And the Black senior who spoke on condition ofanonymity says family support can make or break arelationship.

"Families are something to think about," thesenior says. "It's hard to stay in a relationshipwhen there are so many external problems."

Nguyen says he thinks families from certainethnic groups tend to discourage interracialdating.

"In Asian families, there is a lot of parentalpressure to date in the [same] ethnicity," hesays. "Nowadays, Asian parents discourageinterracial dating more [than Caucasianfamilies]."

That makes the College a particularlyattractive place to date interracially, becausefamilies are far away and can't easily check up onstudents.

"Your parents don't need to find out," Nguyensays. "You don't have to take it home.:"

An Asian-American first-year student, forexample asked to remain anonymous in this articlebecause her parents are not aware she is currentlydating a Black undergraduate.

The first-year says she thinks her parentsgeneration has more difficulty acceptinginterracial dating than her peers do.

"When I am with other Asian Parents, they willlook at me funny but won't say anything," she says"Among my friends, it is not a big deal at all."

But many of her peers who accept the idea"would not think of [dating interracially]themselves," she says.

"People will have problems with it for a longtime to come," the first years says. "I don't feelthat people are very comfortable with racialdifference, especially as applied to issues ofdating and marriage."

She says anti miscegenation laws that went offthe books decades ago still cast a long shadowover the contemporary dating scene.

"Barely 50 years ago certain races weren'tallowed to marry other races,"she says."There'sstill a lot of residue from that."

Inter-Faith

Craig Briskin '94 says the experience of datinginterracially is similar to carrying on arelationship with someone of a different faith.