This article originally
appeared in IntelligenceSquad.com.
In a recent New York Times,
columnist Nicholas Kristof asks when Hollywood will release a major
motion picture in which a black man and white woman fall in love. Kristof
raises an interesting point, but we feel his complaint misses the real
problem, which is that Hollywood has shown a frustrating reluctance
toward depicting romance between black men and black women.
Kristof’s citing of Denzel Washington by way of example is particularly
illustrative.
In his last twelve movies dating back to the year 1998, Denzel – the
most popular black film actor in American history – has been romantically
paired with a black woman lead exactly once. In "The Manchurian
Candidate," "Man on Fire," "Antwone Fisher," "Remember
the Titans," "The Hurricane," "The Bone Collector," "The
Siege," and "Fallen" Denzel has no major romantic
partner at all. Likewise the films "Courage Under Fire," "Virtuosity," "Crimson
Tide," "The Pelican Brief," "Much Ado About Nothing," "Ricochet," "Heart
Condition," "Glory," "Power," "A Soldier’s
Story," and "Carbon Copy."
In "Bone Collector" and "Pelican Brief" Denzel
is paired with a white female lead (Angelina Jolie and Julia Roberts,
respectively) who, though single, attractive, and facing classic Hollywood ‘woman-in-peril-looking-for-knight-in-shining-armor’ scenarios,
managed not to "hook up" with the handsome Washington throughout
their respective films.
In "John Q," his character is married to a black woman played
by Kimberly Elise, with whom he shares little in the way of romance
throughout the suspense/drama. In "Manchurian Candidate," Elise
plays a strange friend-like character who invites Denzel to stay in
her apartment for an indefinite period. It is never even alluded to
in the movie whether she has "relations" with him.
In "Training Day," Denzel’s girlfriend is played by Latina
actress Eva Mendes (also cited by Kristof in his column for being paired
with Will Smith in this year’s "Hitch"). Note how far Hollywood
had to go to pull this pairing off: Mendes’s character is the only
person in her entire neighborhood who is not black. Where
in the world they imported her from to drop her into this film’s black
ghetto is beyond us.
In "Mississippi Masala" Denzel falls for an Indian woman.
In the thriller "Out of Time" Denzel has a romantic affair
with a married character played by black actress Sanaa Lathan. By the
end of the film, Lathan has double-crossed Denzel, who begins to show
rekindled interest in his colleague and ex-wife, played by…Eva Mendes.
In "He Got Game," his character falls for a white prostitute.
You have to go to "The Preacher’s Wife" – nine years and
13 movies ago – to find Denzel in a traditional Hollywood romantic
pairing with a black lead actress (Whitney Houston).
Kristof also cites actress Reese Witherspoon, one of Hollywood’s blonde "it" girls
of the moment, in his dream interracial casting scenario. But in doing
so he overlooks Julia Stiles – who, while not as blonde as Witherspoon,
is at least as white. Twice in the last four years Stiles has played
opposite black romantic leads (Mekhi Phifer in "O" and Sean
Patrick Thomas in "Save the Last Dance").
Kristof is right, though, to point out the relative comfort Hollywood – and
by extension, America – has with depicting black female/white male
relationships. Witness Halle Berry, who in the past decade has played
opposite non-black leads in "Catwoman," "Die Another
Day," "Monster’s Ball," "Swordfish," "Introducing
Dorothy Dandridge," "Bulworth," the TV movie "The
Wedding," and "The Rich Man’s Wife," and opposite blacks
in just the TV movie "Their Eyes Were Watching God" and the
bio-pic "Why Do Fools Fall In Love?" 2006 expects to see
releases in which Berry plays a woman who is raped by a white man and
Lathan plays a woman who, determined to marry and finding few good
black prospects, partners with a white man.
Being half of an interracial couple himself, Kristof has fair reason
to wonder out loud about Hollywood’s lack of recognition of certain
types of such couples. But if Hollywood is to get its priorities straight,
it will get up to speed on producing more films along the lines of "The
Best Man," "Brown Sugar," "Love and Basketball," and "Disappearing
Acts" – in which African-Americans engage in romantic situations
with each other – before worrying about depicting the much
rarer interracial relationship.
Tom Grayman is an activist, pollster,
and author of the book Ghosts of Florida: Making Elections Fair
for Blacks. This commentary
originally appeared on his website link IntelligenceSquad.com.
He can be reached at [email protected].