Sue Hyde of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force office in Cambridge has a scorching online editorial about the Jena 6.
According to an Aug. 4 Washington Post story, Mychal Bell, the only one of the Jena 6 to be convicted (later overturned), sat in his jail cell reportedly looking frightened and numb and asked: “Can they really do this to me?”
In Jena – and all too often in many other communities nationwide – white teens are just youthful pranksters who get a second chance, but black teens are adult potential murderers who get jail time.
It comes on the heels of a passionate op-ed in Tuesday’s Globe by Professor Cornel West and Dr. Sylvia Rhue in support of a hate crime bill known as the Matthew Shepard Act, which would “protect the many citizens who are targeted for violence simply because of their sexual orientation and gender identity.”
The efforts of antigay preachers and their supporters is not the way to create the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of a “Beloved Community” – where we all strive to treat each other with respect and compassion.
It’s heartening to see two communities who have had some misunderstandings advocate for each other’s respect, humanity and civil rights.
Often, blacks and gays are exactly the same people. When discussed like this it just concretizes the notions that gay=white.
gay organizations are largely white-led and white-populated
which is a big problem, because they tend to focus only the issues of concern to themselves and their largely white, middle class donor base. these issues aren’t going to be solved in this thread, but racism among queers is a problem, and the utilization of language which erases queers of color is part of that problem.
gay organizations are largely white-led and white-populated
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…but there is nothing preventing gay black people from stepping up to the plate with gay organizations that are perceived to be white.
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I have a suspicion that one (just one) reason that more of the blacks do not do so is a fear of being stigmatized by the black straight–largely Baptist–community and not being accepted by the white gay community. Well, they should do something–white people can’t force them to. They don’t have to, but it would serve them well to, perhaps become accepted by the white gay community and change the black straight–largely Baptist–community.
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Do many black people have the courage to do so? I don’t know, but there are several blogs run by out gay black journalists (Rod2.0 and Keith Boykin come to mind) that are actually quite informative.
Another perspective:
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http://innewsweekly….
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Irene Monre rocks.