(originally published 12/1/2009)
Black people- HIV/AIDS is killing our community. It stopped being a gay white man's disease, years ago. However, from the beginning it was killing Black people. Black women were passing the germ on to their newborn babies in breast milk, and they were dying. Black people in Africa continue to die with whole generations wiped out and children left without parents. The white gay community mobilized to deal with the situation while Black people fell through the cracks due to their own prejudices and ignorance, coupled with an inherently racist health system that continues today.
The HIV virus is not killing white America, so much anymore, but it is killing Black America....Let's bring it even closer....It is affecting Black straight America...through Black straight women, who refuse to hold their sexual partners accountable.
In Hamilton County, Cincinnati, Ohio....The number of Black women living with HIV/AIDS has doubled since 1998, according to the Ohio Department of Health. Across America, Black women, most of them straight, make up 61% of the newly diagnosed cases, while Black men make up 46% of all newly diagnosed cases.
The Black community in America is on target to be wiped out just like in Africa.
I've been writing and doing radio programs about this since the disease surfaced in 1984. I lost 11 friends in one year and 2 relatives before I stopped counting. I continue to write about it, and to talk about it, but it feels like I'm spitting into the wind and nobody is paying attention.
The fact of the matter is that.....
HIV is the number one cause of death for Black women between the ages of 25 and 34. The same is true for Black men between the ages of 35 and 44.
My people, you are dying because of fear, denial and ignorance. It's not about drug use and junkies sharing needles. That does happen, but primarily the cause is unprotected sex. Sex without condoms. A condom can stop the spread of the disease. No one is saying become celibate....just become sensible about what you do when you do decide to get your groove on.
Anyone who has sex with someone who refuses to use a condom is committing suicide...a long painful and stupid suicide.
As Black people we're funny. We talk about white people letting their dogs kiss them in the face. We worry about the germs from the dog's tongue. Yet, dog germs on your face won't kill you. But sex without a jimmy will and does over and over and over again. But nobody's talking about that.
Straight Black women in particular are in denial and are paying the price. Maintaining a jimmy-less relationship with their man when he comes out of prison is a big factor, especially since many black men engage in man on man sex while in jail, then take it home to their women.
Another major factor is men who routinely have sex with other men, yet don't consider themselves gay and still sleep with women. She ends up infected since male to female transmission is the easiest form of transmission.
Ohio Corrections tests all men going into the system, however they don't test them upon release.
The sad fact is that statistics show that most Black straight women are infected by their husbands and boyfriends.
So what can be done. Well, it's a matter of the entire community coming out the closet about the problem. And by this I mean, Black Churches, Black civil rights organizations, and Black people need to admit to themselves that it is not a white disease or a black disease....It is a disease that is colorblind and is killing us.
Everyone should be tested. I have been, a couple of times. It is a simple blood test that you can have done while you're having other blood work done. Your doctor can give you a card that you can carry in your wallet. The information just says...blood type..rh factor and HIV positive or negative.
People are living longer and longer because the medicine is finally catching up. HIV is no longer an instant death sentence.
So do yourself a favor on World AIDS Day, get tested and ask your partner to get tested, too.
.
Showing posts with label Black Community. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Black Community. Show all posts
7.28.2010
Drug Relief
The House voted today to narrow the gap between punishments for possessing crack cocaine vs powder cocaine. Obama is expected to sign it once it hits his desk in the next week or two.
The war on drugs should have been called the war on black men given the devastating effect on the Black community since the laws were enacted more than two decades
ago. Congress, led by President Reagan enacted the unfair legislation based on the lies that crack or rock cocaine was more addictive than powder cocaine.
ago. Congress, led by President Reagan enacted the unfair legislation based on the lies that crack or rock cocaine was more addictive than powder cocaine.
This lie was coupled with another lie stating that those hooked on crack were more violent. There was no science backing up these beliefs, just raw emotion and bigotry, some
of which continues percolating today on Capital Hill.
of which continues percolating today on Capital Hill.
Crack was cheaper, became a street drug. Powder remained the drug of choice for the upwardly mobile, primarily white community. But instead of busting them...they chose
to bust us....
to bust us....
Get busted with crack and you were sent to jail and the key to the cell was thrown away. Get busted with powder, you ended up with probation and community service and sent
home to write a book, once you got out celebrity rehab.
home to write a book, once you got out celebrity rehab.
According to the United States Sentencing Commission, in 2008 80% of all offenders locked up, were Black. Just 10% were white. Powder cocaine offenders were 52%
Hispanic, 30% Black and 16% white. In 2010, those statistics have not changed much. Blacks and Hispanics are still being locked up disproportionately.
Hispanic, 30% Black and 16% white. In 2010, those statistics have not changed much. Blacks and Hispanics are still being locked up disproportionately.
However, when the drug of choice was crack those convicted spent an average of 116 months in jail vs 91 months for powder cocaine users.
Despite knowing that there is no difference, essentially between powder and rock except for who can afford to buy it, Congress refused to totally do away with the disparities in sentencing. They narrowed the gap down from 100-1 to 18-1, meaning rock is going to draw a stiffer sentence...just not as bad as before. Also means powder users will walk from jump, straight to celebrity rehab.
Separate and unequal prevails...still...
The new bill also is not retroactive, so that those folks who got screwed and jailed are still screwed and will remain in jail. Those folks are primarily Black and Hispanic
nonviolent possession cases.
nonviolent possession cases.
The big users and dealers continue to go free.
It is a step forward, one that President Obama could expand upon, by issuing a blanket pardon for those small time fish who got caught up, after he signs the bill into law sometime in the next couple of weeks.
But I'm not gonna hold my breath for that one.
However, I am grateful for the progress that was made today.
Thank you, President Obama.
11.22.2009
Year 1 BHO
I am still thankful that Barack Obama was elected president of the United States last November. I believe that the country turned and started going in the right direction after being off kilter for so many years.
I still think that one year later, he was and remains the best choice for this country.
Am I 100% happy with the way things have gone this past year? No.
When Obama put together his “change” team, he didn't really change things. He added a few women, a couple of women of color. He added a few openly gay and lesbian people. However, from the beginning he stuck with the same white guys, maybe a little younger, but those who espoused the same kind of stuff and policies that got us into this mess in the first place. I was not happy with the likes of Geithner, Summers, or the Generals put in charge of those misguided fiascoes Iraq and Afghanistan. One year in, I am less happy with his choices.
Having been raised on politics from the cradle, I know that things can't and won't turn around quickly and this has been a problem for Obama. He won by convincing a lot of people to vote for him who don't know politics and furthermore, never took an interest in politics prior to his coming. These new voters didn't hear him tell them, it was going to take some time. As with all things these days, new voters are fanatics with miniscule attention spans and little or no patience for the actual work that needs to be done to make everything seem miraculous. To put it another way, the new voters are working in dual processing capability while Obama and the government are operating in ms dos.
Everybody bought the “Barack the Magic Negro” scenario. In other words, we made this guy president now all he has to do is walk into the Oval office and wave a wand and vanquish all of our problems..the budget magically balances...the deficit goes back to a surplus like when Clinton left... everyone gets their dream job.....Black people are seen as worthy.....Wall Street and big corporations grow a conscience... so called Christian evangelicals link arms and sing Cum by ya with the LGBT community....don't ask, don't tell goes away and gay people are allowed to get married..... and the treasury draining quagmires called the war on terrorism, ends...
Easy...Ala Kazam, one, two, three and poof....America fixed....American dream still in tact, duct tape no longer needed...
Except this is not what happened...Barack, the touchy feelie basketball playing candidate morphed back into Barack the cool, Barack the logical, Barack the pragmatic, Barack the aloof college professor who seems more willing to compromise and work the status quo, than to shake things up and move forward. The community organizer has gone into hiding at a time when the country really, really needs a rabble rousing organizer.
In Barack Obama, we were voting for more FDR. What we got, apparently, is a little unexpected and quite a bit maddening.
The newly baptized are defecting in droves...fearful of the change they say they want and unwilling to wait for it. While Obama works behind the scenes, talking quietly with his colleagues, demanding they find solutions, he leaves the people adrift, in limbo, unable to see the workings of his mind.
Barack the Communicator is not communicating, nor showing any understanding that sometimes silence communicates louder than the spoken word. The new converts need a constant fix or suffer painful withdrawal, which sends them scampering to find a new supplier. This is what's happening to Obamaville.
The wing nuts have found their leaders on the radio and on television. The Glen-Greta-Sean-Bill-Rush-Laura-Sarah hit parade is in full swing having stolen the bully pulpit. They don't have any solutions, but they throw a helluva good party, where the crazies can safely give voice to their fear of change and racist assumptions that minorities are destroying "their " country.
From the beginning of his campaign, Obama has been painted in pink...too soft for the job....He's not by any stretch of the imagination. But he does need to flex his muscles in public, from time to time.
How can he flex?
He can bring our troops home. No surge in Afghanistan. We had it won, until Iraq jumped off ...Time to cut our loses and come home.
He can put people back to work. He can rebuild schools and infrastructure to the same 56-billion dollar tune that this country has spent in Iraq to build schools and infrastructure. Health care reform is important...but if you ain't working and there is no public option, you have no house or car and no way to feed your family..you can't afford it..so...jobs are the key here. So is another stimulus. The first one wasn't big enough to stimulate a consumer driven economy which we are.
This second stimulus, if it comes about, should put the money directly into the pockets of the consumers, namely us...And I'm not talking 600-dollars....I'm talking 30-thou per person. You want people to spend money then give them some..They will pay their bills, save some and spend some creating the very cycle this country needs right now.
He can go ahead and suspend DADT in the military by executive order. He can close Guantanamo, bring the alleged terrorists into this country to fill the empty jails that populate the small towns and put people back to work as guards or in support of the prison system (I am truly baffled by Neocons and good ole boys who fight tooth and nail so that we all can have as many guns as we want, yet when Barack says bring them to this country...they cower in fear of a few terrorists).
The biggest fallacy has been Barack's clinging to trickle down economics....In other words, prime the pump that is Wall Street...and eventually the people will be taken care of...It has never worked...and it never will.
It is still Voodoo Economics, period.
The banks are sitting on the money, refusing to hire, yet rewarding themselves with billions of dollars in job well done bonuses. Big corporations are still figuring out ways to ship their profit and our jobs overseas. They are still looking out for themselves.
We need some good old fashioned community organizer type blackmail to get these guys to either create jobs or bring some jobs and manufacturing back home. I thinking that Obama should ask Jesse or Rev Al on the QT, just how you blackmail corporate America. They been doing it for years, so put their expertise to work for all of us.
As I've said before, President Obama cannot do it alone, change must come from all of us.
However we chose him to lead and that is what I expect him to do....Lead...I think he is smart enough to figure that out...I just hope it's sooner rather than later.
I still think that one year later, he was and remains the best choice for this country.
Am I 100% happy with the way things have gone this past year? No.
When Obama put together his “change” team, he didn't really change things. He added a few women, a couple of women of color. He added a few openly gay and lesbian people. However, from the beginning he stuck with the same white guys, maybe a little younger, but those who espoused the same kind of stuff and policies that got us into this mess in the first place. I was not happy with the likes of Geithner, Summers, or the Generals put in charge of those misguided fiascoes Iraq and Afghanistan. One year in, I am less happy with his choices.
Having been raised on politics from the cradle, I know that things can't and won't turn around quickly and this has been a problem for Obama. He won by convincing a lot of people to vote for him who don't know politics and furthermore, never took an interest in politics prior to his coming. These new voters didn't hear him tell them, it was going to take some time. As with all things these days, new voters are fanatics with miniscule attention spans and little or no patience for the actual work that needs to be done to make everything seem miraculous. To put it another way, the new voters are working in dual processing capability while Obama and the government are operating in ms dos.
Everybody bought the “Barack the Magic Negro” scenario. In other words, we made this guy president now all he has to do is walk into the Oval office and wave a wand and vanquish all of our problems..the budget magically balances...the deficit goes back to a surplus like when Clinton left... everyone gets their dream job.....Black people are seen as worthy.....Wall Street and big corporations grow a conscience... so called Christian evangelicals link arms and sing Cum by ya with the LGBT community....don't ask, don't tell goes away and gay people are allowed to get married..... and the treasury draining quagmires called the war on terrorism, ends...
Easy...Ala Kazam, one, two, three and poof....America fixed....American dream still in tact, duct tape no longer needed...
Except this is not what happened...Barack, the touchy feelie basketball playing candidate morphed back into Barack the cool, Barack the logical, Barack the pragmatic, Barack the aloof college professor who seems more willing to compromise and work the status quo, than to shake things up and move forward. The community organizer has gone into hiding at a time when the country really, really needs a rabble rousing organizer.
In Barack Obama, we were voting for more FDR. What we got, apparently, is a little unexpected and quite a bit maddening.
The newly baptized are defecting in droves...fearful of the change they say they want and unwilling to wait for it. While Obama works behind the scenes, talking quietly with his colleagues, demanding they find solutions, he leaves the people adrift, in limbo, unable to see the workings of his mind.
Barack the Communicator is not communicating, nor showing any understanding that sometimes silence communicates louder than the spoken word. The new converts need a constant fix or suffer painful withdrawal, which sends them scampering to find a new supplier. This is what's happening to Obamaville.
The wing nuts have found their leaders on the radio and on television. The Glen-Greta-Sean-Bill-Rush-Laura-Sarah hit parade is in full swing having stolen the bully pulpit. They don't have any solutions, but they throw a helluva good party, where the crazies can safely give voice to their fear of change and racist assumptions that minorities are destroying "their " country.
From the beginning of his campaign, Obama has been painted in pink...too soft for the job....He's not by any stretch of the imagination. But he does need to flex his muscles in public, from time to time.
How can he flex?
He can bring our troops home. No surge in Afghanistan. We had it won, until Iraq jumped off ...Time to cut our loses and come home.
He can put people back to work. He can rebuild schools and infrastructure to the same 56-billion dollar tune that this country has spent in Iraq to build schools and infrastructure. Health care reform is important...but if you ain't working and there is no public option, you have no house or car and no way to feed your family..you can't afford it..so...jobs are the key here. So is another stimulus. The first one wasn't big enough to stimulate a consumer driven economy which we are.
This second stimulus, if it comes about, should put the money directly into the pockets of the consumers, namely us...And I'm not talking 600-dollars....I'm talking 30-thou per person. You want people to spend money then give them some..They will pay their bills, save some and spend some creating the very cycle this country needs right now.
He can go ahead and suspend DADT in the military by executive order. He can close Guantanamo, bring the alleged terrorists into this country to fill the empty jails that populate the small towns and put people back to work as guards or in support of the prison system (I am truly baffled by Neocons and good ole boys who fight tooth and nail so that we all can have as many guns as we want, yet when Barack says bring them to this country...they cower in fear of a few terrorists).
The biggest fallacy has been Barack's clinging to trickle down economics....In other words, prime the pump that is Wall Street...and eventually the people will be taken care of...It has never worked...and it never will.
It is still Voodoo Economics, period.
The banks are sitting on the money, refusing to hire, yet rewarding themselves with billions of dollars in job well done bonuses. Big corporations are still figuring out ways to ship their profit and our jobs overseas. They are still looking out for themselves.
We need some good old fashioned community organizer type blackmail to get these guys to either create jobs or bring some jobs and manufacturing back home. I thinking that Obama should ask Jesse or Rev Al on the QT, just how you blackmail corporate America. They been doing it for years, so put their expertise to work for all of us.
As I've said before, President Obama cannot do it alone, change must come from all of us.
However we chose him to lead and that is what I expect him to do....Lead...I think he is smart enough to figure that out...I just hope it's sooner rather than later.
6.18.2009
Sorry President Obama, But My Sugar's High
Obama passes out candy to the LGBT Community while urging patience....
Apparently seeking to placate the more vocal members of the LGBT community, the President signed a memorandum granting a few domestic partner benefits to federal employees-health and survivor benefits not among them.
I have a few problems with this scenario...
First, the action only affects a very few people...
Second, Obama used a memorandum...for those of you who don't know...memorandums are only in force for the lifetime of Obama's presidency...
In other words, if he should fail to be re elected in 2012, the memorandum dies...If he is re elected then it's good until 2016....
Memorandums come with a sunset clause....much like the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which must be renewed every 25 years or it expires...
Sunset Clauses are typically used by Presidents and Lawmakers to get the opposition to compromise...as in....”sign off on it now.... harvest the goodwill, now...it will go away later....”
Now I'm assuming, optimistically, that Obama thinks he can get things taken care of by 2012-meaning he can get DOMA repealed and DADT off the books and therefore all he needed was a memorandum today and the future will take care of itself...
I know he has only been in office for 150 days. I know that in order to spend political capital, you've got to make some first. In other words, he needs help changing this massive agenda so he has to quietly placate certain people in order to get them to go along with him.
However, while I still counsel younger community members to be patient, I am a little ticked.
Check that....I'm a lot ticked..
I've been waiting all my life.....and like Fannie Lou Hamer said....I'm sick n tired of being sick n tired...
I am ticked off at the President's silence....He needs to utter something other than tired platitudes.
And this not only includes the LGBT community...but the Black community as well...
Unemployment nationwide may be only 10%....In the Black community it is double that easily...
“last hired...first fired” is still in operation..
I'm sorry Mr President....but right is right.......
He has admitted the laws are wrong....He is the one who chose to do something about it...yet.. he remains silent...
There comes a time.....Like Lincoln and like FDR...like Truman...
When as President..you have to say....damn the law.....I will do what's right....like you promised...
Obama needs to remember that if Lincoln hadn't done what was right and just...Obama's Daddy's ancestors would only have seen the shores of America by disembarking from a slave ship...
Obama needs to remember that his mother and father literally broke the law to give him life....
It was right and it was just...
All these years...he has been chasing his destiny....Now that he is where he should be..in the White House...
He hesitates....I don't understand....
The Department of Justice equating same sex marriage with incest....cuts deeply...it is indefensible and completely wrong....
The White House defense of an indefensible act...is an insult to my intelligence and has me second guessing my vote back in November....
I remain in Obama's corner....
But today....I'm just too ticked to be a fan...
Apparently seeking to placate the more vocal members of the LGBT community, the President signed a memorandum granting a few domestic partner benefits to federal employees-health and survivor benefits not among them.
I have a few problems with this scenario...
First, the action only affects a very few people...
Second, Obama used a memorandum...for those of you who don't know...memorandums are only in force for the lifetime of Obama's presidency...
In other words, if he should fail to be re elected in 2012, the memorandum dies...If he is re elected then it's good until 2016....
Memorandums come with a sunset clause....much like the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which must be renewed every 25 years or it expires...
Sunset Clauses are typically used by Presidents and Lawmakers to get the opposition to compromise...as in....”sign off on it now.... harvest the goodwill, now...it will go away later....”
Now I'm assuming, optimistically, that Obama thinks he can get things taken care of by 2012-meaning he can get DOMA repealed and DADT off the books and therefore all he needed was a memorandum today and the future will take care of itself...
I know he has only been in office for 150 days. I know that in order to spend political capital, you've got to make some first. In other words, he needs help changing this massive agenda so he has to quietly placate certain people in order to get them to go along with him.
However, while I still counsel younger community members to be patient, I am a little ticked.
Check that....I'm a lot ticked..
I've been waiting all my life.....and like Fannie Lou Hamer said....I'm sick n tired of being sick n tired...
I am ticked off at the President's silence....He needs to utter something other than tired platitudes.
And this not only includes the LGBT community...but the Black community as well...
Unemployment nationwide may be only 10%....In the Black community it is double that easily...
“last hired...first fired” is still in operation..
I'm sorry Mr President....but right is right.......
He has admitted the laws are wrong....He is the one who chose to do something about it...yet.. he remains silent...
There comes a time.....Like Lincoln and like FDR...like Truman...
When as President..you have to say....damn the law.....I will do what's right....like you promised...
Obama needs to remember that if Lincoln hadn't done what was right and just...Obama's Daddy's ancestors would only have seen the shores of America by disembarking from a slave ship...
Obama needs to remember that his mother and father literally broke the law to give him life....
It was right and it was just...
All these years...he has been chasing his destiny....Now that he is where he should be..in the White House...
He hesitates....I don't understand....
The Department of Justice equating same sex marriage with incest....cuts deeply...it is indefensible and completely wrong....
The White House defense of an indefensible act...is an insult to my intelligence and has me second guessing my vote back in November....
I remain in Obama's corner....
But today....I'm just too ticked to be a fan...
"We only want, we only ask, that when we stand up and talk about one nation under God liberty, justice for everybody, we only want to be able to look at the flag, put our right hand over our hearts, repeat those words, and know that they are true."
...Barbara Jordan, Late, Great US Congresswoman and member of the LGBT community.
4.29.2009
Smitherman vs the LGBT Community
I want to say up front that I am a "johnny-come-lately to this topic, basically because I have problems with both the LGBT community and the Black Community for the very reasons being debated, racism and homophobia.
I also have a problem with Mr. Smitherman...When he talks, I turn off, because I have yet to find him credible on any topic. I am mystified by his election to head the NAACP. I am mystified that so many others apparently find him to be a man worth following.
I found Jill Benavides comments after the meeting at City Hall to be patronizing, and condescendingly PC with regard to Smitherman. It was as if she were talking about a child. In other words..."let him have his temper tantrum, we love him anyway."
Having said all that......Let’s go there...shall we...
Nowhere on either side of this clueless conversation has the Black LGBT community been talked about or included in the conversation. Smitherman talked about his one white gay male NAACP member, as if having one represents all. That is the same way the white LGBT community talks about Blacks...you know..."some of my best friends are....."
The conversation that took place at City Hall obscures the fact that Black gays and lesbians are totally invisible in Cincinnati. And it’s like that across the country. Much of it due to the queer hatred within the Black community, in addition to the racism in the LGBT community
As Black people..we spend most of our lives being beaten up because of the color of our skin. It’s been a very difficult road to electing our first Black president. We have been killed for simply wanting to be treated equally. Laws were passed to make that happen, yet it’s still a problem in 2009, and you have only to look at two recent incidents of men, white men, killing their families and police for fear of a Black man in the White House.
You’ve got white governors talking of secession...that has got to be the ultimate in white flight..think about it...the same thing happens when a black family moves into a previously all white neighborhood...still....that’s not past history...that’s last week....
Now compound skin color with being gay or lesbian and you go from being beaten down on a national level to somebody, maybe your own brother, sister, mother, father, neighborhood, kicking your ass because you’re a sissy or you’re a bulldagger. You get tired of being a target, you get tired of being called names....for Black gays and lesbians...being called a nigger is not much different than being called queer or fag or bulldagger.
Trust me, you’re not going to run out and join the very community organizations that want you dead...
The white LGBT community doesn’t feel it’s racist, but it is no different, really than liberal whites who like using that.."some of my best friends are....." phrase. Blacks are not taken seriously within the LGBT community, usually being dismissed with a patronizing pat on the top of our fuzzy little heads, with a "thank you for coming...but we know better, what’s good for you..."
The prop 8 vote in California exposed the LGBT racism, when it was erroneously reported that Blacks were the reason it passed....Blacks gays and lesbians who took to the streets to protest the vote, were attacked by white gays and lesbians.....called niggers among other things....The white LGBT community has yet to apologize for their assumptions during that time...
Being Black gay and lesbian means you’re caught up between the proverbial rock and a hard place.
Not feeling accepted by anyone can be a very lonely way to grow up and to live.
Smitherman and the NAACP need to realize that there have always been Black gays and lesbians active within his organization and the civil rights movement. What they need to do is to recognize that the NAACP and other Black organizations are also not inclusive organizations working for all Blacks.
There is no mention of the devastation of HIV/AIDS on the Black Community. In fact Smitherman as a straight man is probably more susceptible to getting the virus than any gay black man at this stage, not because he is gay or down-lo, but because Black straight women are the ones being infected at record breaking rates.
Black women are sleeping with down-lo men and taking the germ back to their straight boyfriends...
And why are men down-lo...because they stand to be judged not men, if they come out..being labeled soft is worse than being called a nigger in the Black community. Witness the death a couple of weeks ago of a 12 year old Black youth, who hanged himself, after being repeatedly called a fag at school.
Why was he called a fag, or labeled soft.....he liked school and his mother taught him to comport himself like a gentleman...he was not gay, by the way....just a clean cut little boy...dead...
It is killing our community...yet....I hear nothing from the NAACP about this massive problem. If the women die...who is going to bear your sons? Or will any white or J-Lo looking Latina woman do?
It is no proof of your so called inclusive tendencies if all you can talk about is one gay white boy as a member. Remember, he can always go back to his community in which by birth he is a master of the universe.
Black gays and lesbians must go home to the same hate that they suffer from in the streets.
The entire Smitherman statement left women out the conversation, altogether. That is typical of the misogyny that also permeates the Black Community.
So, to put an end to this ramble.....
NAACP....you need to talk to Black gays and lesbians first.....you need to address the number one killer of Black people in this country and the world....second only to gun violence...which is another problem in and of itself...
Opening the tent to include all Black people will send a bigger message than a useless conversation with white gay and lesbian organizations with issues of their own to deal with..
It doesn’t matter who turns out to support what....until we recognize the problem within our own community, we will be having this worthless conversation in 2010, 2011, 2012.....
I also have a problem with Mr. Smitherman...When he talks, I turn off, because I have yet to find him credible on any topic. I am mystified by his election to head the NAACP. I am mystified that so many others apparently find him to be a man worth following.
I found Jill Benavides comments after the meeting at City Hall to be patronizing, and condescendingly PC with regard to Smitherman. It was as if she were talking about a child. In other words..."let him have his temper tantrum, we love him anyway."
Having said all that......Let’s go there...shall we...
Nowhere on either side of this clueless conversation has the Black LGBT community been talked about or included in the conversation. Smitherman talked about his one white gay male NAACP member, as if having one represents all. That is the same way the white LGBT community talks about Blacks...you know..."some of my best friends are....."
The conversation that took place at City Hall obscures the fact that Black gays and lesbians are totally invisible in Cincinnati. And it’s like that across the country. Much of it due to the queer hatred within the Black community, in addition to the racism in the LGBT community
As Black people..we spend most of our lives being beaten up because of the color of our skin. It’s been a very difficult road to electing our first Black president. We have been killed for simply wanting to be treated equally. Laws were passed to make that happen, yet it’s still a problem in 2009, and you have only to look at two recent incidents of men, white men, killing their families and police for fear of a Black man in the White House.
You’ve got white governors talking of secession...that has got to be the ultimate in white flight..think about it...the same thing happens when a black family moves into a previously all white neighborhood...still....that’s not past history...that’s last week....
Now compound skin color with being gay or lesbian and you go from being beaten down on a national level to somebody, maybe your own brother, sister, mother, father, neighborhood, kicking your ass because you’re a sissy or you’re a bulldagger. You get tired of being a target, you get tired of being called names....for Black gays and lesbians...being called a nigger is not much different than being called queer or fag or bulldagger.
Trust me, you’re not going to run out and join the very community organizations that want you dead...
The white LGBT community doesn’t feel it’s racist, but it is no different, really than liberal whites who like using that.."some of my best friends are....." phrase. Blacks are not taken seriously within the LGBT community, usually being dismissed with a patronizing pat on the top of our fuzzy little heads, with a "thank you for coming...but we know better, what’s good for you..."
The prop 8 vote in California exposed the LGBT racism, when it was erroneously reported that Blacks were the reason it passed....Blacks gays and lesbians who took to the streets to protest the vote, were attacked by white gays and lesbians.....called niggers among other things....The white LGBT community has yet to apologize for their assumptions during that time...
Being Black gay and lesbian means you’re caught up between the proverbial rock and a hard place.
Not feeling accepted by anyone can be a very lonely way to grow up and to live.
Smitherman and the NAACP need to realize that there have always been Black gays and lesbians active within his organization and the civil rights movement. What they need to do is to recognize that the NAACP and other Black organizations are also not inclusive organizations working for all Blacks.
There is no mention of the devastation of HIV/AIDS on the Black Community. In fact Smitherman as a straight man is probably more susceptible to getting the virus than any gay black man at this stage, not because he is gay or down-lo, but because Black straight women are the ones being infected at record breaking rates.
Black women are sleeping with down-lo men and taking the germ back to their straight boyfriends...
And why are men down-lo...because they stand to be judged not men, if they come out..being labeled soft is worse than being called a nigger in the Black community. Witness the death a couple of weeks ago of a 12 year old Black youth, who hanged himself, after being repeatedly called a fag at school.
Why was he called a fag, or labeled soft.....he liked school and his mother taught him to comport himself like a gentleman...he was not gay, by the way....just a clean cut little boy...dead...
It is killing our community...yet....I hear nothing from the NAACP about this massive problem. If the women die...who is going to bear your sons? Or will any white or J-Lo looking Latina woman do?
It is no proof of your so called inclusive tendencies if all you can talk about is one gay white boy as a member. Remember, he can always go back to his community in which by birth he is a master of the universe.
Black gays and lesbians must go home to the same hate that they suffer from in the streets.
The entire Smitherman statement left women out the conversation, altogether. That is typical of the misogyny that also permeates the Black Community.
So, to put an end to this ramble.....
NAACP....you need to talk to Black gays and lesbians first.....you need to address the number one killer of Black people in this country and the world....second only to gun violence...which is another problem in and of itself...
Opening the tent to include all Black people will send a bigger message than a useless conversation with white gay and lesbian organizations with issues of their own to deal with..
It doesn’t matter who turns out to support what....until we recognize the problem within our own community, we will be having this worthless conversation in 2010, 2011, 2012.....
3.17.2009
A Passing and Stupidity in a Chocolate Nation
Gershwin’s Bess
Ann Brown, a woman that few of us ever heard sing, has died. She was 96. Ms. Brown was a black woman who was pure a pure soprano, who sang Opera and classical music during the time when Blacks were rarely allowed to perform in white theater.
She was Bess in Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess...the first one..the original one..
She predated Marian Anderson, who was the first Black woman to sing at the Metropolitan Opera. She predated Leontyne Price and Jessye Norman and Kathleen Battle.
She was born here, but left the country to live in Oslo Norway and perform in Europe because of the race prejudice at the time..
May she find peace.
-0-
Chocolate City AIDS Epidemic
Where are the Black Churches now? AIDS has reached epidemic proportions among Blacks 40-49 in DC and nobody is saying anything about it...Why?
It is the number one health problem with Blacks and nobody is talking about it....Why?
The virus is killing men especially in DC and the mode of transmission is man to man sex...
Black women are dying in record numbers nationwide, because they are sleeping with Black men who secretly sleep with other men...
When is the Black Church, The Black Community, and Black politicians going to pull their collective heads out of their collective asses and do something....
This is not a White Man’s problem, people...This is us and it’s time we admitted that and handle our business...
Ann Brown, a woman that few of us ever heard sing, has died. She was 96. Ms. Brown was a black woman who was pure a pure soprano, who sang Opera and classical music during the time when Blacks were rarely allowed to perform in white theater.
She was Bess in Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess...the first one..the original one..
She predated Marian Anderson, who was the first Black woman to sing at the Metropolitan Opera. She predated Leontyne Price and Jessye Norman and Kathleen Battle.
She was born here, but left the country to live in Oslo Norway and perform in Europe because of the race prejudice at the time..
May she find peace.
-0-
Chocolate City AIDS Epidemic
Where are the Black Churches now? AIDS has reached epidemic proportions among Blacks 40-49 in DC and nobody is saying anything about it...Why?
It is the number one health problem with Blacks and nobody is talking about it....Why?
The virus is killing men especially in DC and the mode of transmission is man to man sex...
Black women are dying in record numbers nationwide, because they are sleeping with Black men who secretly sleep with other men...
When is the Black Church, The Black Community, and Black politicians going to pull their collective heads out of their collective asses and do something....
This is not a White Man’s problem, people...This is us and it’s time we admitted that and handle our business...
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