On LZ Granderson’s “Gay is Not the New Black”
Posted by Kenyon on July 17, 2009 · 6 Comments
This piece just ran on CNN.com by Black gay journalist LZ Granderson. I am totally shocked CNN ran it. Granderson’s central point is illustrated here:
Despite the catchiness of the slogan, gay is not the new black.
Black is still black.
And if any group should know this, it’s the gay community.
Bars such as The Prop House, or Bulldogs in Atlanta, Georgia, exist because a large number of gay blacks — particularly those who date other blacks, and live in the black community — do not feel a part of the larger gay movement. There are Gay Pride celebrations, and then there are Black Gay Prides.
There’s a popular bar in the heart of the nation’s capital that might as well rename itself Antebellum, because all of the white patrons tend to stay upstairs and the black patrons are on the first floor. Last year at the annual Human Rights Campaign national fundraiser in Washington, D.C. — an event that lasted more than three hours — the only black person to make it on stage was the entertainment.
When Proposition 8 passed in California, white gays were quick to blame the black community despite blacks making up less than 10 percent of total voters and whites being close to 60 percent. At protest rallies that followed, some gay blacks reported they were even hit with racial epithets by angry white participants. Not to split hairs, but for most blacks, the n-word trumps the f-word.
I like that this piece continues to do, as myself, Jasmyne Cannick and others have been doing for the last several years, to continue to raise the issue of racism within the gay community. And I am happy that more of us are able to access mass media to break intervene in the hegemony of gay politics. But, I think there are two places where I depart from Granderson. One, Granderson suggests that there are no Black LGBT folks who are unhappy with Obama. I think there are Black LGBT folks who have critiques of Obama, but are very different critiques from what are raised by the mainstream LGBT Movement. I think that there is a way in which Obama, and everything his restoration of Black masculinity and Black family values he represents, implicitly supports and encourages heterosexism & homophobia in the Black community. For me, this is as critical as an end to DOMA or the HIV travel ban.
Also Granderson goes onto say that
The 40th anniversary of Stonewall dominated Gay Pride celebrations around the country, and while that is certainly a significant moment that should be recognized, 40 years is nothing compared with the 400 blood-soaked years black people have been through in this country. There are stories some blacks lived through, stories others were told by their parents and stories that never had a chance to be told…While those who were at Stonewall talk about the fear of being arrested by police, 40 years ago, blacks talked about the fear of dying at the hands of police and not having their bodies found or murder investigated.
I think rather than using Stonewall as a moment separate and apart from historical structural Black oppression, I think Granderson misreads the racial and sexual/gendered dynamics of police oppression of queers that led to the Stonewall Riots, and factually misses who was present, or that police don’t or did not, actually kill queers, and that the spectre of that kind of violence wasn’t also especially targeted at Black queers–we still see that to this day, as last year black transgender woman Duanna Johnson was beaten by Memphis police officers while handcuffed in the precinct, and was later shot to death after filing for a lawsuit against the Memphis Police Department. Granderson could have actually talked about the way this history has been re-cast as white and bourgeois, and as a natural pre-cursor to same-sex marriage and military inclusion fights, rather than actually being in direct opposition to the current LGBT movement projects. In fact, it was widely rumored after Stonewall that the Black Panthers and/or Students for a Democratic Society had been behind the riots. While proven untrue, it was clear that the powers that be saw Stonewall as part of the radical black power, anti-imperialist and feminist movements, rather than assimilationist.
So while we have to continue to push and challenge racism in mainstream LGBT politics, we also need to be critical of the Obama Administration, and not allow for racist and revisionist history to obscure and de-value radical politics of Stonewall.
The original article, and your thoughts on it, are the two best pieces I’ve seen on the gay movement in years! The Stonewall riots paved the way for a generation, including myself, to be bold and out and not ashamed. The Stonewall “leaders” were not the HRC leadership types more comfortable with endorsing Republican Gordon Smith (OR) for Senate than confronting his racist treatment of largely latino workers at this frozen food plants. Thank you very much for speaking the truth.
I think that there needs to be a shedding of the light when it comes to racism in the lgbt community but there also needs to be a shedding of the light when it comes to homophobia in the black community with as much vigor.
Mr. Granderson’s piece unfortunately became faulty when he started playing the “our pain is greater than yours” game. Because of the way he chose to address the Stonewall riots, his piece was diminished.
The fact that he chose to do this does beg the question are those who assail the lgbt community for racism as equally willing to not cut the black community slack for homophobia?
Sexual preference is a personal issue. whoever advocate homosexuality is their personal business. i am not to judge. However, it is my God-given right to believe as I should. If I choose not to believe in homosexuality, then I have that right. Giving that a society has been wiped off the face of the earth because of it.. I am not hostile against a person because he/she choose to believe otherwise. I deal with individuals before I deal with groups. As a man there are many men that I love, hugged, and have kissed. But that love and those hugs and kisses has their place. Just like the love and those hugs and kisses do among my family members. I keep my feelings in check according to my fear in GOD. If a person is gay, that is too much information that I need to know. I love a person for who they are not what they are. However, I do have the right to choose who I associate with according to what I believe in. Doing business with a gay is just what it is “business” nothing more and nothing less.
Hypothetically speaking, If I was gay, I would care less how one would perceive me. But I am not, I’m black. I’m Muslim and I’m a descendant of the African American slaves and the same holds true for what I am.
Much love to those who get and may God help those who don’t………
Barack Obama will go down as one of the most white supremacist presidents since Woodrow Wilson, possibly since Reconstruction. His affection for certain Talented Tenthers aside, he has no problems targeting Black men who denounce oppression and using the military/CIA against people of color worldwide… all to support his friends on Wall Street. He may be pals with “Skip” Gates, but he has nothing - absolutely NOTHING - to offer LGBTQers, Blacks, anyone concerned with social and economic justice, or even Muslims like you, Ahmad Abutariq. The 2008 “election” was between Marlboro Man McCain and Menthol Cool Barack… and supporters of Cynthia McKinney or Ralph Nader (or folks who just sat it out) could see that the Demoblicans and Republocrats both pushing the same poison with different packaging for different demographics and market niches. Just look at the “healthcare reform debate”… what a joke. Dems like Charlie Rangel pick up the gavel on condition they drop support for single-payer. Barack hands out $13.7 trillion (TRILLION) to the banks. More occupation for Iraq, more war for Afghanistan and Pakistan, more death for Palestine. Racism, capitalism, sexism, homophobia. That’s Barack Obama: a black man in a $3,000 suit. Classy. Literally, CLASSy. Just the wrong CLASS. Don’t fall for it.
I personally believe that although people within the gay community are considered to be faggots and dykes by broader society nothing within the gay community has changed their fundamental philosophy of race and colour in this nation. White gay men still have the psychological, social and economic thinking of a traditional white man, which is why gay marriage is seen on the news and in the media more than other important issues such as affordable housing and health care, which of course affects (and has always in the United States and Great Britain) racial minorities, i.e. blacks and Latinos.
White men don’t like being mistreated for being gay but they also have lost their social standing in a ‘’white’’ ‘’male’’, ‘’Christian’’, ‘’conservative’’ and ‘’heterosexual’’ society and therefore are upset at losing this social status which is fundamental to who a person is treated and viewed socially as an adult in the United States and to a lesser extend Great Britain.
Homosexuality is still a taboo topic especially regarding male homosexuality and anal intercourse between them and it is an utter shame that we live in a hateful society filled with religious monsters and bigots which will only divide the gay community if we allow it to divide us! But the article is absolutely correct that being a black man and being a gay man are two different things, but the discrimination and hatred from mainstream society throughout the world is so parallel that it is appalling and ghastly. What is the fundamental difference between Emmitt Till and Matt Sherpard, only that one was based on racism in this country and the other homophobia. The murders were the same, the ghastly hatred was the shame, the fear was the same, and the sadness from the families was the same, what’s the fundamental difference, think about it!
I think as a gay community we need to understand that we are a diverse community and with that comes different views about race, colour, sexuality and morality. It is important to understand these differences and not allow ourselves to become the same as the broader community in which we have all been rejected from!
I got the link for this article from ESPN. LZ writes for them, too.
I am not gay. I do not agree with the mistreatment of gays, or people of color. It is simply wrong. Live your life, and I will live mine. We should coexist, and share mutual respect.
With that said, I offer a few thoughts…
Get over yourselves. Be gay. Most heterosexuals don’t care what you do, or how you live. Pay your taxes, then die, Luke the rest of us.
400 years? Really? Just stop. I never owned a slave, and never will. I have no “white guilt”. I will offer up no politically correct apology. Bad thing have happened to people on this planet for thousands of years. I don’t hear Kanye West rapping about the Holocaust when I turn on my radio. If you really want the 40 acres and a mule, I’ll see what I can do. Just stop your grandstanding for attention.
I give everyone the respect they deserve…until they show that they are undeserving. Join the party, or get your coats on and leave.