AJ: Every now and then I find myself wondering why minorities fight amongst each other. I know "the system" is screwed up but while people of minority status attack one another "the system" will never be corrected.
I've been thinking about this issue a lot because of the area that I am living in. My partner and I are white and we live in a predominately caribbean/black neighborhood. When we first moved into our new neighborhood we had several people make comments to us for the first few weeks. Most of the comments directed to us were about us being lesbians, very rarely did it have to do with our race. In addition, those comments were coming from men not women. Needless to say, it annoyed me greatly and it made my partner and I feel intimidated. These men took away our voices and we couldn't yell back for fear that we would be physically assaulted. We thought we could try to assimilate into our new neighborhood by constantly being visible and by shopping locally, which in some ways, it was good idea because now our neighborhood is familiar with us. On the downside of that though is the fact that some of the people who have a problem with us being gay know where we live. Before I left the city for the Thanksgiving holiday, my partner and I received some inappropriate comments from the neighborhood boys. I couldn't imagine being a person of color who was gay! It's no wonder why Janet and I appear as the only gay couple in town, everyone else is probably too afraid to show their true colors for fear that they could be attacked. Again I ask, why do minorities strike down other minorities?!
Janet: This also brings up an interesting point about minority status. In the United States, black people are a minority. But in our community, we are part of a very small minority.
I've often wondered about the inability of different groups of people to work together. I say this all the time about gay rights - even if ALL gay people came together for our rights, we STILL couldn't make things happen politically. We need straight people who are willing to fight for us. The same is true for other minorities. If all people of color and queer people came together as a unit, would we still be a minority? I don't think so! And yet, the lower middle class and poorer classes are certainly not a minority. But we still don't do much of anything to change a society that privileges necessities like housing and health care for the rich!
I worry sometimes that people will think I'm racist. I never have been. I think that as a woman in this society, it is a NECESSITY to note the things that make us easy targets. In this community, being openly gay and having pale white skin are markings that make us easy targets, the same way walking around oblivious with headphones on makes a woman a target. And sadly but truly, those who are down trodden (our neighborhood is also poor) are more likely to lash out at those who are different and seem to have privilege. It's like the mindset that makes someone want to seek revenge instead of doing something productive when they've been wronged. Even when the "revenge" does not affect the perpetrator (look at what our society seems to believe is acceptable: a war in Iraq as "revenge" for a terrorist attack by a group of non-Iraqi's?). My biggest question is: why haven't we realized that this mindset makes things worse not better?
AJ: Hmm, maybe the next topic should be called, "The Curse of Brainwashed Societies." What are your thoughts on this post?
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Monday, November 26, 2007
The Curse of Being a Minority: Minority VS. Minority
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5 comments:
We live in a "divide and conquer" society. Any differences which can be seized upon to pit one group against another will be readily utilized by the power structure to satisfy their own ends.
With due respect, I believe this is more of a class issue than a racial issue. Homophobia is largely a product of lower working class mentalities, as well as religious intolerance. Sissy boys and dykes threaten the whole paternalistic pecking order. A queer male child learns by early adolescence the pervasive threat of violence that lurks in every shadowy corner. Likewise, women who don't "need" men in their lives represent an even larger threat to the patriarchy, and those in power on both sides of the political aisle manipulate these base emotions to further their own ambitions, creating a never-ending "us vs them" mentality on both sides of the issue.
For the love of those whose paths will follow, I would like to think that humanity will somehow rise above the petty fears and hatreds, but that does seem to be a monumental task in the face of the current world situation.
Thank you for your comment on this issue, it is much appreciated and very useful.
In Caribbean culture homosexuality is not accepted. Not to sure exactly why but this is the reason that author Terry McMillan's ex-husband feared to come out as a gay man because he said that if he returned to his home of Jamaica that he would be killed. Some Caribbean musicians deal with hatred to gays within their lyrics such as the singer Beanie Man. I honestly do not understand why some Caribbean cultures cannot accept the homosexual lifestyle. Hope this helps!
Terry McMillan confronts ex-husband
http://www2.oprah.com/tows/slide/200511/20051109/slide_20051109_284_101.jhtml
Reclaiming Jamaica's gay past
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1589/is_2005_July_5/ai_n14931149
Growing up queer in 1950s era American suburbia was a vastly different experience when compared with a similar circumstance today, thanks in no small part to the women's liberation movement of the '60s and '70s. A society's tolerance of eccentrics is basically an extension of its treatment of women in general. If women are seen as inferiors in male-dominated cultures, especially warrior societies with their structured pecking orders and "king of the castle" mentalities, then any deviation from machismo normalcy in males is viewed as an intolerable weakness, punishable in its extreme by death....
The sin is not necessarily rooted in male to male sex. Anyone who has spent time in a male only environment such as a boarding school or prison knows what goes on when an individual in such an environment in perceived as being weak or effeminate. The male sex drive is based on conquest, "getting" as opposed to giving, or even worse, "receiving." The real sin in such an environment is in showing emotional and/or physical weakness, especially emotional love between men that goes beyond the accepted social buddy system. Sorry to say, ladies, but women in such a society don't count, except as property of the male, to cook, clean, and bear and raise his children. Emotional displays between women are tolerated, because you are, of course, the weaker sex. But beware the wrath if a woman should try to usurp traditional male authority or dress...
A close friend once told me of lesbians being jailed and beaten in Toronto in the early 1970s for public displays of affection. That wasn't so long ago, and those of us who have seen the political winds turn more than once or twice are very much aware that those days could easily return, especially in the aftermath of some calamitous event...
One has only to look back at Falwell's post-9/11 statement blaming a laundry list of his political scapegoats, including gays, lesbians, transsexuals, pagans, and pro-choice activists, among others, for the "Pearl Harbor-like event" that had been implicated in the Project for a New American Century or the Phelps clan's abhorrent activities to be aware of the undercurrent that is present in our own society. Fortunately, the political modus operandi in this country involves using the counter-threats of progressive and conservative agendas to steer the mainstream along the consumerist path of least resistance, assuring that today's social gains will be lost tomorrow, only to be reversed at some future date...
Is life for queer people better today than it was 50 years ago? Undoubtedly so, if one is fortunate enough to live in a progressive city or state; less so, if one happens to reside in a rural backwater in the Bible Belt. One thing I do know: were it not for the courage and conviction of the women and men who challenged the prevailing social order four decades ago (and earlier), nothing would have changed...
To Jennifer: Yes your input has helped me understand the cultural difference, but left me wondering the same question you had, which is why some Caribbean cultures cannot accept the homosexual lifestyle. Perhaps it is the "divide and conquer" theory Lythande was describing.
To Lythande: Thank you for your contribution to this post. I hope to see you around here more often... ;) You could use these comments as blog posts for this site... just a FYI
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