Interview with Dawn Thomas

1. Where do you live? We live in Central Pennsylvania

2. What is the make-up of your interracial family? My husband is ½ African American and ½ Caucasian. I am Caucasian.

3. What is it that you most enjoy about being a part of an interracial family? I enjoy being able to learn about African American heritage from my husband’s side of the family and be able to teach my children that love is color blind.

4. What is your biggest challenge in being part of an interracial family? When people make comments towards my children and my husband, specifically about their hair.

5. What advice would you give others considering an interracial relationship? Do not worry about what your family, friends, or others will think. It is what you feel and not about others.

6. If you have children, do they identify as one race, both or something else? Was this something that you helped them with or did they come to this conclusion on their own? My children are still young, so I am not sure they know what race they are right now. When we ask my six year old daughter what she is, she will say she is black and white.

7. Do you look at racism differently now that you are part of an interracial family? Yes, I look at racism differently. I feel bad for people I see in the news, in magazines, and on television. I feel for the people.

8. What pieces, if any, have you adopted from your spouse/significant other’s culture? Nothing. My husband is not familiar with his African American heritage. His mother moved him away from his father, who is black, when he was 5 years old.

9. Do you think being in an interracial relationship is more difficult than being in a same race relationship? Yes. People think you are in a relationship like this to be different or to spite your parents. I have also had African American women yell at me for dating black men.

10. What else would you like us to know about your family? We are not a type of family. We are a loving family of five. I love my husband and he loves me. We have hard times, we argue, but at the end of the day, we are a family. My children love each other and see no color. They know their daddy is darker than their mommy, but that is normal to them. They have family members who are different shades and it is alright with them.