Greetings Ayinde,

seen, and give thanks for you reasoned and erudite response,

i may well be guilty of trying a little too hard to be the peace maker, and of trying to cool things off a little, not out of any desire to make the topic go away, but because i dont think that over much anger helps anyone to reason (or do much else) very well.

i also overstand where the resistance (in general terms) to mixed race relationships is coming from. My own irish forebears expressed precisley the same fears during their independance struggle.

i also think that you have quite consistently argued for the general principle of black people manifesting their solidarity with one another through their relationship choices, while acknowledging that people have a tendancy (and freedom) to fall in love with people that may well transcend this general principle.

In an effort to refine this discussion a little i would ask is it actually racial (colour)mixing (and presumably dilution) that is of concern here, or is it cultural mixing that is the problem? Hypothetically speaking if a mixed race couple were to have children and bring them up in a predominantly African cultural context, would that be a problem? Of course this also raises the question of is it possible for a mixed race couple to do this given the extent of (b)latent western cultural dominance that exists in our world? Once again i imagine this would come down to the individuals concerned...

Finally, in saying that people will do and think what they will i was by no means underestimating the power of this. It is exactly this reality that convinces me that change to the discriminatory (and selfish, stupid, etc) nature of western contemporary society must be individually based, grass roots, internal. Otherwise we are all just moving chairs around on a sinking ship.

love and life
paul