Can't We All Just Get Along?!

I don’t know where this ardent rage and despicable hatred for LGBTQ individuals came from within the black community, but since I’ve been reading The Root it’s become this unfathomable, remarkably disturbing disappointment. There are so many people of color who hate as passionately as racists. It seems when people don’t understand someone else’s lifestyle they react with unrelenting malice and distaste. A reaction full of judgment and impenetrable pride drastically reducing the likelihood of changing minds. Some of the comments include this gem, “I don’t understand why people are honoring this disgusting sexuality. This is nothing to honor his life style (if it’s true) is a sin against life. Woman was made for man to create life. That’s how babies are born. Two men nor two woman can’t create life. Im sick of our on the news tv shows etc….” To say this about anyone while touting religious superiority, spewing this that is so obviously devoid of everything for which Jesus stood. This garbage makes me clench my teeth in anger. But that’s not all, here are another few comments I found written in response to a person who attended their first Gay marriage to get the blood boiling. These comments are from this post on Facebook:

“SICK, SICK, SICK, not the sinner but the S I N, we started out male and female now some people got it ALL messed up to say the lest”

What?!

“This is sick illicit pervetted and the beginnings of the castration of the black male. Wake up black men and learn to embrace your God given gender role and sexuality God loves you just as you are.”

Sigh.Gotta love when religion gets involved because so many people seem to think they can speak for an omnipresent being.

“The world doesn’t have to know what your sexual preference is, many of us dont care! If I look at you,smell you, talk to you, I cannot tell you are homosexual! Stop comparing homosexual rights to black civil rights,doesnt even come close! FACT: GOD can deliver people from homosexuality.”

FACT: You’re wrong.

“God hates it…”

Seriously?!

There are so many more where those came from. And don’t get me started with this “gay agenda” nonsense that people are convinced is a consipracy to get black people to support gay rights. Nobody is forcing anyone to do anything. Remember that God mentioned earlier, well apparently free will is one of the things bestowed upon us, so uhhh yeah. Obviously this thought process is of a choice percentage, but times are definitely changing and not only parts of the black community, but the world seems to be moving towards a more universal understanding that humanity is something to be cherished not scrutinized. I don’t want it to seem like there weren’t any protests to the hateful comments. There were plenty of people who came out in defense of LGBTQ people.

 “I hate to break the news but homosexuality does not belong to one race. There are gays in EVERY country , continent, race, gender , ethnicity and religion. And it has been such since the beginning of time . Yes gay ppl are in Africa and they are not that way bcz they were raped by Romans . Gays were instrumental in the civil rights movement but were made to remain behind closed doors. The reason why black publications run these stories is bcz there are black gay ppl. Maybe not YOU. But they do exist. I know our parents taught us that gayness was a white thing but they lied. I’m sorry to break it to you. It it’s time we grow up. You can still not approve of it . That’s fine but stop operating with the mindset that homosexuality does not exist within our ppl.”

“Gender and race are socially constructed….they are not scientific qualities that can be quantified. These are divisive labels created by human beings to classify and control others.”

“ Lmao@ "the gay agenda”. I think the agenda of most gay people is them living their lives just like anyone else. The only gay agenda I seem to be aware of is to make this world fabulous with amazing fashion & home decor. Why are people so interested in what consenting adults choose to do? And for those Bible thumpers out there: this is what your Christ had to say about condemning others: John 8:7.“

”As someone who is black and gay, it’s surprising to me to see all of these pieces on The Root about LGBT life. Just like seeing so much of my life being played out in the political sphere when it comes to being black, it feels the same way considering that I’m gay. But there’s no gay “agenda” here. I want to succeed in life and be happy just like everyone else. These articles are not propaganda; they humanizing gay people. We’re people, too; and we are BLACK people, too.“

I know it’s not just the black community that holds these atrocious beliefs, but it’s baffling considering our history. I’m not saying “get along with everybody” (though you totes should, it’s awesome) I’m saying, it’s none of your business what anyone else is doing and there is no need to judge because it’s literally none of your business. It’s hard enough being a person of color in this society, there’s no need to make it even harder for individuals who are gay too. CAN’T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG?!

Here We Go Again

As I was scrolling through my Facebook feed, eyeballs rolling over various headlines like, Top Ten Restaurants That Sell Pork Belly Flavored Pabst or whatever, I came across a piece of true journalistic - if it can even be called that- garbage.At first I was convinced it was some kind of joke- an Onion article or a Fox News blog post, but nay.

This shamelessly off-putting virtual punch to the throat was titled, “It Happened To Me: There Are No Black People In My Yoga Classes And I’m Suddenly Feeling Uncomfortable With It.” However, the entire article is about this girl and her discomfort with herself in relation to a black woman who was taking the class for the first time. This person is a human being with the emotional capacity of a bag of bath salts. There have been some pretty great responses to that stinky heap of dinosaur dung, but I am going off topic to open up the discussion of how this nauseatingly self-indulgent experience made it onto a website that  "is where women go to be their unabashed selves, and where their unabashed selves are applauded – regardless of age, size, ability, location, occupation, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, economic status, relationship status, sexual preferences or lifestyle choices…“ blah blah blah. I think they forgot to add, at the expense of other women (of color). I would just like to know what the process these "pieces” go through before being birthed into the blogosphere to be read by unsuspecting individuals who carry a modicum of sense in their brain pouches and don’t want to read racist aha moments written by oblivious observers who will seemingly never understand the topics they feel the need to so efficiently debase and ruin with ignorance. I took a gander at XOjane, I think I may have poked around the site a few years ago, but there was obviously a reason I never looked back.

It’s more than upsetting that the anecdote was published on a site that is suppose to empower women, but thoroughly did the opposite, which is a continuous trend in feminist culture. As I’ve written before, there is a disconnect between women of color and our white counterparts. It’s inherently different to be a black woman than to be a white woman in society and when we can all embrace and understand this difference maybe we can find some common ground and move on with our agenda as women to better the world we live in where we all ride unicorns and shoot laser beams out of our nipples.

Regardless of how “uncomfortable” some white women may feel about accepting this harrowing reality, it would be soooo much easier to have discussions if everyone wasn’t walking on gd eggshells. The yoga woman as she’s so infamously referred to these days (2) who wrote this is so painfully unsympathetic to how this newcomer may have felt, possibly having a brand new experience with strangers, but instead makes herself the focus of this woman’s discomfort. Privilege doesn’t even begin to explain her warped notions. Granted, I could not make it through the whole thing in fear I would destroy everything around me, I cannot imagine there being any redeeming qualities of her incalculable callowness. All I can hope is that writing what she did made her a better woman for it. I hope that she took the time to read some of the well thought out comments and actually understood where they were coming from- a place of severe frustration with the status quo.