To determine the value of interracial friendships, we must first define what friendship means to us. To many of us, our friends are our best buddies and confidants, to some of us, among the younger ones perhaps , we may even feel pressurized into fitting into( and conforming to the attitude of) a group of people,(i.e our friends) to achieve a certain social standing and acceptance.
And to those of us, adults like me, friendships may be near such a broad myriad of definations, it could range from a fairytale to a near- kinship reality. Friends are so very important, that they have both the power to make or break us.
In a far-off sense,interracial friendships often offers directly what an authentic friend-seeker is looking for- acceptance beyond differences, agreements about disagreements , enlightening different perceptive from another culture and much more.
But isn’t it also true that “beauty is skin-deep”?
In Singapore(a small country next to Malaysia) where I live, we were brought up in a multi-racial environment. I have had friends, and even dates from various different races.
It is very common to see Singaporeans freely mixing with one another, whatever our races. The problems of misunderstandings and cultural differences, even biasness is not totally absent though.
My father was praising a certain little girl of another race, in our mother tongue, Mandarin. The little girl’s mom got angry with us(because she knew we were pointing at her little girl but could not understand our language) and got nasty. I had to pull my dad away from the unpleasant scene.
The suspicion of one another in this cold world has often brought tears to my eyes. Aren’t we all offspring of the Creator God?
It is near impossible to ignore one another’s differences. In a church session where we were pratising a song for a dialect ministry group. we all got confused, and one sister uttered in frustration: “Oh ,its all the people in the built that stupid tower of Babel that landed us here trying to pronounce these!
Well, ignoring our differences may be impossible so I guess embracing them would be our next best option. There is no superior race, no superior tongue in the eyes of God Himself. We are commanded to love. Interracial relationships, could bring us richness of insights and enlightening new perceptives and outlook in life.In the Chinese Culture, animals are thought of as wild and untamed, and Mankind graceful and therefore of such nobility, he should hold himself in morally good beliefs and character. In the Western world, animals are seen as purely innocent, haunting only to feed, and Man being evil, haunting for pleasure, therefore we should strive for innocence ,like little children and animals. In some Indian cultures, some animals are thought of as gods, and treated with deep respect, yet if we look at it all, we Mankind are all striving to be good, kind and upright.
I am blessed to have had two Indian best friends, two Chinese ones that are still my best friends, an ex-Malay boyfriend, and an American goddaughter under Christianity precedence.
Race and color is obvious, and unavoidable, but love conquers all.
