Mike Colter, the star of Luke Cage, is married to Netflix executive Iva Colter — a fun little fact since the series is on Netflix. But when a photo of Colter and his wife was shown on The Wendy Williams Show, some members of the audience stopped cheering, according to Madame Noir. Apparently, some fans are unhappy that he married a white woman.
A TV One poll literally titled "Luke Cage's Got A White Wife — Mad Or Nah?" found that 21% of people responded, "Not gonna lie — I'm a little hurt." And weirdly, that poll was not taken in the 1950s.
Yes, some people are still making a big deal out of interracial marriage. When asked about the Wendy Williams episode on the radio show The Breakfast Club, Colter explained that his love for his wife — matter of fact, the way he judges or treats people in general — has nothing to do with race. At least somebody's thinking clearly around here.
"I love my sistas... I look at people [for their] character and what is inside," he said, according to the Atlanta Black Star. "I met my wife when I was struggling and in grad school. She stuck with me for 16 years… She held me up many times."
He also challenged people's tendency to make generalizations about a racial "type" based on someone's current partner. "If somebody caught a sista walking around with a 6-foot-7 brotha, is that her type? Next week, you see her walking with a short brotha or Spanish guy — do we have to have a type?" he asked.
Of course people shouldn't feel restricted in their love lives because of their race — or gender, or anything else, for that matter. How are we still having this conversation in 2016?