One of the multifaceted aspects of being part of a minority demographic is the appointment of accurate representation to the masses. I have often referred to this phenomenon as “crabs in a barrel” whereas a bunch of minorities are in a barrel like crabs trying to claw their way to the top for acknowledgment and as soon as you get there… you got a brood of all the other crabs around you clawing at you, trying to bring you down so they can get to the top also.What I have experienced is that more than likely… the crab that actually made their way to the top, forgot all the aspects of being a crab, up to and including the lifetime of clawing they had to do to get there and all of the clawing that’s still going on; and it is these amnesiac crustaceans that supposedly represent your best interest.
In short, there are people and organizations out there who are getting paid to represent you that don’t have slightest fucking clue about who you are, what you do or what you need… and they don’t have the slightest intention of ever finding out, particularly if it means getting back in the barrel with you.
In the black gay community I have seen this time and time and time again where some hollow non-profit gets an astounding grant based on ghost intentions to help the “community” and they don’t even know where the “community” is. Here in Los Angeles, there are organizations that supposedly exist for the sole purpose to help enrich the greater African American LGBT community, a community that quite frankly is in need of enrichment but whom thirsts for it and welcomes it whenever possible. However, these organizations are trying to target the African American LGBT community… in West Hollywood. Now those of you not in the know, West Hollywood, while a predominately homosexual area, is also predominately Caucasian. So trying to do an inclusive study of the African American LGBT community in West Hollywood would be similar to doing an inclusive study of Nazi Concentration Camp survivors living in the Marcy Projects.
And it is this disconnect that just pisses me off. Because more than likely these studies are being made in West Hollywood because these organizations either don’t know the social trends of the LGBT African American Community and/or they are simply too afraid to be enveloped by them. Which just begs the question, how are you going to accurately represent a people that you don’t know or even care to associate with, and how many slave ghosts have haunted your sleep because you get paid to do it?
Not too long ago I participated in a townhall meeting where several members of the African American LGBT community spoke on which current issues will most affect their choice in the upcoming presidential elections. The majority of the panelists spoke on their concerns about the current state of healthcare, tax incentives, social programs and a general need to get out of the Republican/Bush rut. But there was one brother who said that he personally felt that the greatest issue that should be addressed is the war on terrorism in an effort to not suffer another attack on American soil. And while I do have a concern about the current war, I do have to say that I was simply astounded that, out of the plethora of influences that attack us specifically as African Americans and as LGBT on a daily basis that his main concern was with the war or terrorism. The last reported Hate Crime Statics show that in 2004, there were a total of 8,804 victims of a hate crime. 1,190 were anti-LGBT and 3,322 were Anti-Black. In 2006,In California alone there were 245 reported Anti-Sexual Orientation Hate Crime Events and 844 reported Anti-Race Hate Crime Events. It’s easier to be caught D.O.B. (Driving While Black) than it is to catch a cold, too many brothers are coming up missing or dead from some low self esteemed fueled DL sexual tryst and Hip Hop is still trying fuel it’s hyper masculinity by degrading women and homosexuals. Your main concern is the war on terrorism? In my head I imagine this scene where he goes to some rally to support the war but is pulled over by some cop who doesn’t believe a Black man could drive a BMW and then finally has it impounded it when he sees the gay pride sticker in the back window.
I think that problems overseas should be addressed and I think our foreign policy needs a complete aura enema, but the truth of the matter is… the Civil Rights movement hasn’t ended. We’re still fighting for justice and equality right here, right now. I just think it’s a somewhat lofty aspiration to negate the social atrocities in your own home in an effort to fix problems abroad. I’ve always felt that terrorism existed because there was a breakdown in communication, that the attacks on American soil were not random but because our adversaries did not agree with some fundamental tenets of American life, and I think that’s because… they just didn’t understand them. The way I see it, every human being to ever exist has wanted the same thing, provide for you and your family, give honor to your God(s), and get laid as much as humanly possible. I think our adversaries couldn’t see the forest through the trees and couldn’t realize that at the end of the day we want the same thing. And America, so (in)famously known for it’s brutally empty machismo, never presented that olive branch. Hell, we don’t even provide that same dignity and compassion to our own citizens. In other words, we don’t listen how loud our own radio is before we are so quick to try and get the neighbors to turn theirs down. And more than likely, theirs is only so loud because ours is.
I also think that is why same-sex marriage is simply not a priority in many African American homes, gay or straight. Honestly speaking, we’re still trying not to get pulled over and beat on the way to the chapel. Yet there are organizations here, also under the auspice of enlightening the African American LGBT community, whose main agenda is to promote same sex marriage amendments. But that agenda is not on the greater African American LGBT community’s schema. We’re in need of better educational programs, better vocational programs, more job opportunities, sensitivity training for our heterosexual counterparts, efficient liaisons between the Black church and the Black Gay community, better health programs, self defense training and discussion, HIV education and advocation… things that will make a difference in our lives, our families’ lives and generations after that. Legalizing our love life is great, but we still need to stop the legal system from demonizing our everyday life first. The Civil Rights movement is not over, and I think that is something that would be easily found out if these entities geared towards African American communities would actually go to… African American communities and do the work that needs to be done and not just play some contemporary Uncle Tom/whore amalgamation by collecting a paycheck for being the type of non-threatening “niggers” who smile pretty for the grant writers and have no clue as to needs of the greater African American LGBT Community.
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