Roxie Roker made television history as Helen Willis on The Jeffersons, one of the first Black women shown as part of an ordinary interracial marriage on network TV.
What most viewers didn’t know was that she was already living that story.
Years earlier, she had married Sy Kravitz, a white Jewish television producer. They wed in 1962, when interracial couples still faced open hostility.
Their son, Lenny Kravitz, would grow up to become a rock star, but the early years were hard. Lenny has talked about people spitting at his parents in public and places that refused to welcome them.
Even Sy’s own parents struggled with the relationship—Roxie was both Black and not Jewish—and skipped the wedding.
Things shifted after Lenny was born. His grandparents met Roxie, got to know her, and eventually grew close to her. The two families that once stayed apart became connected through their grandson.
When Norman Lear offered Roxie the role of Helen Willis, he worried the interracial storyline might be too controversial for her. Instead of a long explanation, she reached into her purse and handed him a photo of her own wedding.
She had already been living the part for more than a decade.
As her granddaughter Zoë Kravitz has said, Roxie wasn’t trying to make a statement for its own sake.
She was simply telling the truth of her life. Sometimes the most powerful change on screen starts with someone who is already living it. ❤️
This is actually the second website to say this shit to me! The other being newgrounds! Luckily it was under any post that was pornographic. But what if I all of a sudden were to post art like that? Does that mean I'll be banned from newgrounds? These laws are stupid!
This is ridiculous! It's a social media site!!! What are FL government officials afraid of exactly?! If it's because of children, punish them not full grown adults that want to use a site! And the fact that it's promoting me to delete my account! Fuck you!
Def Leppard need your help! Dodge the obstacles across Los Angeles and help get “Leppard” to the Walk of Fame ceremony. Be sure to submit your score to see if you can climb to the top of the leaderboard!
Play now at https://t.co/3piwo2bE4l
I love how they wanna ban #tiktok because of "data" collecting issues and what not but ignore that #google is one of the biggest corporations that sell our data on an everyday basis, oh, and let's not forget #meta sites like #instagram and #facebook...
Coca-Cola's new, entirely AI-generated holiday spot is being slammed by fans as "slop," "embarrassing," and "creepy": "This is such slop." https://t.co/ZNGUwCjhCF
Photograph/Rock Of Ages - Def Leppard
Too Much Time On My Hands/Renegade - Styx
Rock You Like A Hurricane - Scorpions
Bring Me To Life - Evanescence
Welcome To The Black Parade - MCR
Pretty Fly For A White Guy - The Offspring
Higher - Creed
Go Wherever You Go - The Calling