In this rapidly globalizing world different cultures are interacting with increasing frequency, throwing together the various races, although the writer, apparently a closet amateur sociologist, begins by claiming first off that there is no such thing as race…….

One love

Of the many differences that exist among the six billion denizens of the third rock from the sun, none is more stark and fraught with emotions as the issue of race.
The world's racial diversity, I am pleased to prosletize, is not conclusively accepted as universal fact (at least not by those I've converted or you when you finish reading this). In fact, don't even bother to continue reading if bless you, yoo categorically reject the very notion of the existence of different races among humanity. This school of thought can be described as an Ethio-centric approach to the non-issue of race. The science bearing out this philosophy is rather uncomplicated yet absolutely logical.
By the way, I am dipping from a real life revelation I had that threw Dr. Bowditch my Theory of Knowledge professor, when Lucy was discovered. It instantly transformed me into the ethiocentrist I am today one who believes that there is no such thing as race and if there were there would be only one race. Here's how.
The entire world agrees that Africa is where humans (read everything) originated. Specifically this so called cradle of mankind is concentrated in eastern Africa and to be exact, in northeastern Ethiopia. Anthropologists and a host of other 'ists' also agree that this Ethiopian nucleus of the human race fanned out across Africa and ultimately throughout all the continents by way of 'ice bridges' between land masses. As the early humans (Ethiopians) encountered different climes so they began to adapt and evolve into what conventional 'wisdom' (Hah!) came to call different races. Therefore, it is logical to presume as I do that since every human is basically of Habesha stock, there can only be one race - Ethiopic.
However clear this may seem it will take some time before I can convince enough people to think my way. Unfortunately, this 'race thing' is firmly rooted in human psyche and affects our interaction profoundly and we shall address the issue. In respect to the most charged of situations that bring to the fore issues about racial background is love.
I myself am a product of a multi-racial relationship and this, to me, natural state of affairs at home prepared me well for the multi-cultural school I attended where I could and did date girls from a pool of 45 countries ….except Ethiopian girls of course. (Yeah, the Ethiopian chicks preferred the foreign (bigger) guys - lanky Americans, towering Germans, stocky Zambians-anybody except us puny Habesha). Those dates however, were often conducted in 'controlled environments' such as an after school function, school dances (chaperoned, thank you) each other's homes and other non-typical Ethiopian conditions.
Out in open Ethiopian society later in life, fewer opportunities for inter-racial love presented themselves. Today, I don't think that I would be uninhibited if I had a Caucasian girlfriend. In fact, I'm pretty sure inter-racial couples in Ethiopia do experience difficulties, not least because these days the Ethiopian half of the couple is categorically and very unfairly perceived to have entered the relationship for financial gain or as a window of opportunity through which he/she can finally leave this X?/+-xed country…. Please, Society readers, am I just shooting blanks or does my analysis ring true….?

What do you think of inter-racial relationships?

People think nothing of staring at an inter-racial couple as if they were on TV and not there in person. We Ethiopians have still not gotten over our weird fascination with white skin and fair hair.

Even so called cosmopolitan Ethiopians can't help staring at inter-racial couples. This makes my girlfriend (European) so uncomfortable that she often prefers we stay home rather than be "flycatchers" for an annoyingly bad custom. Please don't stare!

A.D. 30,
Photographer

I remember as many of you will, that pre-1991, Ethiopians who were sent on scholarships provided by socialist countries (USSR, E. Germany, Bulgaria etc), returned home with white wives (and mixed race children). These families had a difficult time adjusting and it is a fact that some were forced to separate while others left Ethiopia for less intrusive, more embracing societies.

Seifu K. 56
M.D