Young Love Bridges Race Divide

"If they like the personality and attitude, they just go out. It's cool," says senior Kamran Ali, a Pakistani who says he has dated whites and Hispanics.

Christina Rosen, a junior who is half Hispanic, agrees. "I just see the person inside," says Christina, whose boyfriend is Cambodian. "The only type of racism we have in our school is joking about it."

The atmosphere of tolerance is great enough, for example, for students to playfully taunt white football players as "CCF" - for "Crazy Caucasian Farmers." Heather calls one of her Asian friends "rice eyes," while another student mockingly refers to himself as a "white, male species."

PARENTS, for the most part, go along with the mixed dating here in Falls Church, Va., as well as across the country. Nearly two-thirds of parents of teens nationwide say they have no problem with cross-racial and ethnic dating, according to a Gallup poll. A recent survey of white adults showed that most would not object to sending their children to a predominantly minority school.

"Most parents are very positive," says Barbara Douds, director of guidance for Stuart's 1,300 students, citing the advantages of an early dose of diversity. "Our kids will be extraordinarily well prepared to handle the world at large."

Harriet Riehl, the PTA co-president, agrees. "The people skills my children have learned at that school are invaluable, they have an advantage beyond belief."

Yet despite growing acceptance among teens and parents, a significant minority resists interracial dating.

Opposition is more common in predominantly white rural areas than in cities and suburbs, where racial and ethnic mixing is greater. It is also directed most pointedly at black-white dating. In a 1994 incident in small-town Alabama, for example, a school principal threatened to cancel the prom if black-white couples attended.

Even at Stuart High, racially motivated teasing, insults, and fights - though rare - do happen. "One time I was dating a white girl," Kamran recalls, "and her friend [a white male] told her 'Why don't you go with your own race?' "

Heather says she feels snubbed at times by black girls at school. "They don't like a white girl taking their man, or something."

Some parents, often citing religious and cultural reasons, strongly encourage their children to date their own kind.

Heather's mother, for example, openly disapproves of her daughter's romance. "You fall in love with them, and it presents problems, particularly with that race [blacks]," she says, declining to give her name. "If you get married, the children don't fit in any race."

"A lot of kids are saying the parents are racist, and I say, well, I probably am to an extent - but everybody is," she says.

On the future of race relations in America, teens hold mixed views. Heather, perhaps understandably, feels uncertain.

"I hope things get better," she says. "At least younger people are more open-minded than their parents."

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