Why An Interracial Couple Emigrated From the U.S.
What’s your definition of “Home”?
Here’s one I found in a random Google search:
“A home is a place of refuge. A person’s most personal belongings are kept in a home and it’s where a person feels safe and accepted. To create a home requires an emotional connection and sense of belonging, not physical things.”
Safe and accepted. A sense of belonging.
Isn’t that what we all want?
It’s certainly what this week’s guest wants, yet she and her husband felt compelled to leave the country to get it.
Happy Anniversary…
Elizabeth Silleck LaRue is a consultant for environmental justice and conservation organizations, an attorney, and a gifted writer. She is white.
Her husband, Wes, is a media producer who creates promotional content for clients, as well as independent work on issues of racial justice. He is Black.
Like most couples, they looked forward to celebrating their first wedding anniversary. A simple walk on a Florida beach.
Only it wasn’t quite so simple.
Elizabeth’s essay on Medium chronicles what happened that day, and how it played into the couple’s decision to leave their home country — in search of “Home”.
A place where they feel safe, accepted and have a sense of belonging.
A Search for Peace
The United States does not keep track of emigration, but following the 2016 election, there was an uptick in the number of Americans wanting to leave.
Of course, there are all sorts of reasons why people choose to live in another country.
Sometimes it’s about work. Sometimes it’s about adventure. And sometimes it’s about a search for something else.
This is the story of one couple’s search for peace and autonomy.
Their journey to find it provides a teachable moment in the midst of our national conversation about race, humanity and what matters.