Lynette Campbell is already running late but she can’t stop herself from glancing in the mirror one last time. She smiles, satisfied with her choice. After trying numerous ensembles, she decides to wear a short-sleeved, fitted, bright green shirt and dark blue jeans. Her brown and burgundy shoulder-length braids are pulled into a neat, high bun. The only make-up she wears is a reddish lipgloss, and her feet are bare except for a silver toe ring on her left foot.

Campbell moved to San Francisco from Los Angeles four years ago, not only to go to school, but also to experience new things - try different types of food, see new sites, and most importantly, meet new people. People she wouldn’t be able to date if she were still home with her grandmother.

Her family, who is originally from Los Angeles, wants her to marry an African-American man like all the women in her family. Because of her choice in mates and her healthy eating habits, her family calls her “white girl.”

“It is not that I couldn’t date outside my race,” says Campbell about her family’s disapproval of interracial dating, “I would just have to hear about it all the time. I already get tired of hearing about it when I visit.”

Although she is mostly attracted to white men, Campbell says she's certain she will marry a black man to get her family’s approval. Her plan is to date men of different ethnicities while she is here and then go back to Los Angeles and live a life with someone her family will approve of.

According to the 2000 U.S. Census, there were more than 400,000 interracial married couples nationwide. In California, about one in every 10 marriages is between people of different ethnic groups. That is twice as many as it is in other parts of the country, mostly in the southeastern region of the United States, where one out of 25 marriages is between people of different races. And despite the idea that America is a “melting pot,” some people don’t agree with or approve of interracial dating.

Linda Griffin, who grew up in Virginia, disapproves of interracial relationships partly because of her experiences growing up. Her heritage consists of African-American, Native-American and Caucasian. Her father, who was light-skinned with curly red hair, refers to himself as black despite his mix of ethnicities. Her mother is African-American. But as a child, Griffin found it difficult to fit in because of her light complexion.

“I was too white for the black kids and too black for the white kids,” says Griffin.

Griffin thinks people in interracial relationships are giving in to temptation and should stay with their own race.

“It’s like the forbidden fruit,” says Griffin. "You always want what you not suppose to have.”

Although she agrees it has gotten easier and more acceptable to date people of other races she still doesn’t like to see African-American men with Caucasian women. She is more tolerant of African-Americans with Asians, Latinos and other ethnic groups, but she still doesn’t approve because she believes the races aren’t meant to mix.

“I want someone brown like me,” says Griffin. “The white race already has had it all, why do they have to have our men too?”

This is a common thought among African-American women because they feel along with a high incarceration and mortality rates, it leaves fewer African-American men for women to date. In 2005, African American men were 75 percent of the United States’ prison population.

Paulie, who declined to give his last name, said being accepted depends on where you are. Paulie, who is Caucasian, was in a relationship with an African-American woman who lived in Birmingham, AL. When the two went out together in California they attracted less attention than when they went out together in Birmingham.

“No one here has a second thought,” says Paulie about people’s responses to his relationship. “When I was in Birmingham it was different.”

While he can’t remember a particular event, he does remember it was more of an issue in the South.
Campbell walks into a quiet house and heads straight to her room in the back. All of her roommates have been asleep for hours. She relaxes in front of the television and finds an old episode of Iron Chef America on her DV-R. She shakes her head left to right as if she is trying to put the thought out of head. She is not sure how to tell her family she might one day marry outside her race and she is not looking forward to the occasion.