True Stories About Interracial Hook-Ups, Dating, And Relationships

——“My mother actually asked him if his older brother was ‘as pink’ as he was…”

I’m a black girl who grew up in a predominately white neighborhood. When I was younger, my mom always told me I should date (and eventually marry) “within the race.”

When I invited my first serious boyfriend — who was white — to the house to meet my parents, my mother actually asked him if his older brother was “as pink” as he was, referring to his skin color. I was mortified. A few years later, when I was in college, she told me she had given up on the idea of me marrying a black doctor and was beginning to look forward to the day when she could meet her “zebra-baby” grandkids.