A Few Words On Interracial Dating: Kim & Kanye
The only thing that warms my heart more than seeing a happy interracial couple is seeing a happy, famous interracial couple. Interracial celebrity couples force the general public to confront the comingling of the races. It’s incredibly difficult to ignore a social trend when it is embodied by a wealthy, well-known public figure.
At present, there are few interracial couples more famous than Kim Kardashian and Kanye West. As you are all likely aware, this is not Kim’s first interracial relationship. One of those relationships is very well-documented…in a video…that I may or may not own. That said, Kanye West is certainly the most famous man Kim has ever been involved with. Kris Humphries isn’t exactly crushing the IMDB StarMeter right now, though I’m a big fan of his Foot Locker commercials and he is probably a great “Sunday brunch bro.”
Kim is pregnant, they just bought a home in Bel Air for $9 million and posed pretty much naked on the cover of some magazine I’ve never even heard of. It seems like the perfect celebrity coupling. Two stars, both seemingly unlucky in love, find each other and settle down. Their names even go together in the most ideal way possible; alliteration. Kim & Kanye. Kanye & Kim. Yes, it is perfect, because they’re famous.
If they weren’t famous, it’d be more than slightly less perfect. Put an Armenian woman and a black man in Kentucky or Arkansas, and there is a strong possibility that someone would look at them like they were staring at a pink giraffe with a rocket pack strapped to it. Family members would potentially disapprove, neighbors would talk and very little would be as easy as it appears to be for Kim and Kanye. Fame and money can insulate a person from a great many struggles.
No life is perfect, even the life of a fabulously wealthy individual, but it’s still a hell of a lot easier to be Kanye West than a black real estate agent in rural Mississippi. It seems absurd to the rational thinker, but there is a very solid chance that some people who watch major professional sports, or go to movies with minority characters in them are racists. It just stands to reason that the more individuals that engage in an activity, the greater opportunity for variety in the group. If you really think it’s outrageous that racists are sharing movie theaters with you, then think back to the hubbub over the Hunger Games tweets regarding the character of Rue.
Some racists love pop culture as much as anyone else, but Kim Kardashian can sleep with as many different shades of brown as she wants to. Maybe it’s that reality show stars are practically fictional, and the general public subconsciously doesn’t even equate fame with reality anymore. Every show in the Kardashian reality empire is heavily staged and scripted. Rumors still circulate about the veracity, or lack thereof, behind Kim’s relationship with Kris Humphries, their marriage and subsequent hasty divorce. If the lives of famous people aren’t real, or simply unattainable, then why be offended?
This is not to say that racists all uniformly line up for the latest entry in the Fast & Furious franchise. There are plenty of old school racists in America who think pop culture is the thing ruining their perfect, white society. Of course, most of those people are in the United States House of Representatives, and haven’t seen a new movie since Stroker Ace.
I suppose those of us who are minorities need more Kim & Kanye-esque couples to reinforce the notion that races can comingle. It seems a trifle, but every little bit helps. I have very little in common with Kanye West, and the only trait that my girlfriend shares with Kim Kardashian is their excellent taste in eveningwear. Despite that, I can take solace in knowing that two eccentric millionaires are inadvertently fighting for social justice just by having sex in the back of a Mercedes. For that, we should all sleep better tonight.