Jan. 2, 2014, Dennis Prager said: “I don’t like any ethnic neighborhood. I don’t think it’s the American ideal.”
“I don’t think black neighborhoods are healthy for blacks. I don’t think Mexican neighborhoods are healthy for Mexicans. They’re comfortable.”
Feb. 13, 2014, Dennis said: “A lot of people feel more comfortable with one of their own, unfortunately, racially, ethnically, whatever, I understand that, but that’s where the mind must conquer feelings, particularly if you are religious. Religion must conquer all other feelings or else religion is crap. Either we are all God’s children irrespective of our race or we are not.”
“That you feel more comfortable with people who look like you may well be your human response but it should not be your God-centered response… If religion doesn’t teach us values, it is utterly worthless… Values should always trump feelings.”
A black woman calls in. “Within black culture, you are taught from childhood that you are not to marry white people but then you grow up and you see all these black men marrying white people… When black guys go to college, they will not leave with a black girl. They will only marry a white woman.”
Dennis: “[Maybe] it is time for black women to date white men. Doesn’t love trump race?”
“I didn’t expect this [stand for pro-interracial marriage] to be controversial. I expected to do one segment and move on.”
“This notion about we want to preserve the culture. That’s a very dangerous idea that race and culture are identical. Race is race and culture is culture. What culture does a black atheist and a black evangelical share? Recipes?”
“Either we believe we are all God’s children and character matters infinitely more than skin color or we don’t. If you are religious, then you must ask, what does my religion teach?”
Interracial marriage is growing steadily. From the 1960 to the 1990 Census, white – East Asian married couples increased almost tenfold, while black – white couples quadrupled. The reasons are obvious: greater integration and the decline of white racism. More subtly, interracial marriages are increasingly recognized as epitomizing what our society values most in a marriage: the triumph of true love over convenience and prudence. Nor is it surprising that white – Asian marriages outnumber black – white marriages: the social distance between whites and Asians is now far smaller than the distance between blacks and whites. What’s fascinating, however, is that in recent years a startling number of nonwhites — especially Asian men and black women — have become bitterly opposed to intermarriage.
This is a painful topic to explore honestly, so nobody does. Still, it’s important because interracial marriages are a leading indicator of what life will be like in the even more diverse and integrated twenty-first century. Intermarriages show that integration can churn up unexpected racial conflicts by spotlighting enduring differences between the races.
