Gay or Nay: Reconciling Race, Religion and Homosexuality in Black America

“At a certain point, I've just concluded, that for me, personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married.”

And with that one sentence, our President Barack Obama, both created and stirred a conversation amongst his supporters and detractors alike. In America, we are more than ready to speak superficially within our circles and with our friends, but yet we are completely unprepared and unwilling to discuss who we really are with anyone. Our comments are vanilla and lack depth and insight into who we really are and what we really believe. With this being true, how then can our President take a side? How can he make (and subsequently defend) such a strong and defined statement? What about all of those he’s alienated? Will they vote against him? Will those he has now openly supported return the favor come election time? Will it even matter? 

In America, we have a history of denying who we are and how we feel. We live lives that are almost counter to everything we supposedly stand for....because we must in order to provide for our families. We host conversations with one another but we very rarely divulge how we really feel about the real issues plaguing us. Most of the conversations seen on a site like Facebook can be described as simply rhetorical mancala. A game being played in which one is looking to dominate the others playing through the use of large words, abstract concepts and misleading intentions, collecting “likes” as our marbles and dropping them into our containers stamped “EGO”. An issue as large as the “acceptance of homosexuality,” can not and should not be seen on such a small egotistically driven scale. The views you are about to read (and hopefully absorb) are nothing of the aforementioned. 

I am a homophobe. 

But exactly what does that mean? According to Dictionary.com; Homophobe is defined as: 

A person who fears or hates homosexuals and homosexuality. 

With convoluted definitions like that, there is no wonder why so many have a hard time accurately describing their emotions and divulging their real opinions on touchy subjects. The suffix -phobia simply means “fear” or “fear of”, how hate became involved in the definition of Homophobia is unclear. Let’s see if I can be more focused in my description of how I feel about homosexuality. 

I have a fear of how the acceptance of homosexuality impacts the community which I consider myself a part of. Black America has so many unresolved issues negatively affecting our progression, I do not believe it is wise for us to adopt a culture which surely will cause even more confusion before it is properly sorted out. 

Black America, more than any other subset of American culture, has had to fight and die for the right to live in peaceful harmony with others in this country. Hell, we’ve had to fight and die to live amongst ourselves in peace (Black Wall Street, Tulsa Oklahoma Riots). To compare our struggles for equality with that of any other (in American History) should be considered blatantly disrespectful towards our martyrs whose rewards are found in my ability to speak directly to you right now! Equality for Black America is found in going from a human being considered 3/5th human being, to simply one whole. From being included in sales and trust deeds as chattel to my being able to purchase a home for my family and sign a deed of trust myself. From literally standing on a selling block and being purchased, labeled and used a breeding cow or stud, or the sole purpose of being overworked as mules in the field to being able to establish a company as an entrepreneur in order to provide the means of living for one’s family. I won’t even get into the lynching, the sheer terror campaigns endured, disingenuous laws such as Jim Crow, and others. Black America, our struggle to survive first, prosper second, the Cointel Pro operatives to murder our leaders and spokespeople as well as infect our communities with disease and psychotic drugs, and eventually place an African American man into the White House, is not comparable to any other culture or group in the history of this land. 

Time and time again, however, our struggle and movement has been hijacked by some other who feels they are not being treated “equally.” The same songs are sang, the same stances are reconfigured and re-presented and because of our lack of self identity, Black Americans log on and co-sign this behavior. Equality in America can never truly be achieved. We have too many different cultures and factions to make it possible. Too many have enjoyed too large of a head start, and others have been dropped in and endured too deep of a hole which they would have to get out of to get started in the first place. So to make things fit in our contemporary capitalistic society, we have transformed the meaning of “equality”. Today “equality” means “sameness” rather than “oneness.” We have splintered off into so many different camps to satisfy our need to belong that we have completely lost track of what it means to treat someone equal: To allow people to be different without making them the same as us. We want to view homosexuals as the “same as” heterosexuals, and because so many Americans (homosexuals included) suffer from separation anxiety, they happily oblige. If we truly viewed them as equals, we would be celebrating their differences, rather than subliminally coercing them to join the ranks of ours. If we truly want to respect homosexual culture, we will take more time to know more about them, how they came into being, what is the motive of their love, and what role they may be able to play in the overall advancement of humanity or at the least American society. 

“The polarity of the sexes is disappearing, and with it erotic love, which is based on this polarity. Men and women become the “same”, not as “equals” as opposite poles. Contemporary society preaches this ideal of unindividualized equality because it needs human atoms, each one the same, to make them function in a mass aggregation, smoothly, without friction; all obeying the same commands, yet everybody is being convinced that he/she is following his own desires.” 

-Eric Fromm, The Art of Loving 1956

Historically speaking, in a religious context, equality meant we were all Children of God. Each given a unique job or task which when carried out was paramount to the overall cohesiveness of society. Husbands were expected to be strong, both mentally and physically, and this strength was used to create and fashion a livelihood for the family....it was also a foregone conclusion that they were men. Women were expected to reign in terms of practicalities and thoughtfulness. While the men were away working, wives tended to the children and to the household. Thus using the very natures endowed to us by God herself. Through God’s divine wisdom or natural selection (you choose) both men and women have adapted to these natures. Men are typically physically stronger than women and share a common bond for rationality and reasoning. Women are the more emotional, but equally necessary counterparts to that. Their tremendous capacity and willingness to love and nurture is what keeps the world from being at war with itself. But of course, too much of any thing has the tendency to create an overcompensation of some sort. The yin/yang of man/woman relationships is what is needed to create life. The masculine and feminine energy that is visible in every aspect of nature is required to recreate and stabilize life itself. Women love simply because....as does Mother Nature. No one has to do anything to expect the sun to rise in the morning or for life to spew forth from the ground. It’s intrinsic. This “Motherly Love” is the type of love that young babies need. They are unable to do for themselves and need the love of someone who does not require anything from them. Men are very different in their makeups. Like Father Time, we have defined expectations. 

“You can use my car once you clean your room.” 

“You can go to the dance if you make straight As.” 

“I’ll buy you a car of your own when you graduate high school/college.”

Because of a man’s nature to rationalize his actions, things are given once earned. Young children around the age of 8 begin to yearn for this type of love. It satisfies a need for the sense of accomplishment within them. This is why it is very common for a child to spend a large portion of their lives aiming to make their father proud. This is something you very rarely hear concerning mothers. Unfortunately we live in a time where it is not uncommon to be surrounded by young people who have grown up with only one of the necessary two formats of energy. Single parent moms, no matter how hard they try do not possess the natural aura of a man. The same can be said for single parent fathers and the feminine energies needed. I contend that our current state of confusion as to what is and what is not homosexuality, is a directly related to young men being given too much feminine energy too often. In an act of rebellion against their choices of male mates, females are choosing themselves to share their intimacy with. 

"The awareness of human separation, without reunion by love-- is the source of shame. It is at the same time the source of guilt and anxiety." 

All in all, the wage of sin is death. Nature reproduces, life is constantly recreated. This is not a reality for homosexuals as it is impossible for their lifestyle to sustain itself through natural means. Homosexuals cannot mate and create more homosexuals. Replication can only be achieved through Conversion. This is one of the central tenants in After the Ball: How America will conquer its fear & hatred of Gays in the 90s. 

It isn't enough that antigay bigots should become confused about us, or even indifferent to us--we are safest, in the long run, if we can actually make them like us. Conversion aims at just this.....

Note that the bigot need not actually be made to believe that he is such a heinous creature, that others will now despise him, and that he has been the immoral agent of suffering. It would be impossible to make him believe any such thing. Rather, our effect is achieved without reference to facts, logic, or proof.

And this is where my fear is rooted. Black America has been used as a harbinger for enough of America’s unresolved issues. We are the same group of people used to test the long term effects of syphilis unknowingly through experimentation from our government. Our families have witnessed enough separation. Our foundation is being mended as we speak. I fear that this particular load, homosexual indoctrination as it is currently being unveiled, is simply too much for us to bear. Let us find our way back to the table of harmony with the rest of the world. We need to allow ourselves time to recreate the image of love and marriage within our community before we extend an offering for others to join us in our misery. We too are the Children of God. Some would even point to us in the bible as the referenced Lost Tribe of Judah, stuck in a land not our own. Let’s recommit ourselves to ourselves and turn this thing around before it’s too late. 

Peace and Love 

Mustafa Ahmad Shakur

American Dreamin': The Convolution will be Televised!!

While riding today, I noticed a couple of young ladies, both wearing white outfits characterized by very short shorts and slim fitting tops displaying their shoulders and back. They were crossing Getwell Ave. at it’s intersection at Quince Road. Neither of the young women were older than 15 years I deduced. Not far down the street, a couple of men had made the young women the focus of their attention as they completely turned their heads while leaving a local BBQ shack and crossing the streets themselves. When the young women recognized they would have to pass the two men, they crossed back onto the side they’d just departed from, giggling to themselves.

This scene troubled me as it served as a microcosm to what has been ailing me for the past few sunsets. Our culture of sex, one of immediate all encompassing gratification and blatant physical, verbal and thus mental expression has begun to subjugate our better selves. This control is becoming more evident in virtually every facet of American life. An increasingly larger number of Americans are rebelling against globally accepted social norms to adopt a more ‘liberal’ agenda of inclusion and limitlessness. Everyone from your so called thug to your young under esteemed middle school girl to your graduate yuppie and self anointed intellect and family representative has subscribed to the idea of ‘people can’t help who they love’ in some form or another. Because of our über sexual nature, this physical desire is often confused for love and it is often acted out through lustful indulgence.

The nation’s current state of confusion as it relates to how we will accept and handle homosexuality provides a lot of insight into this modern american phenomenon. Recently a bill was passed in New York, our third most populous state, allowing for same sex marriage. I have not seen to edict, but I assume that in order to do so the definition for the institution of marriage must have changed in order for this to be allowed. For as long as America has been a sovereign country, marriage has been defined and accepted as ‘a union between man and woman’. This clearly had to have changed.

In the great state of New York, men can now marry men and women can marry themselves as well. This will undoubtedly lead to more open homosexual and bisexual relationships for all to see and experience. But why? Some say it is because of the need to recognize what has been happening since the beginning of humanity, others say it is the natural evolution of humankind, while still others will argue that our Constitution allows for the ‘pursuit of happiness’ by everyone it covers. I say we have allowed our primal desires to overrule our better judgement once again.

As a nation we are going to have to decide who we are and what we will look like. We have been operating under the guise of the world’s ‘melting pot’ but 1 year in America as a minority of any sort will dissipate those expectations. We are a nation of various groups and cultures bound together by our spirit of independence and personal freedom. Our fear of being repressive prevents us from adhering to strict sets of beliefs while our mandate to be tolerant strips one of their own standards enforced through childhood and familial traditions. We have to include. To not do so paints an individual as a hate monger or fear peddler, or even simply an imbecile. We have been bred to group think our issues and while we seem to know this is not bringing us any closer, it does alleviate the burden of accountability and for many that is sufficient.

This current sexual identity crisis is stemmed in mass confusion and has been propagated with masterful execution. No matter what time of the day or night you turn on your television or radio you will find an ad or scene which is sexual in nature. It is how we sell virtually all of our music, and it is apart of every magazine on the shelf. It starts at toddlerhood as we are introduced to non gender specific creations or men who speak in tones much more like our mothers than our fathers. Our culture is currently so sexually charged and critically undisciplined that we are willing to stimulate our private parts with just about anything. We are having sex in open markets, with those of the same sex, as well as with other species of animal. Slowly the restrictions which helped us define our humanity are being blurred and we become less human and more animal. We have lost our willingness to reason and logically define our needs and desires and in place we have decided that we are no more in control of these urges than baby is of its bladder. Somehow though, we tend to think that those who have sexual perversions or variances other that our own should be in complete control of theirs or we should be in control of them.

Many frown on a comparison between pedophilia and homosexuality or bestiality and homosexuality. I do not think they are vastly different. If you look at statistics you will find that the vast majority of ‘sexual predators’ or those who have sexual relationships with youth are repeat offenders. Once arrested, convicted and punished, they eventually find themselves at a familiar crossroads questioning their love or lust for such a forbidden fruit. Many times they succumb to their need for satiation. Much like what I envision an telepathic encounter between two men must be as they make their final decisions to ravage one another.

Listen America,

I am not here to castigate anyone for their choice of lifestyle. I am simply asking pointed questions which I believe should be answered and understood before we go further into a room with no lights, walls or exits. As adults, we have a responsibility to the youth who look to us for answers to their many questions of life. We need to take on more accountability in how we respond. Let’s look deeply at how confusing it is for a child to understand the basic foundations of life when a man is dressed like and desires to be treated like a woman in the open forum. We all have sexual fantasies of some sort, but responsible individuals understand that those things are to be held closely and only acted out in private. Openly excessive displays of hetero-, homo- or bi-sexual lusts should be frown upon. Our children are being exposed to spirits far to complex for them to fully understand and because of the poor rate of full parental involvement, these spirits re-present themselves through the subconscious mind if firmer bases of reality and perspective are not held. We need to define who and what we are, and stop being so quick to change that for the sake of tranquility. Men are required in such times as these, and what we seem to have not taken notice of is the erosion of masculinity throughout our culture. The truth to the matter is the sexuality is something which varies from culture to culture and morphs throughout the time-space continuum. At some point or another virtually everything has been accepted and rejected. We are not inventing the wheel here. What it seems however is that much like the pre-teen, America; still in its immature stages of growth, is experiencing an identity crisis. Who we are, what we want, how we get it, and through which means are all still being developed as this nation shifts in influence between the majority and its many minorities. We must be careful though, the rest of the world is watching. Openly flaunting or displaying weakness is luxury we do not have.

Richard T Harris II

via: www.rainbowsandlilacs.blogspot.com

A Broken Rose Giving Bloom Through the Cracks in the Concrete

The recent events surrounding the death of another one of youth, this time at the hands of a neighborhood vigilante, has gained national attention and sparked the previously dormant flames of action which, once fanned, have now spread like a California wildfire across all of America. We all see young Trayvon Martin (may God bless his soul and bring comfort to his family) as one of us. Even the President of the United States gave a speech acknowledging, "If I had a son.....he would look like Trayvon Martin." When we see those pictures of this young man, who on his way home from the store to buy Skittles and Iced Tea, was profiled, stalked, approached and eventually murdered by someone who was 'patrolling' the neighborhood and felt the "fucking coons" always seemed to get away, we should see our younger brother, our son, our daughters, our friends......we should see ourselves. Upon recognizing ourselves, we seem to always ask that plain and simple question......"How could something like this happen?!" I plead for you to not stop there however, also ask "What can be done to prevent other innocent young lives from being senselessly loss to the hands of violence and apathy (and in some cases disdain) towards their futures."

Since blacks have been in America, and certainly sense they have been deemed Black Americans, we have had to deal with racial profiling and violence. Because of the color of our skin, we have been considered dirty, immoral, ugly, unworthy of love, malevolent, distrustful and worse. Our women have been considered loose, disinterested in motherhood, slothful, and whorish....and worse. Listen to the propaganda and you'll learn that our children are wayward with a love for violence and carelessness and a profound hatred for education and structure. Personified images of these sentiments were created and spread throughout the US and anywhere else in the world it was assumed would have interaction with the Negro. This caused many people the world over to 'know' this version of the Black person from America. It took a strong sense of self awareness and focus on self empowerment to garner the efforts of all of those who stood strong and shot this message down during the Civil Rights movements of the 50s, 60s and early 70s. Black Americans began to realize the freedoms they had been afforded and wanted to see more for themselves than the poor disenchanted neighborhoods they'd been raised to believe was their pinnacles. We want to be able to live as we decided to live, where we decided to live and without a fear for being attacked because of the unfounded negative preconceived notions constructed by White America to disassociate us from the of Humanity. To a degree it worked. The messages from leaders like Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, Huey Newton, Bobby Seals, Fred Hampton, Martin Luther King Jr and others, bled into every facet of Black American life and created a sense of love and the desire to be empowered. The reflection of this movement was seen in how we entertained ourselves as Stevie Wonder, James Brown, Marvin Gay, Sam Cooke, Gil Scott Heron and others subconsciously (and not so subconsciously) promoted the message that we as people were worthy of love and would begin to uplift one another and show the world our collectiveness. The message Black America sent across was a powerful one....so much so that it gave fear to the structure of America itself and served as the cause of death for virtually every leader named above. Crack was introduced to our neighborhoods, poverty and a sense of helplessness set in, children became orphans and wardens of the state, parents became disinterested in being responsible and accountable for anything and eventually a complete and total fall of our culture ensued.

The only thing we had which shed light into what was happening.....the only "voice" we had throughout the darkness of the 80s and 90s was that of our entertainment. As drugs (which were proven to have been introduced and funneled into the Black American community by our national government) and gang violence ravaged whatever sense of security and peace and love we had, our entertainment.....Hip Hop, continued to tell our story. Our spoken artists continued to be the Voice through which virtually an entire generation of Black Americans gained a sense of self pride, self worth, self awareness, self acceptance and most importantly.....peace. Sure their were negative images in rap music throughout these times, but those images were not something young Black Americans were told to strive for at all costs. Those images were what those of us who grew up in troubled, poverty stricken neighborhoods knew all too well. We were comfortable with what we were hearing because we were seeing this reality every day. Art was imitating life. And while coded and cryptic to some, the messages were still messages of empowerment...."You Gotta Keep Ya Head Up," "Today Was a Good Day," "Never Seen a Man Cry." Many of us were 'raised' from this music. Still till today, when I'm in a complete life rut, I turn on some Pac and "Smile".

In 2012, we can no longer say that the world is being influenced by stereotypical propaganda being handed out by White America.....not exclusively. As a people, Black Americans have lost their way. And it is going to take the collective efforts of us as a People to regain our footing. The hip hop and entertainment which once served as our voice through the wilderness has become but a war cry to all that we dare come into contact with. Where we once strived for excellence and betterment, we now only care to gain wealth so that we can flaunt it in the eyes of those of us who do not have such luxuries. We make promises to the world and anyone in it that we are beasts and murders and drug users who act without thinking and without remorse. This image, now coming from us, is sold world wide and is being promoted and saluted on television stations and radio stations everywhere. For a few gold coins, we have allowed ourselves to become our own worse enemy. No longer can we blame others for how they view us. The truth is, Black Americans are afraid of Black Americans. We don't want to live next to one another. We are afraid of those children that were left behind by their fathers and disregarded by their mothers who have grown up with a perpetual chip on their shoulder and harbor disgust for everyone who ignored their pleas for help. There has been so much pain and anger in their world that many young Black Americans have no fear for death or life. They have no respect for elders and authority. They have no desire to gain an education of any kind that they feel will not elevate them immediately. Rappers (because I refuse to call some of this art) know this and cater to that anger and resentment. Self hate is spewed loudly on microphones and through speakers and into the young minds of our children who are being raised by children. Our lives and our communities are now imitating the so-called art. By choice we have created an environment for ourselves where everyone has a right to be (unfortunately in many cases should be) afraid of our children.

The only way to fix these concerns is through love. We must recommit ourselves to ourselves. We must regain control of our own communities and become more open to our young people who are looking to their elders for guidance. Hell, its time for many of us who haven't, to recognize ourselves as elders. Love is the only thing that can overcome hate. Nothing else is strong enough. Loving our enemy has proven to fail us time and time again. That should not be our first priority.

We must learn to love ourselves.

I stand with us all as we demand justice for the family of Trayvon Martin. I also stand in love and support for every young life that is lost. I stand against injustice and indiscriminate behavior against all Black American youth, no matter who its at the hands of. I stand against the promotion of the so called thugs who are making it harder for our innocent children to be viewed as such. I stand against the rampant misogyny and ultra sexuality that has taken hold to and distorted the minds of our young people. I stand against the deadbeat dads who walk away from their children and leave them wondering their entire lives who they are and how well they stack up to the rest of the world. I stand against gang activity and the foolish interpretation of 'no-snitching' that says we can not speak up against anything we see out of fear of being attacked ourselves. The energy we are now exuding for justice must not die with the arrest and charging of George Zimmerman. That's too easy. Let's stand strong and demand the betterment for our people across the board. Let's hold one another accountable for the lives we create, take or influence. Let us again fall into love with ourselves and one another.

I too, am Trayvon Martin. And I stand for him as I stand with you.

"Father forgive us for living

While all my homies stuck in prison

Barely breathing believing that the world is a prison

Its like a ghetto we can never leave

A broken rose giving bloom through the cracks of the concrete

So many other things for us to see.

Things to be our history so full of tragedy and misery

To all my homies never made home

The dead peers I shed tattooed tears for when I'm alone.

Picture us inside a ghetto heaven

A place to rest

Finding peace in this land of stress

In my chest I feel pain come in sudden storms

Life full of rain in this game watch for land thorns

Our unborn never got to grow never got to see whats next

In this world full of countless threats

I beg God

To make a way for our ghetto kids to breath

Show a sign

Make us all believe....."

-2Pac