Mildred Loving, Jack Johnson, Love Pioneers.

RICHMOND, Va. - Mildred Loving, a black woman whose challenge to Virginia's ban on interracial marriage led to a landmark Supreme Court ruling striking down such laws nationwide, has died, her daughter said Monday.

Old heroes die everyday around us and we must remember them. I never heard of the wonderfully appropriately named Loving before today but after reading about her and her husband I felt the need to mention her. They stood up for the right to love anyone and marry anybody, regardless of what black and white society said. Something as fundamental as that was denied people in America a scant 41 years ago. Just imagine the amount of pressure these two must have felt to bend to the will of society. Their fight helped end and heal a chapter of American history in the most dignified possible way. That fight continues today for our gay brothers and sisters who face much the same form of repression that the Lovings did.

But to go back to interracial marriage, or miscegenation as it was cruelly designated - take the case of the champion heavy weight champion of the world from 1908 - 1915, Jack Johnson. They searched long and wide for a 'Great White Hope' to beat Johnson. When the appointed fighter, former champion James J Jeffries failed to beat him, it triggered race riots across America, a 4Th of July by the way. But the reason for the extent of the hatred felt against Jackson was not just his physical and athletic prowess or his flamboyant personality that embraced fast cars (this guy was caught speeding in 1910 and paid the officer 100 dollars instead of 50 so that he could speed on his way out of town). Jack defied society's deepest taboos in dating and marrying white women, openly and without apology.

In 1920 he was arrested for violating the Mann act - a law meant to combat trafficking of women for immoral purposes across state lines. He had sent a railroad ticket to his white girlfriend Belle Schreiber for her to travel from Chicago to Pittsburgh. A little snivelling rat trap of a law to fell a giant of a man. This guy basically wrote the textbook on the celebrity African American athlete - he was the quintessential bad boy who drank, danced, caroused and defiantly lived out his life in front of a disapproving and puritanical public. Before Muhammed Ali and Mike Tyson and OJ, he stood - the mold for the men they would be. He was no saint either, he was as human and fallible as any of us but he was ahead of his time and paid the price for it.

If you want to see a sensational portrayal of his life be sure to rent or torrent- "The Great White Hope" starring James Earl Jones in an unforgettable and eerily life like portrayal of Jack. Compare 'Darth Vader's' histrionics to the real Jack Johnson from Ken Burns' brilliant documentary - 'Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson'. James Earl gets the mixture of pride, amiability and sheer bullheadedness of this peerless showman just right. This country and the world needs fighters and lovers both, both types mingled under the same skin, regardless of the skin type. Jack and Mildred were both, the women and man who loved them were too.

The perception of mixed race couples and marriage is still far from enlightened. Take the case of Bob Jones university that lifted a ban on interracial dating as late as 2000, after a George W Bush visit prompted a media storm. As an international student I observed an overwhelming desire of people to stick to communities of similar ethnic background. It never made sense to me to come to a whole different country and to college - a place for openness and learning - and stick to your own safe umbrella community. Why do people feel the desire to disappear into the anonymity of a crowd of similar looking people anyway? The desire to go out and mingle with different people is a very individualistic one, a very American one. Its strange that it has taken so long to realise this fact in the United States.

This whole presidential campaign is another example of racial narrow mindedness. Why is the media promoting the idea that somehow your race or sex will decide your allegiance? True, they are just regurgitating poll data, but, don't you think their incessant interpretation of data through the prism of race and demographic somehow affects the way we align ourselves. I promote a more personal vote, a more individualistic vote, but also a vote for the good of the community. What I mean by this is - stop thinking of yourself as a member of a demographic but rather as a member of the community at large. In other words, think for yourself by ignoring the media's race/class obsession and start thinking of how your vote will affect all of us. A vote is a civic duty after all is it not?