Khareasha Stokes
Is it really the same?
For black men, it has always been a race to the top finding jobs, homes and fighting oppression and discrimination. For gay men, this has also been a struggle. It is wrong to say that one deserves equality over the other, because if there is no equilibrium of equality for all races, genders, and sexual preferences then there is no equality at all. There are a good number of similarities and differences when it comes to the equality of black men and gay men.
Trying to gain acceptance and equality as a black man is somewhat different then trying to gain acceptance and equality as a gay man because one is a race and the other is a lifestyle choice. You cannot choose which race you are born into, but you can choose your sexual preference. Gay black men are seen as a disgrace to the black community. Because a man is gay and black it gives other even more of an incentive to try and degrade them. In the beginning of the movie the main character Perry got into an argument with other black students who didn’t want to hear about gay issues. Though the black student kept reiterating that he didn’t care about another man’s sexual preference, his tone implied that he was rather hostile towards the subject of gay issues. Did he not want to talk about it because he didn’t like the idea of gay black men, or gay men in general? The idea of a black gay man could be seen as a set back or a disappointment to the black community because some people may say it’s a “waist” of a man.
People may also look at gay black men in Harlem as a double burden when compared to the average black man because you first have to worry about being allowed in certain places because of your race, and then on top of that you have to worry about whether or not you would be allowed because you like other men. It would give people more of an excuse not to let black men into certain places.
Though there are a lot of differences between gaining equality for a black man and a gay man, there are some similarities. They both have a struggle for acceptance. Black men have to fight for acceptance or at least tolerance from the white community and gay men have to gain acceptance and tolerance from family, piers, people of different races, and sexual preferences. For gay black men it’s almost like you weren’t considered to be black if you were gay. In the movie the NAACP disagreed wholeheartedly with homosexuality. Because it’s their own race it seems like it’s more of a problem. if the majority of these men were white then the NAACP and the black community wouldn’t have such a big problem with the fact that the men were gay because those men weren’t representing other black men. One could ask how a gay black man could represent other black men. Your sexual preference doesn’t make you any less black then you already were, and it didn’t make the men any less talented then other black men who were straight. If anything the black gay men had it harder because they not only had to gain acceptance from the whites but from their own race as well.
It didn’t make sense for the black community to disown the black gay men when they had to deal with the same thing with white people. In the movie when Marcus finished reciting his poem at the show, a young white man came up to him and complimented him and Marcus became offended because he felt like he didn’t need the guys approval of his poem. Not too long after, Perry has sex with Jim and gets offended when he makes a comment about the color of Perry’s skin. What’s interesting about it is that Perry feels like the same anger Marcus has towards the “white man” is the same anger he has towards the people who have a problem with him being gay, but then he gets offended when Jim makes the comment about his skin color after they had sex.
Though it was not impossible to acquire equal rights for black men while at the same time trying to get equal rights for gay black men, it must have been a struggle. In conclusion, equality cannot be equality if it is not given to everyone.
No comments:
Post a Comment