Cliff Owen / AP

Gustavo Torres, director of Casa in Action, center, and others chant during a rally of immigration rights organizations, in front of the White House on Thursday. They called on President Barack Obama to fulfill his promise of passing comprehensive immigration reform.

Hispanic voters, who were instrumental in putting Barack Obama back in the White House, now hope the president will work diligently in his second term to cross some big to-dos off their legislative wish list: jobs, affordable education, health care access and immigration reform.

Hispanics voted for Obama over Mitt Romney by a resounding 71 percent to 27 percent and may have put him over the top in several key swing states. The total number of potential Hispanic voters this year reached a record 23.7 million – up about 80 percent since 2000 – and Hispanics now compose about 10 percent of the total electorate, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.

“The Latino electorate arrived Tuesday, there’s no question about it,” said Rafael Collazo, director of political campaigns for the National Council of La Raza. The organization, which bills itself as the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States, says it helped register more than 90,000 new Hispanic voters this year.

“States like Florida, Colorado, Nevada, Pennsylvania, even Ohio -- the Latino vote was a net gain for the preferred candidate and was the deciding factor or at least very, very close to being the decisive factor,” Collazo told NBC News.

"The Latino giant is wide awake, cranky and is taking names,” labor leader Eliseo Medina, of the Service Employees International Union, told NBC Latino. 

With the election behind them, Hispanics now want Obama and Congress to work on issues identified in surveys as their priorities – more jobs, affordable health care, access to higher education and immigration reform.

GOP faces immigration fight after election

The latter issue has been more important for Hispanics than for other U.S. voters, said Mark Hugo Lopez, associate director of the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research organization.

Hispanic support for Obama was high even before he announced in June that the government will stop deporting, and begin granting work permits to, some undocumented immigrants who entered the U.S. as children.

“However, when it comes to asking Hispanics which party is more concerned for the Hispanic community, after the deferred action program was announced the (Democratic) share went from 45 to 61 percent – the highest we’ve measured in Pew Hispanic surveys in 10 years,”  Lopez said.

“In his acceptance speech, Obama mentioned that comprehensive immigration reform was something that needed to be addressed, and we’re going to hold him to that,” Collazo told NBC News.

The day after the election, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid promised to introduce an immigration reform package next year. He said if Republicans block the legislation, they would do so "at their peril."

Al Cardenas, chairman of the American Conservative Union and former chairman of the Republican Party in Florida, agreed that the immigration debate has been detrimental for the GOP.

“Across the board generationally and demographically, the immigration issue has become a wedge issue … because it’s become a litmus test of respect and caring in that community,” Cardenas said. “My advice for conservatives and the party as a whole is to get bipartisan immigration reform done in next 100 to 200 days.”

A survey of Hispanic voters by the firm Latino Decisions found that Hispanics pushed Obama over the top in Colorado, Florida and Nevada, swing states where they turned out in unusually high numbers.

Cardenas said the GOP can’t pay short shrift to minority groups if it wants to put a Republican in the White House.

NBC Latino: We voted – now let’s get to work, say Latinos after historic vote for Obama

“The so-called mainstream vote is no longer sufficient,” he said. “The coalition of all of these minority votes is a priority in these elections today. The Hispanic vote is the most numerically significant of all of these groups. We need to develop a precise, aggressive, winning political game plan to address that community.”

The Hispanic community is a diverse one, according to the Pew Center's Lopez:

• Country of origin: Among eligible Hispanic voters, 58 percent are Mexican Americans, 14 percent are Puerto Ricans, and 6 percent are Cubans. (The remainder are from Central and South America). Historically, Cubans have supported Republican candidates more than other Hispanic groups; in Florida this year, 49 percent of Cubans went for Obama and 47 percent for Romney.
• Youth: People ages 18-29 make up about a third of all eligible Hispanic voters, but just 20 percent of all general voters.
• Naturalized U.S. citizens: Among Hispanic eligible voters, 25 percent are immigrants who are naturalized. But among whites, only 3 percent are naturalized U.S. citizens.

Callazo said that despite this diversity, Hispanics displayed a rather consistent, Democratic-leaning voting pattern across many states.

“The numbers of how Latinos voted in Arizona compared to Ohio and Colorado were fairly close,” Callazo said.

“Yes, there are differences and nuances … but if you look at the polling and all the anecdotal work and the outreach we’ve done over the years, the core issues are very, very similar," he added.  "At end of day, Latino voters are voting for the candidate they feel will best reflect their values."

NBC Latino contributed to this story.

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One in five Americans -- and one in three of adults under 30 -- is religiously unaffiliated, the highest percentage ever, according to a Pew Research Center study released Tuesday.

Over the past five years, the study found, the number of religiously unaffiliated adults has increased from slightly over 15 percent to just under 20 percent, a figure that includes more than 13 million self-described atheists and agnostics, as well as almost 33 million adults who do not identify themselves with a particular religion.

Survey takers were able to choose from a list that included more than a dozen possible affiliations, including “Catholic,” “Protestant,” "Orthodox," “don't know” and “nothing in particular.”

But, according to the nationwide survey, many of the 46 million unaffiliated adults or so-called "nones" are spiritual or religious in some way:

• 68 percent say they believe in God.
• 58 percent say they feel a connection with nature and the Earth.
• 37 percent say they think of themselves as "spiritual" but not "religious."
• 21 percent say they pray daily.

Most "nones" said religious institutions can benefit communities through their social outreach, but an overwhelming majority thinks religious organizations are too focused on rules, money and power and too involved in politics.

Pew says the rise of the religiously unaffiliated is mainly due to a generational shift, with 32 percent of adults under 30 saying they're religiously unaffiliated, compared with only 9 percent of those aged 65 and older.

Politically, the "nones" skew heavily toward the Democratic Party, making up 24 percent of the Democratic and Democratic-leaning registered voters, the largest religious constituency. Black Protestants at 16 percent, white mainline Protestants at 14 percent and white Catholics at 13 percent are some of the other large religious groups skewing Democratic.

With social issues such as same-sex marriage taking center stage this election season, 73 percent of "nones" say they support gay marriage and 72 percent support legal abortion.

According to Pew, a counterpoint to the rise of the religiously unaffiliated has been a dip in the share of the population that identifies as Protestant. That figure now stands at 48 percent, down from 53 percent in 2007. It is the first time the number of Protestants has fallen significantly below 50 percent, according to Pew. This is a continuation of a long-term trend, as the Protestant population has been declining since the early 1990s.   

The number of Catholics, which now stands at 22 percent, has been steady for a few years, the study shows, owing in part to immigration from Latin America.

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Andrew Burton/Reuters

Phil Fung, right, holds hands with Shawn Klein during their marriage ceremony in the Empire State Building in New York, on Feb. 14, 2012.

Support for same-sex marriage rose among voters of all political stripes in recent years, but it surged so much among Democrats that the partisan divide on the issue is wider than ever, according to a national survey released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center.

Sixty-five percent of Democrats are now favor same-sex marriage, compared to 50 percent four years ago, while 24 percent of Republicans are in support, versus 19 percent in 2008, the survey found. The gap between the two major parties stands at 41 percentage points.

“The latest national survey … finds that the partisan divide over gay marriage continues to widen,” the forum said. The survey also found that 51 percent of independents now favor gay marriage, seven percentage points more than 2008.

President Barack Obama’s announcement in May that he supported same-sex marriage -- the first American president to do so -- “rallied the Democratic base,” especially liberal Democrats, to the issue, though its overall impact on public opinion has been limited, the forum said.

“Reports that the Democratic Party may add support for gay marriage to its party platform are in keeping with a significant shift of  opinion on this issue among Democrats nationwide,” the forum report said.

The report noted that there had been an increase in support for same-sex marriage across several demographic groups who had opposed it in the past: African-American support is up to 40 percent from 26 percent in 2008, while 28 percent of those who attend church at least weekly back it, compared with 23 percent in 2008.

In May, a Gallup poll found that 50 percent of Americans believe same-sex marriage should be legal and bestow the same rights as traditional marriage, compared to 48 percent who don’t.

 “This year's results underscore just how divided the nation is on this issue,” Gallup said at the time.

Six states and the District of Columbia allow same-sex marriage, while 31 states have constitutional amendments that effectively ban it. Plaintiffs in several lawsuits challenging the federal Defense of Marriage Act -- which defines marriage as between a man and a woman -- have asked the Supreme Court to hear their case in the high court’s next session.

The Pew Forum survey of 2,973 adults was conducted from June 28-July 9 with a margin of error of 2.1 percentage points. 

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Christian Gooden / AP file

Ying Zhou, originally from China, waves to well-wishers after receiving her certificate of citizenship on April 25. A new Pew report says Asian Americans are more satisfied than the general public with their own lives.

Asian-Americans, the fastest-growing racial group in the country, are more satisfied than the general public with their own lives and the nation’s direction, a new national survey finds.

The Pew Research Center survey and accompanying report says Asian-Americans now make up 5.8 percent of the nation’s population, up from less than 1 percent in 1965, when the modern immigration wave from Asia began.

Asians recently passed Hispanics as the largest group of new immigrants to the U.S. In 2010, 36 percent of new immigrants to the U.S. were Asian, up from 19 percent in 2000, according to Census figures.

The Pew report, titled “The Rise of Asian Americans,” finds that Asians are the highest-income and best-educated racial group in the U.S. Nearly half (49 percent) of Asian-American adults have a college degree, and they boast a median annual household income of $66,000 (versus the U.S. median of $49,800).

The survey says Asian-Americans are more satisfied than the general public with their lives overall (82 percent vs. 75 percent), their personal finances (51 percent vs. 35 percent) and the general direction of the country (43 percent vs. 21 percent).

Video: Asian Americans an untapped voter group?

On a wide range of dimensions, Asian-Americans say conditions in the U.S. are better than those in their country of origin; a large majority say if they had to do it all over again they would still come to America.

The survey is based on telephone interviews with 3,511 Asians ages 18 and older living in the United States. The interviews were conducted from Jan. 3 to March 27, in English and seven Asian languages. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.4 percentage points

You can read the full report here.

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Global overall confidence in and attitudes toward the United States have slipped since the beginning of President Barack Obama's presidency, a new survey of 21 countries by the Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project showed.

But while confidence in Obama -- and with it the United States -- fell, people in a large number of countries continued to say they were confident in the president's foreign policy leadership, according to the poll. This did not hold true among many in predominantly Muslim countries, among them key American allies. 

In Europe, favorable attitudes toward the United States fell seven points from 2009 to 60 percent in 2012, and 10 points in Muslim countries, to 15 percent. 

Confidence in Obama himself in Europe declined six points during the same period to a still-robust 80 percent. But the study showed fewer than three-in-ten in Egypt, Tunisia, Turkey and Jordan expressed confidence in Obama.

Confidence in Obama plummeted 24 points to 38 percent in China.

As United States and Western nations pull out, China seeks role in Afghanistan

Since Bush, a 'real improvement'
Opinions about the United States were not close to historic lows, however, according to Richard Wike, associate director of the Pew Global Attitudes Project.

"It is worth keeping in mind when talking about Obama and America's image, he is still considerably higher than during (the presidency of George W.) Bush," Wike said. "In 2009, we generally saw a real improvement in America's image (and) in general that pattern still holds."

Read the Pew report here

With Obama's presidency, the biggest improvements in the United States' image occurred among Europeans, with people in France, Spain, and Germany registering a positive view of the U.S. that is at least 20 percentage points higher than in 2008, the study showed.

Opinions about the United States also got a big boost in Japan, where 72 percent expressed a favorable opinion of the country, up from 50 percent four years ago. America's image in Japan improved dramatically in 2011, thanks in large part to relief efforts following the March earthquake and tsunami that devastated parts of that country.

But a major sore point for many was the United States' ongoing drone-strikes policy. In 17 of 20 countries surveyed, more than half disapproved of American drone attacks targeting extremists in countries such as Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.

Report: Obama embraces disputed definition of 'civilian' in drone wars

About a year after he ordered the Abbottabad raid that killed Osama bin Laden, just seven percent of Pakistanis have a positive view of Obama, the same percentage that voiced confidence in President George W. Bush during the final year of his administration. 

"Obama's effect that we've seen on America's image in much of the world really hasn't happened in many of the predominantly Muslim countries that we survey," Wike said. 

Another shift in opinion came with the world's view of China in the economic balance of power. Among the 14 countries surveyed each year from 2008 to 2012, 45 percent said the U.S. was the world's top economic power in 2008, while just 22 percent said China. Today, only 36 percent said the U.S. was the leading economic power, while 42 percent said it was China.

The Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project surveyed 26,000 people in 21 countries from March 17 to April 20.

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Hispanic? Latino? When it comes to describing themselves, most Hispanics prefer to identify themselves by their family’s country of origin rather than either of those two pan-ethnic  terms, a new Pew survey finds.

Just over half (51 percent) say that most often use their family’s country of origin (such as Mexican, Cuban or Dominican) to describe their identity, according to the Pew Hispanic Center report.  Just one-quarter (24 percent) use the terms “Hispanic” or “Latino.” Twenty-one percent use the term “American.”

The U.S. government mandated the use of the terms “Hispanic” and “Latino” in 1976 after a number of years of lobbying by Mexican-American and Hispanic organizations, according to Pew.

“The use of the terms ‘Hispanic’ and ‘Latino’ to describe Americans of Spanish origin or descent is unique to the U.S. and their meaning continue to change and evolve. Outside of the U.S., these terms are not widely used (National Research Council, 2006) and may also have different meanings,” the Pew reported noted.

Despite the formal definition, the U.S. Census Bureau allows people to self-report their ethnicity – someone is Hispanic or Latino if they self-identify as such. The 2010 census counted 50.5 million Hispanics.

According to the Pew report, about half of Hispanics say they consider themselves to be very different from the typical American. And regardless of where they were born, large majorities of Latinos say that life in the U.S. is better than in their family’s country of origin.

The survey of 1,220 Latino adults was conducted in both English and Spanish from Nov. 9 through Dec. 7. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.

You can read the full report here.

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Ted S. Warren / AP

Mitt Romney, right, bows his head in prayer as he stands on stage with local elected officials during a campaign rally on Feb. 3 in Elko, Nev. Nearly six in 10 Republican and Republican-leaning voters who favor Romney for the GOP presidential nomination say churches should keep out of political matters.

In an election campaign season in which issues such as birth control and gay marriage have made headlines, a growing number of Americans think political leaders are talking too much religion, according to a new national survey.

The survey released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life finds signs of uneasiness over the mixing of religion and politics.

Nearly four in 10 Americans (38 percent) say there has been too much expression of religious faith and prayer from political leaders -- an all-time high since the Pew Research Center began asking the question more than a decade ago. Thirty percent say there has been too little.

Most Americans (54 percent) continue to say that churches and other houses of worship should keep out of politics. It’s the third consecutive poll conducted over the past four years in which more people have said churches and other houses of worship should keep out of politics than said they should express their views on social and political topics, according to Pew. That's also an about-face from 2006, when 51 percent of Americans believed churches should speak out and 46 percent said they should keep quiet.

The view that there is too much expression of religious faith by politicians remains far more widespread among Democrats than Republicans, and there are also divisions within the GOP primary electorate.

Fifty-seven percent of Republican and Republican-leaning voters who favor Mitt Romney (a Mormon) for the presidential nomination say churches should keep out of political matters. By contrast, 60 percent of GOP voters who support Rick Santorum (a devout Catholic) say that churches and other houses of worship should express their views on social and political questions.

And while more than half (55 percent) of Santorum’s supporters say there is too little expression of religious faith and prayer by political leaders, just one in four (24 percent) of Romney’s backers agree.

Santorum has worked hard on the campaign trail to court conservative Christian voters, and the former Pennsylvania senator has talked openly about the journey of his faith in visits to evangelical churches.

Kimberly Conger, a political science instructor at Colorado State University who has studied the intersection of religion and politics, says the latest Pew findings are not surprising.

“Religious people's opinions on the relationship between religion and politics seem to be driven by their political identity more than their religious one.  These results bear that out,” she said by email to msnbc.com.

“Republicans are less likely to think there is too much religious talk by political leaders, and Republicans are hearing more such talk than Democrats.  It is also unsurprising that there has been a slight uptick in the overall number of people uncomfortable with religious talk since the Republican primary has had some significant religious overtones.”

As to whether politicians should steer clear of religion on the campaign trail, Conger says it depends.

“It's clear from the breakdown of religious and political groups that Rick Santorum ought to keep talking about religion as long as he's fighting for the Republican nomination. But if he were to win the nomination, he'd have to start appealing to independents, a key voting group that's uncomfortable with candidates' religious talk,” she says.

“They key challenge in the general election will be for Republicans to broaden their appeal by toning down religious talk. But the data suggest that Democrats face a similar if less intense challenge in broadening their appeal by appearing more welcoming to religious beliefs. Both sides will have a fine line to walk.”

The Pew telephone survey was conducted March 7-11 among 1,503 adults. You can read the full results here.

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Kenny Dornhoefer stands with his new wife, Jaya Ganaishalm, after being wed during a group Valentine's Day wedding in West Palm Beach, Fla. A Pew report finds that marriages between people of a different race or ethicity are at an all-time high in America.

A Pew Research Center report out Thursday finds that Americans are becoming more accepting of interracial marriages, and your stories seem to bear that out – most of the time.

Msnbc.com asked our Facebook followers to share their experiences of being married to a spouse who is of a different race or ethnicity, and more than 400 people responded. Most said they did indeed find more tolerance today among family, friends and strangers. But many also shared stories of stares and glares in public, disowning by family members and discrimination by businesses.

We feature some of your stories below. But first, a little background:

The Pew report found that marriage between races and ethnic groups has reached an all-time high in the U.S. Couples of different race or ethnicity made up a record 8.4 percent of all married couples in 2010, up from 3.2 percent in 1980. About 15 percent of all new U.S. marriages in 2010 were between spouses of a different race or ethnicity. The report also said nearly two-thirds of Americans say it “would be fine” if a member of their own family were to marry someone outside their own racial or ethnic group. In 1986, the public was divided about this.

Michael J. Rosenfeld, an associate professor of sociology at Stanford University, says the findings aren't surprising and reflect the continuation of a trend seen over the past few decades. 

“Racial intermarriage was very effectively suppressed in American society in the past, and so there’s still a lot of room to go up,” Rosenfeld said.

But Rosenfeld also notes that race is still the biggest “barrier in the marriage market” in the U.S. today – that is, people are much more likely to marry outside their religion or social class, for example, than they are to marry outside their race.

“You’re still several hundred times more likely to be married to a black person if you’re black,” he noted.

In fact, the Pew report noted, interracial marriage in the U.S. wasn’t fully legal in all states until a 1967 Supreme Court ruling that deemed anti-miscegenation laws unconstitutional.

Here are some of your Facebook stories, some of which have been edited for length, clarity and style. You can read more of them on our Facebook page.

‘Long-legged blonde’
I am African-American and have been married for over 35 years to a fantastic long-legged blonde :-) We met in Cali in our 20s. Two kids and four grandkids. We are one in each other’s thoughts and minds. We never gave a rat’s ass what anyone thought. Before her dad died he told me that he could not have had a better son-in-law. It made me cry. I used to think he was a bigot. But he turned out to be my other dad. If you love someone don’t care what other people think. Live your life for you and your family. Thirty-five years and counting! Yes, we’re both over 55.
Dennis Ravy

Getting carded
I'm white, my wonderful, hardworking husband is black. We overlook the very obvious judgments that are passed on to us by people of all races. We live in a predominately white city. By the way, HE grew up here, as the second black family here, I did not. One very obvious example of our daily lives for us and our four now-grown children is this:

I use and carry my husband’s debit/credit card with me, because I do majority of the shopping. Mind you, HIS name is the only one on the card and account. When I use as a credit card, I never ever get carded, even though my name is quite obviously NOT David. Now, if he goes to use his own card at the same exact stores, they card him every single time! Go figure. So sad to me, but so true and relevant on what we go through over stereotypes ... not including, looks, stares, shaking of heads.
Brigette Riche Hood

Still a ways to go
I am white and Mexican though you cannot see the Mexican in me. My wife is black. We live in the Tampa-area suburbs not far from the biggest stupid Confederate flag in America. Our day care that we take our son to has lots of interracial kids. As far as problems, it has been mostly old people of both sides that you see looks from. Some young black guys once in Ybor City asked my wife what she was doing with me. But they were just talk. And we were at Busch Gardens once when there were two losers drinking in the parking lot with mud and Confederate flags all over their truck who said ‘gross’ as we walked by. When I asked what they said they started on some racial slurs. As bad as I wanted to drop them I had my 4-year-old with us so I just reported them. So, yes, things are better but still have a way to go.
Frank Mendoza

Marry your own race?
I am a white women married to an Asian man, and for me in my community people are very accepting of us. But when we go to Sacramento, Calif., where he is from, we get a lot of comments from other Asian people, usually people who are older, who think he should have married in his own race. I sometimes even catch his mom saying things about it, but it hasn’t caused us to view our relationship any different. We love each other and have a beautiful kid together and that’s all that matters.
Lorna Bryce

Not black and white
My son is biracial, born in 1981. When I went to put his race on the birth certificate they told me I couldn’t put two races on it, I had to choose black. I refused, they marked it anyway. When I registered him for school, it was the same thing. I refused to put just one race. It was tough back then. When I applied for his Social Security card, they point-blank made me mark black. I argued and told them he was white and black. I used to go look for apartments and had to leave my son at home because they wouldn’t have rented to me otherwise. I even had a landlord ask for the key back once he realized I was in an interracial relationship with a biracial child. Nowadays, (interracial marriage) is just common.
Shari Johnson

Jack Kurtz / Zuma Press

Couples gather on the steps of the Arizona Supreme Court for their mass wedding ceremony to mark the Valentine's Day holiday. A new Pew report says the number of interracial marriages in the U.S. is at an all-time high.

The look
My husband and I have always lived in South Carolina. In the 10 years of being together, I've had one negative comment directly to me. I notice people ''looking'' at us, if I look for it, but I don't ''look'' for it. There are places in this state you just do not go to if you are in an interracial relationship, or if you are black, period. That's one sad aspect of living in the South. I have received some ''surprise'' reactions that I'm married to a black man, but to us we are just two people in love.
Kelly Cope Browne

No loans
We were married 48 years ago. We avoided the South, especially Virginia. In fact, I have never been to most Southern states because it was so dangerous, lawless like Somalia today. That said, we never had any personal confrontations or incidents. On the negative side, local banks denied us loans, real estate agents red-lined us, and some restaurants gave us very poor service. Once someone dumped garbage on our lawn. But these incidents all occurred in the ‘60s.
Edward E Archer

Elephants in the room
I am white and my husband is black. We honestly have not experienced negativity. Our friends are OK with it (many of them have had interracial relationships). Our families are also OK with it and our church is OK with it (my husband is a minister). We don't even really get looks when we are out, most of the time I forget that we are even different races. He is my husband and best friend and I don't think about him in terms of the color of his skin. I don't go around saying "my black husband" and he doesn't call me his "white wife."

But we don't let our differences be elephants in the room either. We talk about them, joke about them, learn from them. Looking at us, it is obvious in what ways we are different, but on the inside we are so much more alike than just a glance could tell someone, so I am glad we have not experienced others judging us. Honestly though, if people did judge us, we would just go on about our lives and business. We know what we have and what those who want to judge must be lacking, so why worry ourselves about it? People can stand around and hate all they want; they will not separate us or bring us down. We are a team, and a pretty awesome one at that!
Jill Stoneburner Clark

Not so Nicely
When I was an undergrad at ISU in the ‘60s, a white, art student friend, let's call her Nicely, asked me to have lunch with her and her parents, who were visiting from Pennsylvania for the first time. I was a bit befuddled, as we were not particularly close, but I agreed, since she said she really wanted me to be there. So I showed up and had a cafeteria meal with two uptight oldsters who seemed excessively interested in me. We chatted for an hour or so, and then I excused myself, saying I had a class to get to. The next time I saw Nicely I asked her what all of that mess was all about. She told me that when she was in high school in Pennsylvania she fell in love with a black fellow and told her parents about it. They immediately had her committed to a ward of a psychiatric hospital. They let her out when she agreed to break off the romance and go to a good university out of state and never see the fellow again. Sad story, I said, but what does it have to do with me? Oh, she replied, you were my new white, upwardly mobile boyfriend for an hour or two. Thanks for your help.
Ron Hutchison

‘White Rice’
I'm a petite Thai woman married to a white former Marine. The ‘White Rice’ combination hasn't been much of an issue. His Texan extended family was great to me -- once I showed them I can pack a chicken fried steak and a Shiner in like the rest of them. However, I was surprised that his older coworker asked him once if he "rescued" me when he was overseas. He didn't sock the guy, thank God. I told him next time just say what I say, that we met at a go-go bar in Bangkok where HE was dancing. (All kidding aside, we met when we both were working at a dot com during the boom.)
OakMonster

Long tan
Give it 500 years and eventually everyone in the world will be tan, and racism won’t exist.
Ed Post

Read the full Pew report

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