jungle fever?

i'll start off my post by saying i HATE that term. jungle fever - it's really, really racist in my book. sorry, stevie, spike, but i detest it. insinuating that to be involved in an interracial relationship is an illness or a momentary slip into a delusional state or simply about sex is just wrong. ok, enough from my tiny soapbox.

something new. it's certainly not a new storyline: uptight business type meets free spirit and they fall in love. or even this one: black/white person meets racial opposite of him/herself, they struggle and then they endure. what i saw as 'something new' was the delivery of the above story lines. i read a review by roger ebert where he said "where the movie ends is not difficult to guess but how it gets us there is compelling". i completely agree. it's not some 'jungle fever' or 'guess who?' or even 'guess who's coming to dinner?' remake. it's honest and blunt. it's from a professional black woman's perspective about being in a relationship with a white man. it honestly, i felt, addressed the feelings that arise from such a union. how do her friends react? how will her upper class family respond? how do you deal with questions of hair? workplace discrimination? public commentary? it's all there and i for one appreciated that. it wasn't a perfect movie but the subject addressed is hardly perfectly resolved... still in 2006. a-