Love should be celebrated no matter your race. Given that, some may ask, “Why specify black love?” The simplest answer, “Why not?” But if you need more than that, here are three powerful reasons to celebrate black love.
It’s up to us to celebrate us.
We can’t sit around and wait for others to celebrate our achievements. As in any other realm of life, minority achievement is not publicized as much as minority short falls. The so-called deadbeat dads, baby mama drama and family feuds hit the airways fast and in a hurry. What about the families who are holding it together and doing what’s right? How often do they hit the spotlight?
You have the ability to do something about this. Begin by celebrating your own relationship, and then join up and celebrate with somebody else. Black and Married with kids does this all the time and most recently with the BMWK Standard Awards celebrating 11 Couples who Exemplify Black Love and Marriage.
Inspire someone with your success.
Some young black children have never seen a real-life example of a happy African American couple—not in their own lives or on television. The closest thing to a truly happy couple was Claire and Cliff on the Cosby Show. Growing up neither my husband nor I witnessed positive black love. We married with no positive example before us. We knew what we didn’t want from what we had seen. How powerful would it have been to have a positive example? Seeing successful couples of color would have been an inspiration. Times have changed since we married, yet and still, that positive inspiration is still needed.
History compels us to celebrate.
You have to remember there was a time when blacks were not allowed to marry. As slaves African Americans were thought to be chattel—a name used to describe cattle and personal property. Chattel had no rights, not even the right to marry. When the right was given it was not acknowledged by the government. It was only sanctioned by the slave master. For the slave master, a marriage meant offspring (i.e. profits). The master held the right to say, “yes” or deny the marriage based on his profit-bearing need at this time.
The older generations would often remind the younger of the struggles they went through to gain human and civil rights. This is not to be forgotten but celebrated. Black Love Matters just as Black Lives Matter. Don’t let anyone shame you into thinking you can’t celebrate what you have going on.
We are truly a melting pot society with cultures and races from all around the globe, and each race must remember where they came from. We do not celebrate our accomplishment to diminish someone else’s. We celebrate because we can and we should.
Detailed reading and research can be found on this subject at: The History of Slave Marriage in the United States from the Louisiana State University Law Center.
BMWK, what other reasons can you think of to celebrate black marriage?