everyone loves a black girl?
this weekend, some friends and i were talking about interracial dating, and one of them mentioned something she'd read before - some writer suggested that black women and asian men get together and do some serious coupling, since they are the ones generally left out of the interracial dating world.
and then today, i read this article on slate talking about how, apparently, bob dylan has always had a thing for black women. definitely something i'd never heard before. the article suggests a bit of the fetishism, but then many discussions about interracial dating do the same.
what's most interesting, i guess, is the very fact that it's article-worthy that bob dylan is attracted to black women. funny, funny world we live in-the us census bureau finally allows for people to identify as biracial or multiracial, supposedly indicating a sign of the times, and yet interracial couples are still something of an oddity.
case in point: that movie "something new." now, i haven't seen the movie. but it seems to me that, whenever there is an interracial couple in film/television/media, that film/show/whatever is about the interracial couple. if interracial couples are so common these days, why is it that a couple in a film never only happens to be interracial? when they made that movie hitch, they had to cast a latina as the leading lady because american audiences at large would not go to see a movie where a black man dates a white woman, and only black audiences would go see a movie that featured a black couple.
well, maybe they could have cast halle berry in that role. of course, she is the exception, not the rule-an unthreatening black woman. then again, perhaps they could not afford halle berry? i dunno.
as for the title of this post: it comes from an urban outfitters t-shirt. honestly, i really wouldn't know if everyone loves a black girl....
urban outfitters, despite making the t-shirt, doesn't even love black girls all that much. it was apart of that series, you know, everyone loves and italian girl, everyone loves an irish girl, everyone loves a jewish girl. notice how all of the other shirts reference specific affinity groups? and then we have: black girl. this is not quite the same, after all, urban outfitters did not manufacture a shirt that says everyone loves a white girl, and yet there's nothing that says everyone loves a jamaican girl, everyone loves a sengalese girl, everyone loves a yoruba girl, cuz black girls are treated like they belong to an entirely homogeneous group. and i will admit that black girls are beautiful as a group, but also incredibly diverse...this thing about the t-shirts is pretty tangential, i will admit, yet typical.
and then today, i read this article on slate talking about how, apparently, bob dylan has always had a thing for black women. definitely something i'd never heard before. the article suggests a bit of the fetishism, but then many discussions about interracial dating do the same.
what's most interesting, i guess, is the very fact that it's article-worthy that bob dylan is attracted to black women. funny, funny world we live in-the us census bureau finally allows for people to identify as biracial or multiracial, supposedly indicating a sign of the times, and yet interracial couples are still something of an oddity.
case in point: that movie "something new." now, i haven't seen the movie. but it seems to me that, whenever there is an interracial couple in film/television/media, that film/show/whatever is about the interracial couple. if interracial couples are so common these days, why is it that a couple in a film never only happens to be interracial? when they made that movie hitch, they had to cast a latina as the leading lady because american audiences at large would not go to see a movie where a black man dates a white woman, and only black audiences would go see a movie that featured a black couple.
well, maybe they could have cast halle berry in that role. of course, she is the exception, not the rule-an unthreatening black woman. then again, perhaps they could not afford halle berry? i dunno.
as for the title of this post: it comes from an urban outfitters t-shirt. honestly, i really wouldn't know if everyone loves a black girl....
urban outfitters, despite making the t-shirt, doesn't even love black girls all that much. it was apart of that series, you know, everyone loves and italian girl, everyone loves an irish girl, everyone loves a jewish girl. notice how all of the other shirts reference specific affinity groups? and then we have: black girl. this is not quite the same, after all, urban outfitters did not manufacture a shirt that says everyone loves a white girl, and yet there's nothing that says everyone loves a jamaican girl, everyone loves a sengalese girl, everyone loves a yoruba girl, cuz black girls are treated like they belong to an entirely homogeneous group. and i will admit that black girls are beautiful as a group, but also incredibly diverse...this thing about the t-shirts is pretty tangential, i will admit, yet typical.
Labels: fashion, film, yeah i said it: race
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