Strange/Beautiful
Venus and the Demystification
of Black Love

Kofi Fosu Forson

“Venus fell before my eyes in black leather pants. Her hair was blonder than blonde like the girls in the band.”
Kofi Fosu 1996

What is the color of love? Does Melissa Auf Der Maur dream of athletic black boys? I fell in love with Fernanda Eberstadt’s voice. I saw her photograph and then I knew. I read her novel Low Tide. The love affair began. I can say the same for Laura Cantrell and Ute Lemper.

Who are the Venuses of your life, I ask of men? Displacement brought me to the conclusion that I’m a man of the city with a country heart…Reasons to believe that Dolly Parton was an aunt in a past life.

What does the white female represent in the black male? Is there a normal form of dialogue? I believe if this is so, then it’s ingratiated as a typical conversation between two people.

I’ve known the white female as an actress, model and muse. Our language is strained between art, love and gender politics. There’s a constant balancing of sex and friendship. The only resolve is to commit or cancel any further interactions.

What interpretation if any do white females have of black males? Is there a conclusion drawn as to what is “black” and what is “white” and how do we reach a compromise?

The positive images of blacks in the media are few and far between. If a young and impressionable white girl gets her ideas on black men it’s usually from the young black classmates at school, actors on television/ movies or black pornography on the internet.

Education and intellect should then be the focal point in keeping a dialogue between white females and black men. Otherwise most white women will have a biased opinion of black men. We will then be subjected to images of the black man as a thoroughbred and the white female as submissive.

Venus did fall before my eyes, not as porn star but as a vision of beauty and intelligence.