{"id":5397,"date":"2008-11-08T12:17:56","date_gmt":"2008-11-08T19:37:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=5397"},"modified":"2008-11-08T12:17:56","modified_gmt":"2008-11-08T19:37:44","slug":"if-you-call-me-a-faggot-i-will-call-you-a-nigger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=5397","title":{"rendered":""If you call me a faggot, I will call you a nigger""},"content":{"rendered":"

This will be my third link post in a row on the “blame the blacks” meme, which may seem like overkill. To show that it’s not <\/em>overkill, read Renee’s post<\/a>, which in turn draws on Rod 2.0<\/a> (I think), showing how extreme and overtly racist the blame-the-blacks meme has become among some.<\/p>\n

Three older men accosted my friend and shouted, \u201cBlack people did this, I hope you people are happy!\u201d A young lesbian couple with mohawks and Obama buttons joined the shouting and said there were \u201cvery disappointed with black people\u201d and \u201chow could we\u201d after the Obama victory. This was stupid for them to single us out because we were carrying those blue NO ON PROP 8 signs! I pointed that out and the one of the older men said it didn\u2019t matter because \u201cmost black people hated gays\u201d and he was \u201cwrong\u201d to think we had compassion. That was the most insulting thing I had ever heard. I guess he never thought we were gay.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And a scene from a protest outside a Mormon church:<\/p>\n

It was like being at a klan rally except the klansmen were wearing Abercrombie polos and Birkenstocks. YOU NIGGER, one man shouted at men. If your people want to call me a FAGGOT, I will call you a nigger. Someone else said same thing to me on the next block near the temple\u2026me and my friend were walking, he is also gay but Korean, and a young WeHo clone said after last night the niggers better not come to West Hollywood if they knew what was BEST for them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But, some readers may object, aren’t these folks just a few unrepresentative racist wackos? Maybe. But what worries me is that, presently, those racist wackos feel free to say these things, instead of being shut up by the sure knowledge that yelling “nigger” will lead to being universally shouted down and ostracized. If that’s what’s going on, then the community as a whole — not just a few whackos — is racist.<\/p>\n

Racism, in other words, isn’t just yelling “nigger.” It’s also the failure to yell “shut the fuck up!,” and do it immediately, every single time an “ally” yells “nigger.”<\/p>\n

Renee comments:<\/p>\n

A gay black man or woman irregardless of race is still gay and some white members have turned this into a hostile movement for them. Where is the sense of community in this? What these organizers fail to realize is that they have precious little connection with POC to begin with, and if they begin with the racist taunts they will alienate the few supporters that they already have. This is a time when they need to be reaching out to POC to make a bridge that they never attempted to build in the first place, and yet descending into racial politics is the route that has been chosen. This is a myopic policy that will only serve to push gay rights even further back.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I agree with Renee that this is terrible strategy (although we shouldn’t forget that the “No on 8” organizers have explicitly argued against<\/em><\/a> blaming demographic subgroups for the loss). ((From a mass email sent out by “No on 8”: “We only further divide our state if we attempt to blame people of faith, African American voters, rural communities and others for this loss. We know people of all faiths, races and backgrounds stand with us in our fight to end discrimination, and will continue to do so.”))<\/p>\n

But I don’t even want to talk about how harmful this is to marriage equality, because who gives a damn? Even if this were somehow good for the cause of marriage equality, it would still <\/em>be fucking disgusting racist bullshit.<\/p>\n

Think about “if you call me a faggot, I will call you a nigger.” That’s not the voice of justified anger at Proposition 8 passing. That’s white racism that goes back decades, which nowadays is usually covered by a fig leaf of civility, but for the moment the fig leaf has been blown away by rage. That’s some white racist asshole thinking “Now, now, at long last, I finally<\/em> get to tell the niggers what I really <\/em>think of them.” That’s resentment and rage because so many white people find it such a crushing burden to have to treat non-whites as if they were human.<\/p>\n

It’s always there, but it’s usually covered up. And “covered up” is not “absent.” “Covered up” just means that the racism is expressed in quieter, disguised ways — ways that white people overlook, but people of color are usually more attuned to. That’s what people of color are talking about when they say that racism in the LGBTQ community is a real problem that has to be addressed. And not just because it’s good strategy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This will be my third link post in a row on the “blame the blacks” meme, which may seem like overkill. To show that it’s not overkill, read Renee’s post, which in turn draws on Rod 2.0 (I think), showing … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[93,112],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-race-racism-and-related-issues","category-same-sex-marriage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5397\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}