Students explore interracial dating

Drawing a crowd just as diverse as the topic, Check One's Interracial Dating Forum seemed to be a huge success yesterday evening, with about 75 students attending the session in Steinberg-Dietrich Hall to voice their opinions about cross-cultural relationships. Two facilitators directed the discussion while a panel of six students -- two men and four women -- spoke out about their own experiences with interracial dating and responded to audience questions. One of the panelists, College sophomore Webster Coates, who is white, opened the forum by saying that he has not dated a white woman since he was 15. The rest of the panelists followed suit, describing a wide range of interracial dating experiences. College freshman Emily Ko, who is Korean, appeared with her African-American boyfriend of 10 months and talked about family pressures that arise when one dates outside of their race. "I'm really afraid to tell my father," said Ko, adding that her father is very traditional and his greatest desire is to see Ko happily married to another Korean. Once the audience warmed up to the topic, they often had more to say than the panelists. One very adamant student explained that the only problem he had with interracial dating was "people who solely date outside of their race." His statement was received by applause from the majority of the audience. The topic of the discussion gradually shifted from interracial dating to dating between religions as people in the audience began to focus their questions more toward cultural backgrounds than physical appearance. Several students commented on their own experiences with religious dating restrictions. One Muslim said that in her culture, marriage meant a joining of two families, not two individuals. If the couple does not share the same religious values, it causes problems between the families and is therefore to be avoided at all costs. College junior Marc Lener, one of the event's facilitators, admitted that he "used to think that [religious restrictions on dating] was absurd, but when you're raised to carry on a religion," sometimes it is harder to avoid than one might think. Visiting Drexel University student Jules Trapp pretty much summed up the general opinion of the audience when he said, "If you're confident in your own identity, than [differences] don't come into play."