One day on a bus ride, I was thinking about the relationships of the parents of the characters from my projects, mainly Vanessa Fly Trap. So I thought to myself, there are a lot of mixed relationships that I don’t see very often in media that I view, whether it’s books, television, comics, video games. So using the major races I’m aware of, I made a list of the relationships I see the least, whether it is the main focus of a story or in the background.
Black woman and East Asian man
Black woman and Middle Eastern man
Black woman and South Asian (Indian) man
Black woman and Pacific Islander man
Black woman and Amerindian (Native American) man
Pacific Islander woman with an ethnicity besides White (Black, East Asian, South Asian, Hispanic/Latino, Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern)
Pacific Islander man with an ethnicity besides White (Black, East Asian, South Asian, Hispanic/Latino, Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern)
Amerindian men and women with an ethnicity besides White (Black, East Asian, South Asian, Hispanic/Latino, Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern)
Hispanic/Latinos with East Asian men and women
Hispanic/Latinos with Middle Eastern men and women
Hispanic/Latinos with South Asian men and women
Hispanic/Latinos with Pacific Islander men and women
East Asian woman with Hispanic/Latino man
East Asian woman with South Asian man
East Asian woman with Middle Eastern man
East Asian woman with Pacific Islander man
East Asian men with an ethnicity besides White and East Asian (Black, South Asian, Hispanic/Latino, Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern)
Keep in mind that I made this with a mainly American view of ethnicity so there may be a few groups missing depending on how your country views ethnicity. I am also aware there are regions of the world and one or two shows or books but I think my point is that there are a bunch of untapped potential in (American) fiction. That’s why in my stories in all of my projects, I will start to put more like these, for young couples, old couples, families, and childless couples. And no, I’m not eliminating same race couples but you can go outside to find those and they get plenty of representation. Of course I feel the best approach would be to start with them not in the main focus, as to not point them out as something “weird” or “other”. What are some ways that you think could get more representation for mixed race couples in media, or do you think we are at good balance right now and should take it slower? Let me know in the comments!
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