UW-Madison students devolved into debating over the existence of a pervasive ""white"" American culture Wednesday during a discussion forum called ""Interracial Dating and Relating.""
The Associated Students of Madison Diversity Committee held the forum as part of Social Justice Awareness Week.
Conversation abounded between students regarding issues of multicultural dating and teaching and sharing culture with significant others.
""If you are in an interracial relationship, it's so important to know other peoples' backgrounds and histories,"" UW-Madison senior Katrina Flores said. ""If you can't authentically enter into that relationship, or at least if you don't know other peoples' histories with an intent to get to know people and their background, then that relationship isn't going to be as good as it could be.""
UW-Madison sophomore Jessica Pharm said she agreed history is very important.
""My parents aren't really with the whole black-white thing,"" Pharm said. ""When I came here, they were like, ‘If you can, don't date outside the race' and I was like ‘what's up with that?'""
Pharm added her parents use the history between black and white people as reasons for her to date within her race.
""Sometimes it's hard to argue with that,"" Pharm said.
UW-Madison junior Avery Jackson added that she only wanted to date black men.
""We're trying to create an awareness of the diversity, or sometimes a lack of diversity, on this campus,"" said UW-Madison junior Erika Lopez, one of the event coordinators. ""Interracial dating and interracial kids are not typical things you see on TV everyday, and not everyone feels the same way about them.""
Lopez added the topics about interracial dating and the cultural differences between races can sometimes be considered taboo.
""Everyone has different opinions about it, and I think it's interesting to have an open forum and a place where people can communicate about interracial dating and demystify those stereotypes we see in the media for example about interracial dating,"" Lopez said.
According to Lopez, the purpose of the event was to allow real conversation among attendees, and once the floor opened for discussion, many shared from personal experiences.
Most experiences emphasized the difficulties cultural differences can present when entering an intimate relationship.
Other sub-topics of discussion involved the media's perspective on interracial dating and how definitions of the word ""culture"" can vary.
