Everything's Trash, But It's Okay

by Phoebe Robinson

That’s what interracial dating can feel like sometimes. Seems like plenty of people have ideas about it, many of them negative, and want to let everyone know about it. Despite the Pew Research Center revealing that IRCs are more common than ever (12 percent of all US newlyweds married someone of a different race), when a celebrity, friend, or family member is in an IRC in HD IRL—#TooManyAcronymsButThisIsMyBookSoFuckIt—it becomes the topic of focus, controversy, and conversation. Serena Williams, Constance Wu, and Jordan Peele have all been questioned for having partners outside their race. Out of all three of them, I am most dumbfounded by the rage I saw from black men on social media about Serena being married to the half-Armenian, half-German Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian. Some claimed that she is a sellout, that she couldn’t handle a black man, and that she is no longer a role model for young black women. If I remember correctly, she has publicly dated black men, but more importantly, throughout her entire career, I have witnessed black men on social media call her a monkey, say she is too manly, claim she is ugly and disgusting, assume that she couldn’t handle a black man (Common and Drake) and that’s why those relationships ended, and a litany of other insults (to be fair, nonblack men have historically dissed her as well), so for a lot of these black men to turn around and behave as though it is a grand betrayal that a black woman they didn’t respect found love wit...