She Says: As much as race is prescribed, and we know that the demarcation is a social construct, it doesn’t stop one from making a judgment when it comes to a first impression of couples, the good, the beautiful, the mismatched…the list can go on forever.      

      And when it comes to interracial couples, these judgments perhaps increase more numerically and are a lot more pronounced as the multitude of factors increase like one’s upbringing, a different religion and the like.

      He Says: So let’s start by acknowledging that we live in a multicultural society and truth be told, Singapore IS a melting pot of all cultures and races. Because of this, it’s hard to deny or ignore the significant growth in interracial relationships. While in the past, we were more inclined to only date or “stick” to our own race; nowadays the number of interracial relationships is on the rise.

      She Says: Exactly, and more often than not, one’s race affects how one is brought up, from your religion to your eating habits. It’s not just the big issues like religion that matter, but sometimes the smaller issues like food habits and the mindset that one is endowed with (hewed from years of parents' droning, on the proper way of carrying oneself about in society) all goes in a large package, influenced by one’s race.

      He Says: In all honesty, I never saw a problem in such relationships, and therefore never really understood the big brouhaha over interracial relationships. I mean, by being in an interracial relationship, aren’t we integrating ourselves with different cultures and nationalities - doing our part in building racial harmony and doing away with the seeds of hate, racism, and prejudice?

      Boy meets girl, boy fancies girl. Boy pursues girl. They fall in love - nothing to it really. Isn’t this the premise of most relationships out there? Everything else is secondary as long as both are in love. After all, isn’t love enough to transcend anything and everything?

      So why make race, and culture an issue in pursuing a love interest when the government is busy trying to promote racial harmony? Are we then not having double standards if we say no to dating someone outside of our racial group?

      She Says: That said, amongst certain races, they are looked upon with kinder eyes, like a Caucasian-Asian pairing as opposed to an African-Asian pairing. I’m not saying that it is wrong to have preferences for certain ‘types’, like some girls prefer beefcake boys to stringbean soldiers.

      But what is a bigger issue here is that there is an undercurrent of superiority, in terms of race, and even gender. Perhaps this disparity stems from an age-old colonial mentality that the ‘West is Best’, even for dating partners. Yet, even within this, certain pairings between sexes are more acceptable.      

      Say, if I were a Caucasian lady, it would be more controversial if I dated an Asian man, as opposed to someone from my own race. Or, if I were an Asian lady and dated a Caucasian man, the immediate thought from both his race and mine is that I’m a two-bit gold-digging, expat-aspiring SPG.