In the ongoing debate about interracial dating and marriage, people just seem to can’t get over the fact that the world is a big place with a large population of diverse humans. With the numbers being disproportionate between the different racial, ethnic, religious, and cultural demographics, people are bound to engage in a variety of relationships external from the intrinsic parameters set by these categorizations.
In a VladTV interview, DJ Vlad and Boosie explore the controversial, and oftentimes taboo, subject about interracial dating. Vlad initiates the conversation in the short clip.
“As someone who dates Black women, we’re not on that colorism s— the same way I’ve seen other races on,” Vlad said. “I personally like natural hair with women, but I know a lot of Black men who don’t. But, for me, I never really cared about that. Usually the women care more than I do.”
Vlad generalizes further saying Black women are more comfortable being their natural selves when they are dating outside of their race.
“When a White dude is with a Black girl, they’re not trying to bleach their skin and straighten their hair and do all this extra s—,” he continues. “[White men] like them for who they are.”
Boosie, known for taking the most provocative stances on hot topics, joined the conversation making his own observation about Black men who date or marry White women.
“I don’t understand why a white man, you see him in the airport he got the baddest Black b—- you’ve seen in three years,” Boosie said. “But, the Black dude got a White girl look like the f—ing miss piggy. I don’t understand that s—.”
Boosie continued,” We got to do better if we going to get the White girl. We got to do better.”
Hmmm. Are their observations really accurate or is it just a generalization? Let’s evaluate some famous interracial relationships. There’s the beautiful Jodie Turner-Smith who is married to her White husband Joshua Jackson. She exudes beauty and talent while rocking versatile looks, that we admit includes natural hairstyles. But, she’s not out here on some Alicia Keys “no makeup” campaign or some protest against hair extensions. She does what she wants. Another case, Blac Chyna was once with Rob Kardashian and she held no bars when it came to doing up her nails, outfits, and lace fronts.
Other Black women that have dated or married White or perceived to be White men include Serena Williams, Halle Berry, Lisa Bonet, Alfre Woodard, Meghan Markle, Eve, Janet Jackson, Garcelle Beauvais and Naomie Harris. All of these women are not opposed to sprucing up or even reinventing their looks while with White men. Although to be fair, most of these women are allegedly very conservative with procedures that change their looks, such as skin lightening, plastic surgery, and extreme hairstyles.
On the other side of the coin, Black men who date and wife White women include the likes of Michael Jordan, Donald Glover, Jordan Peele, Eddie Murphy, Lil Wayne, Taye Diggs, and many NFL football players and draftees. For the most part, the White women that these men choose as partners tend to represent a spectrum of what’s out there — from the lackluster mate to the glamorous trophy wife.
Perhaps Vlad and Boosie were referring to the average interracial relationship. In that case, there’s several variables to factor in, such as the dating culture in certain locations or the class of the man involved. For instance, Los Angeles is the land of dating where being single is a celebration and a sacrifice for career; whereas, the south promotes marriage and family at a young age.
To be honest, it seems that the hip hop community pressures women the most to fulfill unrealistic standards as they compete for attention. The status quo involves false lashes, lace wigs with heavy-laden baby bangs, unimaginably small waists, big bubble butts, and professionally done makeup coverage that many swear is sorcery.
What makes it worst is that the women in hip hop that are successful do nothing to break this stereotype — in fact, they perpetuate it. It doesn’t help that men further enforce women to appear this way by giving Instagram models, video vixens, strippers, and socialites extra attention that women in the “real world” are excluded from. That’s their preference, though. Who is anyone to say what people should look like or who they should like?
From the famous examples of interracial relationships to what us regular folks see on an everyday basis, the moral of the story is that Vlad and Boosie are basing their assumptions on a limited sample that derives from their own experiences in life. This is the case for most of us with opinions and while we may agree or disagree, just like the case of Monique’s comments about the ever-enduring bonnet or Kevin Samuel’s description of “low-value” women, people will ultimately do what they want to do.
