It’s frankly insane that anyone has any ‘opinion’ on interracial relationships these days. It should be so normal by now people’s response is neutral.
I’m white British and my partner is British Asian. The only comments or stares we tend to get are from other Asians, which makes sense as his cultural background (Sikhs) traditionally oppose mixed relationships. We’re not ‘out’ to some of his family as they would make his immediate family’s life hell with gossip and judgment and shame. We get Asian people staring as it’s so unusual to see a white girl and an Asian guy. I actually, thinking about it, don’t recall seeing another couple like us. I’m sure they exist though.
I echo PP who’ve mentioned about the over attention people, even strangers, give to the idea of what our children would look like. I’ve never, in any of my previous relationships with White guys, had anyone comment on what our kids would look like. With my OH we got it from day one. ‘OMG your kids would be so beautiful! Omg imagine their skin tone! Wow, his skin tone and your eye colour would be gorgeous!’ It’s soooo common, happens when nobody has even mentioned having kids. Biracial children are fetishised, and if you read that and doubt what I’m saying do your research. It’s meant well I know and I wouldn’t directly challenge someone. But it is jarring, it suggests that our child would be different to other kids and would be some exotic spectacle, worthy of comment. Our children (we’re expecting our first) would likely have a milky latte skin tone and black hair. Big fucking deal.
I think part of it is people trying to show how totally cool and okay they are with a biracial relationship, which isn’t unusual when you consider how many people have an issue with it still and how even a couple of decades ago it’d have been a scandal (like it is for us now in the Asian community). People overreach to show that they’re okay with it. But it’s also a really weird approach that suggests to me they’re fascinated by the mixing of genes between two different ethnicities, like they are seeing it as some curious science experiment rather than just having a kid with someone who looks a bit different to you.
Thing is, even people who do it don’t usually see it and can get defensive about it. They’ll come up with all kinds of explanations for why the first thing they say when seeing a picture of my partner is about the appearance of our kids, while they have never made any comment about the future kids of their white/white couple friends.