“Love in Black and White, A Memoir of Race, Religion and Romance” by William Cohen is a memoir that’s more about the man than the couple, tracing from his childhood in Maine through the White House. Interspersed are sections about Janet Langhart, and her upbringing. The book is an uplifting memoir that educates readers about the decades of historical, political, military social, racial, and Black history milestones in the U.S., as well as those of Mr. Cohen and Ms. Langhart.
A couple of times or so, there were disconnects from a topic launching into something else; and some occasional grammar things going on that seemed out of character.
The books was informative and candid, including paths of excellence and failure for both Mr. Cohen and his future wife. Both came from trailblazing ancestors and in turn carried on that tradition. Mr. Cohen didn’t spare himself with a revisionist eye to his fighting youth, bad grades, and even ‘cursing like a one-eyed pirate’ one day. We learn of his experiences of racism from both the Jewish community and others from a young age forward. Mr. Cohen’s mother was Irish Catholic and his father Jewish. Mr. Cohen went on to forgive those who ostracized him and denied him his birthright and merit of a Bar Mitzvah.
Ms. Langhart went on to lead the way from being among the first Fashion Fair models, relegated to segregated accommodations while touring the country to represent the beauty of Black women, as founder Robert Johnson, later of BET fame, and then of the Johnson Publishing dynasty, Jet and Ebony, had envisioned. The reader gets to see the underside as well as the triumphs. Apparently Mr. Johnson had to buy all of the clothing rather than the typical ‘loan’ of clothes from designers, as people did not want to wear what had been on black bodies. Readers get to see Janet develop from a small child holding fast to her mother’s words of hope and tolerance, though she worked as a domestic for white people. Incidentally, I’d seen Janet over the years and one would’ve never guessed the struggles she’d faced or the disappointments. Her mother and she were basically abandoned by her father, a returning soldier, who’d been a war hero, but had advised his daughter that upon his return he would not be wearing his uniform in the South on the ride home, and he’d be sitting in the back of the bus, disheartened about fighting for freedom for others abroad while at home, he was treated as if he were the enemy. At some point in the book, Janet protests the disparaging treatment of returning black soldiers who had to sit at the back of an auditorium, while foreign prisoners of war were treated like white people and sat at the front.
Incidentally, when other cultural movements such as interracial movements and gay movements look to Black culture in how to navigate in the mainstream culture, it’s instructive to note how Black culture has always been of the opinion about representing a good profile to the mainstream. Countering stereotypes was the least activism one could do. In the Fashion Fair tradition, the NAACP, also continues to encourage Black people to keep representing Black culture well with its annual “Image” Awards. The idea of good representation to the public. In the book “Navigating Interracial Borders, Black-White Couples and Their Social Worlds” the author seemed off put with the idea that interracial couples would want to ‘keep up a front’. Not airing dirty laundry, and keeping the positive out front to offset the stereotypes. In this regard, it’s no different than what Black people have done since Day 1, and continue to do. I believe immigrants did the same as a survival mechanism, too. It works. Role modeling. If you see it, you can achieve it. You can believe, and work towards it. Like any habit, practice makes perfect.
In Cohen’s book, you will see the good. That’s what counts. Like any married couple, a united front.
We learn that the people who Janet’s mother worked for were Jewish, and that Janet’s mother adopted some of their practices, like cooking Kosher food, and instilling certain values in her children, in spite of their surroundings and those negative persons around them. Janet’s mother didn’t teach hate. Nowhere in the book did I read anything but good things about Black men, or negative remarks about shiftless Black men who didn’t take care of their children or any nonsense even though Janet’s father left the family. It would have been an easy stereotype to exploit given the circumstance. Instead, there were many Black History nods. In Janet’s developing career, she met icon after icon in the Black community, including Mahalia Jackson and Martin Luther King, Jr., who reportedly was like a son to Mahalia, and who frequently visited and stayed in her home, as did some other Black icons. The practice of hosting Black people in residences was a collective practice to counter Jim Crow segregation that either excluded Black people from public accommodations altogether, or offered conditions that were very bad. Janet was mentored by a range of Black icons, including Muhammad Ali, who advised her when his heavyweight title was stripped because he wouldn’t serve in the War, that he still had his self respect, and that was more valuable than anything someone could give and take away at whim. Years later, during her rise from model to weather girl to broadcast journalist, readers would see how the leaders around her were able to impart survival wisdom. Years later, when Bill Clinton picked Cohen to be Secretary of Defense–a Republican Cohen, no less, and a “Jew” to some, Janet would be treated with the utmost respect to the extent that she began to focus on the good that was in her life. She even began to pray and kiss the flag in Cohen’s office when she took to heart lessons learned and experiences that showed her that there are different kinds of people, and there are good people who welcome good people to work for good together.
In this regard, Janet’s experience with the military prior to Cohen was that it mistreated Black people like her father, and gave empty promises at best. Her mother and her family had a new home in the housing projects set up by the military for returning Black soldiers. It was a glimpse of the later military ‘family’ vision that would again renew her faith in the good outweighing the bad. I got chills and choked up when Cohen described how he’d secretly made a special request to honor Janet to the White House leaders during his final days as SecDef.
Now, there’s a love story. Cohen and Langhart were formerly married. Ironically, both Janet’s brother as well as one of Cohen’s sons married someone of the opposite race. Readers will be surprised to hear about the intimate details of a medical situation that Janet faced, and which no doubt had enormous impact on her life.
I don’t think the book title really reflects the content of the book. The books is primarily an autobiography of Cohen’s life, which didn’t intersect with Janet’s til only little more than a decade ago. However, some people believe, as mentioned in the book Janet does, in fate. In which case, there life partner was always on their way to them. It wasn’t a matter of if but when the two would come together, and how they get there, is really what the book includes. I can see Cohen loving B-ball, his father loving B-ball, and thus Cohen playing on teams where he met more than just White males. I was tickled a bit about his doing the Black handshake with Black men, playing while in the Senate with some Black Congressmen. I could see that if his mother was feisty and had her own independence and opinions that she felt free to express, that Cohen would not be put off by an outspoken Black woman like Langhart.
In the book Cohen mentions Janet’s loving his blue eyes. I’d have to say I wish Janet hadn’t worn blue contacts on the book cover. While she’s got some mixed ancestry, it’s not front and center, as in her parents are both black. Somewhere down the line, many Black people have Native American, or White people, etc. in their family tree. People who aim to be a ‘couple’ will sometimes start dressing alike, and even down the line, are supposedly starting to morph into each other, with similar features.
Since the couple did not have kids, it was a bonus to them in a way because Janet could travel with him everywhere he went and he had no guilt about forsaking the family for his job, as with the case with his first marriage. That both of them could interrelate about their experiences across the board, and stand strong together, was more than a galvanizing force. Readers get to see their perspectives on a range of U.S. events, from the lynching of Emmit Till to Watergate to the assassination of MLK, Jr., Hoover, to USS Cole, Vietnam, WWII, Katrina, the Kanye West TV comment. The times did change, who’d have thought a Republican, an immigrant’s son no less who rose from living in a room with 5 people to become an lawyer, Congressman, Senator, SecDef, would be right there networking across the board for better times. And walking into the White House at the invite of hipster Bill Clinton, with his Black wife by his side. In these times. The time for all good men to rise.
If there’s an interracial story of love and marriage, a united front, this is it. Representing. As always. That we are more than what meets the eye.
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