“Love is Blind” season finale gives Black love a rare win

Everyone was rooting for them. Tweets about the practically perfect pair are particularly breathless, and range from the fanatical (“If Tiffany and Brett don’t get married, love isn’t blind, it’s dead”) to the religious (“God bless them”) to the monarchical (“King and Queen.”).

But why these two? Why have Tiffany and Brett — Brettany? — become a “love conquers all” rallying cry? Other reality shows have produced married couples who’ve survived past the cameras. “Married at First Sight,” “The Bachelor,” heck even “Survivor” can all lay claim to at least a small percentage of long-lasting pairings.

Tiffany and Brett hit different though. Theirs is a Sunday kind of love. Two 30-something professionals who agreed to do something completely bonkers — not in the hopes of becoming internet infamous for a day, but to find a partner they could build a life with. And it worked.

Oh, and they’re Black, a fact that makes their whirlwind romance not just icing on the wedding cake for fans who’ve been clamoring to see themselves reflected on-screen, but validating.

“For me as a Black woman seeing a Black woman getting loved on in a full pure worshipful way by anybody makes my day,” said Tia Williams, the best-selling romance author of “Seven Days in June” and “Love is Blind” fan.

“My feelings are still hurt over the way Megan Thee Stallion was treated. My feelings are still hurt over how Meghan Markle was treated. In this climate where the vitriol against Black woman never seems to cease, it’s lovely to see a Black man fall head over heels in love with us on TV,” said Williams.

Fairy tales, happy endings, Prince Charmings. Often those fantasies, whether on screen or in real life, don’t star people of color as the main characters. Tiffany herself got to the heart of the matter on the show. “I never envisioned this for myself,” said the 37-year-old recruiter, in a pre-wedding interview as she prepared to say “I do” to Brett, a 36-year-old design director at Nike.

Williams called Tiffany and Brett “manna from the heavens” in the crowded field of dysfunctional Black relationships that take up most of our screens. Their relationship — or at least what we see of it — appears healthy and grown-up and built on mutual adoration and respect.

“It’s what I grew up with,” said Williams whose mother and father were featured on OWN’s “Black Love” docuseries. “It’s what I see everyone around me doing. It’s what I know but I never see reflected in media. So images like this are important because it’s that whole cliche — you don’t know something is a thing until you see it in front of you.”

Paul C. Brunson, one of three relationship experts featured on “Married at First Sight UK,” agreed.

“It’s very rare to see an authentic Black love story, so in those moments when it happens we cherish it,” said Brunson.

Typically, he added, Black love stories are squeezed into a specific storyline. “It’s usually some version of unhealthy toxic ratchet-type love.”

Brett and Tiffany broke out of that box, and immediately the “Love is Blind” cottage industry of social media sleuths recognized the couple as a breath of fresh air. Rikkii Wise is one such creator. She started her TikTok account last fall to document her dating life, and her “Love is Blind” recaps and deep dives into who’s still together (or had a secret baby) quickly took off.

“Brett and Tiffany are the first strong healthy Black couple. We like to see those stereotypes challenged. It’s not always toxic. We see ourselves in them and that’s why we’re so excited because we don’t see a lot of that,” said Wise. She hopes that after this season Netflix will realize that “it’s okay to have more than one Black couple per season.”

From his vantage point on the other side of the camera, Brunson sees the problem as many-layered. One of the first hurdles is a lack of diversity at the production companies that develop the myriad dating shows that exist today. Then add the same issue at the network executive level and at the casting companies that scour the country for the singles who make it on screen.

“What happens is that they don’t realize the power of having an authentic Black love story until it happens, and once it happens the franchise will change forever,” said Brunson.

Fans have been complaining loudly about the lack of diversity on the show since it premiered during the height of the pandemic. That first experimental go-round brought together fan favorite Lauren Speed, a Black woman, and Cameron Hamilton, a White man. But even Speed, who hosts a podcast about the show, has criticized how the show treats Black women, who rarely make it to the altar.

“I don’t like how LIB be cutting all the black women. How come they are always in the trailer but not the show,” Speed tweeted last October during the show’s third season, which featured one disastrous Black couple, Raven and SK. Speed pointed to how women of color are usually represented in the initial pool of singles, but once it’s time to pop the question they’re nowhere to be found. Not so this season for Tiffany and Brett.

The power of showing a Black love story from start to finish — despite the microwaved timeline — cannot be understated. Cliche or not, representation matters, say experts and fans of the show and the romance genre in general. Seeing yourself reflected in the media you consume is important because it helps validate your very existence.

“There’s something that’s just great about seeing Black people in love. How do you even explain it? It just brings joy to Black people when there isn’t a whole lot out there to bring that same kind of joy,” said Jessica P. Pryde, editor of the romance anthology “Black Love Matters: Real Talk on Romance, Being Seen, and Happily Ever Afters.”

She described it as “that moment where we get to take a deep breathe and sigh in happiness because something right is happening for someone like us.”

Love is essential, said Pryde. “It’s something that we need as humans,” she added. And it shifts the culture in more ways than one. Pryde recalled a well-known anecdote told by veteran romance writer Beverly Jenkins. Early in her career Jenkins was approached by a White reader at a book signing. “She came up to her and said ‘I didn’t know that Black people fell in love the same way we did,’’” recalled Pryde.

“It’s mostly for us, but it’s also for them to see that we are normal people,” said Pryde. “We need love. We need joy. We need partnership. We need happiness.”