Juliet Can’t Be With Romeo

The story of Romeo and Juliet has been done to death

Hasn’t it?

From Greek mythology to movies

The storyline is predictable

But a modern twist piques an interest

Audiences can’t resist

Making this classic timeless

What if I told you this tragic love story is even more common than you think?

It’s average people who fall for each other

It’s rarely television screen actors

It’s the girl next door that knows her parents wouldn’t approve of the boy she wants to date

Because of the skin color, he was given by fate

She keeps the relationship on the low

Making sure to keep her story straight and each of her ducks in a row

Her father taught her to be polite to black people

But told her to never be one’s wife because “They are not our kind!”

She knows if she brings a black boy home,

Both her parents will punish her beyond what’s sensible  

She lacks melanin-

Born of European descent

As a result, her parents think they’re better than the people of blackened skin

His veins must be coursing with something near demonic

His intentions are destined to be horrific as an adolescent of color in America

Up against a white man-

The courthouses don’t listen

If only her mother and father, along with all the others, saw the boy’s soul

If only they weren’t so shallow

They’d see the pureness of his complexion too

They’d see how his actions are good and not those of a douche

They’d see the amount of motivation he has to better himself and the Earth

But they glance at him only to see his skin and the fact that his hair isn’t straight as a pin

Unfortunately, all her parents see is a soon to be criminal that’s only stalling the police

The two know they’re soulmates

But the relationship will never work for the little girl who froths over her parents’ approval

The realization of never being able to love one another takes its toll on them  

The feeling- comparable to death

Because their eyes will never meet again

With the understanding of the unsaid

Days will be spent where they wish they had never met

Sleeping in their bed trying their best to forget what the other meant

Their parents wonder why they’re so upset

Eventually, the girl tells why she hasn’t felt her usual self

She says she has found someone that loves her

She then tells the mother and father that snarl racially charged remarks each afternoon with grandeur the only problem he has to offer:

The fact that his skin is too many shades darker

She braces her emotions and body for unsightly things such as brash words and bodily harm

But neither of those come to haunt her

To say she’s surprised is an understatement

Her parents hate to see her like such a mess

They tell her it will take time to come around to accept her boyfriend and his family but they are willing to try anything

All they want is their daughter to be happy

They want to see her smiling

This is a modern Romeo and Juliet

Without Montagues and Capulets

Without actual death

But in the end, two young lovers who stopped the hatred their families had for one another