The Wide Wide World of Cultures

I got an email from a gentleman the other day who contacted me because we share the same first and last name and he came across me while Googling his name. When he introduced himself he gave me a bit of his history and among other things pointed out that as a former Air Force man he spent a lot of time over in Japan many years ago. He also remarked about how much he really likes Japan and misses it very much.

Now that got me to thinking how two other good friends I have come to know thanks to the Internet are both African-American men married to Japanese women and both are great lovers of Japan and the Japanese culture as well. And I couldn’t help but wonder about inter-ethnic dating or marriage and which cultures seemed to be the most common, least common, etc. I am sure there are statistics out there that answer this and I’ll probably look it up. And I am excluding for the sake of this curiosity, American White and American Black, since we can already guess that would be the most dominant combo since those two are the most obvious.

My guess is Asian and Black would be the smallest group, despite my personal connections to those couples. And I would guess that Black and some Hispanic culture, say Mexican-American or Puerto Rican, would likely be the next largest to White-Black. And I say that based on population size and proximity, as well as shared economics and issues.

However it goes, it is so interesting to see the world coming together like that. And to come across so many people who have been brave enough to step outside of their familiar zone. The world is so big and so full with so much to gain from. Thank God people do see the choices are as wide as the field.