Since everyone is talking about Spielberg’s West Side Story, and all the racial issues involved, I can’t help but add two cents – two very old pennies I never mentioned before.  1. When I was in high school, and we all loved everyone else – it was not only interracial dating that was frowned upon.  Every mix was suspect.  And I was more than once taken aside and warned against the non-Jewish boys I had a fondness for.  

2. But the main point of West Side Story is inter-sexual, not interracial.  An old friend of mine was a long-time lover of Leonard Bernstein and I remember the depth of feeling, the secretiveness, and the wonder.  I think we get bogged down in details about love.  what does it matter whether it’s trans sexual, homosexual, interracial – the problem is irrelevant social limitations that become mandatory.  

What’s important is that it is mutual and not an infringement on the rights of others.