Why Black Love Needs to Be Celebrated (RIP Nipsey Hussle)

As long as I live, I’ll never forget it.

I was at the Jonathan McReynolds’ concert in Atlanta, when I logged on to Instagram to take a video. To my shock and confusion I saw “RIP NIPSEY HUSSLE” under a photo. It looked like jibberish to me; hard to understand and unreal, so I clicked the hashtag to see what was going on. Everything around me seemed to go quiet as I clicked on photo after photo with “RIPs” and “Fly Highs.” I couldn’t believe it. I spent much of my time at the concert half singing along and half reading posts hoping it was a hoax.

But, it was true.

Sunday, March 31, 2019, 33 year old rapper, activist, entrepreneur, son, friend, father….husband, Ermias Asghedom, better known as Nipsey Hussle was murdered.

I’ve struggled to wrap my head around this.

I couldn’t tell you a Nipsey song, spit lyrics, or discuss his musical career, but what I DO know was the love shared between him and actress, Lauren London.

In every photo, video, and interview, you can see their genuine love and respect for one another. In a Grammy interview with EXTRA, Nipsey takes time to boast on his beautiful (at the time) girlfriend, and Lauren, in like manner, shifted attention back to the Grammy nominee calling him intelligent and expressing her pride in him.

Lauren London and Nipsey Hussle at the Grammy’s

It was real. It was evident. And now...it’s gone.

I couldn’t go back to business as usual. His death completely disrupted my perspective on what was important.

So, on IG, @authenticallywed took time to highlight and celebrate #Blacklove in honor of Nipsey and Lauren.

Why was this my response?

The reality is that absentee fathers, careless and insensitive husbands, uncommitted partners, and womanizing men are an all-too-common feature in society, especially in the black community. Families are broken apart by selfishness and blatant disregard everyday and it’s become the norm. But there are men who are present, engaged, compassionate, and honorable, and Nipsey was one of those men.

To those of us who had never seen true commitment and love come from people with similar backgrounds as Nipsey, he was a beacon of hope; he showed that it was possible to have a “past” without it ruining the future.

Outside of the 90’s sitcom era, there are not many portrayals of healthy black relationships anymore. Positivity is overshadowed by toxicity and debauchery, a la Love and Hip-Hop variety. However, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

The black family has, historically, always been under attack. If the police aren’t gunning black bodies down and judges aren’t incarcerating black folks at rapid speed, faithfulness and commitment is deemed unreasonable.

It feels like we can’t win.

Except…we can

As a platform and a voice, I feel the responsibility to saturate the culture with black love so all know it’s accessible, it’s tangible, and it’s REAL. Black love is enduring, bold, beautiful, rebellious, passionate; it’s loud. It offends those who would rather we shut up, but we can’t. We earned the right to love boisterously.

We must be relentless in the pursuit to protect black love. We must create unapologetic black babies who never have to wonder what love looks like, because it is etched in their psyches.

Black love should be honored, celebrated, cherished, and displayed, and that’s exactly what Authentically Wed will be doing moving forward.

We will highlight couples weekly that exemplify the complexity and beauty of black love and marriage, not because it’s superior, but because there are stories that need to be told.

Hate might have seemed to demolish love this week, but there are others that will attest to the reality that black people can love and last.

May the God of all grace be with Lauren London and their children. May Lauren know Peace and Hope. And May the soul of #NiptheGreat rest in eternal Peace in the arms of his Creator.