'You Saved Me': Film celebrates black marriage and challenges perceptions

[Blue_Tires]

Ronnie and Lamar Tyler were always surprised by the way people around them would react to news of an engagement.

"We'd be at somebody's house," Lamar recalls, "and someone would come in and say, 'Hey, I'm getting married!' and everybody would be like, 'Don't do it. Are you sure you want to do that? Don't make the mistake I made.' And that's supposed to be a happy moment!"

The problem, as the Tylers saw it, was largely one of perception.

"We felt like through television, movies, Web sites -- there weren't enough positive images of black marriages," Lamar says. "There are so many African American youths growing up in communities now where they're not seeing marriages around them at all -- they're not seeing the good things, the positive side and what a good relationship could look like."

So in 2007, the Waldorf couple, who've been married for five years and are parents of four, including two children Ronnie had before they wed, created a blog, http://www.blackandmarriedwithkids.com. The idea was to establish a venue where people could discuss the issue, at a societal level and a personal one.

"I knew plenty of great couples, but you never hear their stories, you never see them -- it's almost like a class of people who don't exist," says Lamar, a 33-year-old IT professional. The blog was meant to "just shine a positive light on marriage and show there are happily married African American couples out there."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/26/AR2010032600037.html

[Number23]

1. Fabulous. I love this