Racial Profiling for Love

If my DNA has “black” blood, “white” blood and “Native American” blood, what race should I profile for love?

The above line is from my novel-in-progress, The Bearcat Boyz on the Road of Life. The question is inspired by the subject of interracial dating, a subject that comes up in my life because, even though I’ve dated men of all colors, some choose to view me through a prism of “only likes white men.” As Whoopi Goldberg of The View said recently in response to the same being said about her: “No, I like men.”

The subject also comes up because, even though the characters in my novels have dated men of all colors, some choose to view them and me through a prism of “only likes white men.” Just recently, a black reader of my early novels asked me via email about the racial makeup of the characters in my latest novel Walt Loves the Bearcat because he didn’t like “black men who fancy white men.”

"Some black people still have a long way to go towards freedom."

I first spoke publicly about such reactions to my novels at an annual convention of the National Association of Black and White Men Together, where I received More Love Than a Sex Club. Alas, the winds of prejudice and discrimination continue to blow my way, but I don’t intend to catch cold. I intend to evolve.

Some black people still have a long way to go towards freedom, and some of the forces holding some black people back are some black people themselves. Case and point: black people who disapprove of other blacks dating, loving and marrying outside the race. As if we still live in a world that isn’t blending towards one global skin tone: shades of brown.

The idea that any one “race” can be preserved became impossible with the creation of the first interracial baby, circa ancient history. To cling to ideas of racial purity in today’s world is to cling to ideas of the past, when such beliefs were thought to contribute to the survival of segregated constituencies.

Times have changed, but because evolution runs slower than our own biological clocks, we humans have a tendency to see life from a “me, me, me, right now!” point of view. The universe that scientists are discovering doesn’t necessarily see life from a human perspective at all. (Check out the marvelous Science Channel!)

Universal Memo: Evolution is not about you or your beliefs. Evolution is going to continue with or without you. The human species that started out on one continent, then migrated worldwide—along the way developing different physical characteristics to survive different environments—this species that separated then segregated is now having a great big reunion with itself.

When two people of any skin tone fall in love, those two people have a common ancestor somewhere in time. And now that the wandering Homo sapien has wandered over the entire planet, there’s no stopping the re-integration of humanity. So what’s this again about separate “races” of the human race?

Moreover, as a character in The Bearcat Boyz on the Road of Life, my novel-in-progress, says: what better way for a black person to show his or her love for a fellow brother or sister than to accept that brother or sister for who they are, and who they choose to love, and wish those brothers and sisters their dreams come true, no matter the color of those dreams?

And now ... we take you back to the 21st century and this whole freedom thing.

• A five-time Lambda Literary Award nominee, Randy Boyd is the author of Walt Loves the Bearcat, the epic sports novel featuring the first out superstar athlete.