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Being a multicultural romance author with some history in interracial dating, I do find myself drawn to movies and books that incorporate a mixing of cultures. It doesn’t always have to involve milk and chocolate, but those are the movies that seem to carry the biggest contrast.
Sure, I remember the interracial themes in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner(both versions), Colors and the movie Breakin’ and of course, Jungle Fever, but multicultural/interracial movies are slowly becoming less about the external conflicts regarding love among the races and more about the inner conflicts that result due to societal and cultural conditioning.

The other night I watched the cable presentation of Something New, directed by African American actor and director Sanaa Hamri, written by Kriss Turner and staring Sanaa Hamri, Simon Baker, Julie Mond, Blair Underwood and Alfre Woodard among others. I thought about seeing this movie in the theatres, but truth be told, it takes a lot for me to get into a theatre despite the fact that I love watching movies. Anyway, I hadn’t planned on watching it at home either until it occurred to me that I could come up with some ripe blog material if nothing else. Why was I avoiding this movie? Well, I’d seen the trailers and I just doubted that it would speak to my experience. . In fact, I was right–it didn’t. But, I enjoyed it just the same. I’m not against movies or books that don’t play out the way I would have guessed, so the other reason I avoided this movie was because I didn’t find Simon Baker very sexy. I’m not a pretty boy chaser but I’m not a fan of rough fellows either.

Despite what many may think on the outside, some African American families are no more excited to see family members dating outside of their race then some Caucasian families are. I can remember the jokes my family made and endured as well as some of the cold shoulders and patronizing tones I’ve endured from the parents of my white beaus. I still remember going on a double date with my high school sweetheart and his sister. Aside from the fact the date consisted of jumping on trampolines, it was only awkward because his sister was dating a black guy and I am sure people had no idea that we were two interracial couples rather one black couple and one white couple on a double date. Now that I think back on it, we must have been an interesting sight for the south-westerners who weren’t use to seeing many dark-skinned people who weren’t Hispanic.

Anyway, while the movie didn’t speak to my experience, I learned some things. Yes, there was plenty of “the white man keepin’ us down” and the “black tax” talk which grew old, despite having experienced it myself. But I had no idea about the black cotillions. I saw highly successful and beautiful black women enjoying themselves and mingling with equally successful and beautiful black and white men.

I also enjoyed watching that internal struggle. For a change, the Caucasian male lead didn’t care what others thought. (That’s not been my experience.) And it took a while, but the African American female lead finally learned that it has everything to do with who you are when you are with someone and how they treat you which have no regard for melatonin levels. She learned that no matter how old we are or what we have accomplished there comes a time when we must live life for ourselves and on our own terms. Luckily some learn this very early while, unfortunately some never learn it.

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