I watched the decision being announced today with co-workers at the union hall that I work out of. There was a lot of emotion present. I watched a gentleman on television express that "America is best when she serves the interests of equality." My personal standpoint on same sex marriage is that having experienced oppression my entire life I am automatically opposed to any effort to oppress and restrict any people. So, consequently, I was genuinely excited that people who love one another can marry if they choose to do so. But, listening to the gentleman's statement about America and equality, I was forced to think about the ongoing struggle over the LGBTQ question in the African community. Of course, like all communities, there are plenty of LGBTQ people who are African, yet, there is a very well entrenched distrust of this community within the African community. This distrust extends through every African institution, not just in the U.S., but all over the African world. As a result of this phenomenon, many Africans propose that this issue results from our cultural and spiritual opposition to the "gay lifestyle." I don't think I agree. I think as a heterosexual male, there is so much I don't know, and that I know most people with that position don't know. Still, I don't believe that the force of opposition within the African community is being driven primarily by lack of knowledge. African culture is humanistic. No one can dispute this because were that not true, we would have waged international war against Europe, the U.S. and all the white industrialized countries years ago and no one who studies history could blame us. No, we are not barbarians. We are humanistic people. We value humanity, in spite of the behavior we exhibit from time to time as a result of the capitalist system's pressure on us. Remember, it was our movement that civilized the world in Africa, Europe, and the Americas. We stood up against brutal terror with only the desire for respect and peace. So, why the intense opposition to the LGBTQ community? I believe there are two things fueling the opposition. First, there is a concerted effort to turn Africans against the LGBTQ community that is being led and financed by the white evangelical right. There are international organizations like Samaritan's Power, which is led by the serpent Franklin Graham - the son of the snake Billy Graham. This organization, on the strength of a $300 million annual budget, works on the ground throughout Africa, the U.S., etc, through our churches, preaching venom against the gay community. The work of these "people" has produced a violence against gays by Africans that has never been unleashed against European colonialists and their benefactors.
The other factor is the insincere effort of many gay activists to attempt to benefit from the sacrifices of our civil rights movement without acknowledging the continued oppression against African people while many of them actually benefit from our oppression. In fact, no conscious LGBTQ activist can deny that there is no oasis of white gay consciousness against institutional racism. In fact, African gay activists are the first to point up this contradiction. This reality generates feelings of disrespect and appropriation among African people, and I say that without qualifying it as heterosexual African people, because many African gays express agreement with this position. This issue will be a sore point, and an obstacle in improving the consciousness of African people, until the LGBTQ community acknowledges the differences between the legal discrimination, and even anti-gay hate crimes, and 500+ years of institutionalized exploitation, terror, and discrimination. I think what Africans are looking for is acknowledgement that this America that the gay spokesperson describes as being so great when it recognizes equality, is still unwilling to recognize that it was built and is maintained on inequality. That it exists in wealth only because of the continued exploitation of the African continent and African people, among others. I would argue that this contradiction is deep seated with African people and once the LGBTQ community addresses that in a principled way, I believe much of the distrust and animosity from Africans will decrease.
As for the white evangelicals and their influence, African people have to develop a political maturity that permits us to stop being used like political footballs by white evangelicals, the capitalist political parties, the church organizations, and any and everyone who wants to step on us. We have to demonstrate our true opposition to white supremacy by refusing to blindly accept their dictates about anything - including the LGBTQ question - and creating our own analysis on this question that is based on the humanistic and collective values of our African culture. This is entirely necessary because no matter what any of us say, every message that is dominant in the world today is sanctioned by white supremacy. They control all of the messaging mechanisms. This can be proven by asking what message that dominates in the "mainstream" institutions like schools, churches, work places, social institutions, etc., is not compliant with white supremacy? What message anywhere on the planet doesn't fit that paradigm? You know the answer is nothing and nowhere. So if we acknowledge that universal truth, how the hell can we argue that our current anti-LGBTQ arguments, which are exactly the same as what the racist white evangelical movement has been promoting for years (no matter who within our community is promoting those arguments) is our argument? When have we ever agreed with the white evangelical community and saw that position benefit our people? NEVER! So, let's stop being pawns in the game and develop our own position. We need a non-aligned movement on this question. We may not side with the message of the organized LGBTQ movement, but we certainly can't agree with the white evangelical movement. We develop our own position based on our culture. I'll give you an example of what I'm talking about. Its common to hear people say in our community that the "gay agenda" is destroying our community. I've got news for anyone who parrots that line (which we know came from the white evangelical movement - we can prove that). It's the international capitalist/imperialist network and it's institutions e.g. the prison industrial complex, the military complex, all police agencies, the mis-education system, the so-called public health system, the backward churches, and all appendages of this corrupt society, that are destroying our people. The minute we realize that, and stop being led by our enemies, and the minute the LGBTQ community takes responsibility for it's ill responsible and exploitative position on our suffering, then we can begin to heal around this question and hopefully make real progress as people fighting to make this world a better place.
The other factor is the insincere effort of many gay activists to attempt to benefit from the sacrifices of our civil rights movement without acknowledging the continued oppression against African people while many of them actually benefit from our oppression. In fact, no conscious LGBTQ activist can deny that there is no oasis of white gay consciousness against institutional racism. In fact, African gay activists are the first to point up this contradiction. This reality generates feelings of disrespect and appropriation among African people, and I say that without qualifying it as heterosexual African people, because many African gays express agreement with this position. This issue will be a sore point, and an obstacle in improving the consciousness of African people, until the LGBTQ community acknowledges the differences between the legal discrimination, and even anti-gay hate crimes, and 500+ years of institutionalized exploitation, terror, and discrimination. I think what Africans are looking for is acknowledgement that this America that the gay spokesperson describes as being so great when it recognizes equality, is still unwilling to recognize that it was built and is maintained on inequality. That it exists in wealth only because of the continued exploitation of the African continent and African people, among others. I would argue that this contradiction is deep seated with African people and once the LGBTQ community addresses that in a principled way, I believe much of the distrust and animosity from Africans will decrease.
As for the white evangelicals and their influence, African people have to develop a political maturity that permits us to stop being used like political footballs by white evangelicals, the capitalist political parties, the church organizations, and any and everyone who wants to step on us. We have to demonstrate our true opposition to white supremacy by refusing to blindly accept their dictates about anything - including the LGBTQ question - and creating our own analysis on this question that is based on the humanistic and collective values of our African culture. This is entirely necessary because no matter what any of us say, every message that is dominant in the world today is sanctioned by white supremacy. They control all of the messaging mechanisms. This can be proven by asking what message that dominates in the "mainstream" institutions like schools, churches, work places, social institutions, etc., is not compliant with white supremacy? What message anywhere on the planet doesn't fit that paradigm? You know the answer is nothing and nowhere. So if we acknowledge that universal truth, how the hell can we argue that our current anti-LGBTQ arguments, which are exactly the same as what the racist white evangelical movement has been promoting for years (no matter who within our community is promoting those arguments) is our argument? When have we ever agreed with the white evangelical community and saw that position benefit our people? NEVER! So, let's stop being pawns in the game and develop our own position. We need a non-aligned movement on this question. We may not side with the message of the organized LGBTQ movement, but we certainly can't agree with the white evangelical movement. We develop our own position based on our culture. I'll give you an example of what I'm talking about. Its common to hear people say in our community that the "gay agenda" is destroying our community. I've got news for anyone who parrots that line (which we know came from the white evangelical movement - we can prove that). It's the international capitalist/imperialist network and it's institutions e.g. the prison industrial complex, the military complex, all police agencies, the mis-education system, the so-called public health system, the backward churches, and all appendages of this corrupt society, that are destroying our people. The minute we realize that, and stop being led by our enemies, and the minute the LGBTQ community takes responsibility for it's ill responsible and exploitative position on our suffering, then we can begin to heal around this question and hopefully make real progress as people fighting to make this world a better place.
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