As Get Out shows, love isn’t all you need in interracial relationships

Posted in Articles, Arts, Communications/Media Studies, Media Archive, United Kingdom, United States on 2017-03-30 21:53Z by Steven

As Get Out shows, love isn’t all you need in interracial relationships

The Guardian
2017-03-27

Iman Amrani


‘In Get Out, Peele successfully challenges the way the parents and their friends pride themselves on not being racist, while also objectifying the young man both physically and sexually.’ Photograph: Justin Lubin/Universal Pictures

Jordan Peele’s film has provoked discussion of issues about race and relationships that often remain too sensitive or uncomfortable to explore

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the 1967 US supreme court decision in the Loving v Virginia case which declared any state law banning interracial marriages as unconstitutional. Jeff Nichols’s recent film, Loving, tells the story of the interracial couple at the heart of the case, which set a precedent for the “freedom to marry”, paving the way also for the legalisation of same-sex marriage.

Loving isn’t the only recent film featuring an interracial relationship. A United Kingdom is based on the true story of an African prince who arrived in London in 1947 to train as a lawyer, then met and fell in love with a white, British woman. The film tells the tale of love overcoming adversity, but I wonder whether these films are missing something.

I can understand how, at the moment, with the backdrop of rising intolerance in Europe and the United States, it’s tempting to curl up in front of a triumphant story of love conquering all, but I grew up in an interracial household and I know that it’s not as simple as that…

Read the entire article here.

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