It don’t matter if you’re black or white

1/7/2017

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People often ask me, “Lauren, what is it like being married to a black man?” Actually, no one has asked me that, but I am going to tell you anyway. To be honest, I often forget that James and I have two different skin colors when we are living in our own little bubble, but to the deny that simple fact would be doing a disservice to my husband. Claiming that we don’t “see color” keeps us stagnant and motionless while embracing and accepting the differences in color enables us to move forward with compassion and empathy.

Most of the time, we can joke about our black and white skin. One day, as James and I were driving around admiring the Christmas lights on houses, I turned to him and declared that I prefer the white lights to the colored lights. Of course, his response was that I was a racist. Other times, when asking him to fetch me my water, I have inadvertently added the word “slave” or “servant” at the end. A joke that we didn’t think twice of making in an all-white family growing up just got real as I stared open-mouthed at my black husband. Thank goodness he has a sense of humor, but I quickly squelched that little antic as I came to terms that our “all in good fun” jest might have been a tad bit insensitive to people who have had a history of being slaves and servants.

Then, there are other times when we are forced to think about the harsh realities of this world. A world that might not be as accepting and accommodating as everyone in our…