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shina913 · 2 years

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Art Murmur | KNJ

❃ Festivaled Away: Summer Nights

Hosted by @bangtanbathhouse

⤞ Ticket: Namjooning ⤞ Main event: First Date ⤞ Games: Overstimulation; fingering; size kink

Pairing: Camp Coordinator!Namjoon x fem!reader; the hyung line also makes a brief appearance

Genre: Friends to lovers; fluff; smut

Rating: 18+

Summary: You and Namjoon have worked together for years. You've harbored secret crushes on each other for a long time but neither of you have had the courage to take the plunge. One summer, you decided that you've circled each other long enough.

Word count: 4,393K

Warnings: cussing; awkward flirting; some pining/light angst; clit play; breast play; BDE!Namjoon; fingering; oral (M-receiving briefly); dirty talk; protected sex; some manhandling; brief cuddling...(I think that's it?)

A/N: I apologize in advance...I was struggling a bit while writing Coquet 9 and took a break from it. And then Hobi's listening party at Hybe happened...aaaaand I just could not get over images of Namjoon so...this happened.😬 I stg, I love all OT7 but as my lovely betas @deepseavibez and @internetjunkdrawer pointed out--I'm always extra when it comes to my faves (Excuse me, ma'am...your bias is showing)😋

Also, Art Murmur is an actual event close to where I work. I just embellished on some of the details. Their date is also loosely inspired by an episode of Insecure from Season 4 where Lawrence and Issa walk through a local street art festival. I swear...the visuals and general cinematography on that episode are un-fucking-believable!

Anyway, I'll shut up now. Thanks to Madame Sophie @kookskingdom for the prompts! Enjoy!

“Thank you! You guys take care!” You wave at the last kid who gets picked up from afternoon care at day-camp.

“Damn, I’m hella tired already,” Yoongi says.

“You’re always tired,” You chuckle at him while you put away the tablets from the reception area to charge them at the office.

“Another summer for the books,” he says, rubbing his eyes. He nods and says goodbye to the younger counselors who clock out. You do the same, smiling as you bid them goodbye, telling them that you’ll see them next year.

“Hey!” Jin, your program director greets you. Yoongi automatically sits up. “Hey, boss,” he says, suddenly being all formal.

Jin laughs out loud. “I told you to stop calling me that. We all used to work together at some point,” he says.

“Yeah, but you’re the head honcho now,” you remarked, referring to Jin’s promotion after your previous program director retired.

“It still feels weird to me,” Jin comments. “Anyway, I’m just doing my rounds. I got back from Namjoon’s site and thought I’d check on you guys to make sure that there were no incidents today?”

“Nothing huge,” you said. “There were a couple of kids from the middle school age group who got into it a bit, but nothing that I couldn’t handle. Parents were called; reports were typed up and signed. Nothing like a bit of excitement on the last day of the program.” You shrugged. All in a day’s work.

“Okay, good. Are you guys headed to the field for the year-end party?”

“Not yet,” you say.

“Yes,” Yoongi answers. You turn your head sideways and look at him incredulously. “What? He asked! I’ve been waiting for this day to end,” He says, giving you an equally incredulous expression. Also, he was excited to be able to have a legally-sanctioned drink at the premises.

You turned back to Jin, who was laughing, taking it all in stride. “Did you need anything before we closed up?” You asked.

“No, but Namjoon and Hoseok are on their way down here soon. They wrapped up their ‘afternoon care’ early since all of their kids got picked up on time.”

Just then, Namjoon and Hoseok walk through the doors of your facility. You and Namjoon smile at each other.

God, will you ever tire of those dimples? The answer is a quick but very firm ‘no.’

Namjoon is your counterpart at a different summer day camp location within the city. He was a site coordinator just like you, supervising camp counselors who help organize and facilitate youth group activities not just in the summer but all throughout the year.

You all exchange polite pleasantries. Hoseok goes to ask Yoongi about tonight’s festivities while Namjoon talks to Jin about completing the end-of-season report for his site.

When Hoseok turns to you, you offer to walk him to your storage closet to show him where you kept the supplies for tonight’s party.

“It’s cool, YN!” He waved you off. “I’m sure Yoongi and I can manage it,” Hoseok says with a wink. You made the mistake of drunkenly confessing to both of them years ago that you had a massive crush on Namjoon during a random happy hour. They haven’t stopped teasing you about it since.

Jin followed closely behind to make sure that there was enough food and utensils for his staff.

“So–are you uh…coming tonight?” Namjoon asks you.

“Yeah. A-are you?”

He nodded. This was the first time that either of you were coming to an end-of-year party where you were both single–or so you heard, based on Hoseok’s texts. It brought in a whole other layer of excitement to tonight’s celebration.

You stared at each other in silence until you heard Jin, Yoongi, with Hoseok huffing as he rolled a cart filled with equipment.

“Yah! I told you I’m not very physically able,” Yoongi argues. “Why didn’t you just take the big, beefy man to grab the stuff from the top shelf?”

Namjoon chuckled to himself. “Guess that’s my queue to leave,” he says. “I uh…hope we can hook up tonight–I mean–” he caught himself immediately, your eyes widened in shock.

“I meant ‘hang out’! I hope we can hang out tonight,” he grinned awkwardly as he rushed to help Hoseok with the cart.

Once he was out of earshot, Yoongi sidled up to you. “Mm-hmm–I think he actually meant the first thing. You know…when you think about it enough times, it just spills out!”

You give him a playful shove, reminding him that you still had to close out the system so you could file away your paperwork and finish out the year.

******

The party was in full swing. You made small talk with the rest of the staff, making sure that you made your social rounds before approaching Namjoon and Hoseok, who were hanging out by one of the firepits and having an animated conversation.

Namjoon sees you advancing towards them and he says something to Hoseok under his breath. Hoseok gives him a confused look until he sees you stop right where they were standing.

“Hey guys,” you greet them both with a smile.

“Hi and bye, YN. I have to go,” Hoseok says.

“Oh,” you said with a frown. “W-where are you going?”

“Uhh…I’m still trying to figure that part out but–I’ll catch you guys later.” He says before walking away. It wasn’t long before he found a friend from another site and started to chat them up.

“So–how was your summer?” Namjoon asks.

“Uhm–it went well, I think. Not many issues as in the past. How ‘bout you?”

“It was good. I have some staff leaving after this year,” he says sadly.

“Oh, no–I’m sorry to hear that. I know how difficult it is to find good people who are trustworthy.”

He nods in earnest.

Afterwards, an awkward silence falls between you two. You’re both usually chatty with each other at work or at off-site get-togethers. It was all very casual…but you were also typically around other friends or coworkers.

He finally decides to break the tension. “Uhm, so…I read somewhere that Jupiter and Saturn are supposed to be perfectly visible tonight.” He tilts his head back to stare up at the sky, searching.

You mimic his action for a bit trying to look where he is but you’re distracted by his neck. It’s so subtle but you catch a freckle right at the base of the left side of his neck–somewhere above his collarbone. That was a new discovery for you. He typically wore hoodies and jackets–and if he wore t-shirts during the summer, you rarely saw him anyway since the summers were always busy for both of you.

And here you thought you’d already familiarized yourself with all of his beauty marks. From the trio that sat atop of his left cheekbone, going down to the one right above his jaw…and your favorite one—right below the curve of his lower lip.

If you looked long enough, you’d find that you’d have your own little Namjoon-constellation. You thought about tracing the pattern…with your tongue.

“Do you want some more?”

“Uh, what?” You shook your dirty thoughts away.

“I asked if you wanted a s’more?” He pointed to the table that contained a few metal skewers, bags of marshmallows, chocolate bars, and graham crackers.

Flustered, you answered, “Oh—uhm, no, thank you. I’m fine,” you blubbered.

He grinned. “You know, there’s been something I’ve been meaning to say to you for a while.”

Your curiosity was piqued. “Oh?”

“Yeah. It’s something I’ve been wanting to say since that first day we did summer camp orientation.”

Now you were really interested. “And?”

“Just…how much I admire you. I thought it was really cool how you have this way with kids–like, you just have endless enthusiasm and patience even though you’d seen whatever it was that they were showing you hundreds of times already and still be really sincere about it. I don’t know how you do it.” He shoved his hands in his pockets and started to rock back on his heels. You thought about how ironic it was that he was being all bashful after singing your praises.

“You also motivate your staff really well–I mean…except for, maybe, Yoongi-hyung. But he doesn’t count since he’s an old-timer,” he chuckled. “There’s just that mutual respect there.”

You smiled at that. “Well…game recognize game,” you said, staring straight at him. “You have to tell me how you can command a room with just one look. I still have trouble with that sometimes because…let’s face it, some kids are just little shits.” He laughed, nodding in agreement with you.

“You’re also really creative with your programming. I don’t know how you come up with these enrichment activities and field trips. It’s hard to keep kids engaged these days.”

“Well, it also helps that I get to plan activities around things that I personally like to do…but, you know…on the city’s dime,” he smiles mischievously, before following it up with, “Don’t tell Jin-hyung!”

You laughed. “Your secret is safe with me.”

He chuckled softly. “Anyway, I didn’t think I ever had a shot with you.”

Your brows lifted in shock at his sudden confession. “W-what?”

He snorted. “What? I’ve always had a crush on you.” He says nonchalantly.

That stopped you dead in your tracks. You look at him wide-eyed.

You both got your start as junior camp counselors several summers ago. You trained together and worked at the same site for a bit until you both ended up becoming full-time employees for the city’s parks and recreation services.

You’ve always had a massive crush on him, too. How could you not? He was tall and good-looking. And when you got to know him better as you worked together, you found him to be even more attractive.

But…it seemed like you never really got the chance to get together. He went away for college in a different city while you stayed local. When he got back, he had a girlfriend. And when they broke up, you started seeing someone–until things didn’t work out. But then he started seeing someone else, and vice versa. The angsty cycle continued.

Your timing always seemed off. Until now.

“Uhm, say that again?”

He gave you a shy smile. “Ah, c’mon, YN. Don’t embarrass me like that.”

“I’m not, I swear! I’m just…in shock here. Give me a minute.” You turned away, mentally fanning yourself at his confession.

He groaned softly, worrying that he had ruined a good thing. “Sorry, is that weird? Are you getting all weird on me now? Shit, that wasn’t my intention. I shouldn’t have said anything,” he says all of it in a panic.

You started to laugh, turning your attention back to him. “Oh man…”

“What? I’m right, aren’t I? I knew it,” he says, shaking his head. “Such a dumbass,” he says under his breath.

When you calmed down, you sighed. “Oh, Namjoon–you couldn’t be more wrong if you tried,” you tell him. His head did a subtle bob–like whiplash, almost. He stared at you, as if trying to crack a code. When it came to him, his face lit up and a wide smile curved his mouth.

That smile did many things to you. You looked away again, unable to handle the butterflies in the pit of your stomach that have been slowly building up to a swarm since you sidled up to him tonight.

“Wait, so this whole time, I could have just asked you out?”

You smiled at him. “I mean…I had hoped you would at some point? But our timing was just terrible, I guess.”

He scoffed and looked down at his shoes. “Damn…I am such a moron,” he chuckled.

You gave him a small smile and shrugged your shoulders. “No time like the present, right?”

He straightened out and smiled warmly at you, regaining his composure once more. “You’re absolutely right. So, YN—would you like—“

“Yes,” you say immediately. You couldn’t contain your excitement.

“I…was going to ask if you would like a s’more.” His smile was teasing. You instantly smack him playfully on his chest, making him double over in laughter.

“I’m sorry,” he says as you both calmed down from your giggles. “Okay, seriously. Would you like to go out with me?”

You rolled your eyes and gave him the same answer. “Yes,” you say softly.

******

He met you at your place around 6PM on a Saturday, and you both took a rideshare to grab dinner at the food truck pod in the city–since neither of you could make up your mind about what you craved for. Although…you had other ideas about what you were craving for, the variety of cuisines sated both your appetites for now.

Your date was fairly chill. It felt awkward at first because you typically went out with your coworkers or common friends. But it didn’t take long before you both settled in. Conversation and jokes flowed naturally. You were friends after all.

After dinner, you headed over to a local street festival event called the Art Murmur, held on the first weekend of every month. A few blocks would be closed off by the city to make room for independent, local artists and merchants to not only showcase their work but to connect with the community as well. Namjoon has always waxed poetic about his love for local art and tried to support when he could.

You turned a corner and the place was buzzing with excitement. The narrow streets were adorned with string lights and colorful streamers above. Each booth had music playing and friendly faces ready and willing to talk about their work to anybody who would approach.

“I remember when this was all super sparse,” he remarked. “They used to have this event in a small banquet hall but word-of-mouth eventually got the city’s attention and full support.”

“That’s really great to hear. I love how there’s so much hidden talent right in our backyard.”

“I couldn’t agree more!”

You slowed to an artist’s booth that used mixed media on their work. One piece in particular caught your eye–a beautiful rendering of all the bridges from your locality.

“You like that one?” He asks you quietly.

“I do. I’ve never seen our bridges portrayed like this. I guess–living here for so long, you think of bridges as one more path of inconvenience to take since our area is so broken up and places are so far.” Also, rising bridge toll fees were just ridiculous. “But, bridges are a necessity, right? The purpose is connection–not just for locations but between people as well. Don’t you think so?”

You glanced sideways at him to find him staring at you intently…in awe.

It happened too quickly but even if he slowed down, you knew you wouldn’t dare stop it.

His lips felt plush, soft. Urging though not in a hurry. You don’t know how long you had imagined or hoped for this moment. Just as you had pictured before–it took your breath away.

“Uh–hey guys, were you interested in this piece?”

You both pull away, slightly embarrassed when the artist interrupts your brief makeout session in front of his art. You cleared your throats and tried to compose yourselves in front of this complete stranger.

“How much for this one?” Namjoon asked.

The artist names his price and while you see Namjoon pull his wallet out, you immediately stop him. He waves you off.

“Shush and let me get my girl a gift,” he says to you.

Your eyes widen at his sudden confidence. “Ooh–already?” You ask playfully while he hands the cash over to the artist, who excuses himself to wrap up the piece for you.

“I thought that was already a foregone conclusion?”

All you give him is a smile in response. It wasn’t like you were going to protest.

******

You invite him back to your place to hang out more since your roommate had conveniently also made plans to be out tonight. It was all very relaxed and chill at first but the energy in the air was still palpable. Pretty soon, you took things back into your bedroom since you couldn’t keep your hands off each other.

His fingers cupped your nape, tilting your head back at an angle that he wanted to deepen the kiss. You moaned when you felt his tongue swirl around your mouth.

He pulls away briefly. “Holy shit–I can’t believe I’m actually kissing you on your bed,” he said in a rush before he sealed his mouth over yours again.

“How do you think I feel?” you breathed out.

You caught a flash of that dimple before you pulled his face closer to yours to kiss him again.

One of his hands slid around to cup your nape, while the other moved downward to your hip, giving it a squeeze. His touch made you hot in an instant, sending goosebumps racing across your skin.

Inhaling deeply, you breathed him in. He smelled so good–a hint of cologne? Or was it soap? Anytime you were in close proximity with him, whether it was facilitating a group activity, gathering supplies for your sites, or plainly having a conversation with him, his scent was one of the many things about him that made you just a little unsteady on your feet.

Your body stirred, recognizing Namjoon as the one thing it desperately wanted. You reached up and pushed your fingers through the silky dark strands and tugged.

He pulls away briefly and brushes loose strands of hair off your face, then his gaze drifted down to where his other hand was gliding up your thigh and past the hem of your skirt. You gasp softly when he makes contact with your panties. Pushing them to the side, he slipped a finger carefully into you.

Your eyes shut at the sensation, building up your hunger even further.

“I want to feel you,” you say to him..

His mouth, that wickedly sexy mouth that could drive you insane, curved into a smug smile. “Do you, now?”

You wrenched away from his skilled finger and stretched onto your mattress, knowing it would entice him. When he growled low in his throat, you returned a smug smile of your own.

Catching you behind the knee, he pushed your leg up and to the side, riding your skirt up, sliding your panties down your legs.

He licked his lips. “You don’t know how long I dreamed of this…how many times I envisioned this in my head.”

You realized then that you would be sharing more moments like this moving forward, and you wanted them. “You still have too many clothes on.”

With a smirk, Namjoon straightened up to pull his shirt off and tossed it on the floor. When he went to work on the buttons of his jeans, you pushed up onto your elbows to watch.

A low hum of pleasure escaped you.

Namjoon paused, his brow lifting. He had that gleam in his eye that made your legs shift restlessly. He had such an understated sexiness that you silently vowed to acknowledge and show more appreciation for.

“Don’t stop,” you almost whined.

“I love when you look at me like that.”

You caught your lower lip between your teeth. He always talked about how he recently got into working out in the last year–and clearly, his hard work was paying off. His golden skin stretched over peaks and valleys of muscle. You fought the urge to run your fingertips over every inch of him...to lick him like your favorite dessert...make him feel how much you wanted him.

“Oh my god, you’re so hot,” you wondered aloud.

“You don’t look so bad yourself.” He sealed his mouth over yours, his tongue licking and gliding.

Greedily, your hands ran all over his chest, shoulders, and abs, tracing every plane and groove. He couldn’t help but chuckle softly into your mouth as you apparently grazed over a spot where he was ticklish. “Sorry–if you can’t tell, I have also fantasized about this way too many times,” you breathed. “I just–” You were at a loss as you ogled at his body.

“I’m on that sexual-frustration workout. Since I couldn’t have you then, I just spent a lot of time at the gym…plus, the wet dreams were killing me.” He caught your wrist, guiding your hand past his waistband to cup his straining hardon.

Well, that certainly took care of your lingering questions about what he’s been hiding underneath those shorts that he frequently wore to work.

"Well, I'm here now," you smiled at him. He tugged at your hair, his fingers sifting through it. Your eyelids grow heavy, senses hyper-focused on the desire radiating off him. Desire for you.

You fumbled with the zipper on his jeans, pushing the halves aside to discover black boxer briefs. He was hard and ready, the tip peeking above the waistband. Precum pooling, your mouth watered–beckoning you to push the elastic past his hips.

You wanted him inside you...now.

You wrapped your hands around his length and stroked, it made you hot and wet as he was. Your pussy was slick, clenching at nothing, aching to be filled by him. Leaning forward and dipping your head, you stuck your tongue out and tasted him.

He hissed through his teeth, cursing under his breath. He reaches down at his back pocket to retrieve a condom, reluctantly moving himself away from your greedy mouth.

“Next time. For now, I need to be inside you,” he muttered, grabbing you by the waist and flipping you around, folding you face down over the edge of the bed.

Shoving your skirt past your hips, he cupped the back of your knee in his hand and pushed your legs apart to open you up. “I’m not sure if I can hold back so…I’ll apologize in advance,” he said huskily. His knuckle brushed against your folds, and a shiver ran down your spine.

You felt his warm skin covering your back, his hands pushing underneath and past your bra to cup your breasts. He gave your ass a firm squeeze before he pushed himself right in between.

You moaned and squeezed your eyes shut, relishing the feeling.

“Fuck, YN,” he ground out between clenched teeth, withdrawing and pushing deeper. Slow, easy thrusts that worked himself into you with every lunge. He groaned and gripped your circling hips, holding you down as he fucked his way deeper. “You feel so good.”

Your fingers clawed at the comforter. Your eyes opened blindly, your lips parted to fill your lungs with air since he kept knocking the wind out of you at every thrust. You fought against his steady hold, wanting him harder, faster. Then, you caught movement in the corner of your eye and saw yourself reflected in the full-length mirror that you had next to your closet.

Your walls contracted around him in response, trying to pull him into where you needed him. Namjoon’s head turned to follow your gaze and he stilled, taking in the sight of him hunched over you.

The image looked straight out of a porno. You, pinned and looking fully clothed, bare ass up in the air; and Namjoon’s abdomen tightening with the force of a thrust, his biceps flexing from the kneading of your breasts, his chest glistening with a fine layer of sweat.

His mouth curved mischievously. “You like watching me fuck you?”

To prove it, he withdrew and thrust again, his entire body tightening as he sank further into you. You whimpered. Your walls sucked greedily at him, your nipples tightened painfully against his palms.

“Oh, yeah, you do,” he purred in that low, devilish tone.

Your eyes stung with tears when your orgasm hit, sucking the air out of your lungs, causing spots in your eyes–blurring your vision. A long, drawn out moan escaped from your mouth–a mix of pleasure, relief…maybe even some gratitude?

Namjoon growled and lost control–just as he had warned you earlier. Fucking you hard and fast, surging deep, cursing under his breath. He came, bridging your orgasm with ragged groans as his body shook.

You couldn’t see, couldn’t think. Nails raked across the sheets, instinctively trying to pull you away from the flood of sensation, but he kept his firm grip on you while his hips continued to slowly pump, emptying himself into you.

He slowly pulled out while you collapsed bonelessly onto your bed. After he discards the condom you feel the mattress dip as he draws you close to him.

“Holy shit,” he finally managed as you both came down from your high.

Holy shit was right.

After a few deep breaths, your heartbeat finally steadies. “So, what you’re telling me…is that—we could have been doing that this whole time?” You ask jokingly.

His laugh was husky from his orgasm. He held you for a while, his fingers sifting through your hair and gliding gently down your arm.

“Like you said, right? No time like the present.” He pressed his forehead against yours and you both grinned. He kissed you again.

You tilted your head to deepen the kiss. Licking into his mouth, teasing him. It wasn’t long before he started to grind his hips into you, making you all achy and wet once more.

He groaned as he pulled away. “How much time do we have left before your roommate gets back?”

“Not long but she knows that I’ve wanted this for a while. She told me that she can always put headphones on if we get too loud.” You answer him quickly before kissing him again. You’ve annoyed your roommate to no end, talking about Namjoon and how you wished the stars would align already and that you’d get together at some point.

When you told her that you had a date with him tonight and planned on bringing him back to your place, her only response was, ‘Is two hours enough?’

His laugh reverberated against your mouth and chest. “Alright well—next time we’ll go to my place. We can keep making up for lost time and you can be as loud as you want.”

“Oh my god, Joooon,” you all but moaned and bit your lower lip in anticipation.

He hummed. “Keep saying my name…exactly like that.”

You’ve reached the end! Thank you so much for reading!

If you loved it, please comment, reblog, or send me feedback! 📩. I love hearing from readers! If you didn’t like it so much, I would still like to hear about it. Help me become a better writer! 💜

Tagging my Namjoon hoes: @internetjunkdrawer @deepseavibez @itdoesntmatterwhy

#namjoon fanfic #namjoon x reader #namjoon x you #namjoon smut #namjoon #kim namjoon #bts smut #bts kim namjoon #bts namjoon #bts rm #knj smut #artmurmur x knj

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zalrb · 6 years

Text

OK! So.

The first thing I did for this post was look for gifs of romantic relationships between black people on relatively popular TV shows outside of 90s sitcoms

I’ll add all three of Issa’s love interests because Insecure, for the most part, navigates romance through black relationships

(and I do note the serious lack of dark skinned couples)

Compared to:

Now to the point, I high key wish there was as much investment in onscreen relationships between black people as there is regarding interracial, specifically wm/bw, romances and more critical thought as to why it’s so rare to see black love in television shows.

While it’s very much still progressive to see [...] leading women who unapologetically wear their Blackness onscreen, pairing them each with a Black man of similar or complementary virtues is apparently a no-no [...] It appears that the only place Black couples can be seen regularly on prime time is via reality TV. Shows like Bravo’s Real Housewives of Atlanta and VH1’s Love and Hip-Hop almost exclusively showcase Black men in relationships with Black women. The only problem is, nearly all of these relationships are based in gross disrespect, betrayal, dismissiveness, and even violence. And since these are real-life couples, it further promotes Black love and Black rage as different sides of the same coin.

Like I get the fact that fandoms are anti-black and that when white male characters are paired with black female characters, they go crazy because how dare a black woman sully a white fave and they’ll find every excuse to render the ship non-romantic or toxic or abusive or whatever else, I get that, but legit, it’s as if people fail to see the systemic anti-blackness in the fact that a well-written, earned love story between two black people is so rare to find in television in general (but teen television specifically) and most of the time if a black relationship is portrayed, it’s along the lines of:

Bonnie and Jamie share one kiss in 3x20 and then Jamie is just never heard from again and he was clearly a rebound after Jeremy and after Jamie, Bonnie and Jeremy reconcile and then it’s on to Enzo.

Or Edison and Olivia

where his purpose was basically to reveal to her how much she wants to be with Fitz.

Michaela and Aiden were engaged when the show started but it turns out he didn’t really love her and she didn’t really love him

she’s attracted to Caleb but oh wait, he’s a psychopathic murderer

A one night stand with Marcus that doesn’t lead anywhere.The framework here is basically Michaela has a idea of her “perfect black man” but the only relationship that actually fulfilled her that we had seen on the show is the one she had with Asher.

The erasure of black love is even in background details like how in The Good Place when you see the “soulmates”, it’s white couples or interracial

same in The Handmaid’s Tale, it’s either white couples or interracial couples

(and I didn’t even put gifs of all of the ww/bm relationships there are)

Another example of this is when it comes to the representation of LGBTQ relationships.

So often, gay lives in America are coded as white, and the forces that shape the lives of queer people of color – say, how immigration affects being Chicano and gay in Calfornia, or how police surveillance affects being black and gay in the New York – are ignored, as gay identity is usually swept up into whiteness.

For instance, in The Get Down we have a predominately black cast, a narrative that explores the rise of hip-hop and disco through the perspectives of black teens but when it comes to Dizzee exploring his sexuality, the show goes to a white space as if New York in the late ‘70s didn’t have a black gay scene. Even in Black Lightning, we see Anissa with another black woman for all of two seconds and then that relationship is shunted to the side in favour of an interracial one,

which is why Damon and Ricky in Pose were such a refreshing dynamic to see (as well as Chiron and Kevin Moonlight and Kena and Ziki in Rafiki but those are movies and I’m focusing specifically on television).

There is a dismissiveness or a refusal to look at the fact that the only way to see black characters in loving relationships or relationships that are meant to have substance is when they’re married to whiteness or non-blackness:

Added to that, I feel like there has been this unspoken yet spoken idea that for [cishet] black women to be desired and loved onscreen, the goal is to pair her with a white man.

To find a black woman as a love interest for a white man in which a stable and loving relationship follows is rare when relationships with white women are staple. A black woman paired with a lead white male in a giant franchise is almost non-existent in media. Uhura is breaking stereotypes and showing that black women are desirable, in which one is so desirable that the most popular and loved Star Trek character, Spock, falls in love with her.

Clearly the above section is from a tumblr post defending Uhura and Spock specifically but I think the ideas here permeate the way bw/wm relationships are viewed as being the Golden Standard for black female characters because she inhabits a role white women usually inhabit, because popular, typical white leading men are intrigued by her, there’s a form of validation there that I think we should unpack because I find this idea myopic because whiteness is still centered. I’m ready to move on to more Nakia and T’Challa, Ziki and Kena, Damon and Ricky relationships as being staple relationships, to seeing functional, romantic, lustful, healthy, playful nuanced black relationships onscreen.

And this isn’t a call to stop shipping interracial ships, I have quite a few myself, I love Ashburn and I love Micasher and Silvermadi and Sasil and Jesus and Lafayette and Alisha and Simon and Chris and Jal and Kevin and Raymond etc. I have breakdowns and “love letters” to a lot of these ships, but this has been bothering me for a while so I decided to just post about it.

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