Watching commercials lately you might think interracial families are invading America. But in some form or another, they’ve been here all along.
–One of those kids in the commercials
by Mauve Maude
February 21, 2021
I recently posted on Facebook that I was “LOVING” all the interracial families that have popped up in advertisements lately. It was a reference some people understood, that flew over the heads of others. It’s possible this barrage of commercial solicitation has flown over my head for a while; tell me if it has. Until last year, I went years without cable television, and soon I’ll live without it again. I’ve caught a temporary glimpse living with my parents throughout the pandemic. And it didn’t take me long to notice interracial families are everywhere in ads now!
Which is great! Because even though my family has been interracial for more than forty years, and though we’ve run into other interracial families throughout my life, that is something I’ve never seen. Like Black people in the fifties used to spread the word whenever a Black person was spotted on television at all, my parents and I have marveled, daily, at our sudden representation in what I like to call Commercial Land.
I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with marketing. As a consumer, I don’t even like being called a consumer. I generally hate commercials in any form. I am skeptical of being sold, I loathe materialism, and greed makes me incredibly sad. At the same time, I am a consumer, I do like stuff, and as a creative person, I can’t help but to recognize, and yes, sometimes even celebrate, the occasional genius of good advertising. And marketing to all portions of society, especially underrepresented ones, is an obviously great business idea. However, not unlike social media, Commercial Land is largely a fictional place.
Commercial Land doesn’t have a story to tell about Mildred and Richard Loving. In their time, you wouldn’t have seen an ad anywhere, of this couple and their children, riding through the West in this car you should buy, or eating at this restaurant your family would enjoy, or enjoying their Cheerios at home (like in this controversial commercial a whole eight years ago, that doesn’t even portray an interracial couple together in the same room). There was a story in Life magazine though. When the Lovings married legally in Washington, D.C., they found themselves in trouble with the law as soon as they returned to their home in Virginia, where miscegenation was very much illegal. The 2016 film about their story, Loving, portrays their first arrest, when Mildred was kept in jail longer than Richard, despite being pregnant. Later in the film, she’s carried off to jail again, having literally just given birth, in their Virginia hometown after they were essentially banished to D.C. The Lovings, of course, eventually tired of the injustice and fought the law. Nine years after they married, the Supreme Court ruled that laws banning interracial marriage were unconstitutional. The Lovings were then free to live anywhere they wanted in the country. Of course, the only place they wanted to be was their home.
(More recently than the film, there’s also a stage play about the Lovings, by Beto O’Byrne.)
Commercial Land doesn’t have a story to tell about Mildred and Richard Loving.
In the real world, you can’t get far in a discussion about interracial marriage and family without running into the Lovings, their court case a mile marker between what “interracial” meant before, and what it means after. The Lovings themselves were both, biologically or socially, the products of a very mixed community. But long before even they were born, the institution that was slavery produced “mixed babies” on the regular, as Black women were raped by White masters. And we continued to come along after slavery was abolished, as well, regardless of what any state law or taboo had to say about it. Biracial children in America have been a thing about as long as America. The very idea of the “passing” phenomenon is a product of that heritage, though, of course, it only survives in the context of a racially divided society. Though people tend to focus on Black and White people when discussing interracial relationships, or division, any relationships mixing any races–Black and Native, White and Asian, Hispanic and White, Hispanic and Black, Asian and Black–are all interracial. “Race” doesn’t mean Black or White, and loving relationships between races show unity, not division. When that lens of Black and White dividing lines is removed, a very colorful world of generations of mixed blood lines, appears right in front of you.
That lens has been removed in Commercial Land. No doubt. It’s at least revealed the latest generation.
But even then, the picture begs a closer look. Commercial Land, as of yet, doesn’t have any stories about actual racial dynamics either. Happy interracial families having fun are not fiction, but neither is the leakage of other people’s attitudes onto their lives.
The Hyundai commercial I referenced above (or here) is adorable. But watching it (again) the other day, I joked with my dad that traveling up into the boonies doesn’t quite look like that for a Black family or an interracial one. Black families doing just regular family things, successfully–which Black people do, in fact, do–are also suddenly very much represented in commercials. I promise you, though, darker-skinned people don’t usually feel entirely safe and comfortable going off-road to buy beef jerky, even if they’re “okay” because they’re with a White dad. The history is still there.
And that would just be a vacation story. What about the everyday stuff, like the relatives who turn their backs? The kids who tease at school. The people staring in the grocery store, in restaurants, at the park, even from their cars at red lights. The cashiers who don’t know if you’re “all together”. The White parent who sees the two very different ways people treat them when they’re with their family, and when they’re without. Or the long strands of racist comments left about these very commercials, even today. I’d love to believe that’s all in our past. Obviously, it’s not.
When that lens is removed, a very colorful world of mixed blood lines, appears right in front of you.
But something is. Something always happens when people decide they’re just going to be who they are, love who and what they love, do what they feel they are here to do, and not look back.
Interracial families aren’t the only ones in the ads now. It’s become commonplace to see other underrepresented groups as well, people who’ve been around forever, but have only recently appeared in commercials, seemingly just living their lives (around the featured product, of course). Gay and lesbian couples propose, marry, have children. Men wear makeup. “Non-traditional” families in general are visible. I saw one recently with a couple who appeared to be same race, but with a child who wasn’t, implying adoption or family-blending, or any number of situations that wouldn’t normally be any of our business. People with disabilities have come out of the shadows, and so have (gasp!) big women, in various states of dress. I remember catching one ad years ago with a very pregnant, beaming bride, and being hugely impressed by its complete lack of judgment. (Although postpartum moms are apparently still a touch too far.) It’s almost as if commercials are ushering us into a world we’re already in!
Because realistically, attitudes have changed, and are still changing. I am, ultimately, happy to see myself and so many people I’ve loved represented, as the very real people we are. The nuance that we can’t buy and they can’t sell, is what we live in real time, and who we truly become.
Gratefully, even if Commercial Land doesn’t talk about it, and even if our issues aren’t finished, the love of the Lovings did provide us all with a bridge, from their very real world to ours. Because the problem has never been interracial loves, interracial families, or biracial children. It was just the world they lived in. And Richard and Mildred Loving changed it.