Sadly, one of them is white, and one of them is black. Therefore, there are a lot of problem with the parents. Both sides consider themselves liberal and open, yet when it's their child about to marry someone... different... they freak out. I don't blame the parents--for one thing, interracial marriage is illegal in over half of the states in America at the time, and very few people would approve of their marriage. But the movie shows the parents only considering this, when there are two other reasonable things that should make the marriage impossible. First, he's 37 and she's 23. That's a fourteen year difference. It's even worse because she's only TWENTY-THREE. She's barely an adult, and he's nearing middle age. Sorry Sidney Poitier, but you are NOT that attractive. Secondly, they've only known each other for ten days. At seventeen years old, I'm not an expert in long term relationships, but I don't think you can decide to get married after knowing someone for only ten days...
The situation is played out as if the parents are looking for excuses for them to get married by pointing to these things, when really its their prejudice and inability to accept change that causes them to disagree with the whole thing. At least by today's standards, I can honestly say that a double digit age difference and no prior relationship are much bigger things to be worrying about than race. This whole movie, while still very good, ticked me off because of COURSE they shouldn't be getting married. Not because they're "different". But because they barely know each other! Grrrr....
This movie also reminded me of a news report, that said that two white female teachers affairs with their young black male students, had been sparking racism in a Southern state (south carolina?) I love how the largest complaint is that, had this been a black man having an affair with a white woman, people would be a lot more upset. I am NOT a racist, but I would be a lot more upset about that too! One reason, women are more easily associated with being victims. Now, these women are creeps. They're more than ten years older than their students, who are barely teenagers. But they're having sex with boys, and I assume willingly...?* When men have affairs with women, it's almost always the man's fault. Men are rarely thought of as victims, at any age.
Set up this crime with a male teacher having sex with a female student, and it is a HORRIFIC crime. Absolutely horrible. It doesn't matter the race of the student or the teacher, it's plain wrong. In this case, it doesn't matter the race, because it's so terrible. As with the other case, people just care less because of the gender of the victimizer. It's less shocking, or rather, it evokes less empathy/pain.
I agree that racism is everywhere, and that race usually affects us more than we know or would like to believe. But I also believe that sometimes there are much more obvious things that we don't take into account. If we always blame racism for things, it won't go away. Now sexism and agism... if only we could do something about that...
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