Our city took in 40.4% of all newcomers to Canada between 2001 and 2006 — it has the largest number of visible minorities in the country with 2.17 million or 42.9% of Toronto's population — thus diversifying the dating pool. It makes sense that mixed marriages in the country are on the rise - Stats Can counted 289,400 mixed unions in 2006, 33% higher than the 2001 figures.
It strikes me for the first time that none of my friends are partnered with people of their own ethnicity. (Perhaps the fact that I didn't notice speaks to its prevalence, its ordinariness to a generation who has grown up in a city of different faces.)
This Saturday, my girlfriend who is of Chinese-Indian descent is marrying a man born in El Salvador. So in honour of the Census report (and anyone else flouting the stale taboo of interracial coupling), here's a B&W about mixed marriages:
Best: Unifying the world one mixed marriage at a time. (More from comedian Russell Peters on the world mixing: "If we make it 300 years from now, do you realize there is not going to be anymore white people? There is not going to be anymore black people. Everybody is going to be beige.")
Worst: Fear of parental displeasure. (My mom's still holding out for Chinese grandchildren. Good luck with that.) Source: http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/toronto/archive/2008/04/02/best-and-worst-the-rise-of-mixed-marriages.aspx
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