Jungle Fever

Now I don’t want you to simply use the term ‘Jungle Fever’ from the movie with the same name by Spike Lee, but I don’t want you to remove the idea of the movie in your head completely either.
 
I was recently watching a new comedy series titled “Woke”. It seems like every network is producing more and more series, a dawn of a new era. Anyway, somewhere in the series, a line during a conversation peaked my interest. One character states
 
” Is it really possible to remove Fetishization in an interracial relationship?”
 
This is the question I want to pose, try to answer and converse around; I mean is it really?
 
I have never shied away from my interest in Asians. I’ve always found them quite attractive. I don’t know why, maybe that’s why I am writing this today.
 
Now I come from a country were race is very tricky; tricky as in people, mostly, never shy away from showing you that they are a different race from you, or see themselves as superior to you; but who cares about that now.
Well.
 
That perhaps is where some ideas of Jungle fever begin. The idea of having something outside of self, having someone that represents a different race than yours; the indulgence of a forbidden fruit.
 
I’ve had plenty of friends who were of different races from my own. However, I never felt that they were any different from anyone else, however, it doesn’t mean that others did not look at me differently. I was always the guy who’s always walking with the Indian girl or the white girl.
 
Is it possible to be in a relationship with someone of different race without fetish ideas having infiltrated your thoughts?  Uhmmm unlikely. Yes, you can be in love, you can be head over hills over this boy or girl, but somewhere deep in your conscious you always wondered what it would be like to indulge in the nectars of a different race.
 
I remember when my friend, who is black came to tell us how he had sex with a white girl. Yes, we were excited, I simply cannot understand why, but it felt like we were part of that experience. Almost exciting as a friend telling us he had a threesome “The belt”. Another time the friend comes and tells us he slept with a Spanish girl, if it wasn’t going to be weird we would have gone out for drinks to celebrate that day. All I can say is imagine what happens around the campfire; that was us listening to the juicy details of our friend… yes. You cannot blame us however, Latinos have been abundantly tagged as having one of the most, if not, the sexiest women of race in the world.
 
We are all somehow intrigued by different races. We could perhaps have been sold ideas by the media, but jungle fever has us by the genitals. Do you see what I did there?
 
Thinking about it now makes me wonder if my fear to kiss my old friend who was white was caused by this. If you’re a regular reader, you know who I am talking about. It makes me; wonder if my fear to kiss her or be with her laid on the fact that she was “white”.
 
If I am being honest I will say yes. How does one be in a relationship with a white person??! That was me back at that time. At the time that I am in now, I find myself curious. I find myself wanting to interact with different races more so I can understand if they are different from black women; interact in conversation in case that comes out wrong, which I am reading it does.
 
So far there’s nothing much different except for the fact that people tend to have expectations if you’re not the same as them.
 
So the question rather remains intact. Is it possible to remove fetish ideas when getting in interracial relationships? Even in one night stands? Lord know I’ve looked at different coloured women and said to myself I wonder what it would be like to be with her? I’m guilty of being human, sue me!
 
My colleague, when I asked her, said that was why she’s afraid to get into interracial relationships. The not knowing if the person is with her because he truly finds her interesting or just wondering what it would be like to be with a black girl?!
 
According to another colleague of mine, it’s not possible to entirely remove fetish ideas from interracial relationships. Some individuals actually get into the relationship because the other person is a different race. The other person being a different race is a factor.
I am in no way taking love out of these relationships; that these individuals do not love each other. All I am stating is that sub-consciously or even consciously interracial relationships include a fetish factor in them. We get into them because we are curious, intrigued about being with a different race/culture/tradition.
 
What is your take? Can we remove one from the other?