Interracial Relationships: UK “Asians” more likely intolerant and racist

The UK might start to believe that Asians are more racist and intolerant because of this article. The article cites that half of British Asians say according to a survey by ICM for the BBC Asian Network found that more than half of young Asians would not consider dating a black person. Additionally, almost half believe that homosexuality is immoral while just 8% of White Brits do.

Link to Asians Less Likely to Marry Out

Natuarlly, the article caught my eye as an Asian American then reading on and I found that when they say “Asian”, they mean people identifying themselves as Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi or Sri Lankan. This is so misleading when we read a headline like that here in America – like my title for this post. It’s a little skewed.

I didn’t realize that Brits consider Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc. to be East Asian. There I go again with my ethnocentricity. Does the UK categorization make things easier? Is it logical? A matter of timing? Or is it racist? How do they view Asians (in our sense of the categorization)?
Nevertheless, I wonder if the stats for East Asians are far off.

Stats between UK and US divided by gender
from Wiki and other sources.

According to 2005 stats, in the US:
– About 69 percent of married Asian women are married to Asian men, while 25 percent of married Asian women have white husbands.
– 7% of marriages of the 59 million married couples in 2005 were interracial, compared to less than 2 percent in 1970.
Still interracial marriages or relationships are on the rise with younger Asian Americans (2nd Gen) being most likely to marry out.

Read Asian-Nation on Interracial Dating and Marriage
Also found at IMDiversity

In a 2001 UK census, British Chinese women (30%) were twice as likely as their male counterparts (15%) to marry someone from a different ethnic group. Among British Asians (South Asians, not including Chinese), Pakistani and Bangladeshi males were twice as likely to to have an inter-ethnic marriage than their female counterparts, while Indian and “Other Asian” males were more likely to have an inter-ethnic marriage than their female counterparts by a smaller percentage.

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Becoming a Bi-Racial Family

Read up on my boy Todd Hiestand, pastor of The Well in his process of adopting Mason Carlos Hiestand. He shares the process through a series of letters written to his new son from Guatemala. The process as most adopting parents know is long and disheartening at times. It’s a journey. Different from the experience of carrying a child within your body then facing the labor and birthing but a journey that also gives us insight into the heart of God.
These letters should make you all warm and fuzzy inside. I loved reading them and journeying with my brother through this process.

He and his wife, Melanie, went down to Guatemala this week to pick up their new son and bring him stateside. We joke around about being bi-racial and having that in common now. I have no idea what he’s talking about.

Here’s a snippet of his thoughts,

You do need to know something about the first nine months of your life. Your foster mother loved you deeply (I know that she still does too). For some reason, I didn’t think about how hard it would be for her to pass you off to us. I knew it was going to be for you, but I hadn’t thought about her. For the first nine months of your life she cared for you, bathed you, fed you, held you when you cried and loved you well. And now she has passed you on to us so that we could do the same and make you part of our family. I imagine she finds comfort in knowing that you have changed hands and families for the final time.

Honestly, Mason, I don’t know exactly how to process the role of your foster mom. I can understand your birth mom knowing that in order for you to have a full and best possible life she would have to entrust you to another loving family. I can’t imagine doing that, but I can at least get it a little in my head. But for some reason I think the love of your foster mom fits into a different category. She welcomed you into her home, knowing full well that she would one day have to say goodbye.

todd hiestand, web-designer and pastor.