Minority Comparisons

In this verbally politically sensitive age, does anyone have the right to object to statements that should be considered outside of the norm. I am referring to the constant comparison of the civil rights struggle of the gay community with the civil rights struggle of the African American community. Although I believe that no person should be discriminated against in jobs or housing , I do believe that it is unfair to compare the right to perform certain sexual behaviors with the right to live in peace and equality because you are Black. They are two distinct social problems.

I disagree with the thought that you can choose to be Black, African American or any of the many ethnic or cultural manifestations of Black Africanness. However, I do believe that you can choose to be gay. Geneticists have not proven scientifically and definitively that the sexual preference of gays is genetic. Currently, what is heralded, is what political groups interpret each finding that is reported about the development of certain patterns in brain scans, without a true determination as to whether nature, nurture or a combination of both is responsible for the patterns which indicate the preference to be gay.

In any event, I think that as Americans we have the right to do whatever we choose to do, as long as our choice does not deliberately impose upon the rights of others. That being said, Blacks, African Americans nor any African group has the right to choose their racial identity; it is sown into the fabric of who they are. It is reflected in color and culture. It is reflected in physical features, and in regional, national and international communication methods. And what is reflected is not a choice but a state of being. It is our government--advised by its own psychological experts (white in majority)--that has written the rule book that takes the existence of race from a state of being to a position of choice, and has polarized the ethnic mulatto which was the fruit of abusive slave-holding, against the neo-ethnic mulatto who has become the preferred icon of the new image of America. This right to choose has evolved leading psychotherapists or other responsible social change agents to create the mindset that in America, we create ourselves. And so, we seem to have determined the idea that because we choose to be Black or White or whatever, that our choices give us the right to categorize and group people together as it best fits our political or economic whim. But blacknes is not a choice or a behavior. It is a state of being. It is our humanity, not the aberent practices that occur because of each individuals personal sexual desire or preferences.

Obvious outward and less obvious inward traits (those that are experienced through community living) can be observed which identifies one as African or African American. These traits are not assumed or co-opted, they reside in our skin, our structure and our innate values. There is nothing moral or immoral about being Black or African. It is not a choice. Like any kind of sexual encounter people choose what they prefer. Unless we have determined that a community or country has no right to determine its own value system--thus making illigitimate any system which decrees correct or incorrect behavior--we need to be careful about the pontificating disposition which challenges this societal right. Millions of people have chosen to be gay. They should not be beaten, or in any way abused.

But somebody needs to do an assessment of the gay behavior upon the black community. Blacks--like me-- and others are concerned and complaining about the inability for large numbers of black men to provide for and protect their families. I am almost sure that a part of this has to do with some of the the still race-laden vestiges of capitalism, which to a large degree still shuts out what may be called manly black men or warrior types; while in part the confusion that has arisen about what it means to be male has devasted our families leaving us with fewer and fewer good role models of "black maleness" and subsequently not much male input with regard to how we should socialize our boys, treat women, or treat community, nor with any clue as to what responsible black men should do and produce in their communities.

Are we truly male, female or are we androgynous? However we answer will determine how we shape black male thinking and what our male children contribute to our society. What concerns me is that we do research about every other social change that occurs among people. But no one that I know of; or at least the information is not readily accessible, is asking questions like:
1. What does it mean to be male?
2. What is the role of a black male?
3. What is the black male responsibility to his family and community?
4. If a black man is gay, can he teach his male child how to be a man?
5. How does being gay affect the black male's chances of success in a normal working environment?
6. How does black male gay(ness) affect the perspective of those who dominate culture and business as they seek to employ or take seriously black male candidates for positions of responsibility and aauthority?
7. How does black male gayness impact the choices and or decisions of black females to marry outside of their race?
8. How should the black community develope and protect its interests if there are no males to provide leadership in those areas where black male leadership is needed?

Someone once wrote that white men are impacted in the job market also and that their community has dealt with gayness in a non-discriminatory way. God bless you! But the truth is that in general black men are still left without access to the mainstream life of America--with the exception of sportsfigures and and some entertainers--and the chances of a black gay man having access to the same economic and social privileges as white gay men is slim. Further white men generally fight in a number of ways to avoid the extinction of their race. Admittedly this has led to in some cases to perversion, paranoia and in some cases genocide, but my point is that there is a sense among them that someone must be at the vanguard to assure survival.

Unless we simply do not believe that we can and are contributing to our own undoing, we must begin asking the hard politically incorrect questions that lead us to solutions that change the course of the Black/African American both in the city and suburbs. The gay issue is not the only one that I believe contributes to our demise, but it is the only one that I can think of that has not been evaluated for its impact upon our families, our male children, our female children, our women and our being as a people. Finally, to simply lump the gay struggle into the Black/African American struggle in order to give to the gay struggle a sense of validity as a comparable minority is as wrong as taking all marital cheaters and fighting for their right to do so on the basis that they are in a minority when it comes to their representation and acceptance in American society. This could only occur in a society where it has become a moral issue to be Black. I believe the two "behavior" and "being" are separate issues.

What do you think?

African American Christians and Politics

Does a political position against abortion mean that African American Christians are ignorant and are being controlled by the White Religious Right?

Does a political position supporting Affirmative Action mean that African American Christians are uninformed or unspiritual liberals?

Oppression or Evangelism

When Christian evangelists enter the African American Community, should their message emphasize the conversion of the soul--leading to Eternal Life--or the relief of community decay that has resulted from abuse and neglect of Eurocentric Christianity? What do you think?