Love in black & white: Janet Langhart and Bill Cohen speak out on racism and interracial marriages

Love in black & white: Janet Langhart and Bill Cohen speak out on racism and interracial marriages

by Lynn Norment

Comments .123Next ..Spending time with Bill Cohen and Janet Langhart is to be immersed in a great American love story--but also into a frank, sometimes emotional discussion on race and politics and interracial relationships in America.



For some, the couple--he a retired U.S. senator and defense secretary and she a former newscaster and civil rights activist--symbolize love between two people from distinct backgrounds who came together across a "major divide" despite racism and taboos against such unions. For others, the Cohens, now married 12 years, represent a reality viewed with scorn. Interracial marriage still makes some people, including some African-Americans, uncomfortable, if not outright angry.



That's okay with the Cohens. They gladly accept the role of catalysts for discussion, even debate, on race and love in Black and White in a society they say is still plagued with inequities. It is time, they say, to discuss openly why racism and negative views about interracial relationships continue to tinge our society. "It is shameful how we [Blacks] have been treated and continue to be treated in America," says Langhart, known for speaking her mind. "The racism here is a disgrace to a nation that claims to the world it is fair and just. Katrina demonstrated that our dirty little secret of racism isn't a secret anymore.

"Many Americans say they are tired of hearing from Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. Well, where is the White leadership that is saying to their own, 'This is wrong!'--in the Jena 6 case, the Black girl who [reportedly] was raped [in West Virginia], the Imus issue, the nooses and swastikas. Where is the leadership of the free world, President Bush? It is we, Blacks, who have led America to face up to her claim of justice and equality for all. America is not who she says she is."

The Cohens maintain that because racism is so pervasive in our society, taboos against Black-White marriages persist. "Bill and I still get those looks and stupid things said to us despite the so-called 'elite' circles we travel in," Langhart reveals. "A U.S. senator once asked Bill which one of my parents was White. When Bill said neither and asked why, the senator replied, 'Well, because she's so intelligent.' That's more than racism, that's stupid. It's interesting, when Bill and I are in public, Blacks recognize Bill and like him--because of his political views and because he is married to me. A group of Black guys at a [Washington] Wizards' game gave him high-fives and said: 'This is a cool dude. He's married to a Sista'... I tease Bill that Black people like him for choosing me, but question me for being with him. This race thing is all so warped."

Both Langhart and Cohen acknowledge that mixed marriages are more accepted by Blacks than society at large. "Yet, within the Black community," says Cohen, "it is as though they are saying, 'She married a White guy, that means she wants to be White.'" He adds that some are confused as to whether Langhart is Hispanic or Arab or African-American. And many are not aware of her social activist background, that she led an effort to get an apology for the lynching of Black men. "Janet--she's Black, trust me," says Cohen. "Janet has always been that way, and has sacrificed her career by speaking out on Black issues. It cost her virtually ever job she's had. She followed Malcolm X more than Dr. King. King was her mentor, but he wouldn't let her march. She was too angry."



In turn, Janet says people don't realize her husband as a senator worked hard to overcome racism and inequities, that "before my husband married me he was on the Senate floor talking about affirmative action," that he was involved in civil rights marches in Maine "when it wasn't cool to be in those kinds of parades."



Regardless, they are devoted to each other. "She is the most exciting woman I know," Cohen says, looking proudly at his wife seated next to him in their Chevy Chase, Md., penthouse. "She is so smart, so passionate and so underused."

"I look at my husband," Langhart says. "He's an extraordinary man. He's bright. He's handsome. He's kind. He could have had anyone he wanted. Just like that wall that keeps us out, it keeps them in. But he walked right through the wall." And toward Langhart.




Social commentator Michael Eric Dyson and his wife, Marcia, are long-time friends of the Cohens. "Bill and Janet are one of the great love stories of our time," says Dyson. "The magic they share is exhilarating and contagious... Bill and Janet are the epitome of love across racial lines, a couple that draw on their strengths and differences while forming a dynamic duo. Janet has never struck a false racial note in toadying to the White folks ... She is gracious and majestic, but she remains a true Black woman to her bones. The plight of her people is never far from her heart; the cause of her race is never from her lips."



In an August 2007 Gallup Poll, more than 75 percent of Americans say they approve of marriages between Blacks and Whites. As recently as 1994, less than 50 percent approved. The poll also indicated that Blacks are more likely than Whites to approve of interracial marriages: 85 percent of Blacks say they approve while 10 percent disapprove.



It was 40 years ago that the U.S. Supreme Court, in Loving v. Virginia, declared laws against interracial marriage unconstitutional. In 1967, such marriages were illegal in 27 states and made up only 2 percent of all marriages. Today, about 7.5 percent of all marriages are interracial.



The persistent negative attitude about interracial relationships is one reason Langhart insisted on delaying marriage until Cohen retired from politics. "I just didn't have faith in America," she says. "I just didn't have confidence that the people in Maine" would re-elect their senator if he had married a Black woman. The couple first met in the 1970s when Langhart interviewed the senator on her Boston television show. In the late '80s, after he divorced and her husband died, they began dating.



It was about that time that Langhart began to experience turbulence on her job. Her bosses complained that she was "too threatening to White women" and "didn't speak Black enough." She got into trouble when she asked why it was wrong for Andy Young to meet with the PLO. "I was told to stop talking about race on television because the audience didn't think of me as Black," Langhart recalls. When relegated to selecting lottery numbers, she responded, "My name is not Vanna Black," and was fired. As she pursued other career options, she ran into a series of roadblocks--many because of race. A job at BET didn't work out either--she says because she was "too fair [complexioned]." A spokesperson for BET says she is not familiar with the matter and has no response.





"People misjudge her," Cohen says of his wife. "They think that because she is lighter, that somehow she's just White. She is the most unappreciated talent, I think, in this country. She was penalized because of her attractiveness."



When Langhart finally consented to marry Cohen after he announced retirement from the Senate, she wanted the ceremony to take place in the Capitol, which she says is "symbolic of how Black slave labor built this country." What was conceived as a small ceremony turned into an event that political insiders asked to attend. She recalls vividly how the first person she saw when she walked down the aisle was longtime South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond, who had a "paternalistic gaze." She now feels he was thinking about his own (then secret) mixed-race daughter. "My grandparents would have been turning over in their graves at the thought of Strom Thurmond, who still symbolizes racism for many, at my wedding," Langhart says.



Initially, Langhart's own family was not pleased that she was marrying Cohen. "My sister was not keen on this," she recalls. "She liked Bill, but said she'd never date White." When Langhart was 17, she recalls her mother's words on interracial dating: "You can date him, but you will never be accepted by them. And when it's all said and done, you'll have to come back over to this side. This is home."