Your Monday Morning "Everything Bagel!"

The black man has been so demeaned and emasculated over hundreds of years of American history, it's only been in the past few decades that he's been able to be seen as strong, proud, beautiful, etc.  Coming out of the sixties and seventies, even with the "blacksploitation" movement and the rise of R & B/soul music, black male sexuality became more and more something to be envied, desired, venerated, celebrated.  (Hence the new stereotype: the black "stud" or pimp.)  Then came hip-hop, with young men whose lives and neighborhoods had been basically reduced to rubble or a war zone, standing up and telling street poetry about their lives.  The only glitch is, somewhere along the line, in the name of "keeping it real," the stories and raps about gangsters, violence, the 'hood etc. began to turn into braggadicio and boasting, and a HYPER-masculinity came into play--extolling a man who is ultra-violent, has the biggest "weapon," makes sure women are disposable ("bitches" and "ho's"), neglects his parenting duties, cares only for "bling" and material possessions, etc.  And part of this thus involves seething homophobia and hatred for anything "unmanly," i.e. un-black.  (Some in the African-American community--at least among men in hip-hop--actually refer to being gay as "a white thing.")  The reason E. Lynn Harris and others created such an outcry with the revelation of "the D.L." is that it was almost a sense of race betrayal--people in the black community weren't supposed to reveal its "dirty laundry" in front of White America.  And, of course, the evangelical church and the Nation of Islam are two major theological influence on black America--and neither has traditionally been very welcoming of gays.

Ultimately, though, I feel that this is an issue that black America needs to deal with, and white people (including me!) can have an opinion, but in NO WAY should be saying, "Here's what black America needs to do."  Wrong-o!  Black America needs to decide what black America needs to do, and the rest of us need to understand where their heads are at on these issues.   I personally think that the hip-hop community would possibly explode into confetti if every closet case was outed, since way too many rappers refuse to even comprehend the possibility of there being a gay hip-hop community--it literally does not compute with their world view.  (We'll just have to let talents such as God-des and She light the way.)  :)   And I say thank GOD I'm alive to see Barack Obama as President of the United States--minor missteps aside, every day I am grateful for his leadership, and for the power and beauty he symbolizes as our leader!