So CNN put Roland Martin on suspension for his homophobic Superbowl tweets.
Good, but pardon me for not dancing in the streets. I used to like Martin but gradually I began to peg him as another one of those phony leaders in the African-American community.
I'm talking about the type who are always talking about being the voice of the black community or coming out with something they call "The State of Black America."
What they actually mean is that they are the voice of the heterosexual black community and that "State of Black America" seems to always omit the lgbtq community of color.
Don't get me wrong though. They always come around to us when its National HIV Testing Day. God forbid that they would have to acknowledge that we have lives having nothing to do with catching diseases. Or that many of us are highly successful and are raising children. Or - gasp and swoon - many of us attending affirming churches.
And they definitely won't talk about issues such as the recent one involving the brutal gay bashing of that young man, 20-year-old Brandon White:
The sad thing is not Martin's tweet, it's the fact that he and lot of other black leaders will probably ignore this incident, even though it is the symptom of a degree of ugliness in the black community.
If it were a black man attacked by a group of whites, there would have been a huge ado. If it were a straight black man attacked by other black men, then we would hear about how awful it is that young black men are killing each other.
But because it was a gay black man, there seems to be a sad silence. And please don't think that it's not deliberate.
It is deliberate.
And it's something that me and my lgbtq brothers and sisters are used to. You see, if we were heterosexual, Martin and so many other black leaders in the public eye would use their platforms to lift us up. However because we are lgbtqs of color, they use their platforms to hold us down and out of sight.
Good, but pardon me for not dancing in the streets. I used to like Martin but gradually I began to peg him as another one of those phony leaders in the African-American community.
I'm talking about the type who are always talking about being the voice of the black community or coming out with something they call "The State of Black America."
What they actually mean is that they are the voice of the heterosexual black community and that "State of Black America" seems to always omit the lgbtq community of color.
Don't get me wrong though. They always come around to us when its National HIV Testing Day. God forbid that they would have to acknowledge that we have lives having nothing to do with catching diseases. Or that many of us are highly successful and are raising children. Or - gasp and swoon - many of us attending affirming churches.
And they definitely won't talk about issues such as the recent one involving the brutal gay bashing of that young man, 20-year-old Brandon White:
The sad thing is not Martin's tweet, it's the fact that he and lot of other black leaders will probably ignore this incident, even though it is the symptom of a degree of ugliness in the black community.
If it were a black man attacked by a group of whites, there would have been a huge ado. If it were a straight black man attacked by other black men, then we would hear about how awful it is that young black men are killing each other.
But because it was a gay black man, there seems to be a sad silence. And please don't think that it's not deliberate.
It is deliberate.
And it's something that me and my lgbtq brothers and sisters are used to. You see, if we were heterosexual, Martin and so many other black leaders in the public eye would use their platforms to lift us up. However because we are lgbtqs of color, they use their platforms to hold us down and out of sight.
2 comments:
SO TRUE. People have no clue how hard it is to be both black and gay. It's especially hard because your own people are fighting against you harder than the mainstream, anti-gay white community is. And of course they say it's for religious reasons but if it were, there would be no need for the hate.
It breaks my heart to see what this young man has gone through, and the grace that he has in handling it.
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