"Focus" Brings an Interracial Relationship to the Big Screen — But Not Everyone's Happy About It

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In the movie Focus, Will Smith, an African-American man, romances Margot Robbie, a white Australian woman. The film won the weekend box office but society's reaction to the interracial relationship is a huge loss. Instead of embracing the couple, and applauding Focus for making the coupling a non-issue, many have called the on-screen "race mixing" unnatural. Yet while these voices are loud, statistics actual show that that fifteen percent of newlyweds are in an interracial relationship—or 8.4 percent marriages overall—a marked increase since 1960 when only 0.4 percent of marriages were multi racial.

Of course, these statistics aren’t totally shocking when you consider what’s happened over the past 50 years. Interracial marriage was only decriminalized in most states in 1967 (although Alabama didn’t officially legalize it until 2000), and even then, 41% of voters were against it. Alabama might not have actively enforced the law, but the fact that it took them this long to overturn it says a lot about people’s prevalent feelings about race and relationships, especially in small towns and states with a history of segregation and tense race relations. Interracial marriages and relationships might be more common than ever, but does it mean we’re living in a post-racial America?

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The answer is yes and no, although probably mostly no. Interracial dating is much more common for young people in urban areas, like New York City, where you meet and interact with a variety of people from all around the world. Attitudes toward these relationships are not the same across the board, and vary based on the ethnic makeup of the couple. For example, the same study found that Asian women tend to marry white men more often than the other way around. “I’ve never had any experiences that made me really think about the fact that my relationship is ‘bi-racial’,” says John Refano, a 34-year-old New York-based web developer. “It might be a sort of cultural bias since I am a white male and my partner is an Asian woman, and maybe our particular ‘mix’ is now quite common.”

Estelle Tang, a 31-year-old Chinese literary scout who also lives in New York City had similar feelings, “We’ve never really had any issues unless we leave the country,” she says, of her relationship with Sam, a 30-year-old white lawyer. “We went to Thailand once and got a lot of catcalls and we got stared at a lot, although obviously Thai people have a reason to be suspicious of white guys with Asian girls, given the sex trade in certain cities there.” At home, Tang acknowledges that there “isn’t really much stigma around Asian girls going out with white guys,” but that the same is not true for Asian men: “I have a friend who is an Asian guy who is convinced white girls aren’t into him because of his race.”

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The same cannot be said of people in other races, Genesis Whitlock, who is black and works for a hedge fund, face many “curious glances” on the subway when she and her partner, a white lawyer, hold hands or kiss on the subway. “He does get the side eye from black people age his age or older,” Whitlock says. “Never any words, but the glares are obvious.” Whitlock and her partner are in the minority of multiracial relationships, as only 9 percent of black women marry outside of their race, versus 24 percent of black males. “Once, we were at dinner and he kissed me before going to the bathroom,” Whitlock recalls, “Three women—two black, one white—stopped me on their way out and asked, ‘How did you guys end up together?’ I was initially insulted, but they seemed genuinely surprised and explained they never see ‘our kind of interracial couple’ where they live. One of the black women even added ‘I wish I could find a white guy!’ and it made me realize that I have a certain amount of privilege, I guess, living in a large multicultural city.”

In general, the response to interracial marriage reflects prevalent racist tendencies in the population. “I do think that in urban areas there is less racism against Asian people than say, someone who grows up in the Midwest,” Refano says. “I’m not too naïve to realize that if we had different racial backgrounds, we would probably face more discrimination.” For instance, David Kopach has not encountered any negative comments about his relationship with Marco, a Mexican man, but has noticed that his “close friends and family think it’s OK to make racist jokes” about Mexican people in general. “They’ll say things like, ‘So I guess Marco’s family must see you as their golden egg,’” Kopach says. “Like they have been wanting to make these sorts of comments for a long time, but didn’t have someone close enough to be able to make them unabashedly. It’s like my relationship has given them a free pass.”

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The rise in interracial marriage is a sign of changing times, but it obviously doesn’t mean America is over its race issues. The people interviewed for this story all live in New York City, one of the most multicultural places in the world, and they still face comments and actions reminding them, if even for a second, that they are taking part in something that was once taboo. We might be evolving toward more acceptance and inclusion, but it will be some time before studies about “interracial” relationships are no longer necessary.