How to maintain a healthy interracial relationship

Life Kit

NPR

Health & Fitness, Self-improvement, Kids & Family, Education, Business

4.3 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 22 September 2025

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

If you're in an interracial relationship, there can be additional concerns even with lots of love and care: cultural misunderstandings, family members who say hurtful things, disagreements over values or communication styles and larger power imbalances at play. This episode, writer Davon Loeb shares advice on navigating racial differences in your relationship and creating a stronger connection with your partner.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This message comes from the podcast Landlines with Allison Williams.
0:04.1	The girls and get-out actress and her lifelong best friends,
0:07.3	an early childhood educator and behavioral therapist,
0:10.0	invite you to join the group chat every new parent needs.
0:13.4	Listen wherever you get your podcasts.
0:16.3	You're listening to Life Kit from NPR.
0:20.9	Hey, it's Mariel.
0:23.1	When Devon Loeb was growing up in the suburbs of New Jersey, in the late 90s, early 2000s,
0:29.2	he rarely saw black and brown people other than his own family members.
0:33.6	I was one of the only kids of color in class within the whole school. And I often felt like I didn't belong.
0:39.7	And then sometimes I wasn't invited to sleepovers.
0:43.0	I couldn't go out and play with the other kids.
0:45.5	Devon is mixed race.
0:46.7	His mom is black with roots in Alabama.
0:49.3	And his dad is white, Jewish, and from Long Island.
0:52.7	And as he became a teenager, Devon found that dating was especially fraught.
0:58.5	The girls in school either didn't want to date him because of his race, or if they did date
1:03.1	him, it felt like kind of a performance.
1:06.1	It was like, let me try to put this hat on.
1:09.3	Like, I'm going a date a black guy.
1:12.0	But then when I met Jenny, like, being black was just part of it.
1:15.1	But it wasn't like why she fell in love with me.
	...

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