If you watch any television whatsoever, in the last few weeks, you've seen the commercial for the upcoming film Valentine's Day which opens this weekend to a sea of white women crushing on the idea of starry-eyed love. It's not that black women don't harbor the same sentimental longing for a love unlimited, but from what I glean only the who's who of white Hollywood (and the ambiguous Jessica Alba) are depicted as googly eyed love birds. If it helps, however, Jamie Foxx plays a comedic news correspondent of color that gets to report on the anglo-geneous love that springs eternal around him.
Granted, black people don't look to Hollywood for accurate or meaningful reflections of our lives and certainly not our love. But a movie about Valentine's Day that's so blatantly absent of color does make for some good head scratching. So in a search of perspective on Valentine's Day, as it pertains to black people, I went trolling the web . And what I found was amazingly lame. After entering a flurry of different keywords, my search produced a freakin' press release. That's it. A press release.

Somewhat dismayed, I decided I might as well delve deeper into my finding, the press release. Blackpeoplemeet.com , which has emerged to be the online dating go-to site for many African American singles, recently polled 1,700 of their members on their feelings about the "romantic holiday". When posed the question of "Valentine's Day is a reason to...", the breakdown went something like this:

-- 63 percent -- Go about my normal routine
-- 15 percent -- Get a date, any date
-- 12 percent -- Indulge in my favorite vice
-- 5 percent -- Hide in a concrete bunker
-- 4 percent -- Work overtime

In addition, their poll found that single black men are more than twice as likely as women to see Valentine's Day as a reason to go on a date. "It looks like Valentine's Day is a case where perception is not reality, at least for single Black folks," said Ron Worthy, Executive Director of BlackPeopleMeet.com. "Still, it's telling that black men are out there looking for love at twice the rate of black women."

That actually makes sense. I'm painting with a broad brush, but there are many single men, who are simply on the make and see the day as one that is less about expressing valentines and more about exploiting vulnerabilities. Ladies, be leery. And this concludes the Steve Harvey portion of the program. Single women, on the other hand, are simply trying to resist the act of going postal and shooting teddy bears in the face that belong to female co-workers who ooh and ahh over the obligatory flowers and gifts they receive from their significant others. It's a real show. We've all seen it.

And therein lies the problem. The success of Valentine's Day, both commercially and emotionally, hinges on the need for women to feel validated and valued, chosen and cherished. It's a bit of a con that a lot of women aren't falling for. For others, it's the ultimate chick flick, except for it being real and unscripted. And, unlike the movie Valentine's Day, it's as diverse as it can be diluted at times. The trick is making the next 364 days just as, if not more, important and meaningful than the 14th of February. That's my two cents.