Own Up To Our Actions

November 4th, 2008 proved to be a bittersweet day for me. One filled with great triumph and celebration ... and also disappointment, hurt and anger.

Any Black person not living on another planet is aware that on November 4th of 2008 our United States of America elected its first Black president. An extraordinary culmination of persevered strength and struggle that spans centuries, an essential step toward the maturation of this nation's soul.

A Black man in the White house is no minor feat; it is a historic accomplishment worthy of all the media attention and the deluge of accolades, praise and celebration, that have been virtually non-stop since the door to the last voting booth slammed shut and Mr. Obama was declared our President Elect.

I’d be telling a lie if I said I was anything other than proud of my Black people and what we were able to help get accomplished.

But unfortunately, as a Black gay man I am equally saddened, hurt and extremely disappointed by the Black community's negative response to the gay-centered ballot initiatives that were up for vote in several states across the country. My Black people – yes they of infamous historic legal persecution -- voted in overwhelming numbers to legally deny important rights to an entire segment of our society. Rights that they themselves hold dear and are allowed to practice.

In California, Arizona and Florida it was about the right to legally marry the person you love.

In Arkansas it was about the right to be able to raise a family of your choice.

In each of these instances the Black community, inexplicably, rejected fairness and equality for their GLBT brethren.

And as I said, as a Black gay brother, that shit really hurt.

My bruised feelings, however, pail in comparison to my outrage at the lame excuses I have had to suffer from some of my fellow Black lgbts apologists in their attempts to explain away our community's shameful response on election day.

I swear, If I have to hear one more Black gay person try to defend the Black mainstream community's blatantly hypocritical, oxymoronic, equal-rights denying slap in the face to their gay brothers and sisters as a failure of WHITE PEOPLE (mainstream gay rights movement) to reach out to Black people, I am going to fucking scream until my tonsils burst into flame. It is an asinine argument. One whose purpose is geared more toward the exculpatory than the explanatory.

WTF?... Are we really expected to buy into the rationale that Black people are so unprogressive – so unsophisticated – that we require the intervention of White activists to explain to us the fundamental relevancy of fair and equal treatment for all under the law? Are some of us actually trying to persuade others to swallow the ridiculous proposition (no pun intended) that our community is so politically and racially simple-minded that we are incapable of empathizing and understanding the intrinsic harm that is done to our Black gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered family members & friends by discriminatory anti-gay laws if the popular face of the resistance is anything other than Black?… How can the argument that White gays and lesbians should be expected to shoulder the responsibility of reaching out, building bridges and educating the Black community on gay-rights issues, more so than the Black Gay community, be made with a straight face? What, are we too inept to discern for ourselves the need to stand up and let our dignity, love, pride and humanity be seen, and have it speak to the conscience of our heterosexual brothers, fathers, sisters, mothers and children; to impress upon them their moral obligation to protect and treasure our access to freedom and equality as well as their own?

These idiotic concepts are exactly what is implied by this, “because the face of the gay-rights movement is white, Black folks can't relate to it,” farcical reasoning. It makes a joke of Black peoples' ability to comprehend socio-political issues for ourselves, and it removes the onus for our detestable voting conduct and misguidedly – in this case – drops it at the feet of white gays….

Sorry, as a gay Black man that lives amongst my people everyday, I ain’t buyin’ it.

Many of the Black hands that pulled levers or punched cards on November 4th to deny rights to gays are attached to persons, persons who most likely know, love, and care for someone who is gay. Yet this did not prevent them from visiting upon their love ones the ultimate disrespect – you are not as good as me!… Our heterosexual Black family knows our heart, they know we exist, and they are familiar with our plight.

There is no excuse.

We have to own up to OUR shit on this one.

If our community doesn't "get it" on such a morally unambiguous issue as this, then I doubt any amount of intervention by White gay-rights activists is going to make much of a difference.

Besides being shamefully apologetic and extremely insulting to the intelligence of Black folk, the things-could-have-been-different-if-only-the-white-gay-rights-people-had-reached-out-to-the-black-community excuse is patently weak, because the number ONE reason Black people decided to vote to legally discriminate against gay people is their continued intellectual/emotional capitulence to archaic, primitive homo-hating religions en masse…. These intolerant, divisive, belief systems have done more to chain the mind and inhibit personal freedom throughout human history than anything else… And Black folk, unfortunately, can be seen in great attendance at such indoctrination centers … well, religiously.

If Black gays, or Whites for that matter, desire the for real culprit of homo-oppression, they need look no further than the closest church, mosque, or synagogue...

But hey...we did elect our first Black president, so smile already, dammit.

Enough!

This story (below link) both broke my heart and enraged my senses.... Where is the NOW solution for this played-out bullshit!?

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/crime/la-me-officer29-2008oct29,0,1137209.story

I don't know about anybody else but I'm sick and tired of this de facto shield & badge impunity under which police officers in this country are allowed to continue to operate with regard to their conduct toward people of African descent. Must the injustice of White privilege forever translate into Black destruction?

And to add insult to injury I had the misfortune of coming across an asinine posting, which is from a ridiculously hopeless White-apologist concerning this tragic event, that I simply felt compelled to resond to. Both are below:

APOLOGIST: "Sure. A cop decided to just shoot an innocent man, take his life and ruin his for, what, the hell of it? Is it so hard to understand that even police can make mistakes, and neither racism nor malice can be part of the equation"

ME: With each post of yours I read your picture falls more clearly into focus -- and I don't like what I see developing. It is the portrait of the far-reaching, indefatigable apologist; truth and common sense be damned... Your dismissive condescending attempt to redefine the perception of this tragic, brutal event will not happen here.

No one is arguing or implying that the officer intentionally shot and killed this innocent brother based on his race, but rather it is all but certain due to the victims race that this event even took place... The repetitive, incessant demonizing of young Black males as innately dangerous, violently criminal creatures in our culture delivers a very powerful, ugly, inaccurate, prejudiced, and ultimately dangerous message; one that infects and taints the collective psyche of American society (particularly police officers) to the potential -- and in this case the very real -- detriment of Black men all throughout our society. This message is processed, both consciously and subliminally, as Black males are more often than not pathologically dangerous and criminal...

Only the naive or disingenuous will even attempt to argue against this.

All things being the same, the probability of this kind of tragic scenario playing out if Julian Alexander had been a White man standing in his own front yard is so low as to be nonexistent. Anyone possessed of common sense and living in THIS world knows the truth of this.

Because of this country's continued discriminatory demonization of skin that is Black in conjunction with gender that is male, Julian Alexander's race played a very integral part in why his wife is now a widow, his unborn child has lost a father, and this nation has lost another sliver of its decrepit soul.

Why The Suprise?

Hey everyone, it's been awhile...

Came across this article while on the web a couple of days ago and for some reason it just bristled my ass: http://vdare.com/mercer/081019_inevitable.htm



Now is it me or does Mercer sounds like a whiny little spoiled child whom suddenly has been forced to experience the repercussions of ill-intentioned past racist actions and policies (the evil that was apartheid), and doesn't like it? She doesn't appreciate that HER boat has to be rocked during the growing pains of SA's path back to Black indigenous self-sufficiency and self-rule...



She seems annoyingly oblivious to the reality that when you keep people out of the economic, political, and educational loop for decades upon decades, all the while savagely brutalizing them, then, at the behest - and economic pressure - of external forces, finally concede and do the right thing in handing over the reigns of power, you shouldn't be shocked by the fact that the transition does not go smoothly.... It should be expected that there will be an uncomfortable period of adjustment as the under-educated, under-funded and politically inexperienced Black leaders bring themselves up to ideal social governing speed... And yes, angry, reactionary, social whiplash from past apartheid-rule grievances will unquestionably spill over into the equation; it is human nature, it is inevitable. The tendency of White folks to believe and expect for everything to just immediately be cool the very minute after they stop their longstanding, unjust transgressions against someone (i.e., FINALLY do the right thing) is truly mind-boggling. As if everyone involved should immediately gather around the campfire, hug, and sing Kumbaya.



Unfortunately, sometimes when chickens come home to roost, they have a tendency to behave more like birds of prey.

Torture: The Gay - Straight Lament

{Poem}

"How do you define torture?"

The question is posed in that old-leather comfort sort of way which he so easily slides into whenever the two of us are in each other's company.
I divert my eyes from his, smile and rattle off some politically correct response..
He co-sign's his approval, returns my smile, and the conversation, as it so often does with he and I, careens from its Bushonian bounbaries, traversing all areas of the topical..

It is late that evening, long after the conversations have passed,
when I am alone in my bed, and he where ever sunrays lay their head at night, that my true reflections of his query escape the guarded confines of my heart and invade my mind with a conquerer's lust that would give Gingus pause.
And sudenly I want to flip open my cell, call him, wait until I hear his sleep weary voice, and before the police of my passions can handcuff my tongue, tell him...


What I said earlier was bullshit!


Torture is being in your presence..
It is inhaling the aroma of your love potential,
my throat parched and swollen,
and yet I am unable to drink..

You open yourself to me,
unfurling the question of you before me like a fine delicate tapestry,
woven from the strings of your complexity..
I look upon it and I see that it is good..
Yet like the child who has not studied his lesson,
I am left unable to speak..
Unable to satisfy your question,
with the answer of me..
For to do so might push you away,
might withdraw from these dripping ears the honied melody that is,
everytime I hear your voice..

And this ... this I could not withstand.

And still, with every blossom you unfold to me, with every corner of your soul you undust
I find myself longing,
beyond ration ... beyond reason,
that I could call you MY man..

Wishing that despite your professed sexuality,
you could gaze into me and see the potential of forever..
That your long-running search for your ideal Black Queen,
will find its moment of cease within the comfort of an embrace..
... OUR embrace ...
For in our times of trust you tell me things,
things that I know will never light the ears of any Queen,
Black or otherwise..
Blessing me with honored privilege and damning me to the futility of repression,
all in the same sweet breath..

Doomed by my concern for you,
in constant silent lament of our divergent realities,
I listen in disguise..
A lonely sunstroked coast,
I ever wait the coming of your replenishing tides..

This can not be good for me.

Still, the wise man did say -- It IS what it is..

You are my bloodstream until ...
...until you are not...

My moments with you can not be hurried..
Not as long as I dare to stare into the face of God,
and see your smile.