INTERRACIAL LOVE Interracial Relationships Then and Now In addition to black-to-black love, many blacks have found love with people of other races and ethnicities. Before they could legally love freely, for example, black actress, singer and comedian Pearl Bailey married white musician Louie Bellson in 1952. The two met after Bellson became Duke Ellington’s first white musician. Because of the taboo and laws against interracial connections in those days, Ellington would claim that Bellson was of Haitian background when performing in the Southern states. Starting out in a time when few approved of their marriage, Bailey and Bellson developed an unbreakable love for 38 years until Bailey’s death in 1990. After the 1967 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Loving v. Virginia struck down state laws banning interracial marriage, marriages like theirs were technically legal but still not necessarily accepted by society. At that time, interracial couples still only made up 3% of marriages in the U.S., but this number eventually jumped to 19% in 2019. According to Gallup, approval of these marriages has also grown dramatically, with only 4% of U.S. adults approving marriages between blacks and whites in 1958 but 94% approving them in 2021. As stars in the public eye today, African American record producer Chris Ivery and his wife, Ellen Pompeo, a white actress best known for starring in Grey’s Anatomy, openly speak about race. “The black experience is a powerful one, and I can see where that would be intimidating,” Pompeo said on Red Table Talk. “It's so much
“They’ll benefit from the fact they have black grandparents and a Thai grandparent and a white grandparent,” Legend told PEOPLE. “We have different experiences. … We learn from each other, and we love the things that are different about each other.” African American tennis legend Serena Williams and her white husband, Alexis Ohanian, also show the strength of their love as it combats adversity and remains unwavering. In an interview with The New York Times, Williams expressed the different experiences she goes through as a black woman in comparison to Ohanian as a white man. “He always gets to hear about the injustices that happen that wouldn’t happen if I were white,” she said. “It’s interesting. I never thought I would have married a white guy either, so it just goes to show you that love truly has no color, and it just really goes to show me the importance of what love is.” One of the most famous international interracial couples is Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. This royal marriage resonates with many people because of their own personal experiences with racism. By merely existing and loving one another, the two have brought light to discussions about interracial relationships and have shown that even those with privilege cannot completely escape racism.
easier to celebrate it and just thank the universe for giving us people of color because it's a gift." Similarly, singer-songwriter John Legend and his wife, model Chrissy Teigen, say that their blended family enriches their and their children’s lives. Teigen has a white father and a Thai mother, while both of Legend’s parents are black. SPRING 2023
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