When I was living in SC from 2014-2017 (waiting on the husband to retire from his "gument" job), I went to an Umar Johnson event during which he spewed his thoughts on interracial marriage. After listening for more than a minute --I left because I knew he did not speak for me. I've been married interracially for 42 and a 1/2 years to a society-identified white guy who says, he's Italian (I directed him to Mr. James Baldwin's, "On Being White and Other Lies" long ago). Listening to Umar, I knew he had no clue how I could be pro-Black while married thus, because the two are not mutually exclusive.

For us, marriage was not, as you say, a political decision. It was purely romantic, based on a shared vision of HUMANITY. His "whiteness" afforded me absolutely NO opportunities as we both served in the Navy in different languages (as a matter of fact, it proved detrimental early on, when it was time for new orders for each of us -- making sure we'd have to be stationed separately, despite other couples with children, not having to share that same fate for whom concessions were made).

While I hate our labelling based on the folk we choose, I still believe I'm way more Pan-Africanist than Umar.