It's my life! Those are the thoughts running through Amanda Ahtunowhiho's head as she walked through the University of Utah campus. The tall young Native American woman briskly walked through the crowded campus, wandering how in hell so many otherwise intelligent people could be so backwards in this day and age. Amanda recalled the conversation her proud Cheyenne mother Hannah had with her on the subject of interracial dating. Mom basically told her not to bring home one of 'those Black people'. Anyone except a Black guy, that was her mom's statement.
Apparently, when Amanda was dating Josh, a handsome, if culturally insensitive white guy, it had been okay with her proud Native American parents. Amanda had basically stormed off after telling her mom she would do whatever she wanted, and hadn't been home ever since. That was the first day of April 2011. A day she would never forget. Amanda sat in the library, watching people go by. She saw white guys with Asian women, Black guys with White women, and sometimes Black women with White guys. It never ceased to amaze her how interracial dating seemed really okay to most people when the male half of the pair was Caucasian and the female half was a minority of some sort. However, the moment the male half of the interracial couple was Black, people, including other minorities, tended to have a problem.
Well, Amanda hadn't planned on falling in love with Steve D'Orville, the handsome young Haitian man from the City of Montreal, Quebec. Steve was Canadian, and had recently transferred to the University of Utah from Concordia University in his native Quebec. With his cute French accent, his impeccable manners and his charming smile, he was unlike anyone she had ever met. The church-going, geeky-yet-handsome guy simply took her breath away. They had some of the same classes together. He was a civil engineering major, and so she was she. The civil engineering program at the University of Utah was one of the best in the country. It attracted many international students from places like the Confederation of Canada and Australia. Hence, the presence of a Canadian guy on this very American campus.