WOW Wednesdays

LOVING

Love is a powerful set of emotions felt by all walks of life that is experienced through different depths of feelings.

It can be timeless, effortless and unconditional which we all seek to find in order to have a steady balance for our whole being. While some may view love as a frivolous act of the mind that clouds our better judgment, others see it as the making of a new journey to set it’s course for a new world.

This past Thursday, I attended the private movie screening for the film Loving, a true story about a young couple, Mildred and Richard Loving, from a small town in Virginia who went against skewed racial standards and laws to fight for the love of each other and their family. A courageous act that became the epitome in love winning all. In the film, you watch the trials and efforts they are met with and bravely face in order to make a life for themselves, only to win the attention and hearts of the public and supreme courts. 

After receiving an invite from Blogger Babes, not only did I feel it as my obligation, but also my urge to enthusiastically promote this film in order to be a part of a movement that they unknowingly fought for decades ago. While they say that children see no color due to the idea of innocence, we in turn are just not born to be racially charged. At the age of 5 years old, I can distinctively recall my first encounter with my first crush, Kyle Greene, who was a little white boy with blonde hair and big green eyes. When I first entered the class, he was the first to welcome me with open arms and a kiss on the hand. For the following six years of elementary, I stuck to him like permanent glue, until I moved to another school away from all my friends. While I did grow up in a predominately white county, Orange County, I also only knew diversity throughout my life.

I was clearly aware of my tendencies to commonly be attracted to boys who didn’t quite share the same skin color as myself, but I wasn’t aware that, that would later expose me to having to defend my choices and sole right of preferences against the ignorance of others. I had white aunts, guardians  babysitters, and majority of friends, so to be naive to a world outside of my norm was just more so taboo.

My great-grandmother at the age of 90. My grandfather, aunt, myself and mother in the portrait

While my melanin skin considers me as Black, I’ve also always acknowledged my bloodline as much more dating back to my biracial great-grandmother who was a product of an interracial relationship between a biracial father and Native woman. Though I might not be a direct spawn of an interracial relationship, I find my ancestry far more empowering during times that it was found “unconstitutional”. 

The movie attracted much attention throughout social media, on interracial dating sites, and as well as an HBO documentary months prior to the official release. 

Actors Ruth and Joel playing real life couple Mildred and Richard

While showing a great resemblance to the real life couple, actors Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga gave a heartfelt performance for those who they’ve inspired as well as for those who lived in a life of racial oblivion. To think that two human beings created a sense of disgust among the maniacal and mental adaption of bigotry and racism is absolutely mind boggling. In the mid 17th-18th century, a famous naturalist, anthropologist and physiologist, Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, was quoted in saying

“Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix”

The Lovings in 1967 speaking to press in regards to their case

during their trial when caught in bed with one another, but ironically, Blumenbach did not instill the idea of hate and hostility through his views that would later be manipulated in justifying the crucified notion in the case against the Lovings. In fact, contrary to belief, it was a much more different argument as well as what the bible truthfully states. It’s hard to believe that during the era of slavery, white slave masters were notoriously known for raping and impregnating black women without the repercussions and scrutiny of any law, due to sadistic sexual desires against their matrimony. While those in law and power of political statuses, John Tyler, William Henry Harrison, Strom Thurmond and Thomas Jefferson are fully known for fathering black children from the births of their slaves, in the distorted brutal views of history, it was acceptable. Yet, when true love becomes the foundation in seeking solace, it’s found unfavorable. 


A man that sacrificed his life to live for the one he truly loves, that makes you consider what one will do for devotion. He could have blindly walked away saving himself the heartache as a white man living in a white world, but he didn’t. He chose love, and through their rebellion, they showed that love can conquer all.

Mildred and Richard watching television and photographed by LIFE photographer Grey Villet. Photo credit by the Estate of Grey Villet

Xox


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