Nowadays you can see them on television programs, in movies, in music videos, even in small Southern towns. What was unthinkable, even illegal in most states in America not so long ago, is now becoming more common.

We have such a fascination (or hesitation) when it comes to interracial romance and marriage.

Is it jungle fever as director Spike Lee so satirically demonstrated in his movie of the same name? Is it the lure of forbidden fruit, or perhaps something much deeper than we are ready to admit?

Of course there are many different types of interracial relationships, but the one that causes the most talk is the black on white variety.

The phenomenon of the black/white relationships is fundamental to all other mixed relationships. How society at large views this mixture does affect the perception of the others.

America has a troubled history when it comes to race relations in general, but to go beyond that and stumble upon, or in some cases, seek the other side of the fence has really been the last taboo between black and white people.

Even though it is becoming more common nowadays, there is still that reaction an interracial couple can arouse in some people because they believe it is wrong to date anyone outside of your own race.

"You should stay with your own kind", they may say. Or if God meant for the races to mix, He would have made them the same from the beginning, and other such nonsense.

Moreover, some white people would tell you that they have black friends, etc. and think of themselves as open-minded when it comes to blacks.

But if one of their children should happen to date, or God forbid, marry a black person; you can see the trepidation in their eyes.

Why is it wrong to find someone attractive of another race? And then to go a further step and actually date them? I know of both black men and black women who frown upon such couples.

Especially in the black woman's case since more black men are prone to enter an interracial relationship.

Some black women dislike the fact that there is already a scarcity of "good" black men out there. So when they see a decent black man with a white woman, it is like a slap across the face.

They wonder why you could not find a black woman to your liking and so forth, which is understandable.

Some people say that they do not care about it one way or another; people are people to them.

A young executive from Brownsville, Tennessee sees no problem with dating a white woman. "When I see a woman, I don't see a color; I just see a woman. If she is white, that does not matter to me." He dates many kinds of women of different racial and ethnic backgrounds.

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