By Brittnee Junkersfeld
Love is infectious, can be expressed in a multitude of ways, knows no country and is not bound to any religion, SE Campus history instructor Eric Salas told South students Feb. 14.
Salas provided examples, past and present day, where love transcended the law as well as the land and the people.
He shared pictures from movies like Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, Jungle Fever and Get Out that portray discrimination in interracial relationships.
The photos not only depicted the boundaries love can entail but also concentrated on the sole idea that love can conquer all.
Students raised their hands in agreement to a statement identifying that people often love objects and animals more than they love humans.
“It’s obvious that love can transcend objects, species, genders,” Salas said. “And what we can hopefully all agree on in the end is that love transcends all things, even the very definition that we may try to prescribe to it.”
Salas concluded by directing the students’ focus to the love story of Richard and Mildred Loving of the Loving v. Virginia court case in 1967, which legalized interracial marriage.
SE student Madison Marshall said she felt relieved knowing that an interracial couple could change a law in the U.S.
“That makes me feel like I am capable of loving anyone in the world. We could persevere through the stereotype,” she said. “Sometimes you look at couples and you’re like, ‘I don’t know how that works.’ But you know what? We’re not supposed to know. It’s not explainable. It’s just love.”
