Jack and Renée: The Swirl Enters John McCain’s Family

Farbeit for me to support grampy McCain in any shape or form, but hey, if they love each other, nothing is going to stand in their way; from left to right, Jack, Renee, Cindy, and Senator John McCain (Courtesy: People)

Well, the Swirl works both ways. And what is the Swirl? An interracial marriage, typically between blacks and whites.

On Saturday, as quiet as it was kept, John McCain’s son, John McCain IV (known as Jack), tied the knot with Renée Swift, his long-time girlfriend at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. The wedding was attended by not only all of the McCain family but interestingly, some of McCain’s political advisers—and of all people—Mitt Romney, probably trying to figure out first hand what hoodoo/net/trap/drug inducement sista must have sprung to nab this scion of an American political family (some say he crashed the wedding without an invite, go figure). What’s in my mind as I write this? The fascinated little Romney grandson who naturally gravitated to President Obama at one of the debates and had to be literally pulled away against his little will from the enemy. Remember that? Let Mormon bishop bully Romney further contemplate this event, but I digress. From the Washington Post:

Jack McCain, son of Senator John McCain of Arizona married his Air Force sweetheart, Renee Swift over the weekend at San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral (Courtesy: People)

Married: Jack McCain, 27, and Renee Swift, 29, in San Francisco Saturday night. It was a big family wedding for the fifth of Sen. John McCain’s seven children, a Navy lieutenant and helicopter pilot currently stationed in Guam.

His bride, a Bay Area native, is an Air Force Reserve captain, whom he met when she was also sent to Guam. All the McCain kids were there for the ceremony at Grace Cathedral and reception at the California Academy of Sciences. Washington guests included McCain 2008 campaign manager Rick Davis and campaign adviser Charlie Black. Mitt Romney attended the rehearsal dinner at the Fairmont Hotel Friday night (and posed for a photo with Meghan McCain, who live-tweeted some of the weekend’s festivities). After a honeymoon in Africa, McCain will return for another deployment in Guam.

Some commenters are saying that this proves that Republicans aren’t racists. Yeah, right. I remember the controversy around Bridget, his Bangladeshi daughter, when he was running in 2008. That she was black, that she was an outside daughter from one of McCain’s conquests, and etc. (Frankly, I thought that all that was effed up, and I’m sure Bridget was also used as a sign to black folks that he wasn’t prejudiced, but what a stupid way of showing it.) I am sure that sista was probably vetted, and that there were a lot of “are you sures” on his side as well as hers. They’ve been together for a long while, probably a little after Jack was posted to Guam in 2009.

Frankly, the Armed Forces are a bit more egalitarian than you think these days. Yes, there are the scandals. However, seen in another perspective, people mix socially far more in the military than they would in their hometowns and cities where the suburbs naturally are class- and race- segregated and people have go with the flow. Once they’re free from the old hometown peer pressure, shazzam!

A McCain family group photo with John and Cindy McCain, Jack and Renee McCain, Bridget McCain, Meghan McCain and Jimmy McCain (Courtesy: AnandTech)

A McCain family group photo with John and Cindy McCain, Jack and Renee McCain, and Bridget, Meghan, and Jimmy McCain (Courtesy: AnandTech)

Result: there have been a lot of interracial marriages coming out of the military. One article I read about this trend in the late 1980s and early 1990s said that some white guys were mad to date and marry women of color, particularly black women, in places like San Diego, where there is a big Navy installation, and at Camp Pendleton, also in San Diego County, and a big Marine base which is close to Oceanside. Not only civilian women, but women in the military.

Even though she’s a captain in the reserves, Renée may outrank her husband. A captain is a captain. I’m sure one of these days we’ll read about her family. I’m sure we’ll read about how Jack and Renée met, interacted, dated, and realized that they had found each other. I’m sure it was pretty natural; in other words, no hoodoo, just the real deal between this man and this woman.

Who knows? House Speaker John Boehner, I’ve heard, gave his daughter recently to Jamaican-born construction worker Dominic Lakhan who smokes ganja, gets a buzz from booze and has dreads all down his back. The bride and groom are in their mid- to late-thirties, so their eyes are supposedly wide open. I’m sure Boehner must have felt that his karma had caught up with him, because Lakhan has been arrested for possession of weed, and Boehner is adamant about not legalizing it.

Christelyn Karazin over at Beyond Black and White, and co-author of the book, Swirling, was pretty enthused about this development:

But on a global scale, this merging is of considerable note. Black women are OFFICIALLY on the radar for viable mates, worthy of marriage, provision and protection, by men other than black, despite what the GAT-DL would like for us to believe. And with every high-profile marriage we read about and gawk over, there’s one more rainbeau out there who has now put “Yolanda” on his radar. And someplace else, “Yolanda” is now putting “Adam” on her’s.

Mark my words, friends. The next half-decade to come is going to look VERY, VERY different for black women, and I mean that is a good way. Our stock is rising in the circles of the rich, powerful, and influential–too bad it had to rise outside of the black community, who basically tells many of us that we’re ugly and worthless. Meh…whateva!!!

Well, just because this sista got lucky with the ducats (and that still remains to be seen with marriages and divorces going 50-50 in this country), it doesn’t always mean that our stock as black women as a whole is rising. Renée most probably shares Jack’s conservative politics, and for that I would probably give her the fisheye, not because she’s married to a white guy whose last name happens to be McCain. And would I want to see a sista married to a child of one of the Koch brothers, the ones who bankrolled a number of GOP politicians including our very own Scott Walker here in Sconnie, and who have recently strong-armed their way into controlling what is showing on PBS? The kinds of rich people who exploit other people? No, thank you. That’s not a vision that I would relish of black women, as it were, moving on up. To me, it is always what is within, and perhaps Jack saw something, that lovely light Renée had, that he didn’t see with other women.

If this is love, well and good. If Jack loves Renée enough to marry her, to respect her, and to bring up generations, this is wonderful. Go where your heart is; that’s the most important thing. Be happy.