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CNN Live Sunday

Interracial Couple Faces Intolerance

Aired September 09, 2001 - 16:20   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: Discrimination based on creed, age, gender or race is forbidden under the U.S. Constitution, but some interracial couples are still finding intolerance at home.

CNN's Femi Oke talks to one couple in Atlanta Georgia.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FEMI OKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These happy wedding photographs bring up painful memories for Jerome and Donna Tarpley. Some memories of her family refused to come because she was marrying an African-American.

DONNA TARPLEY: We never had a black or white issue as a child when I was growing up because my father worked at Ford and he would invite people over from work for dinner. So it wasn't any big deal to us. But when he found out that we were actually going to get married, the situation changed. It was different, because then it was in his own family.

Your family was more accepting.

JEROME TARPLEY: Yes, I mean, usually -- it's really strange, sometimes a black family is a little more acceptive (sic) of situations like this than more so a white family is.

D. TARPLEY: It's very difficult for me to talk about because it still hurts.

J. TARPLEY: Her mother said that if her father or her sister goes to the wedding or whatever, they would disown them. And I told Donna -- I said, you know, don't worry about it. I said one day, for whatever reason, they're going to need you in their life.

OKE: On the day Donna wanted her parents by her side, her uncle gave her away. Jerome's family was supportive, although his mother was concerned about how her grandson, Rafael (ph), from Jerome's first marriage, would cope with interracial parents.

J. TARPLEY: Rafael's mother did not like the fact of integrating, and that sort of bothered me because I thought she would be more open-minded. And she didn't like the fact that her son was being raised by a white woman. And at one time he made the comment when he was about 5 years old, I don't like white people. And I said, well where did this come from. Tell me why. And he couldn't answer me. And I said, well, if you don't have a reason, then how can you say you don't like anyone? I said you have to have a reason for this comment.

Well, I knew where it was coming from; partly from his mother, and partly from the school that he was going to because it was a predominantly black school.

OKE: Rafael and Donna have always been close, even as he's grown up and moved away from home. But she still remembers when raising him raised the issue of race.

D. TARPLEY: We were at the mall, and we were with Rafael when he was younger and we were shopping. And Rafael was getting out of hand, and I had disciplined him. You know, just talking to him about his behavior. And the reaction was from three black women that had seen me disciplining him and had made the comment, who is she to tell him what to do?

OKE: Despite experiencing occasional prejudice, Donna and Jerome are upbeat about living in Atlanta as an interracial couple.

D. TARPLEY: I think it's more accepted now than it was maybe 10 years ago. You could see the change, because there's a lot more interracial couples.

J. TARPLEY: Even in Atlanta, I mean, with the way the schools are and all of the different races mingling together in school -- they're dating and, you know, that's a start. And it really makes for a better society. Whether you like it or not, you know, it makes -- it brings the world closer together.

OKE: And as Jerome predicted on their wedding day, Donna's family did need her, and did cross the racial barrier. When Donna's father became ill, the race feud was abandoned, and for the first time they call him son.

Femi Oke, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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