THE CHALLENGES OF AN INTERRACIAL COUPLE.

I once dated a beautiful Caucasian woman from Italy in the summer of 2019. Our relationship lasted a little over five months due to the negative backlash we received for being an interracial couple.

When we started dating, our focus was never on the

of our skins. We believed that love would cover all the negative aspects of how society would view us. Oh, how wrong we turned out to be. We received derogatory comments in public to negatives comments online to eventually rejection from family and loved ones. We were openly intimidated and flooded with a sense of isolation. We realized quicker than lightning strikes that South Africa was more racially divided than what history wanted to make it seem.

It was a beautiful feeling to love someone different from me. But what was different? Race, religion, culture, perceptions and world views. Those differences would broaden our perspectives and approach on how we viewed the world around us. And at some point in during the five months, there was a great connection because of those very differences. We felt our love growing into a bold sense of togetherness.

As I write this piece, I wonder if love could have conquered the injustices we felt. Is love, or rather, should love be a driving force to eliminate all hate? In a perfect world, the answer to that question would be yes. Unfortunately, we do not live in a perfect world, never mind a perfect South Africa.

In some twisted way, we found solace in seeing other interracial couples experiencing similar difficulties. The most ruthless realization was finding out that the South African rugby captain Siya Kolisi also faced the same fate with his wife, Rachel Kolisi. A whole world cup winning captain experienced backlash for dating and marrying a white woman. How sick is our nation? Probably sicker than Covid 19 patients it seemed.