Handling race in an interracial relationship
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MURFREESBORO, TN (WSMV ) — Conversations about race are getting even deeper for a couple in Murfreesboro as they are hoping to learn and teach others.
Ashley Payne is in a biracial relationship, and is a mother to a biracial son.
Though her eyes were open to racial injustice before this month’s protests began, she’s had several conversations with the men in her life about race recently.
“It’s easy for me to live in my bubble,” she said. “Like, oh everybody’s going to love everyone.”
She knows that is not the reality for everyone in the country. As a mother, it terrifies her.
“I wake up some days with that anxiety, and the fear of being face the fact that he is, in the eyes of some people, a black male,” Payne said. “And, he is going to be faced with those things.”
News4 also spoke to Payne’s boyfriend Mikah Hayes. Payne asked Hayes to talk with her son about what is happening in the country right now.
“You know, it’s not every day that you are faced with any type of racism or what have you, but you have to be mentally prepared for it,” Hayes said. “It could happen at any moment. Is it going to be really intense? Is it going to be escalated? Is it not?”
We asked how they’ve talked about the unrest in our country as a blended family. Payne said these conversations have been possible through trust and communication.
“It’s not coming out maliciously, it’s just something that like I don’t understand,” she said. “And so, he’s giving me that opportunity to voice what I’m feeling, and him give it back to me from his standpoint.”
Ashley said the protests and conversations about race are important to have. She said she hopes the future will be brighter for her son.
“I do have a time and a place to stand up, and the time and place to stand up is now,” Payne said.
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