By Tiffany Onyejiaka
Black representation on the screen is growing at a rapid pace. Everyday it seems a new Black centered movie or film is making its way to our big and small screens. Over the past few years, I’ve noticed many of these new movies and films contain interracial relationships. Particularly when the non-Black partner is a white man. Black love exists in a myriad of beautiful renditions, yet the form of Black love that is starting to predominate our television and movie screens often involves a non-Black partner which is incongruent with the realities of Black society.
The predominance of interracial relationships in modern media misrepresents the reality that the majority of Black people exist in relationships with other Black people. A census study found that in 2017, from the overall married Black population, 7% of Black women and 15% of Black men had married non-Black partners. Interracial relationships are definitely rising as years go on—but even with newlyweds intraracial marriages make up the majority.
A Pew Research study found that of the Black people who married in 2015, 24% of newly married Black men and 12% of newly married Black women were intermarried to partners of a different racial background. Only a fraction of Black men and Black women have non-Black partners—a figure not reflected in modern TV or cinema. From acclaimed TV shows like Scandal, How to Get Away with Murder, to blockbuster movies like Get Out and Widows—it’s apparent that interracial relationships exist heavily in the dominion of Black storytelling.
This over-representation is not just present in heterosexual relationships, but in many depictions of Black queer relationships as well. Shows like Sex Education and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, showcase their Black queer characters paired up with white partners. Queer relationships are already so precarious in the Black community and the lack of notable Black intraracial queer relationships on screen is a disservice to people who seek to see Black love affirmed in queer spaces.
The over-representation of interracial relationships is especially pronounced in coming-of-age and adolescent focused stories. There have been very few mainstream coming-of-age films focused on Black individuals, and of the few that exist, they often also feature interracial relationships.
Films such as Spiderman Homecoming, Everything, Everything, Where Hands Touch, The Hate U Give and the upcoming The Sun is Also a Star stick to the formula of having young Black actresses with non-Black male partners. Films like this often ignore the dynamics of young Black love and how young Black men can understand and express love. Adolescence is such a sensitive time in people’s lives and the fact so many movies shy away from exploring healthy development of relationships between young Black people trying to navigate this confusing world is a shame.
The representation of interracial relationships does not even truly reflect the interracial relationships that exist in real life. Black men intermarry at double the rate that Black women do—yet Black women are depicted on screen in these relationships far more often. The majority of interracial relationships showcased in the media often feature white partners, despite the fact that roughly 1/2 to 1/3 of interracial relationships in the Black community occur with a person from a Hispanic, Asian or Native American origin.
This over-representation of interracial relationships of Black characters with white partners on television is reflective of the ways in which to center whiteness within the Black experience is our new “woke” entertainment landscape.
By tagging a white partner to the majority of new Black stories, entertainment groups are able to avoid telling a largely Black story by including a white person as peripheral to the Black character’s life. It’s a way of increasing Black representation while still allowing non-Black actors and actresses—particularly white men—to maintain their footholds across the entertainment landscape. White actors and actresses still hold the coveted spot of being the adored love interest in a wider range of movies than ever before.
Intraracial Black relationships are so often depicted as abusive or volatile in comparison to the way many interracial relationships are portrayed. Movies like Acrimony readily align with the trope that Black couples are doomed for a life of abuse and philandering. This sends a violent message that the key to true happiness for a Black person is to find a white partner—which is anti-Black.
This is not to say that interracial relationships are wrong or indicative of self hate. It’s to say that Hollywood’s over-representation of interracial relationships appears as a resistance to showcasing intraracial Black relationships. Studios believe that creating a white character peripheral to Black stories will make them more palatable to wider audiences. This is a disservice to the representation ethos that is about showcasing Black life as it truly exists. Black love in all its forms should accurately be depicted on the screen.
Shows like This Is Us, Greenleaf and Queen Sugar and movies like Sorry to Bother You and Creed are so powerful because they showcase intraracial Black relationships with a sincerity devoid of harmful tropes. Black love does not have to include an abusive male partner or an over-controlling female partner—or whatever other negative depictions often blanketed onto intraracial Black relationships. Black love between two Black people can be tender and romantic and gentle. It can exist in a multitude of genuinely peaceful ways—our media needs to stop being reluctant to show that.
Love in all its capabilities and conformation is a beautiful entity to watch in real life and on the screen. It is particularly lovely to witness Black people loving and being loved, because that emotion is often absent in our mainstream media depictions. The representation of Black people in love whether with Black or non-Black partners is a marvel to witness. We just need the media to accurately represent the beautiful spectrum of how and whom Black people love and are loved by.
Reading Suggestions:
“I’m tired of watching brown men fall in love with white women on screen,” Aditi Natasha Kini, Jezebel (2017)
“Black love on the big screen, from the first on-film kiss to today,” Felice Leon, The Root (2019)
“Where have all the Black TV couples gone?,” Matthew Allen, Entertainment (2016)
“The truth about interracial relationships,” Elaine Musiwa, Vogue (2017)
Tiffany Onyejiaka is a Black, Nigerian-American based in the Washington, D.C area. She enjoys writing about the topic of social justice, equity, health and more for people of African descent across the diaspora. Her hope tor is the help educate and empower Black individuals with her writing and research. You can follow her on twitter at tiffany_ezinwa.
