Once upon a time, the world, especially New York City, was not accepting of different races in a romantic relationship or even socializing as friends. There were many state laws against it, specifically the Anti-miscegenation laws that were practiced as early the 1700s.

The laws were enforced to create racial segregation and make sure their were no marriages, friendships or any form of intimacy between blacks and whites. The laws were first introduced in colonial times was not changed until 1967, during the Supreme Court case, Loving vs. Virginia.

In the case, the Supreme Court found that it was unconstitutional for the state of Virginia to ban interracial marriage and relationships. In the United States, interracial marriage along with other terms are considered, “miscegenation” since 1863. However, people don’t use the word these days, except for when they are speaking about the history of the laws.

Now back to this day and age, fortunately, we live in a world of Yin and Yang, in the sense of two different entities becoming one. It is 2015, and these days, interracial dating is as common as a 30 year-old American living with his or her parents.

Some people can’t understand it, and others wouldn’t have it any other way.

Interracial dating is when someone dates outside of their race. The word race is viewed as a social concept, which is referred to as a group of people who share similar and distinct physical characteristics.

The most common interracial dating relationship currently in the United States are White and Hispanic relationships. According to the latest census data, there are over five million inter-racially-married couples in the U.S., which is 9.5 percent of all married Americans.

Some people like to refer to interracial dating as the “swirl”, not just because of ice cream but due to the idea of two separate flavors coming together and giving metaphoric taste buds, something new and delicious.

Interracial dating has grown on the world, according to madamenoire.com, which says in 1959, four percent of the United States supported black and white union. Then it increased from 1971, which was 29 percent, 1982, which became 43 percent, to 1995, with 48 percent of people. Then kept growing to 77 percent in 2008 and peaked at 87 percent in 2013.

Many believe that opposites don’t attract while others know one cannot force males and females out of love because of their differences.

After all, that’s the true beauty of it.

Mercy’s own Sarah Wagner and Vladimir Loizin are an example of how blind, love truly is and should be. Vladimir is a Haitian male and Sarah is a white female with traces of Polish, Irish, German and Native American history in her family. They have been together for 16 months and want people to grasp the concept that someone’s pigmentation should not be a reason to dislike them or like or hide affections.

Wagner believes strongly dislikes with the term interracial.

“We are all a part of the human race and when i first met him, i didn’t think of his skin color. I was impressed with his qualities and characteristics. He made me laugh.”

Loizin also acknowledged that he liked Wagner because she asked all the right questions and did not judge him based off of perceptions of people who look like him and the negative images in the media.
“She wanted to get to know me beyond my appearance, and that was something, I’ve never experienced.”

Loizin continued on saying Wagner was his first interracial relationship, and he is more than happy because he can understood his own assumptions when he was younger.

“I thought her family would be racist at first because I believed Germans were very aggressive, but once i met them, it was instant connection, and now they love me.”

According to Wagner, she lives in Johnstown, where their are very few to no black people around, and is the reason for the stares and ignorant glares her and Loizin get when she takes him to her hometown.

One main important factor in a interracial relationship is keeping it real, and having “The conversation,” they say, which consists of picking each others brains about both of the partners ancestral history and pain caused by the other.

Loizin and Wagner had the conversation and Loizin believes it has made them the unbreakable pair they are today.

“You have to be extremely open to each others different cultural backgrounds, and learn each others past before you can secure a future, together.”

Wagner is soon to be a graduate while Loizin is graduating the following year.

They are both very excited to start their lives together and said they are excited for degrees, jobs and even babies in the future.

“Our children will have the best of both worlds. We will teach them things from my side and from her background, and make sure that they know what we had to go through and what my ancestors did so that we would be able to be happy and be in love.”

College is the time to try new things, so that one may know what one may or may not like in the real world. The couple warns others should not be ignorant and hate anyone because they are not like you. That is easy. Love someone because they are your opposite.

The next time you see a couple who do not have the same skin color, don’t stare, or point.
Remember we all bleed red. We all cry tears. We are all Americans.

If you haven’t, get down with the swirl.

And if you don’t want to, at least be supportive of those who know what they want.