Hollywood (and All that Jazz)

[FreeState]

http://www.bilerico.com/2009/04/hollywood_and_all_that_jazz.php

..snip...


Dark Or White Meat?
Black-on-Black racism can have a powerful and driving influence on whom African-Americans (of any sexual orientation) pursue romantically and sexually. Last year, Chong-suk Han's "They Don't Want to Cruise Your Type: Gay Men of Color and the Racial Politics of Exclusion" for the journal Social Identities examined this mindset.

"The primacy of white images in the gay community often leads to detrimental results for gay men of color, particularly manifested as internalized racism. In "No Blacks Allowed," Keith Boykin argues that "in a culture that devalues Black males and elevates white males," Black men deal with issues of self-hatred that white men do not. "After all," he notes, "white men have no reason to hate themselves in a society that reinforces their privilege."

Han continued. "Boykin argues that this racial self-hatred makes gay Black men see other gay Black men as unsuitable sexual partners. Obviously, such racial self-hatred rarely manifests itself as such. Instead, gay Black men who don't want to date other Black men simply rely on stereotypes to justify their behavior rather than confront their own self-hatred." For example, Boykin notes that most of these men justify excluding other Black men as potential partners by relying on old stereotypes of the uneducated, less intelligent Black male.

He went further. "Ironically, the same Black men who rely on these stereotypes to exclude members of their own race rarely enforce them on gay white men, as evidenced by Boykin's example of the gay Black man who has no problem with dating blue-collar white men, but excludes Black men on the assumption that they are 'uneducated and less successful than he is.'"

Han concluded, "What's worse is that not only do gay Black men fail to see each other as sexual partners, white men also ignore them. In such an environment, Black men compete with each other for the elusive white male partner."


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This is a long blog post that is both fascinating and a wake up call. I think its vital as a movement that we embrace all the diversity in the gay community - be it racial, religious or political differences we all must band together for a better world.

[NorthernSpy]

1. A black gay man asks: "Is Gay Marriage Anti-Black?"

I can see why some might like to believe that The Problem all boils down to black homophobia and black gays rejecting each other ("black on black racism"). But Kenyon Farrow sees it differently:

(...) I also think the white gay community’s supposed “understanding” of racism is what has caused them to appropriate language and ideology of the Black Civil Rights Movement, which has led to the bitter divide between the two communities. This is where I as a Black gay man, am forced to intervene in a debate that I find problematic on all sides.

Black Community and Gay Community – Natural Allies or Sworn Enemies?

As the gay community moved more to the right in the 1990’s, they also began to talk about Gay Rights as Civil Rights. Even today in this gay marriage debate, I have heard countless well-groomed, well-fed white gays and lesbians on TV referring to themselves as “second-class citizens.” Jason West, the white mayor of New Paltz, NY, who started marrying gay couples (to the dismay of New York Governor Pataki) was quoted as saying, “The same people who don’t want to see gays and lesbians get married are the same people who would have made Rosa Parks go to the back of the bus.” It’s these comparisons that piss Black people off. While the anger of Black heteros is sometimes expressed in ways that are in fact homophobic, the truth of the matter is that Black folks are tired of seeing other people hijack their shit for their own gains, and getting nothing in return. Black non-heteros share this anger of having our Blackness and Black political rhetoric and struggle stolen for other people’s gains. The hijacking of Rosa Parks for their campaigns clearly ignores the fact that white gays and lesbians who lived in Montgomery, AL and elsewhere probably gladly made many a Black person go to the back of the bus. James Baldwin wrote in his long essay “No Name in the Street” about how he was felt up by a white sheriff in a small southern town when on a visit during the civil rights era.

These comparisons of “Gay Civil Rights” as equal to “Black Civil Rights” really began in the early 1990’s, and largely responsible for this was Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and a few other mostly-white gay organizations. This push from HRC, without any visible Black leadership or tangible support from Black allies (straight and queer), to equate these movements did several things: 1) Piss off the Black community for the white gay movement’s cultural appropriation, and making the straight Black community question non-hetero Black people’s allegiances, resulting in our further isolation. 2) Giving the (white) Christian Right ammunition to build relationships with Black ministers to denounce gay rights from their pulpits based on the HRC’s cultural appropriation. 3) Create a scenario in their effort to go mainstream that equates gay and lesbian with upper-class and white. This meant that the only visibility of non-hetero poor people and people of color wound up on Jerry Springer, where non-heteros who are poor and of color are encouraged (and paid) to act out, and are therefore only represented as dishonest, violent, and pathological.

So, given this difficult history and problematic working relationship of the Black community and the gay community, how can the gay community now, at its most crucial hour, expect large scale support of same-sex marriage by the Black community when there has been no real work done to build strategic allies with us? A new coalition has formed of Black people, non-hetero and hetero, to promote same-sex marriage equality to the Black community, and I assume to effectively bridge that disconnect, and to in effect, say that gay marriage ain’t just a white thing. Or is it?

More at http://kenyonfarrow.com/2005/06/14/is-gay-marriage-anti-black/

[FreeState]

2. That was not my point nor do I think it was the point of the author of the blog

"I can see why some might like to believe that The Problem all boils down to black homophobia and black gays rejecting each other ("black on black racism"). But Kenyon Farrow sees it differently:"

I don think the original bog post I quoted tried to blame black on black homophobia solely on black on black racism. I read the whole blog post as a statement on both homophobia and racism in and out of the GLBT community (with it's root cause being white racism of black gays) and its effects on black gay men (the author is a black gay man). I did not see it as a post on blame but rather observation.

I also dont think Kenyon Farrow is correct in his assessment. While he has some good point - because there is certainly more work to be done - I dont buy his assessment that there was no black leadership in the gay rights movement in the 60s, 70 and 80's or early 90's just because HRC was so white. See: http://contexts.org/socimages/2009/04/07/images-from-early-gay-rights-movement/. Most gays would agree that HRC hardly makes up the gay rights movement - despite their marketing. In the 80's and early 90's Act Up was much more involved than HRC could have ever dreamed of. Even on DU to this day the vast majority of GLBT posters have very little respect for HRC in the whole (there are parts that are praise worthy but they fall far from where most gays I know would like them to be).

Out of all the helpful things in the article why did you chose to highlight the most contentious part and not even comment on it? What are your views on it? Do you feel its fair to say that gays are trying to "hijack their shit for their own gains"? If so how? I'd be curious to see some GLBT persons of color comment on what they think of that as well (as Farrow points out GLBT black's have a different experience). If you do feel that gays are trying to claim something that is not ours how do you feel we should go about changing the attitudes of GLBT persons of all colors so as to bring all sides together?

[Chovexani]

3. Oh, for fuck's sake.

No one said a goddamn thing about The Problem (whatever the fuck that is) in the OP. The subject was about how internalized racism can manifest among black gay men, and if you've ever actually hung out with any for any length of time, you'd understand people are not just making shit up in an attempt to shift blame on fucking marriage quality of all things. This is a legitimate issue worthy of discussion, either discuss it or kindly return to your bridge, because you're looking hungry and I heard about some tasty goats that might be crossing it soon.

[Vanje]

4. Northern Spy

Heres an answer:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=221&topic_id=125849&mesg_id=126404

(shouldn't you be out on a boat somewhere in the open ocean, shooting at fish stealers?)