“Black Love” is a docuseries in its third season on OWN. It tells the stories of our favorite entertainment couples, such as Kandi and husband, Todd, Letoya Luckett and husband, Tommicus Walker and Kevin On Stage and wife, Melissa Fredericks, just to name a few from this season. The show was created by filmmakers Tommy Oliver and Codie Elaine Oliver, to answer the question, “What does it take to make a marriage work?â€.
As a single black woman in my late 30’s with no kids, I’ve often wondered if there are really happy marriages out there. I tell the story to my friends, how when I decided I wanted to be married, God sent me through bootcamp. It seemed like every woman I came in contact with was married. They told me both the good and the bad and why they stayed. So many women would randomly open up to me about their marriages, I became fascinated. I started asking people to tell me their love story. My life insurance agent even joked that I would write their love story one day. Hey, anything is possible when a writer is present. Nevertheless, when I saw “Black Love” and what it was about, of course, I had to jump on it.
Many times in the black community, we hear of infidelity, money issues, and the lack of trust. People tend not to tell you what is keeping them there. They don’t make you want to be married. I have heard women of different backgrounds say that marriage and/or husbands are overrated. A queue from society is that a woman can do everything for herself, even have a baby. I have been told that I don’t need a man to have a baby, true story. Society would make a woman like myself feel that men are not needed and are horrible. “Black Love” changes this narrative. I come from the thought that we need representation to know that we can do something or to be something. It is not different when it comes to love.
In the docuseries “Black Love”, we find couples who we see daily and recognize from our favorite shows, talk about how they met, things they have been through together, and why they have stayed. I feel it is needed because “love†is losing its light in this world, it’s become dim. Everyone is afraid to get hurt, and no one takes the other person serious anymore. Just this week a guy that I could have been interested in but had a difference in opinion with, stated ‘that is why I didn’t want to give you that much time’ or something to that matter. My thought was “huh? You are almost 40, and you are still playing childish games?”
How am I to meet the man of my dreams if they are afraid to love again? How is anyone supposed to find a mate, when it is too easy to just have a fling to stop from being hurt?
Watching “Black Love”, we (the audience) see reasons to stay; we understand that things will happen, and we don’t just give up on what we have because of something that will not be a factor in a month. It is understood that when we find something worth fighting for, you stay there. We find ourselves in one of the individuals that are in the couples, and we find hope.
As I remain this hopeless romantic, waiting for someone’s son to find his wife in me, I will keep watching and wanting to promote shows that give me and people like me hope. Shows that show us all, that love is not as bad as it seems. Programs that help us step out of ourselves and crave to be with that one who will be there for the rest of our lives.
“Black Love” airs on OWN, Saturdays at 9/8c.
-Arnya T.M. Davis
I’ve been in the Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex for 20 years from New Orleans. I am a creative mixed with nerd. I love helping push people to their goals.
