Black Love Excerpt
CHAPTER ONE: THE END OF A MARRIAGE
The “Perfect Couple”
They met in college through mutual friends. The moment he saw her, he knew she would be his wife. After twenty years of marriage and three children, they still laugh at each other’s jokes and cuddle like teenagers in darkened movie theaters.
They laugh, too, whenever their friends and family call them “the perfect couple,” because no marriage was perfect. Secretly, they are proud to wear the label because their union had survived the marital storms that sank much weaker vessels. As a daily reminder, an engraved plaque hangs on the wall above their bed: “What God has joined together, let no man put asunder.”
The Unthinkable Happens
On a cold, moonlit night in their quiet suburban neighborhood, a shadowy figure slips in through the partially open kitchen window. The peacefully sleeping couple is startled awake by a flashlight shining in their faces.
The armed intruder — a powerfully built man in a white Halloween mask — orders the couple to strip naked then pushes the wife to the floor, and rapes her at gunpoint. The husband watches helplessly, afraid they will both be killed if he resists.
The rapist leaves in the early dawn hours, taking their wallets, wedding rings, and peace of mind with him. The ordeal lasts less than an hour, but it feels like a lifetime to the terrified, traumatized couple.
The Husband
The husband is emotionally devastated because he could not protect his wife from the armed rapist. He tries to comfort her, but eventually, the weight of the ordeal consumes him. He begins to resent his wife for witnessing his lack of courage (manhood), and starts to project his feelings of rage and inadequacy onto her.
He wonders if his wife did something to provoke the attack. Did the rapist look familiar, he asks, then reminds her that she had been unfaithful (once) during their marriage. Why was their house — out of all the houses in the neighborhood – singled out? Didn’t he warn her constantly to lock the windows before going to bed? His questions and barely disguised accusations initiate the first of many bitter arguments between them.
The husband decides there was only one reason he wasn’t able to protect his wife: she didn’t deserve to be protected. His “damaged” wife becomes the major obstacle to reclaiming his manhood and self-respect.
Lately, he finds himself flirting with strange women and taking their phone numbers. Sometimes, he calls them from his office; other times from the privacy of his car. He has never once cheated on his wife, but he has also never felt like less than a man.
The husband withdraws sexually because he is sure his wife despises him. The truth is, he cannot sustain an erection because he can’t get the image of the man raping his wife out of his head.
The Wife
When the intruder rips off her nightgown, the wife cries out to her husband, even though she knows he can’t save her without risking both their lives. She tearfully submits, praying they will survive the night.
After the ordeal ends, the wife is completely distraught. She knows what happened was not her husband’s fault, but he is the man; she is not. Had he made the smallest attempt to rescue her, she would have more respect for him. When he implies that the rape was her fault — her contempt and resentment mushrooms.
She is certain he sees her as “damaged goods” because he never touches her anymore. The truth is, she doesn’t want to be touched because she cannot get the image of her naked and frightened husband out of her head. He’s a coward, she decides bitterly, and wonders why she never noticed it before. Thus, the deadly process of unraveling what was once a loving, successful marriage begins.
The End Of A Loving Marriage
The rapist is never caught or punished, and the couple never seeks counseling because they are too ashamed to admit they need it. The husband and wife are so busy blaming each other they have lost sight of who is really responsible. Less than a year after the rape, their marriage has deteriorated to the point where a divorce is inevitable.
Try to Imagine…
Your son, daughter, mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, wife, or husband being beaten, tortured, stripped naked, fondled, raped, or murdered right in front of your eyes — and there was nothing you could do to stop it from happening.
And if you can’t imagine that, imagine this:
YOU are standing naked on a slave auction block, and there are dozens of slave traders randomly examining every part and every orifice (opening) of your precious body…and there was nothing you could do to stop it from happening to YOU.
To understand the GENDER WARS between the black male and female, we must start where it all began:
At the beginning…
Racism Is White Supremacy 