Why Do We Care If Will and Jada Split?

Celebrities shouldn't affect our personal faith in love

When In Touch Weekly reported yesterday that Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith had allegedly separated, the collective moans could be heard all across Afro America, from the shores of Chicago’s South Side to the hills of Washington DC (Howard U. is on a hill. Work with me here, people). To be fair, In Touch Weekly has erroneously reported on the never-happened marriage of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, the false pregnancies and adoptions of Jennifer Anniston and many other celebrity rumors that have been proven false. It is and always shall be a tabloid. However, just the idea of a Will and Jada break up forces us to look at the reasons behind our attachment to the couple. People who have never, ever, ever meet the golden pair seemed as shocked and saddened at the news as they would be about the split of some folks from their real, actual lives.

The media (which is not some monster in the hills, but rather a living, breathing entity that is funded largely by hands that don’t have our best interests at heart and is also supported by us) rarely places Black couples in the spotlight. Will remarked himself that he is often paired with non-Black women in films because Hollywood seems to believe that audiences will disregard a film starring him with a Black leading lady as a “Black movie” (which is funny, because he had a Black woman in Independence Day and Enemy Of The State, but whatever).  We don’t have many television shows these days (sorry, Single Ladies isn’t making anyone feel good about Black love) and most of our films are too wrought with shuck-n-jive or romantic tragedies to provide balanced examples of Black relationships.