You’re A Queer
So I’m reading an anthology entitled Troubling Intersections of Race and Sexuality. In one of the essays, the essayist writes about a young same gender loving man he interviewed who viewed the word ‘gay’ as a white term. Instead the young man used the words same gender loving. Which made me question, is the terminology we use as different races create another racial divide within the queer community?
Lets face it: the queer community is divided in the respects of sexual identity and race. When it comes to the terms we use, I see that queers of color tend to want to create their own identities and detach themselves from both the gay culture and whiteness. I use the term queer. I’m attracted to spirit and energy. Whether that comes from a gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender individual, my love does not exempt anyone. My gender and sexuality is very fluid and I feel that using the term queer helps create that structure for me.
There’s a Black same gender loving female {I love you girl!} who attends my school; who calls herself a dyke. Before meeting her I would never use the word dyke, because I looked at it as a derogatory term. Then, I found out there’s something called a dyke march! So lesbians liked being called this word? I guess it’s in the context you use it in. Minorities have the ability to rise above the hate, the spite and claim things. The N word was used to demean us; now I hear that word at every street corner in Brooklyn! The word queer too was used to demean us. I know Black gay people who hate being called queer, because they look at it as a white term. Unlike, these Black gay people I am not stuck on identity. There’s more to me than that. We need to look above this construct of race. We’re already divided by the color of our skin, do we really need to be divided by labels we use. The question, do the terminology we use as different races create another racial divide in the queer community? Is probably a question best left to the individual themselves.
I guess what I’m trying to say here is, stop labeling yourselves according to your race.
BY THE WAY: Although, I am attracted to all genders, I prefer men. And I can only see a future with them. Sounds like a contradiction, I know.
Rocafella07 said,
December 3, 2007 at 1:46 am
Hmmmm I’ve never really thought about, like that, before. It ALWAYS amazes me how “gay” used to mean being “happy”…and somewhere down the road, someone decided that that same word could be used to describe someone who’s homosexual…and EVERONE goes with it…even WEBSTERS (dictionary)!!!
But, I get what your saying. Each Gay community (blk & wht) has “labels” or “sub-sections” for EVERYONE…It just kills me!
darkdaughta said,
December 3, 2007 at 10:26 pm
Of course many would argue that the term “minority” is the ultimate in race based, racist terminology that defines all who are melanin pigmented according to their relationship to whiteness, grouping us as less and of lesser numbers when in actuality, people whose melanin pigmentation marks them as recipients of white domination comprise about 85 percent of the planet’s population. Definitely not minorities.
snag said,
December 5, 2007 at 5:15 am
The question, do the terminology we use as different races create another racial divide in the queer community?
It creates a divide to a certain degree I know white females use the term butch while black females use the term stud and in the end they’re both basically the same thing.
But at the same time its the terminology of a subculture within a subculture within a subculture, and that’s just how it goes. It’s bound to happen.
I prefer the term queer if someone doesn’t like it, black or white or whatever too bad, I feel like the definition applies well to me.
At the end of the day, I think the power that we give these labels is more troubling & limiting than anything
Trevor Tate said,
December 7, 2007 at 8:56 pm
It is all about how u answer to these terms. We as the attacter give these words power when we respond to them negitivly.Think about it, there was a time when u if u called a girl a bitch she would flip out on u and now we use it everyday. Same with queer, nigga, dyke, fem, fag, trick, and ho. these r all words used to degrade someone back in the day and now…… I think it because people took the power out of the words. instead of beating someones ass when being called a queer they just embrassed and therefore see the reaction in a positive way took the power from the person using it and the word. Its not what ur called its what u answer too.
Meg said,
December 14, 2007 at 2:24 pm
No one wants a straight calling them faggot or bull dagger. And no black person wants a white calling them nigger- or even using the word. I am SO TIRED of the lie that using hate speech renders it powerless. That is just not true, so please don’t say it.
If I called you an epithet every time you saw me, you would be too through with me. Admit it and move on.
the fire cat said,
April 11, 2009 at 2:36 pm
Hey queerkidofcolor
I think I accidently posted this on another page on your blog, but WHATever.
just wanted to say I’m glad you’re out there. I am queer and white, and it’s my feeling that the word “gay” has largely been subsumed into the HRC-following Will & Grace type crowd. Although I am white, I don’t feel part of that. Maybe because I am trans? Or maybe because they seem so exclusive and not welcoming.
Anyway. I used to teach at a H.S. in Brooklyn, where more than 90% of our students were of African American, Latin American, or Caribbean American descent. It was hard to watch the kids who were scared to come out because they knew what their peers would say — and so I applaud you for your courage and your commitment. At that H.S. I was fortunate enough to be reasonably well-trusted by my students, and to be involved in the creation of a GSA… and it is THOSE kids I miss most of all, now that I am no longer in that school or even that city.
So. I will keep following your blog, and I will also keep wishing you well. It is a delight to see a young man taking control of his life this way, and not letting other folks tell him what his identify is or should be.
Pax.
the fire cat
firecatclub.wordpress.com
danny said,
June 16, 2009 at 11:19 pm
I really get a kick out of the fact that white people,especially TV news is scared to death to use the term ‘nigger’. Yet Blacks refer to each other frequently as nigger. Nigger this nigger that. But don’t be the stupid white boy and say nigger out loud to your Black pal or like as not you’ll get your ass kicked into next week. What a crock.