Jungle Fever

I once fell in love with a blond blue-eyed boy from Sweden. I loved the fact that my brown Caribbean skin looked great against his ivory European body. The term jungle fever is used to describe the sexual attraction of a black person to a non-black person, usually of the Caucasian race. For centuries men and women have been falling in love with people outside of their own race. Cleopatra fell in love with Julius Cesar in 46 BC, Iman fell in love with David Bowie in the 1970s and now the supermodel Heidi Klum has fallen for the singer Seal.

What is it about the blond blue-eyed boys from Sweden that I like so much? I love the fact that they are different. The fact that I can cook him bakes and salt fish and he can teach me how to ski. The differences in our culture meant that we had so much more to talk about and countless things to teach each other. And truly after a few weeks the skin colour disappears and the person’s great personality remains.

Even though it is the year 2005, many persons still object to such unions and believe that the mixing of races is wrong, immoral or even evil. While doing research for this column, I came across so many websites and articles dedicated to the topic of interracial dating. Many were in favour of the practice, and websites such as ‘saltandpeppersingles.com and blackandwhitesingles.com provided a forum where ‘an ivory male seeking his ebony princess’ and a cocoa mama looking for her white chocolate big daddy’ could meet. On the other hand, I also stumbled across the Ku Klux Klan website which forbade the mixing of races for dating or marriage. They believe that the white race is superior and will be destroyed by those who date black people. I really cannot repeat some of the extremely ignorant and baseless information I found on this site.

Even in our lovely St. Lucia, where there are many black and white couples, some discrimination still occurs. When I go out with my white guy friends, people automatically assume that we are dating, and some St. Lucian guys take issue with that. Now before you guys start throwing daggers and spears, I am not saying this about all St. Lucian guys, just a very few. For more on this I spoke to what I call an expert on interracial dating, my own sister, whose ex-boyfriend is from Luxembourg and her current is from Australia. She said that even though the colour of their skin is a non-issue to family and friends, and that many of their friends are dating or even married to someone outside of their race, some strangers seem to object to their union. Other black women dating white men have been called traitors to their race. People why can’t we all just get along? As Sir Paul Mc Cartney and Stevie Wonder said in their song Ebony and Ivory, ‘Ebony and Ivory, live together in perfect harmony, side by side …’

Now think about it, if your rule is to date only people of your own race, imagine how many great, interesting and good-looking men and women of other races that you will never get the chance to know. I have had the privilege of having white, black, Hispanic, Chinese, Arab and yes, Swedish friends, and I realize that skin colour is just that, a colour, a descriptive word, nothing more. When you get to really know people, we are all basically alike, some good and some bad. So my caramel ladies, don’t ever pass up the opportunity to sample some white chocolate, and my brown skin men, take some time to add some milk to your coffee! And I’ll let you know how the ski slopes of Sweden look!!
Until next week…
Let me know what you think. Email me at lovechronicles@hotmail.com