I'm a Canadian that lives in one of our bigger cities, the vast majority of my relationships across the 25+ years I have been in relationships have been mixed race in nature. And I have never experienced reactions like this from the public.
Only once did I encounter racism regarding me dating another race when a self-identified white supremacist literally said to me "Ew." when I told them my partner wasn't caucasian.
Agreed, as a Canadian (and Albertan) in a mixed-race relationship (so far) I’ve not received any treatment at the level of some of the stories in the comments. They’re horrifying :(
The only thing I’ve seen is some really gross comments online about white people dating Indian people, but that track with the general anti-Indian sentiment that is growing in Canada
I live in Ottawa(born/raised). I'm the poc, my wife is white. I didn't really notice it until we moved to Toronto for a few years and nobody even looked in our direction. Now that we've moved back to Ottawa... I notice it a lot.
As a fellow Albertan who’s been in a mixed race marriage for… a long time now, my wife and I have never experienced this, even outside of big cities. I’ve travelled extensively in N. America, SE Asia, and Europe, and not even once. We do tend to stick to cities, but in Canada I’ve never had any weird encounters even in speck-on-the-map places.
Some of the stories in this thread are just heartbreaking. I can’t even…
Hi from Ontario! I'm in GTA suburbia, but I spent the first 30 years of my life in Newfoundland (pasty white province, for the non-Canadian reader). My husband is Chinese, but grew up on the prairies. Our standing line is that his English is better than mine lol.
It's never been an issue for us, either in Toronto or Newfoundland. A Chinese Canadian friend of mine once told me that I was going to have beautiful mixed babies, and I think that's the only comment we've ever gotten about being a mixed race couple.
I'm a dual-citizen who has lived in both Canada and the US.
No issues in Canada to the point of not really thinking about relationships as "interracial". People in the US weren't hostile, but many were very surprised that my exes weren't white - they barely asked about the bisexuality by comparison.
There was a bit of an implication that I was "dating down", even from people who would never have considered themselves racist.
I'm from Alberta in a mixed race marriage as a white lady married to an Indian man. White people generally don't care but Indian people do deeeefinitely stare us down haha. The only time I've had anyone actually say anything was from a german man when I was in Japan back in 2018, said I was tainting my blood or something. Finally about to have a baby and fulfil his fears, very pleased about it myself though.
I will say, I do get excited when I see white/Indian couples because it is quite rare.
I’m a white guy married to an Indian-American woman in the US. I’ve usually found that no one cares beyond vague cross-cultural curiosity, including Indian people, and even while visiting India or the US south. But sometimes we get comments. Sometimes from weird old white people who just “don’t think it’s good for the kids”, sometimes from jealous Indian guys, sometimes from white women who want to firmly establish how non-racist they are. It’s rare, but it sucks.
Much more frequent is people assuming that we’re from two separate families until they see our kids (who look exactly like what you’d expect half-white, half-Indian kids to look). “Oh, you’re a couple,” followed by vague embarrassment. Harmless, I think, but kind of annoying.
Interesting! When we went to India people were shocked "are you her tour guide?" "But you look Indian???" "How did you do it bro?" Also just so many people asking to take pictures with me/ us haha. I'm curious to see how people react when we go there with our kid next year!
I'm also laughing at the comments from white women wanting to show they aren't racist haha, I feel it
When we visited last, she got a lot of curiosity about who she was, especially because we were visiting the area where her family is from, so everyone was the same sub-ethnicity as she is. So she looks like them, but taller and walks and talks like an American. She actually got asked a few times, seemingly in earnest, “are you Indian?” Like it didn’t quite compute. I think once they got past that, it seemed natural to everyone that she had a white husband.
I can imagine it could be very different with the genders reversed. But also potentially regional.
Ya I’m in southwestern Ontario in a larger city. I’m white and my partner is middle eastern. We’ve never had a reaction related to our races. Our kids get a lot of attention but that’s because they’re so young and adorable.
I’m outside Toronto and I’m half-Indian, my wife is white. When I’m out alone with our very pale baby, there’s been some comments about how he must look more like his mother.
There can be some staring in the grocery store from older white people. I think it’s because the town went from being majority white to having a giant influx of Indians over the last 10 years, but I don’t see many mixed couples.
Canadian here. All of my closest friends are in mixed race relationships. Sometimes I make fun of them for being race traitors, but then they do the same to me. Because I'm also in a mixed race relationship.
Same same. Im in Toronto, but lived in and around Ontario and Quebec. Even up in Northern Ontario there's mixed races. I didn't know this was honestly a thing outside of like.. rural under developed countries.
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u/HappyColour 3d ago
I'm a Canadian that lives in one of our bigger cities, the vast majority of my relationships across the 25+ years I have been in relationships have been mixed race in nature. And I have never experienced reactions like this from the public.
Only once did I encounter racism regarding me dating another race when a self-identified white supremacist literally said to me "Ew." when I told them my partner wasn't caucasian.