't want him dating the Asian girl beause she is Asian and they want to "preserve their culture", is that not racist?

now lets say that the tables were turned and the Asian girls family said that they don't want her to date the white guy because he is white and they want to "preserve their culture", is that not racist as well?

well, i am euro-american descent, my husband is half Mexican-american.

my parents never took issue with my husband's race and nor his family with me. i'm not sure, i suppose in some cultures, the idea of skin color plays a part in traditional values? that seems silly to me, but i suppose it might be cultural. however, i've not experienced any issues like that in my own marriage.

sweetpea

racism is a belief that actual race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particula race is superior than others.

What I am describing is an inability to be comfortable with difference.

Janey can you please respond directly to my two scenarios.

While I strongly believe that prejudice and racism are both wrong, I guess it's important to realise that those mindsets are very deep-rooted, and set over many years of conditioning by people of tremendous influence.

I have a couple of phobias which I simply cannot escape - and they are based on fears my mother had. Rationally I know they make no sense, and the things I fear are of no substantial threat to me, but they are so deep rooted in my psyche that I doubt I will ever get over them. As a child, I trusted my parents so much that I instinctively took on their worldviews almost without questioning them.

My parents also have views on people from certain religions, and constant exposure to their comments meant that I had a big surprise when I finally met people who happened to be from those backgrounds, and found that they were really lovely people. I had to seriously question many of the prejudices in me, and even now I still have to put conscious effort into it, as my instant mental reaction isn't at all right.

It's very hard to understand the value systems in cultures other than the very specific one we were brought up in. My Chinese and Asian friends have often related stories to me about family and social pressure (not just parents on them, but on other relatives on their parents, but whole villages on those relatives, etc) which leave me shaking my head in disbelief, but to the people in those situations it is the way it is. The ones who really struggle are my friends (who are under the influence of two very different cultures, those of their family and the Western culture of their friends, colleagues etc), and probably their families, who can't persuade their children to cooperate with them in appeasing the relatives who will otherwise ascribe them much dishonour and shame.

hey thanks for responding. janey never responded to my question which is a shame, because i would have really liked to have heard what she had to say.

Someday, I think everyone is going to have to accept that we are all racist, classist, and sexist... we as human beings like to classify things as we and them, or us and others. It's how we were built - I think there is a limit to what we can condition to be accepting.

I would agree with you, as an anthropologist... people are the same everywhere. :) We all like to divide our worlds into the known and unknown, the safe and the dangerous... no matter what color our skin, what class, or what gender we are. Funny, how our human inability to see universals, is one of our few universals as a species.

But anyway, I don't know if there is a limit on what we can condition to be accepting... I mean, I hope that is the major contribution of my field to popular thought; that is, cultural relativism. Not to expect that people will give up being racist, etc... but that we can become just a little less so, after surrendering some of our long-held knowns, to better understand the unknown Other.

But maybe I am just idealistic. :) Still, I think it can be overcome, at least to some degree.

in 2000 years america will be a mixed country. altho, by then the world will have been unified into 3-4 regions, like in 1984. in 3000 years colonies will have been set up in space due to lack of space on earth, and the prejudice will not be so much what race are you (cause perhaps 20-40% of people will be mixed) but if you are a native-earthling or a spaceling.

2000 years? How about 200? Assuming no major cultural backlashes to reverse the course of the last 120 years, there's no reason to think that more cultures won't be absorbed by the melting pot. I read somewhere where the majority of Americans can now their ancestry back to at least two separate ethnic groups. Personally, I've got German, Irish, English, Scot, Cherokee, Italian and Bohemian that I know of, and 500 years ago, there wasn't that much mixing between those groups.

As far as the rest of your post, well, maybe you're right and maybe we'll have evolved into a much stupider version, more environmental friendly version of humanity when the ice caps melt and society breaks down. I think either version has an equal chance of success at this point, although I'd much prefer yours than mine.

Looking back on this, I didn't mean to imply that trying to remain open-minded and exposing ourselves to new information and experiences wasn't a good thing. It's a great thing to strive for. I just think we all fall short. It's just a matter of if you are honest with yourself or if you are a hypocrite. :)

Although some races do mix frequently, some do not. This is not a personal opinion or assertion, only an observation. I added 2000 b/c I think that it will take some time for ALL of htem to mix equally.

Yeah, yours either sounds like Mad Max or Cyberpunk-esque like Blade Runner, Matrix, Johnny Mmemnomic or Neuromancer. I wouldn't like those...