With our nation’s first African-American president now in the White House, as well as the never-ending drama of black and white issues in popular culture, I figured it was a good time to revisit one of the most honest and insightful books on race relations that I’ve ever read, Rajen Persaud’s Why Black Men Love White Women.
Don’t let the incendiary title fool you: instead of it being an instruction manual on how to diss the sisters or giving credence to often-circulated and tired stereotypes, 2007’s Why…. intertwines the author’s own personal observations and experience with facts, percentages and thoroughly researched explanations behind the mindset and motivations of brothers who seem to trip over the sisters in the pursuit of non-blacks for love and companionship.
From his home in New York City, the day trader, filmmaker and lecturer peppered our chat with his explosive views on Essence and Vanity Fair magazine cover controversies, his take on the Tiger Woods debacle and our duties to the young people in our lives to keep them from making some of the same racially-centered errors in life.
Lorrie Irby Jackson: A lot of subscribers were upset by Essence’s decision to feature New Orleans Saints football star, Reggie Bush, on their annual Black Love issue, since he’s very publically-dating the non-black Kim Kardashian. Why do you think they opted to feature him that manner?
Rajen Persaud: Well, Essence magazine is no longer a black-owned entity, it is now a Time-Warner product. So you can say what you want about them, but there certainly not interested in the plight and feelings of the black woman. They’re basically sending that message that they don’t care about black love in general.
RAJEN PERSAUD
When they used to talk about black love, the cover would include a black couple. So, their putting Reggie on the cover is is advertising for a refund, because the White Establishment wants a rebate on the money their paying these negroes. When the white women stop going with these entertainers and athletes, they get paid, and that’s a rebate to the white community, so it’s in their best interest. They used to get a ‘n*****’ rebate; jewlery, cars, dope, liquor, spending as much as they can in the white community, so that’s why they don’t mind advertising back to more whites. They’re not stupid.
I used to call Essence mag OpprEssence. They used to have two columns, “Brothers” and “Interiors,” and practically every column was written by a woman claiming to be suffering at the hands of a black man.
In some way, shape or form the black man was the cause of all of her problems, and her evolution out of that problem, and it was always about a sorry negro who had problems with black women. I was wondering who were they talking to, and this was back in the 1990’s.
LIJ: How do you feel about that Tiger Woods Vanity Fair cover? A lots of blacks are of the opinion that this was the media’s way of portraying him as what they truly see him as—a thug.
RP: And they’re right. More importantly, they wanted to show you the field n*****, the one that chases white women. They wanted to show the big, black buck. Tiger Woods was the most emasculated man in the world of sports. Now with all of the reported activity with the white women, they finally got the big black buck image that they wanted to destroy him with. It’s the equivalent of that darkened OJ mugshot for the cover of Time Magazine. Now, Tiger is going to be fine from an athletic standpoint: some of his endorsements may split, but other companies needing a spokesperson will need his image, because it will generate interest in their product because of who’s endorsing it.
LIJ: Do you see the same for his marriage?
RJ: Whether they divorce or not, Elin should not be too upset, because the same reason Tiger cheated on her was for the same reason how a nanny could snag a billionaire, and that is Tiger Woods is suffering from self –hate that’s generated from a colonized mind. A colonized mind believes that everything outside of his black world is better than he is. Which is why he would go and marry his friends’s nanny.
He had his pick of the litter from black women, asian women, those with the same amount or more money, or just as educated or more educated, but he believed that a white nanny was the best thing he could get and that white nanny was the medication for that psychological malady of self-hate—-but she was only one dose, and he needed a couple of more spoonfuls.
Elin should thank her lucky stars that there was slavery, because otherwise no one would know her name and she would be a broke nanny mopping floors in Sweden someplace. You find me a millionaire white athlete that’s married to a black maid, nanny, or even to a Jamaican home attendant. You can’t do it. And you couldn’t find me one among Asians, Indians, or anyone else. Only with black men.
We have to ask ourselves the question if Tiger Woods had been a shipping manager at UPS/post office, would he have gotten Elin? She wasn’t even a nanny for a black golfer. This woman got paid off of the legacy of slavery, so even if they divorce, she shouldn’t be mad—just take the money and run. If she stays for any reason, it’s prostitution. And this could set a legal precedent that could end up in court. If a woman’s gonna stay with me for an hour and I’m paying her, there’s no difference between what Tiger Woods is doing and what I’m doing, because what he’s doing in that pre-nup is offering money for the amount of time she stays with him.
