The Real Civil Rights Movement
On Thursday, July 16, CNN posted a commentary by LZ Granderson, a senior writer and columnist for ESPN, titled “Gay Is Not the New Black”. It was an infuriating piece that made some ridiculous claims, so I want to address some of his more ludicrous statements.
1. Just because President Obama is black doesn’t automatically shield him from any and all criticisms.
Granderson says things like, “Rarely has criticism regarding Obama and the GLBT community come from the kind of person you would find standing in line at a spot like The Prop House, and there’s a reason for that. Black is still black.”
President Bush – like the other 42 presidents before him – was white. And while this might surprise Granderson to no end, I never once thought, “I shouldn’t say anything bad about George W. because he shares my skin color.”
When I voted for Barack Obama, I did so because I believed he was going to be a voice for change. Instead, for the last six months he has done everything possible to support politics as usual. The only change he’s made is his address, and now that he lives in the White House, it seems as if all of his campaign promises can now be relegated to a dimly-remembered past.
2. Racism goes both ways.
Granderson complains that the gay community is largely segregated along racial lines. “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.”
I’ll take his word for it. I don’t live in a big city, nor do I go to gay bars or Gay Pride parades and such, so I don’t see the world that he does. However, as someone who has spent most of his life in the South, I can attest to the fact that unofficial segregation still exists.
I also strongly agree with Granderson’s anger regarding the passing of Proposition 8: “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.”
Most intelligent people blamed the millions of dollars out-of-state Mormons poured into supporting the anti-gay amendment and the rash of last minute commercials preaching distortions and lies meant to scare people into voting against same-gender marriages. But some – no doubt motivated by prejudice – blamed blacks and Hispanics because statistically they supported Prop 8 more than white people.
But Granderson comes across as the worst kind of hypocrite.
In the first line of his editorial, he dismisses the typical gay man as a white, rainbow flag-waving Lady Gaga fan. He condescendingly compares the anger over men and women being discharged from military service for their sexual orientation to some manufactured outrage over “Adam Lambert not winning American Idol.” He even says any white man who complains about President Obama talking about equality while refusing to do anything about it is “a petulant child throwing a tantrum because he wants to eat his dessert before dinner.”
Excuse me?
If you’re going to complain about racism, LZ Granderson, you might be more convincing if you yourself weren’t a racist. Just a thought.
3. There is no contest to decide who has suffered the most.
Granderson writes, “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.”
America has a history of bigotry, from the slaughter of the native inhabitants to the enslavement of an entire race of people, and nothing’s really changed. Seventy years ago, Jews were being exterminated by a madman and Asians were being interred in camps. Skip forward to current times, and blacks are being exterminated by madmen while Mexicans are being hunted down with a vengeance bordering on psychosis.
And yes, gay people are being dismissed from the military during a time of war, legally married men and women are being denied a multitude of rights at a Federal level, and attempts to stop hate crimes and prevent bullying are decried as vile and terrifying attempts to push a homosexual agenda by churches that have crucified their own Christ in ways more horrific and hypocritical than anything Mel Gibson ever portrayed.
LZ Granderson, here’s a simple thought. No one is truly equal until everyone is truly equal.
You say, “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 say, we should live in a world where neither is a possibility. Gays and lesbians should be allowed to go to a bar and not be arrested or put into a coma by the Fort Worth police. Black children should be allowed to swim in the same Huntingdon Valley pool as white families.
It is not an “either/or” situation. It’s a “neither” issue.
You mention that it took 80 years from the abolishment of slavery to the desegregation of the US Military, then flippantly mention that the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy isn’t even as old as Miley Cyrus. That’s a knowingly inaccurate comparison, first, because gays and lesbians were not allowed to serve in the military long before DADT, and second, because blacks have always served in the military, whether in segregated or desegregated troops, while gays and lesbians have never been able to serve (at least openly).
Personally, I am sick and tired of this “we suffered more than you” mentality. The fact that anyone suffers unjust prejudice is too much. You want to hold the copyright to the Civil Rights Movement, but I will challenge your ownership every time. Civil rights isn’t inclusive of only blacks, nor is it a primarily gay thing. Civil rights should encompass everything from biological gender to gender identity, from race to culture to country of origin. Someone that speaks a foreign language should feel just as safe as someone who speaks flawless English.
No one is equal until everyone is.
Defending a President because he shares your skin color is as ridiculous and ultimately demeaning to everyone as creating a gay bar that caters to white people on one floor and black people on another. There’s never an excuse to treat people better or worse based on things like gender, race, sexual orientation, or whatever. That’s not equality, that’s insanity.
I want my President to actually be my President, to represent me and do right by me. He promised he would. I’m holding him to that promise. It’s not a black thing. It’s not a gay thing. It’s a Civil Rights thing. Because, while you are free to disagree, LZ Granderson, Civil Rights are not exclusive to one group of people. It doesn’t work that way.
July 21st, 2009 at 12:49 am
Interesting article and thoughts. As a person of color sometimes lost between the black/white dichotomy, I’ve been accused by both sides of being racist, and accused of providing preferential treatment towards each group by the other group when I worked in social services. I read Granderson’s article and agreed with much of what he said, yet can see how it comes across as smug and/or condescending, and my hope is that was not the intent of Granderson. When I first saw the catchy slogan “Gay is the New Black”, I saw it for what it was, a catchy slogan, but also knew that it was going to cause a stir and not sit well with minorities, including myself. And it is annoying for me to see white gays who think they are all enlightened about oppression just because they experience one form of oppression, not realizing that there are some of us in the gay community who experience multiple forms of oppression, and sometimes from people within our so-called lgbtq community. There are those in the LGBTQ community who are blind to their own racism. Still, you are right, it is not a contest. In the end, it would help to not alienate each other, and you’ve helped me to see how this article can alienate. I would never presume to own a president by his skin color, and suggest that white gays are like petulant children, or that they shouldn’t be dissapointed in, or be critical of Obama. I too am disappointed by Obama for his failure to keep his campaign promises, but as a person of color, am proud of him for being President. Definitely wouldn’t have been happier with the other guy. We have come far, but his presidency in no way means we’ve solved all our race issues. There is much I want to say, but this is already too long, so I’ll stop, but I think it’s important to not be accusatory to keep up the dialogue about race within the gay community.
Peace
July 21st, 2009 at 1:59 am
Dave, I would welcome anything you have to say, even if your comments are “already too long,” as if that was a possibility.
I think it’s wonderful that a person of color became President (and yeah, it bothered me somewhat to refer to President Obama as black, since he’s actually interracial). But I don’t think his ethnicity should shield him from complaints.
And when it comes to equal rights, the whole “I’ve suffered more than you” argument is ridiculous. I have to be honest. What I posted was very toned down from what I originally wrote. I’m not crazy about sports commentators telling me that their civil rights are more important than mine because 150 years ago some people thought slavery was cool.
July 21st, 2009 at 1:31 pm
I’ve heard this sort of thing from all sides, including from gay people who think undocumented immigrants are the scum of the earth, and then also from immigrant rights activists who feel that gay undocumented immigrants don’t deserve to be offered a pathway to citizenship, only straight families. This shit needs to stop from all sides.
July 21st, 2009 at 8:32 pm
Amen and amen!