This morning, after walking the dog, I watched one of my favorite movies from the 90's, "Higher Learning". If you don't remember or never saw this wonderful movie, it's basically about racial and sexual tension at college during the 90's. I'm not going to go in on an attack on Tyra Banks' horrible performance, I'm going to just say, that when I walked out of the theatre after viewing this, I wanted to hurt a Caucasian, not because I'm racist, but because the movie just enraged me to that exact point. Lets say, during that time period, it was seen as being "Pro-Black" to if not hate, at least, resent White people. Almost every African-American driven film produced during the late 80's and early 90's had a strong "Black people being held down by the Man" view to it. From "School Daze", "Do The Right Thing", "Cry Freedom", "Driving Miss Daisy", and "Mississippi Burning", films during this period made Black people want to hurt White people. I don't really want to get into those types of racism related films, I want to bring up a different type of racism related films, "forbidden love stories". Movies like "Jungle Fever", "Mississippi Masala", "Zebrahead" and "A Bronx Tale", explored the workings and social stigma of interracial relationships. I'd being lying if I didn't say that when I was a younger man, I entertained that oft heard opinion that people of different ethnic backgrounds shouldn't date. But as I've grown older, I've learned how ignorant and idiotic that particular notion is. And that brings me to the point of this blog post.
The other day, I received my copy of "This Christmas", a story of an African American family coming together for Christmas. A main plot device in the film is the acceptance of one of the children's Caucasian wife. It threw me for a loop, this being 2008, the President-Elect being of mixed ethnicity, and interracial couples everywhere. Maybe it's because I live in New York City, where there are so many people, there's a great chance of you being in an interracial relationship. Seriously, I know that racism is far from dead, but hasn't most of America gotten past interracial couples (I mean, we still have the NFL)? It seems idiotic for films to explore this subject, seeing as it is out of most peoples' head. Even in the new millennium, movies still attempted to tackle this non-starter, with "Monster's Ball", crappy films such as "Save the Last Dance", "Something New", "Lakeview Terrace", and "In the Mix". What is Hollywood going to do next, produce a remake of "Aaron Loves Angela", a story of a Black man and a Puerto Rican woman being in a relationship (make it a Dominican, and then they can just record my life)? Is it really possible that a large number of people still have a distaste for interracial dating? That kind of scares me!
I know that when I was younger, if I would've brought a White woman home, my father would have reacted in the way that families reacted in those films in the 90's. But now, I could care less, I'd date a girl of any persuasion. I've been around America and I've seen beautiful women of every race and ethnic background. I understand that there are still, and there will always be, ignorant people, that look down on people because of their race. But honestly, when whats the problem with me dating a White female? And it can be because she is taking a Black man away from a Black female (especially since most Black women don't like me anyway). Is it because, if I had children, my children wouldn't know which race to identify with? It can't be that, especially since our President is multiracial (and my kids will have that kinky mixed kid hair, word to Cree Summer). When I was young and dumb, I didn't fully understand why I thought the way that I did. Maybe it was too many Louis Farrakhan tapes? But as I've grown, I've learned to take people as they are, no matter what race or ethnic background they are. Why has Hollywood not realized that the idea of interracial dating is not taboo at all in this point of time?
Remember the world is Diggie. Even the "Doodlebug" told you this was a Diggie-ble Planet. I'm cool like that!
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