The Little Black Book For Guys: Guys Talk About Sex

Jungle Fever

Jungle Fever

by Marlon Anderson 

 Here’s my story of an interracial relationship and some of the complications that came along with it. When I was just starting high school, there was this white girl in my homeroom class. She was a dime — every guy in the school wanted to get with her, but she never seemed to be interested in any of them. She and I didn’t speak at first, but we started giving each other long steamy eye contact. After a couple of months, we started bumping shoulders on purpose in the hallway just to have physical contact. 

 Eventually, we started having small conversations with each other during class and then finally we exchanged digits. For a long time, I wanted to ask her to be my girl, but there was something bothering me deep down inside. I mean, I knew that she was a good girl and she was everything that I wanted in a girlfriend, so what was the problem? What was I waiting for? The truth is, it made me nervous that she was white and I was black. I was very intimidated to let anyone know, even her, how I felt. 

 Anyway, even though I wasn’t sure about it, we started dating. It was all good at the beginning, but then she started getting upset at me for one particular reason. She would always say, “How come you never want to be close to me in school, but when we’re just by ourselves, you are all over me?” and I would always say, “Because a lot of guys like you and I don’t want them to try to fuck with our relationship, so let’s keep it low.” But she was never pleased with the way we kept our relationship so silent. She wanted to hold hands in the halls and make out in the cafeteria. That’s not what I wanted because of that one fear that had been holding me captive from the start. 

 One day, one of my boys found out about me and my secret love affair, and of course, he ran around the school and let everyone know. I guess that’s where the saying comes in: “What’s done in the dark shall come to light.” Well that day everything sure did come to light, a very bright one. Walking down the hall in my school, I seen a huge group of my boys and girls standing there, waiting for me, like an army ready for war. As I approached the group to see what all the excitement was about, the fear that haunted me for months hit me right in the face. They started singing “JUNGLE FEVER! YOU GOT JUNGLE FEVER!” 

My secret was out. My schoolmates, who I thought were my friends, started clowning on the fact that I had been dating a white girl. And not only did my boys rag on me, but my father, who found out from my big­mouth brother, made me feel so low and worthless. My father, who I thought was supposed to be there for me as a role model and friend, told me very clearly that he did not want me talking to white girls and that I better tell her to move on because she will not be accepted into our family. He said that white girls are trouble and that they only want black men because they have big dicks. 

So, I gave in to my father and to my concerns about my popularity at school, and I told the girl that I didn’t want to see her anymore. We never spoke to each other again. We would see each other in the halls and pass each other as if it was just two total strangers on the street. But even though that situation had happened, I never did stop thinking of her.