Posted by By Lorrie Irby Jackson – Dallas South News Contributor
With our nation’s first African-American president now in the White House, as well as the never-ending drama of black and white issues in popular culture, I figured it was a good time to revisit one of the most honest and insightful books on race relations that I’ve ever read, Rajen Persaud’s Why Black Men Love White Women.
Don’t let the incendiary title fool you: instead of it being an instruction manual on how to diss the sisters or giving credence to often-circulated and tired stereotypes, 2007’s Why…. intertwines the author’s own personal observations and experience with facts, percentages and thoroughly researched explanations behind the mindset and motivations of brothers who seem to trip over the sisters in the pursuit of non-blacks for love and companionship.
From his home in New York City, the day trader, filmmaker and lecturer peppered our chat with his explosive views on the recent Essence and Vanity Fair magazine cover controversies, his take on the Tiger Woods debacle and our duties to the young people in our lives to keep them from making some of the same racially-centered errors in life.
Lorrie Irby Jackson: A lot of subscribers were upset by Essence’s decision to feature New Orleans Saints football star, Reggie Bush, on their annual Black Love issue, since he’s very publically-dating the non-black Kim Kardashian. Why do you think they opted to feature him that manner?
Rajen Persaud: Well, Essence magazine is no longer a black-owned entity, it is now a Time-Warner product. So you can say what you want about them, but there certainly not interested in the plight and feelings of the black woman. They’re basically sending that message that they don’t care about black love in general.
RAJEN PERSAUD
When they used to talk about black love, the cover would include a black couple. So, their putting Reggie on the cover is is advertising for a refund, because the White Establishment wants a rebate on the money their paying these negroes. When the white women stop going with these entertainers and athletes, they get paid, and that’s a rebate to the white community, so it’s in their best interest. They used to get a ‘n*****’ rebate; jewlery, cars, dope, liquor, spending as much as they can in the white community, so that’s why they don’t mind advertising back to more whites. They’re not stupid.
I used to call Essence mag OpprEssence. They used to have two columns, “Brothers” and “Interiors,” and practically every column was written by a woman claiming to be suffering at the hands of a black man.
In some way, shape or form the black man was the cause of all of her problems, and her evolution out of that problem, and it was always about a sorry negro who had problems with black women. I was wondering who were they talking to, and this was back in the 1990’s.
LIJ: How do you feel about the recent Tiger Woods Vanity Fair cover? A lots of blacks are of the opinion that this was the media’s way of portraying him as what they truly see him as—a thug.
RP: And they’re right. More importantly, they wanted to show you the field n*****, the one that chases white women. They wanted to show the big, black buck. Tiger Woods was the most emasculated man in the world of sports. Now with all of the reported activity with the white women, they finally got the big black buck image that they wanted to destroy him with. It’s the equivalent of that darkened OJ mugshot for the cover of Time Magazine. Now, Tiger is going to be fine from an athletic standpoint: some of his endorsements may split, but other companies needing a spokesperson will need his image, because it will generate interest in their product because of who’s endorsing it.
LIJ: Do you see the same for his marriage?
RJ: Whether they divorce or not, Elin should not be too upset, because the same reason Tiger cheated on her was for the same reason how a nanny could snag a billionaire, and that is Tiger Woods is suffering from self –hate that’s generated from a colonized mind. A colonized mind believes that everything outside of his black world is better than he is. Which is why he would go and marry his friends’s nanny.
He had his pick of the litter from black women, asian women, those with the same amount or more money, or just as educated or more educated, but he believed that a white nanny was the best thing he could get and that white nanny was the medication for that psychological malady of self-hate—-but she was only one dose, and he needed a couple of more spoonfuls.
Elin should thank her lucky stars that there was slavery, because otherwise no one would know her name and she would be a broke nanny mopping floors in Sweden someplace. You find me a millionaire white athlete that’s married to a black maid, nanny, or even to a Jamaican home attendant. You can’t do it. And you couldn’t find me one among Asians, Indians, or anyone else. Only with black men.
We have to ask ourselves the question if Tiger Woods had been a shipping manager at UPS/post office, would he have gotten Elin? She wasn’t even a nanny for a black golfer. This woman got paid off of the legacy of slavery, so even if they divorce, she shouldn’t be mad—just take the money and run. If she stays for any reason, it’s prostitution. And this could set a legal precedent that could end up in court. If a woman’s gonna stay with me for an hour and I’m paying her, there’s no difference between what Tiger Woods is doing and what I’m doing, because what he’s doing in that pre-nup is offering money for the amount of time she stays with him.
Lorrie Irby Jackson is a freelance journalist based in Dallas and has covered entertainment professionally for several years, writing many articles for The Dallas Morning News. Her e-mail address is lorrie.irby@gmail.com.
Edited by Shawn Williams
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I understand the meaning behind the message, but really? I’m not sure I agree with equating a lot of things back to slavery or self hate. I believe power and control, two things that come with wealth and status, have a bigger influence. Maybe the sterotype of white women being easier to control is true.
A colonized mind!! So true, so true. When will it stop?
Black men have been loving white women since time.This is not new.Back
in the day,their was a sociaty of rich black men.To belong you had
to not only be rich,but you HAD to have a WHITE wife.Personaly I think the whole American Black race need to have group thrypy once a week in
neighborhood centers.Have you seen the MADNESS in our people?
1)Owned by Time-Warner? Now I understand why they would do it. It was a slap at Black women and to me, an unconscious attempt to stop Black men from dating White women by causing division among us through a so-called Black women’s magazine. Although tolerating it, America is still too racist to accept the miscegenation of Black men with White women, not because it is their women but because it’s a racist doctrine that only White men can date outside their “race”. (Look at all the White men with oriental women, especially after Vietnam; and take a look at all the old “flower drum song” movies). They have to have something as a weapon to keep their White supremecy in place. 2) It is unsettling, the baseless accusations that Tiger had feelings of “self-hate” because he went after a low class woman. Especially since she didn’t come from a poor background. She was just a nanny, that’s all. We ought to use the self hate label for those Blacks who commit crimes against other Blacks, who refuse to support Black businesses, who get Black women pregnant with no hint of supporting them, etc. I’m distrustful of anyone who labels another Black man’s actions without having been around to know the true explanation of that Black man’s actions. Ever since Europeans started “discovering”, using “manifest destiny”, making up racial classifications, ect., he has found a way to try to take the best women from the so-called non White races while making his woman taboo and instilling in us “standards” of what kind of women we can have. 3) Rajen says, “Elin should thank her lucky stars that there was slavery, because otherwise no one would know her name and she would be a broke nanny mopping floors in Sweden someplace.” Nooo. Rajen should check his facts before making up stuff like this. The facts are that Ellin’s mother was “a politician and former migration and asylum policy minister” while her father is a “radio journalist who served as a bureau chief in Washington DC.” And Tiger wasn’t the only pro golfer interested in her. In other words, this girl wasn’t some ordinary low life nanny – she was no Cinderella pining for Prince Charming. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elin_Nordegren
This is a very deep and articulate interview. I have never read Mr. Persaud book, but with this interview, I sure want to now. I must be honest; when I first saw the cover of the book I thought to myself that it will be another way to stereotype black men. I guess you can say the “Never Judge a Book by Its Cover” theory is true.
One of the negative stereotypes black women suffer in America is that they are gold diggers. In reality, white women fit that description much better. Sometimes we must ask ourselves, would these same white women go after these brothers if they were working at a local McDonalds? Even in lower class America, a lot of white women make less money than their black companion, while black women are starting to make more (if not already) than their black lover. So who are real gold diggers?
I can’t wait to view more on this. The author was deep with his “colonized” statements because a lot of black brothers suffer from that as a result of slavery. TV certainly doesn’t help depicting white women as loving mature women and black women as angry “talk to the hand” women. I will pass the word about this book the best I can.
On point as usual Rajen….I’ll just add that Black women feel as though they have options, which we do…but White men or no other man is really chasing us down & if they are I’d strongly be suspicious of their intent! They have bought into the stereotypes about us just as well as the brothers! Black unions are a political statement to the world… See More…because they have successfully decapitated the Black family by destroying the Blackmans image as the head & provider of our communities! Blackwomen are tired ,I understand but thru our commitment & solidarity we show strength and that speaks volumes to those who have for centuries tried to tear us apart!
I enjoyed reading the interview. The points made in reference to Reggie Bush and Tiger Woods regarding their choices for women may have roots in our history, however I believe it points to the essence of their personal standards and morals. Both men have chosen to form relationships with women whose value system is likened to raw sewage. A glorified reality porn star, and a underwear model/babysitter. Had both of these women been black they never would have been given a second look. These men look at their dark skin as some type of cancer. I also believe that these men self esteem levels are so low and that they despartely want to be embraced by White American Men that they are willing to marry and worship their garbage. This type of behavior has been demonistrated my senior rapper Ice T. After writing songs that has referred to Black Women as Bitches and Whores (Hoes) he marries the white trash he met at the Playboy Mansion. Her nudity is flunted in public and the internet. I am just so fortunate that in my family this problem has never occured. We were raised to to love, support and treasure our own. I am deeply sorry these Brothers never recieved this message.
Obviously the truth hurts (those who want to pretend their mentacidal fantasies are reality). continue to enlighten the ignorant and ignore stupidity. nothing compares to our Sisters.
I just finished reading Mr. Persaud book I enjoyed it until the second to the last chapter. I got that the woman was stuck up but, you want her to get over a misstep on his part but, not him also, she is not a mind reader. I am raising or have raised four young black people all mine. I have always limited how much media comes in the house. That is the only way you can raise your children. I don’t gold dig for money. I gold dig for strong positive Black men. It’s not as hard as you think if you deal with the real world and not t.v. world
They will live and die and never learn to love who they are as black beautiful people. Black men trade their wealth status for low class trash from other races because to them anything is better than black. When was the last time you heard a black man talk how much he loves, south africa women, nigerian women,kenyan women etc. you will hear a self hating black man talks about how much he loves asian women, ricans, spanish indian, etc anything but black. they really think anything but black is better. and if these rich black men do marry black she is almost white and mixed with other race. Did you see who rueben stubbard married????do these men hate their blackness so much???? on a serious note the only black men I have seen married to women darker than themselves are obama, denzel and samuel l jackson. what is wrong with black men that they dont love black skin. and they always try to convince you its not about race yet they always seem to have a woman thats not black.
You see it’s that attitude that causes us black men to not be attracted to black women. It’s not that we like to “please the white man” ; maybe it’s just because we like to date outside our race. I’ve dated women of every color: white, black, mulatto, and asian. I just like dating outside my race. I don’t have anything against sisters, I’m just not attracted to them. As far as Reggie Bush dating Kim Kardashian, it’s Kim Kardashian!!! Look at her!! She’s gorgeous! So what if he dates her? There are way bigger issues in society than something as small as interracial dating. People are homeless, children are starving, the economy is down and a lot of other stuff is happening. It’s not as deep as slavery either, so don’t go there. It’s just an attraction. Don’t be so quick to judge brothers that date white women, judge yourself first, ask yourself, “Why does that bother me?” We’re all human, whites, asians, blacks, and hispanics are all our brothers and sisters. It shouldn’t be the black race or the white race, it should be the human race.