With the creation of sites like Blogspot and Tumblr, any and everybody can create a blog and call themselves a blogger. As someone who used to blog daily on other sites, instead of wanting a "blogger" label, I created this particular blog as a way to display some of my writing from time to time, and chose to write when I felt like something truly struck me.
And something has. My jaw literally dropped when reading about the latest controversy surrounding Essence Magazine's February cover featuring New Orleans Saints player Reggie Bush. The issue, which was celebrating black love and black men, displayed an eye-candy photo of Bush with an open shirt, with a coverline reading "Live Your Fantasy." Bush is a black man, who happens to be in a relationship with an Armenian woman, the notorious Kim Kardashian (of infamous sex-tape, reality TV and celebrity socialite fame).
So why is my jaw dropping, you ask? It wasn't, until I read the comments on the website from hundreds of Essence readers who are outraged at the fact that this magazine, aimed toward a black, female audience, featured a black man who isn't in a relationship with a black woman, on the cover of an issue about black love. So outraged, in fact, that they are canceling their subscriptions–some who have even been subscribers for years.
Um, what?
I could understand being upset about the fact that his girlfriend has reached fame in an unconventional manner that is typical of the changing times in our media. But being mad about the fact that she is "white," to the point that you are going to cancel your subscription to the magazine and write angry letters to the publication?
One commenter wrote: "This Brotha don't dig us, so why, pray tell, do we have to see his face staring back at us, on a magazine that celebrates US? This disappoints me. It's an insult! Later for Reggie Bush and all the other Brothas who turn their back on the black woman once they are successful."
Reading this and many other similar comments, I felt like I had stepped back into time. Is the year not 2010? But then I realized, while some may disagree or feel offended, that the reason for this anger and lashing out against Essence and the issue is a reflection of the fears and insecurities of black women. The fear that black men don't love them, don't want them, and for them, Reggie Bush on the cover of an issue about black love manifests all of their fears–a good looking, successful black men that "doesn't love black women" (as more than one poster, such as the commenter quoted above, wrote angrily) is the symbol of everything they are afraid of in love.
Situations like this show that despite having an African-American president, who is actually the product of an interracial marriage, hasn't changed a thing. And I have no choice but to partially blame the media's recent hype of the relationship and marriage statistics in the black community, a hype that is only fueling the fire of an already sensitive issue. A recent much-watched Nightline piece brought up the fact that 42% of black women have never been married, and highlighted the lack of "eligible" black men, further heightening the fears of black women and making their search for "love, marriage and a baby carriage" with a black man more frantic. And while the statistics are true, what the articles and the show don't point out is that marriage statistics are crummy no matter what the race. 51% if American women, period (no matter their race) aren't married.
In general, race can be messy. This cover and the controversy surrounding it, regardless of the aforementioned media hype, brings up a few questions. A) Who defines "Black love?" Can "Black love" ONLY include a black man and a black woman? Is it no longer "Black love" if both parties aren't black? And B) Who is to say Reggie Bush doesn't love black women? Nobody knows for sure his dating history, and I'm sure the man loves his mother–who is black–yet women are quickly crucifying him for betraying black women because of his current girlfriend. And C) Who defines Kim Kardashian as "white?" Her family is proudly Armenian, meaning her family come from a country that is actually considered both European and Asian, depending on who you talk to. But the color of her skin automatically classifies her as a "white" girl, therefore casting her as the black woman's enemy in relationships.
Regardless of the numbers and of the black community's feelings about interracial dating, getting angry at Essence Magazine for giving their readers a bit of eye candy isn't the answer. Perhaps it's time to look inside and see what it is you're REALLY angry about, instead of projecting your anger onto a celebrity.
photo courtesy of Getty Images.
