I've noticed that within the past couple of decades, I don't see a lot of interracial relationships (IR, for short) in the org.
I, myself, was involved in an IR over 2-3 decades ago and was engaged to get married [my ethnicity is: African-American and Latina; my ex-fiance's ethnicity is: Scottish and Italian]. He broke off the engagement, after three years of friendship and two years of dating, because his uncle and another brother (who was a temporary volunteer at Bethel) pressured him to end our relationship [P.S.: His mother was quite close to my mother, one of my sisters and one of my close cousins. Also, his other four siblings wanted us to get together; these persons wholeheartedly approved of our relationship.]
While dating and preparing for the wedding ceremony (both of us were in good standing status), my ex's uncle was very influential and was putting a bug in my ex's father's ear that,"IR couples have a lot of problems; they should not be getting married at all", plus: "Their children will be in for a big world of hurt, since there are so many worldlings who hate non-whites and whites getting together, like same race folks do", and other similar comments. Furthermore, the T.V. Bethelite was stating rhetoric like: "JWs are always having problems from the world. IRs would cause us to receive more persecution from people who are prejudice and are not serving Jehovah. He [my ex] doesn't need to deal with any more troubles!". There was so much pressure placed daily on my ex by these idiots to the point whereby he would postpone various scheduled appointments, plans and even phone calls to me! Eventually, when he did contact me one evening--approximately six months before the wedding date--to inform me that we should break up. After pleading to him and trying to change his mind, he just said that he "couldn't handle all of the things associated with our relationship". In fact, he made the comment that if we were to continue on, "one or both of us to get disfellowshiped!". This remark, even to this very day, hits a resonating cord with me that something was not right in Denmark re: his dealings with his uncle and that so-called Bethelite.
My family members, plus three elders and a MS, whom I was very close to (in the cong. I was associated with at that time) made arrangements with the CO (who was assigned to us then) to have a pow-wow meeting with my ex's elders in order to resolve the situation. But, alas, the BOEs of his cong. refused and made remarks like "engaged couples break up constantly; this would be a waste of precious time", and "Who cares! We all as elders/servants have more important matters to attend to!". This all added to the heartbroken state I was trying to recover from. Moreover, a Bethelite from one of my potential bridesmaids' cong. came over to me (a couple of months later) to "console" me with an article about what the org thinks about IRs. It was an older WT article (perhaps 1970s). It was stating, in a paragraph he highlighted in yellow, that it would be of the best interest of the IR couple to thoroughly think through to see if getting married is beneficial--especially since they may incur persecution from others, particularly people who are not serving Jehovah, etc. His "bringing this to my attention" was also a shock to the system; I couldn't at the time believe that Bethelites were partial when concerning IRs as well [S.N.: The BOEs in my former cong were multicultural (i.e., A-A, Latino, Asian, Indian, etc.); the BOEs in my ex's cong were 80% caucasian and 20% multicultural; also, the "helpful" Bethelite was caucasian himself.].
I can't help but think how this org could be considered an "international brotherhood". Many years thereafter I have noticed, including while residing in another city in the southwestern United States for almost a decade, the IR couples look like they are dwindling. On the other hand, I notice that the people outside of the org are doing their own thing--and not letting others dictate what they do and who they love in their private lives--dating and marrying interracially. One small example: one of my 1st cousin's daughters (A-A and non-dub) got hitched in early 2002 to a young man who is a mixture of Italian/Irish/Welsh/Belgian/Japanese. They are still together, successfully raising two adorable children (both my 2nd cousin and her husband are college grads working and employed at prominent companies in the southeastern region of the US). Furthermore, this evidence I found while googling IR info: https://www.google.com/#q=interracial+relationships+tumblr I don't know if any of the individuals there could be in the org, but this represents that relationships of that caliber shouldn't be something that Jah disapproves of ("from Adam, one man, came all men", if I'm quoting the scriptural text correctly).
Sorry, everyone, for my rant, but this issue has been on my mind for a very long while. So, what do you all think about this? I would like to hear any and all opinions/thoughts on this matter. Thanks.
