Essence Magazine Accidentally Steps Into an Intra/Interracial Dating Minefield
by Latoya Peterson
We got a request from reader Nafis to cover the Essence magazine controversy that is heating up the black blogosphere. But the comments included with the tip made me laugh a bit. Nafis writes:
i know it might go against parts of the racialicious agenda, but i feel like you should talk about the ”cycle of ignorance” that leads to racism. The comments that the author highlights are very derogatory, and it speaks a lot about the situation within the black female community.
Our agenda is to fairly clear – to provide an anti-racist perspective on pop culture. And regular readers know that we are a feminist-minded site, and generally work to incorporate other anti-oppression principles into what we do. So talking about “the situation within the black female community” isn’t really what we do since most of those perceptions are based in stereotypes about black women. However, what is compelling about the whole situation is how conversations about interracial dating play upon stereotypes and deeply held convictions, that tend to drown out any other type of commentary.
The Situation
BET’s entertainment blog gives a good summary of what is going on:
When Essence editors chose to put Reggie Bush on the cover of their February 2010 “Black Men, Love & Relationships” issue, I’m sure they thought they were just giving their readers a little dose of sexual chocolate eye candy (those abs!), but instead all hell broke loose!
The Essence.com boards are flooded with seething comments from people who can’t understand why a magazine geared towards Black women would make the NFL player who is dating a non-Black woman, Kim Kardashian, the cover choice for an issue that celebrates Black love.
A lot of hateful comments were posted to the Essence boards, some even saying that Bush was a “white supremacist” and anger that a magazine dedicated to celebrating black women would put a man dating a non-black woman on the cover.
The vitriol on this one is fierce – but what is really the issue here?
The “Dating Out” Controversy
A large factor in the controversy revolves around the idea of black men dating outside of their race – but not in the way it seems to be interpreted. A lot of the existing analysis looks at black women and their issues with men who date interracially. But most of the comments on the Essence site are not objecting to Reggie Bush dating Kim Kardashian – they are protesting him being on the cover of an issue about “black men, love, and relationships” targeted to black women. Now, there were quite a few comments on either side of the pole, either saying the Bush cover isn’t a big deal because interracial love is a part of our landscape, or saying that Bush is a sell out – but the vast majority of the comments seemed less concerned with who Bush is dating and more concerned with the message Essence is sending to its readership about who desires black women. Many of the readers felt that Bush’s selection for the cover (over black men who are involved with black women) reinforces the idea that black men are generally uninterested in dating black women once they hit the big time, and many commenters vocalized the desire to highlight some of the other men in the issue who have been seen publicly with black women. (Interestingly, a few people on the Essence site and elsewhere said they would have preferred covers with Robin Thicke or Robert DeNiro, since they were in interracial relationships with black women.)
Very Smart Brothas posted a response to the controversy looking at one of the major underlying assumptions – that successful black men are flocking to nonblack women in droves, and that is why the Bush cover feels like a slap in the face.
the friend thought that this was just another example of how often high-profile african-american men choose to be with non-black women (nttawwt). (half)jokingly she remarked “i won’t say that half of ya’ll run out and get white chicks, but at least 49 percent of ya’ll do”
when i replied that her perception was way off, she cited the study that was bouncing around the web last year about black men being almost three times more likely to marry outside of their race than black women as proof.
Page 1 of 3 | Next page