Donald Glover’s still delightfully everywhere following his hilarious turn on SNL, the debut of his much-discussed “This is America” video, the end of a fêted second season of Atlanta and the premiere of his new Star Wars movie, Solo.
Busy doing all that, Glover’s also managed to find the time to become embroiled in some controversy. He’s mentioned his partner, Michelle occasionally, and she even had some quotes in Glover’s New Yorker profile, but no one knew much about her until last week.
It turns out that Michelle is white. And people were not happy.
#ChildishGambino aka #DonaldGlover is one of the many examples of Black men who act conscious & awoke but go back home to a White wife/White Supremacy pic.twitter.com/0uLUJBlbT9
— Jada_Blaze (@Jada_Blaze04) May 9, 2018
Like the fact that the man that made get out movie wife is white really pissed me off, Donald Glover wife is white and the actor the played fucking Martin Luther king in Selma wife is white tf ????
— Tiffiny (@_tiffiny_m) May 6, 2018
I keep seeing these “Donald Glover is not a genius” tweets. And I’m like comedian, actor, writer, rapper, show runner, satirist, dancer, visionary…..what else this nigga gotta do to qualify? But he ain’t got a Black wife so…i guess that’s what it is.
— Nick Fury (@WritingTheWrong) May 8, 2018
Speaking of Donald Glover, he's a good example of my earlier tweet. I'm sure whatever he's talking about in that new song is accurate, but I just don't want to hear it from him while he has a white wife.
— Marcus Aurelius (@He_Is_1982) May 7, 2018
Yep its Donald Glover shade. Im sick you “pro-black” , “I love black women but not enough to wife/date them” ass niggas. pic.twitter.com/qa81C8Q1uG
— Croatoan™ (@DarriccLondon) May 8, 2018
In think piece after think piece, in tweet after tweet, the internet battled it out, arguing whether or not Glover could truly be woke and down for black people if he’d fallen in love with a white woman.
Most of those on the Solo press junket have avoided the issue. But not Xilla Valentine of BlogXilla fame.
Wanting to get an authentic answer out of the writer/producer/musician/director/actor, Valentine posed a slick question, asking Glover about the close relationship his Solo character has with a robot.
“There’s a special relationship between Lando and L3-37, and I wanted to know: there’s been a lot of conversation about who you love depends on how conscious you can be. If you love someone different than who you are, can you still be conscious towards your core people?” Valentine asked.
Glover seemed to know what Valentine was really asking, and responded thoughtfully.
“That’s what love, I think, really is at the end of the day. It’s not even a selflessness, but an understanding that I’m making a safe place for you,” Glover said. “It’s not safe out there. Somebody’s out to get you; that’s just nature. That’s just the nature of being, and I feel like you can totally love somebody and still look out for yourself.”
Glover got even deeper, adding, “I think the question really is: do you see that person, that thing or that someone else as part of you? If you see us, we’re a people together, or we’re a tribe together, or we depend on each other. The you’re always going to want the best for them I think.”
Watch Glover's response for yourself below:
