A Quickie for IBARW
Saturday, 9 August 2008 19:55![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lea_hazelIt's International Blog Against Racism Week, and I missed almost all of it. I had a hectic week, and am about to have another, so in case I don't get to post tomorrow, here's a quickie for thoughts:
The theme this year is intersectionality. So, let's talk about queer people of color, or rather, queer people of non-mainstream cultures. Racialicious has some good posts focusing on the experience of being black and gay, although I can't seem to find the one I'm thinking of right now.
I read Pride High online. This is a comic book about a gay-straight alliance at a superhero school, whose members struggle to learn how to use their powers while at the same time struggling against their less tolerant, less open-minded, or just less outspoken peers. I'm up to issue four or so, and am loving it so far.
Pride High is apparently too diverse. This may or may not be code for "gay people of color," I'm not sure. Check out the cast page and, for good measure, compare/contrast the cast page of another webcomic about superpowered queers, Queeroes. It's changed since I last read it.
At the end of the first issue of PH (correct me if I misremember), Craig "Mindsweeper" Newman dies in a tragic training accident. Craig is a black, gay teenager and the boyfriend of Jorge "Kid Mischief" Ponce, the POV character. Several issues later, Jorge and the other surviving members of Pride High attend Craig's funeral, which is being protested by the members of a homophobic church, not unlike a very well-known American church. Craig's parents speak against the homophobic church and in support of their son.
Writing the parents of a black, gay teenager as being implicitly, unquestionably accepting and loving? That is a radical act.
The meme is that "black people are homophobic" and it has nothing to do with confronting homophobia. It has nothing to do with helping LGBTQIA people of color. It has nothing to do with ensuring that queer communities are equally open and accepting to POC as to white people, to the cultural other as to members of the dominant culture. It is meant to validate the reverse: that white people aren't homophobic. My people are good, my people are fine; it's your people who are carrying over all the ills of society. Where I live, it's a post-racial, gender-blind utopia.
One day, I'm going to write all about how different the queer communities of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv are, because it's totally related.
Oh! I found the Racialicious post I was looking for. "Hip-hop didn’t draft the Defense of Marriage Act, or create “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” or murder young folks like Sakia Gunn, Matthew Shepard, Gwen Araujo, Brandon Teena, and Rashawn Brazell."
This is all terribly disjointed, because the weather is awful and my brain is mush. But this particular form of intersectionality has been on my mind a lot lately, so: Discuss.
PS: I snagged the icon from sanguinity, whose post about atheism I commented on rather excessively.
The theme this year is intersectionality. So, let's talk about queer people of color, or rather, queer people of non-mainstream cultures. Racialicious has some good posts focusing on the experience of being black and gay, although I can't seem to find the one I'm thinking of right now.
I read Pride High online. This is a comic book about a gay-straight alliance at a superhero school, whose members struggle to learn how to use their powers while at the same time struggling against their less tolerant, less open-minded, or just less outspoken peers. I'm up to issue four or so, and am loving it so far.
Pride High is apparently too diverse. This may or may not be code for "gay people of color," I'm not sure. Check out the cast page and, for good measure, compare/contrast the cast page of another webcomic about superpowered queers, Queeroes. It's changed since I last read it.
At the end of the first issue of PH (correct me if I misremember), Craig "Mindsweeper" Newman dies in a tragic training accident. Craig is a black, gay teenager and the boyfriend of Jorge "Kid Mischief" Ponce, the POV character. Several issues later, Jorge and the other surviving members of Pride High attend Craig's funeral, which is being protested by the members of a homophobic church, not unlike a very well-known American church. Craig's parents speak against the homophobic church and in support of their son.
Writing the parents of a black, gay teenager as being implicitly, unquestionably accepting and loving? That is a radical act.
The meme is that "black people are homophobic" and it has nothing to do with confronting homophobia. It has nothing to do with helping LGBTQIA people of color. It has nothing to do with ensuring that queer communities are equally open and accepting to POC as to white people, to the cultural other as to members of the dominant culture. It is meant to validate the reverse: that white people aren't homophobic. My people are good, my people are fine; it's your people who are carrying over all the ills of society. Where I live, it's a post-racial, gender-blind utopia.
One day, I'm going to write all about how different the queer communities of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv are, because it's totally related.
Oh! I found the Racialicious post I was looking for. "Hip-hop didn’t draft the Defense of Marriage Act, or create “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” or murder young folks like Sakia Gunn, Matthew Shepard, Gwen Araujo, Brandon Teena, and Rashawn Brazell."
This is all terribly disjointed, because the weather is awful and my brain is mush. But this particular form of intersectionality has been on my mind a lot lately, so: Discuss.
PS: I snagged the icon from sanguinity, whose post about atheism I commented on rather excessively.
no subject
2008-08-10 12:16 (UTC)Yes. That. That, that, that. I didn't challenge the meme itself in my post on the subject, and the more I think about it, the more I think I should have. So I'm adding a link to you.
And re the atheism post -- and I'll respond there as soon as I figure out what to do about Mr. Derailment (who, I am frustrated to admit, has successfully derailed me) -- but your comments were not excessive, and I'm glad you made them. :-)
Oh, and the icon? Credit goes to
no subject
2008-08-10 12:44 (UTC)