Play That Funky Gay Card, White Boy
by Charles WinecoffI’ll never forget a dinner party I attended in the early ’80s, where I first heard the term “African-American.” I got a big laugh at the table when I declared, “Oh, that’ll never catch on.” It was way too much of a tongue-twister for everyday use.
Today, “African-American” is as ubiquitous as “the” (and used to describe all US blacks, no matter where they come from).
Flash forward to 2002: Halle Berry pulls out all the stops, dedicating her Oscar win to “every nameless, faceless woman of color that now has a chance” (as the camera cuts to her white mom sitting in the audience). The next morning, I’m in the office of a TV honcho when I overhear a curious voice mail on his speakerphone.
The message is from a woman, clearly a black woman, and she’s livid. For whatever reason, she needs to unload on the “infotainment” kingpin: “I watched Halle Berry on the Academy Awards last night, going on how she’s doing so much for black women - and I am damn mad! Because Halle Berry is not black! Do you hear me? She is not a black woman!”
A few days later, I mention the voice mail to a New York sophisticate, who responds with immediate indignation. “Halle Berry can say whatever she likes,” he snaps. ”She’s a little girl from the projects who’s made something of herself! She has every right to be proud!”
“A little girl from the projects?” Gee, why not just call her a pickaninny while you’re at it?
Meanwhile, anyone who watched the recent, minimalist Academy Awards telecast probably noticed Ms. Berry’s pared-down new nose. Why the Oscar-winning ”woman of color” - and celebrated Revlon beauty – felt compelled to undergo a rhinoplasty is a question only her psychiatrist can answer. But Ms. Berry is starting to not look like Ms. Berry anymore. In fact, she now looks even whiter – excuse me, more Caucasian – than she did before.
So much for ethnic pride. (And Halle, if you’re reading this, please ponder Michael Jackson’s mug before you do any more damage to your beautiful face.)
At least Berry had the chance to revel in some heritage, if only for a moment, before tossing it away. That’s a privilege I’ve never enjoyed – because I come from the people of no color.
My pale-faced Southern grandparents still used “colored” and “Negro” when I was a boy - quite innocently – but my Yankee parents were careful to avoid the mistakes of the past and never used even a single remotely derogatory racial term in our house. Sensitivity to offense ran silent, and very deep.
For instance, we had a black housekeeper who used to putter around our apartment, cleaning, singing about Jesus – and committing petty thievery. My parents wanted to let her go, but the woman put on such a brazen, kindly church lady act, they just couldn’t bring themselves to shatter the illusion. Years went by.
Finally, we moved. My mom figured she could ”fire” the housekeeper by just packing up and disappearing. No fuss, no muss – no guilt-inducing confrontation. Perfect.
But no sooner had we relocated to bigger and better digs than who showed up at our front door, grinning from ear to ear and praising the Lord? She stayed on for another five years (and kept stealing too).
That’s right, my mother was being robbed on a weekly basis – and she felt ashamed. Ms. magazine had arrived too late. But it probably wouldn’t have helped anyway, because, just like the ladies who gave birth to Halle Berry and Barack Obama, my mom was Caucasian. And to this day, racism trumps sexism – and homophobia – combined.
Welcome to the PC plantation, where “white guilt” keeps the slaves in line.
By the 1970s, cultural Marxism was already running rampant in schools, often under the guise of stereotype-busting (a new fad then). In Anthropology, we sat through a slide show that illustrated how white people physically resembled apes – not blacks, who often got compared to primates in vulgar jokes. Caucasians were actually the less evolved race – awesome!
In American History, my skinny fellow geeks and I nodded and laughed – in seemingly harmless agreement of how awful our ancestors were – every time we were reminded that white settlers had killed Indians. I can’t recall if it was just a masochistic viral rumor or something we were actually taught, but we also half-joked that the original Thanksgiving feast had been a diabolical ploy for Pilgrims to invite trusting redskins to dinner - and then poison them.
And, of course, Christopher Columbus was a genocidal tyrant.
We were forced to read Death of a Salesman, but we really didn’t need to. Even as teens, we already knew the American Dream was a big lie. But thanks to our revolutionary insight, one day there would be no more war, no prejudice, no supremacist thinking. We would all join hands and sing – just like in the Coke commercial.
Meanwhile, minorities all around us self-deprecating, private school honkies were rediscovering their roots and taking “pride” in their history. It was all the rage. “Orientals” became “Asians.” “Mexicans” became “Chicanos,” then “Latinos.” “American Indians” became “Native Americans.” Even “swamps” found self-respect as ”wetlands.”
As a white boy, I felt left out. My only identity was self-negation. Was there no special status weapon for the hapless descendants of Euro-devils – or, as Susan Sontag described my Caucasian kind, “the cancer of human history?”
When I realized I was gay, I thought I had finally found my answer, my panacea, my defense against race-based low self-esteem. Boy, was I in for a surprise.
While the gay community made huge strides very fast, there was plenty of identity confusion within the tribe itself. Lesbians felt left out, so “Gay” became ”Gay and Lesbian.” But the dykes didn’t want to settle for second billing either, so, in a strange capitulation to traditional sex roles (and chivalry), the moniker was changed to “Lesbian and Gay.”
We’ve since become even more inclusive, adding on a “B” for “Bisexual,” a ”T” for “Transgender” (much to the secret chagrin of many gay men) – and most recently a “Q,” for ”Questioning.” So the current acronym LGBTQ pretty much leaves nothing to chance. If you’ve ever glanced at another person of the same sex, you’re in.
But in their knee-jerk allegiance to all things PC, gays got hung up on race too. I’ll never forget one ear-opening conversation I had with a white lesbian school teacher in the LA public school system, who was lamenting she couldn’t communicate with one of her students – because she didn’t know enough Spanish. When I suggested the boy should learn English, I was reprimanded:
“But he’s Mexican-American.”
“I know. He needs to be able to speak English.”
“But he’s Mexican-American.”
“Right. So he should learn English.”
“But he’s Mexican-American.”
“Yeah, but wouldn’t he do better if he knew English?”
“He’s Mexican-American.”
Okay. Gotcha.
Even as a recovering alcoholic on a balmy California spiritual retreat, my status wasn’t good enough. At the time, Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now was the New Age book du jour. Curious to see what all the deep breathing was about, I opened a friend’s copy.
My eye immediately fell on a quote from a Native American - always our spiritual betters - about evil Anglos: “Most white people have tense faces… a cruel demeanor.” Thanks, I needed that.
Why did the enlightened Mr. Tolle even mention this? To riff on the toxic effects of Western industrialization, of course – “which now covers almost the entire globe” and “has created a very unhappy and extraordinarily violent civilization that has become a threat not only to itself but also to all life on the planet.”
So much for “non-judgmental” serenity. Was there no escaping the psychic self-flagellation?
Ironically, it took The New York Times to really hit it home just how far down the PC totem pole I rated. In September 2002, a string of vicious gay bashings had occurred very near where I lived in West Hollywood – and the perpetrators, two African-American males, were still at large. Using a baseball bat and a metal pipe, the attackers had, in one case, beaten a 55-year-old man while his back was turned, and in another, left a 34-year-old actor bloody and unconscious on the sidewalk, his brain swollen.
(That same month, also in WeHo, two Jewish men were attacked by a group of Muslims who shouted “Kill the Jews!” – but that’s another story. Sort of.)
Before the month was out, the Times deigned to run a story about the nasty spree, under the snotty headline “Attacks on Gays Upset Los Angeles Suburb.” While the paper paid lip service to the brutality of the crimes - declaring, naturally, that the WeHo bashings were “part of a wider, more disturbing trend in Los Angeles” – it completely dropped the ball when it came to identifying the violent duo of color.
Instead of offering serious stats of the criminals (which were available from local police and would include, at the very least, skin color), the Times described them delicately as “two men… Suspect No. 1, perhaps 5 feet 5 inches tall, wears a nylon cap. Suspect No. 2 is more than 6 feet tall and wears his hair in cornrows.” Wink wink.
Well, don’t take this the wrong way, but in Hollywood, I’ve seen several white men with corn rows (and it doesn’t look good). But we wouldn’t want to offend anyone.
Talk about racist – the Times politely signalled that the bashers were black by mentioning a nylon cap and cornrows. If the victims had been African-American and the attackers white, do you think the Times would have described the perps’ race by listing their Brooks Brothers shirts and Polo Tassel Tie Loafers?
It was like God turned on a klieg light. Finally, I understood that even in the flattened, cautious world of PC victimhood, there exists a hierarchy – a glass ceiling that gays haven’t cracked yet. We’re still second class, and still expendable. Why? Because homosexuals continue to be stereotyped as affluent white males – and in the adolescent, Che fashion accessory, power-to-the-people, make-believe world of “social justice,” we’re still the enemy.
So gay men really do need all the “T”s and “Q”s they can get. Because so-called progressives who believe the US government staged 9/11 for profit and created AIDS to kill blacks won’t be coming to our rescue any time soon. We’re on our own.
Where does this leave us? Mad as hell, I hope – but not at the Mormons, who are as maligned as any other wealthy Caucasians (plus they’re polygamists!), nor at closety musical theater queens who wrote checks in support of Prop 8. No, LGBTQ people should be mad at themselves for ditching the reality of diversity for the myth of “equality.”
Because equality, my friends, is not the same as freedom.
Odd as it may seem, the lesbian and gay community actually presents an almost-perfect microcosm of the West as a whole – open-minded (at least in theory), multi-racial, multi-classed, pan-religious, and hard to pin down. By ignoring that commonality with our fellow Americans, and reducing ourselves to just another whining victim group, we have put ourselves at risk.
Once leaders, we’ve become followers – malleable sheep in the PC pack.
Instead of mindlessly assuming that, by virtue of his pigment, the first black President (who happens to be against gay marriage) will finally tackle our issues, the LGBTQ community should be watching him closely as he endorses a limp Hallmark card of a UN resolution to decriminalize homosexuality – while at the same time courting the religious dictators of the most virulently homophobic regimes on earth, who regularly imprison, torture, and execute powerless gays (and bloggers and women).
Not to mention nominating Harold Koh for State Department legal adviser, a man who sees nothing wrong with allowing (anti-gay) sharia law to be applied in US court cases.
The friend of your enemy is not your friend.
As human targets in a global shooting gallery, fags and dykes should be insulted by any elected official who thinks euphemisms such as “man-caused disasters” (to describe acts of terror perpetrated against civilians – like us) and “Overseas Contingency Operation” (to suggest the war on Islamic supremacism) can make anyone love us.
The mullahs and ayatollahs - who believe the only good L,G,B,T or Q is a dead one - are not a race. They are totalitarian ideologues who have been shielded from the full force of Western common sense and scrutiny because of the guilt-inducing ammo of their skin color. That’s not a racist statement, it’s just a sad fact.
Gay people spent forty years fighting stereotypes – only to become politically correct self-parodies, who fall silent at the mention of radical Islam, and go weak in the knees before the studied presentation copy of (to quote Joe Biden), a “clean,” well-spoken, half-black man.
The gay community is as much to blame as any bourgeois gated community for projecting a patronizing, “natural” wisdom onto this enigmatic new Leader of the Free World. And more than anyone, we should know how looks can deceive.
You can’t judge a book by its cover, a man by his wife - or a wolf by its clothing.
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133 Comments
I found it hilarious that someone once refered to a black Star Trek character who was a vulcan as african american, they weren't talking about the actor playing the part, but the character….lol
Charleze Theron apparently got her U.S. citizenship and had some fun with the reality that she was african american now.
Charles,
Let me pose a question. Did the Civil Rights Movement (a Movement that anyone else with a grievance now exploits shamelessly) do America a favor? In the fight between right and wrong haven't the "Victims" ended up on the Wrong side?
Thanks for sharing your perspective as a gay conservative. I thought it was lonely being a Jewish Republican…
… the gay community made huge strides very fast</>
Gay people spent forty years fighting stereotypes – only to become politically correct self-parodies, who fall silent at the mention of radical Islam, and go weak in the knees before the studied presentation copy of (to quote Joe Biden), a “clean,” well-spoken, half-black man.
It seems that many movements start out well, but end up being a hollow left-wing agenda machine.
How else can one explain Queers for Palestine, the Anti-Defamation League pushing hate-crimes legislation, teachers unions sponsoring trips to Cuba or the Bar Association's biased judicial recommendations?
Charles, I love the very personal, thoughtful, deftly phrased perspective of your pieces. They're always compelling and entertaining. I'm jealous, damn you.
All the phobias and isms are the bane of any society. A calculated Balkanization of a people is as dangerous as it is stupid. This is not a case of “divide and conquer,” but the caustic stew of Helter-Skelter. We as Americans must celebrate our commonality, our exceptionallism, our superior society, to failed states like Cuba, and North Korea, etc. This is the greatest country the world has ever produced without exception, with the opportunity and freedom to succeed or fail. If you work hard and smart you will succeed in America, if you’re lazy and worthless you will fail, off coarse if you fail in America you’re still better off than any other country in the world.
Very interesting. I remember on an Olympics broadcast where they kept referring to an athlete as African-American, even though he was French.
Years ago, Angel Resendez the Railroad Killer was sighted in my home town. The local press went out and asked members of the hispanic community if they felt threatened since the police were out in force looking for an hispanic man. It was then that my formerly mild dislike of PCness became a white hot hate. Of course the police were looking for an hispanic man!! Resendez was not a Polish woman!!!!
Excellent piece.There are many people in this country who need to read this.Some of them might even get it.
Wow. I'm speechless and I'm sending this to everyone I know. Excellent.
I hope this doesn't sound mean… but if you think "African-American" is a "tongue twister" then clearly you need elocution lessons.
The Journey of Verbiage or A Short trip to Balkanization:
"Sticks and Stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me". A little ditty I learned as a child which was true enough in a time of sanity, however, we have long left sanity behind in an effort to be politically correct and to give offense to no one except Whites (Crackers, Honkies, Rednecks).
My grandmother and mother were taught to use the word "Negro" to describe "African-Americans in an effort not to give offense. When I came along, they taught me to say "colored" because "Negro" had been an offensive word (hence the National Association of COLORED People"). I was never allowed to use, nor were any of my family or friends, the N-word. I didn't know many Mexicans, however, my aunt was Spanish. Back then she was "White". She has since become "Hispanic", a new race I never heard of until it became politically popular.
In the Sixties, Black became the designation because it was the opposite of "White. OK. We'd already made two changes, why not a third? Then, in the late Seventies when Vietnamese and Chinese immigrants arrived and began doing extremely well in college and business, they were referred to as "Asian-Americans". Suddenly, as the author describes, the Blacks became "African-Americans". Not to be left out, Irish became Irish-Americans, Italians Italian-Americans, Spanish – Hispanics (whatever that means). I guess if one looked, one could find German-Americans, Danish-Americans, Russian-Americans. Funny thing, though. I never heard of an English-American.
Being a mutt (Spanish (European), Danish, Irish, English and Scot) I get tongue-tied when I have to list myself as a Spanish-Danish-Irish-English-Scots-American. Besides, there isn't enough space to write that out on the line.
So when asked for my "Race" these days, I put down "Human".
My above comment which was meant to say something is "currently in moderation". If it is moderated off the website, I'm outa here. Enough is enough. If all we can write on Big Hollywood is "Amen", there's no reason to blog here.
Goodbye, Guys. I wrote a rather long, thoughtful comment on the evolution of the terms for African-American without criticism, vulgarity or racist content. It went "into moderation", then disappeared. Big Hollywood has interesting articles and interesting contributors, but for those of us who want to be part of the discussion and not members of an amen corner, it doesn't fit the bill. Too bad, because DHP did allow lively debate, but now he's silenced, too.
Now THIS is a comment that SHOULD go into moderation because it is highly critical of this web site.
Well done essay. Our news stations in Denver studiously refuse to report the ethnicity of criminals and their immigration status. We have so many illegals here that drive with no training, no licenses and no concept of "don't drink and drive" that I wouldn't drive here after 11:00 at night. Seriously.
When I see the news stations bending into pretzels to avoid any mention of a criminal's ethnicity or immigration status, I know exactly what they're not telling me. Russians used to be very adept at figuring out the real stories behind the government propaganda paper "Pravda." We're evidently going to have to develop the same skills here.
I watched an episode of Maury Povich (I know, you can pound on me later) and as his guests he had a Black couple from England who had 3 albino children. Apparently the only recorded instance of this having happened. He introduced them as "You are from England?" "Yes"
"You have 3 albino childeren" "Yes"
"And you are African-American" and they said "Yes"
How does this happen?
Yeah I’ve lost a few posts in the moderation abyss, it makes no sense and ruins the spontaneity of the comment process. Tighten up Big Hollywood!
Great article, but for the record practicing Mormons are not polygamists. The Churched ceased the practice in 1890. So anyone who practices polygamy and says they are Mormon are wrong, such an act will bring about excommunication. Sorry I am so touchy, but through the years one of the first questions I have been asked when people found out that I was a member is how many wives does your father have? I mean really, is that all they know. So I thought a little eduction was in order. But I did enjoy your article and thaks for not being mad at the Mormons
.
Growltiger, I've had several postings that were listed as being "currently in moderation." I don't know if this is the case with yours, but I've found that if I try to submit too many postings in a period of time, they start being listed as being in moderation.
That may be an automatic mechanism to prevent someone (or somebot) from flooding the message board with junk. Give it a little time, it should appear (most all of mine have).
What about the honor killing in New York? I would bet anyone who watches MSNBC, CNN, CBS, ABC, and reads any of the big news papers didn't realize the guy who beheaded his wife was a Muslim and the reason why he did what he did was because in his barbarians world view she dishonored him. I suppose not putting up with whatever the heck he was doing to her was dishonoring him? But you will never heard Candy Crowley, Campbell Brown or Rachael Maddow mention why the man murdered his wife, or his religion. Thanks gals for sticking up for your fellows. You really do us a service. NOT.
The robo moderation here leaves something to be desired, true enough. But, if you have something you feel is worthwhile to say (which, obviously, you do or you wouldn't have wrote it), hang in there. It should show up in a while. I had a comment the other day that referred to Johnny Carson and [Mr.] Cavett by his first name. It got sent to moderation. I eliminated Mr. Cavett's first name and my comment went immediately through. I checked back a couple hours later and my original comment showed too.
Some people break their long posts into a couple (or more) smaller ones. That might help.
I'm not sure, but I also think there may be a limit on links (like no more than 2).
I think Big Hollywoods robo moderator may need to "loosen up" instead.
Nice article. I HATE the words "victims and suffering." As the old saying goes, "pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional!"
Keep up the good work.
BTW- If polite society has to call someone an "african american" then of course, we should also start calling folks Asian American, Eurpeon American, South American American, etc. etc.
Or, we could just all be called , Hey You!
Well written essay. Great job at articulating how I've been feeling about being a pallor-challenged-american male. I remember in high school I was stuck in 'advanced placement history.' I failed the class because I had learned American history for the previous 10 years of schooling. Nobody clued me in to the fact that this was 'indigenous peoples' history of the white devil.'
Something I've been curious about for a while. Why do some gay men allow themselves to become female celebrity pets? I've noticed celebutards like to refer to their male entourage as "my gay(s)."
I had a friend years ago who also went to ridiculous lengths to avoid mentioning skin color. For the record, we're both white.
She was pointing out a guy in a group of guys that she used to date. "Which one?" I asked. "The one on the left, he's wearing a blue shirt." There were three guys with blue shirts. When asked, she said it was the dress shirt with long sleeves.
She was referring to the only black – excuse me, AFRICAN AMERICAN – in the group. Why couldn't she have just said that instead of making me guess? By the time she had obliquely identified him, I had lost interest.
I'm sorry, but I'm SO not into playing 20 questions, especially when one or two words would have identified him.
There is too much in your piece to address in a single posting, but I have to say I have to agree with your main point about political correct thought, or lack thereof.
We disagree. Although some of our data stream has also gone into moderation we have found the structure that it gives (generally a mild rewording you can still get your post on) keeps thing civil and on an intellectual, not emotional keel… no one likes to have the spontaneity silenced, we all think our outbursts (thoughtful or not) to be inspired, brilliant. Still, compared tho the lunatic ravings on Hufpost or the other loony sites, this is Bueno!
Yeah, my dad (a high school french teacher) regularly has an exercise like this in his class. Alexander Dumas, author of The Three Musketeers among other things, is black. Noir, as it's said in his native tongue. He asks on a quiz, "What race is Dumas," and by and large recieves answers of African-American. Dumas never went to America. America was barely a country when he was born. No, my dad says, Dumas was not African-American. He was French. And Black.
as someone who has worked with Mormons we sympathize to your plight… all of our contacts have been positive, while they are conversion oriented they do it with grace and humor… the depiction of Mormonism now is absolutely reprehensible and is mostly due to the Fear of Mitt Romney, who like Sarah Palin, represent existential threats to the left. All of the recent Mormon bashing is no coincidence, Kimberly…
BH, what Growltiger said. There have been too many times where I quoted other commentor's posts, or even the article itself, and my post has gone to Comment Limbo, never to be seen again. Enough is enough. Let everything stand, and if it's extremely offensive, us commentors will hit that Report button.
Imagine being gay and still being a practicing christian. I have a brother who is gay and a christian and it's been hard on him but he has a good outlook and personality so it has really helped him get as far as he has. I don't believe in the gay life style but it's none of my business what two consenting adults do in the privacy of their home so I say if you love someone and you're hurting no one then Rock on. I love my brother regardless.
Imagine being gay and still being a practicing christian. I have a brother who is gay and a christian and it's been hard on him but he has a good outlook and personality so it has really helped him get as far as he has. I don't believe in the gay life style but it's none of my business what two consenting adults do in the privacy of their home so I say if you love someone and you're hurting no one then Rock on. I love my brother regardless.
Hey Kim!,
"When did you Dad stop beating his wives?"
I have been friends and met quite a few LDS folks. The question of wives NEVER came up. I guess I try to judge people by the "content of their character". Nothing to do with their faith.
Do you remember when the children of immigrants from North Africa were burning cars in the streets of Paris a few years ago? A newscaster on CNN said, 'The people who are setting the fires are primarily African American youth.'
Hah!
Best writer on BH. Another great article…when are you coming out (haha) with a book?
Thanks MrsSpooky and others who emailed me about my comment. Appreciate it. However, I work at home and while I want to be a part of the dialog, I don't have time to re-write, tweak, cut posts to fit some guidelines to which none of us are privy, eliminate words that might be picked up by some over-programmed filter designed to make sure nobody gets insulted by anyone. I'm arrogant enough to think I can contribute to the conversation or I wouldn't try. It's just that BH has made it so that it's impossible to post anything substantive on any subject that might be politically uncomfortable for someone somewhere.
I like Andrew Breitbart. The contributors on this site are excellent. I'll continue to read their posts, but so far as being a part of the dialog, I just don't have time to write a post that I think people might be interested in reading only to have it moderated out of existence.
A lot of us followed John Nolte from DHP over here. Interestingly, I've noticed they seem to be dropping off. I
guess we all got used to being able to post our opinions without being censored. DH to my knowledge only banned one or two posters and those were for ad hominem attacks on gays for which he was perfectly right to do.
For those who never went to DHP, I suggest (if the site is still up) go over there and read some old, dated posts just to see what it's like for everyone to get a say unless s/he crosses over a line that is obvious to everyone. Nothing I said in the post that "got et" (as we Grits say) was vulgar, racists or in any way offensive.
Great stuff, keep up the good work. The relationships between the various races, colors, and creeds reached a mellow high point in the eighties, but after the election of Bill Clinton, it went rapidly downhill due to the demagoguery of entitlement and aggrievement preached by him and his ilk. Now we have elected a black president, you'd think that kind of mindset would be passe, but no, it appears to out in fuller force.
Just posted a comment to Mrs.Spooky which went immediately "into moderation". If I had time, I'd split it up and repost just to show ya'll that there was NOTHING that needed moderating.
Just posted a comment to Mrs.Spooky which went immediately "into moderation". If I had time, I'd split it up and repost just to show ya'll that there was NOTHING that needed moderating.
Great article, thank you for sharing this with us. I'm part of the great vast GLBT (and Q now? seriously? sigh…) clan, the B part, though I have a lovely woman as a fiance and will (hopefully) never have opportunity to indulge that B part again. There's definitely what I call a "hierarchy of victimhood" on the left, and gays always have been fairly low on the totem pole, its true. We saw this play out in the last election, as 'black' is far higher on the Victim Scale than women, so Obama won the democrat nomination. But if Hillary had been a black lesbian paraplegic muslim… well watch out. Are there any black lesbian paraplegic muslim politicians? Watch for them in 2016!
Excellent article, Charles – very honest and open. Keep up the good work!
Great article, Charles. I'll be mulling this one for a while.
I recall watching the OJ Simpson trial. The Chauffeur who drove the juice to the Airport the night of the murders testified, "I had been sitting out front for 15 minutes. Then I noticed a blackman run up and go around the side of the house. A few minutes later, OJ came out the front door."
The next day, my local paper (Cincinnati Enquirer) reported, The chauffeur saw "an African-American man run aroudn the side of the house." I thought, how did the chauffeur know the nationality of the man?"
A week later, writing about local block party, they showed a photo of a T-shirt with some dread-locked figures dancing under a rainbow. I immediatly thought of Jaimaican Rastafarians. The article referred to them (of course) as dancing african-american figures.
It's strange when Political Correctness trumps accuracy.
Gosh Charles, do you really think your colorless? As Capitan Beefheart so observantly said, "Everybody's colored. If they weren't, you couldn't see them."
PS, When I first saw it I thought the title Play That Funky Gay Card, White Boy</> referred to Adam Lambert.
Ditto on this being a great article, Charles. I'm conflicted. I want to put this on my Facebook page, to help enlighten my lib gay friends thinking, but I don't want to offend my lib black friend. These libs are so sensitive and easily offended.
true but Charles was not stating it as actual fact, kind of like mormons aren't all caucasians. He was making a sarcastic point.
As a straight man, I'm comfotable enough in my heterosexuality to say "I love Charles Winecoff." Great article.
Good article, but I don't know why you want to perpetuate the falsehood that Obama is against gay marriage. I know he said he was when he was in front of the general public, but he sent a letter to a group in San Francisco vehemently opposing Prop. 8. Based on all his other very left points of view, it's like believing a fairy tale to think Obama is really opposed to gay marriage.
I agree MrsSpooky,
I was describing someone at work and got told that I can't say that by my manger. I asked her how she would describe my supervisor to a stranger, she said 'man of average height, weight with a baseball cap and glasses'.
I told her that no one would recognize him in a group of 50 people with that description, I would describe him as 'black guy with baseball cap and glasses' and you would recognize him in a group of 500 in our work area.
We describe people by their most obvious physical characteristics, for me, I would be described as 'tall, large bald guy with glasses', not because they hate large bald guys, but because I'm a large bald guy who wears glasses.
So people who are of a different race, that is one of the most obvious physical characteristic they have. If you describe someone without mentioning race, most people would assume that the person is white as we live in a white majority society, not for any other PC reason. It's just stupid.
Thanks for the well-written and thoughtful article, Mr. Winecoff.
Wellll… Obama (and all Dems, really) talk a good game to gay groups, its true. Oh don't listen to that stuff we tell the normal people. We'll take care of you when we get in. wink wink nudge nudge.
The thing is they never really do. Its one of the main reasons I just don't feel like an evil traitor for voting republicans. Why should I vote for the Dems because they tell me what I want to hear behind closed doors, then don't do it? That's worth sacrificing all my other political beliefs for? Really?
Good post, but there's one thing that should be corrected: the Koh-sharia story was based on a second-hand rumor and was circulated without confirmation. The organizers of the event where Koh supposedly made his remarks have insisted that such remarks were pure fiction. They wrote a letter the NY Post here (second from the top): http://www.nypost.com/seven/04012009/postopinion/...
There may be legitimate concerns about Koh, but this isn't one of them.
I agree. I have written so many non-offensive posts that get lost in cyberspace. I say let 'em all post and let the commenters report the offensive ones. At least give us a chance to see how that would go.
I've also lost posts to moderation. In the "Celebrity Deathmatch" thread I found that removing a comparison between Courtney Love and Hitlary Clinton that made refernance to a "psycho (common term for female dog)" allowed the message to pass.
Loosen up, guys.
I've also lost posts to moderation. In the "Celebrity Deathmatch" thread I found that removing a comparison between Courtney Love and Hitlary Clinton that made reference to a "psycho (common term for female dog)" allowed the message to pass.
Loosen up, guys.
And another thing…that group CREW who sat on the Tom Foley story until it would do most political damage (releasing it right before the '06 elections) and then they and the dems and the press made this closeted gay guy out to be the most heinous of villains for emailing with a 17 year old. I don't think it was right, but the point is the liberals were the ones to play that story for all it was worth to hurt Republicans. While it put gayness in a very bad light.
I have engaged in a little minor civil disobedience over the years on this subject. Since we are repeatedly told that "Mother Eve" came out of Africa, technically that makes us all "African", since we would have African ancestors. My claim of being "African-American" didn't go over too well. (I'm actually of Italian/Irish heritage)
Another more recent approach I have taken is claiming to be "Native American". I was born here, which makes me a native.
It's not as much as a tongue twister, but really clunky… it's really lame when I hear a girl or guy say … "Well, I've never been with an african-american before." They think I'm putting my head down to laugh. Really, I'm just muttering….'just shut up, please, just shut up!' I tell people, it's okay, you can just say black. Black is still beautiful.
*MissQuinn*
[...] tomoneil added an interesting post on Play That Funky Gay Card, White BoyHere’s a small excerptI’ll never forget a dinner party I attended in the early ’80s, where I first heard the term “African-American.” I got a big laugh at the table when I declared, “Oh, that’ll never catch on.” It was way too much of a tongue-twister for everyday use. Today, “African-American” is… [...]
Somethign else worth pointing out about how the Dems really view the gay community is to watch their actions when they attack someone. One of the first weapons in their arsenal is to claim that someone is gay.
If they love gays so much, and want to help and be inclusive and all of that claptrap, why is it they view being gay as a slur?
(Hint: It's because they are h-y-p-o-c-r-i-t-e-s of the highest order.)
Once again, I find myself saying Amen to a Winecoff Article. You are becoming my favorite Renegayde.
*MissQuinn*
Something else worth pointing out about how the Dems really view the gay community is to watch their actions when they attack someone. One of the first weapons in their arsenal is to claim that someone is gay.
If they love gays so much, and want to help and be inclusive and all of that claptrap, why is it they view being gay as a slur?
(Hint: It's because they are h-y-p-o-c-r-i-t-e-s of the highest order.)
I grew up in a farm town in Missouri. All white, except during the local college school year when we had a mix of students. But when the population was down to just town-folk, it was 99.9% white. I had a friend who used to come to town when him mother was teaching and he was black. But this was before hyphenated designators and all I remember was that he was just another kid to ride bikes and play with. I remember when I was in the Army in the mid-80's with Ronald Reagan as our CIC and racial differences didn't seem as bad as they are now. We were all buddies and made fun of our differences. We had a sense of humor which transcended race. Because of the political gains or benefits that are attached to these differences, the sense of humor is gone. Now we're so separated by hyphens that I can't see anyone past the color of their skin or sexual preference. Can we go back to the 80's? I had a great time!
I grew up in a farm town in Missouri. All white, except during the local college school year when we had a mix of students. But when the population was down to just town-folk, it was 99.999% white. I had a friend who used to come to town when him mother was teaching and he was black. But this was before hyphenated designators and all I remember was that he was just another kid to ride bikes and play with. I remember when I was in the Army in the mid-80's with Ronald Reagan as our CIC and racial differences didn't seem as bad as they are now. We were all buddies and made fun of our differences. We had a sense of humor which transcended race. Because of the political gains or benefits that are attached to these differences, the sense of humor is gone. Now we're so separated by hyphens that I can't see anyone past the color of their skin or sexual preference. Can we go back to the 80's? I had a great time!
I grew up in a farm town in Missouri. All white, except during the local college school year when we had a mix of students. But when the population was down to just town-folk, it was 99.999% white. I had a friend who used to come to town when his mother was temporarily teaching and he was black. But this was before hyphenated designators and all I remember was that he was just another kid to ride bikes and play with. I remember when I was in the Army in the mid-80's with Ronald Reagan as our CIC and racial differences didn't seem as bad as they are now. We were all buddies and made fun of our differences. We had a sense of humor which transcended race. Because of the political gains or benefits that are attached to these differences, the sense of humor is gone. Now we're so separated by hyphens that I can't see anyone past the color of their skin or sexual preference. Can we go back to the 80's? I had a great time!
Charles, you've enumerated the reasons for our manifesto perfectly. Above all we need to confront PC attitudes head on and with humor. It disarms a person's automatic intellectual barriers, and subtly informs them of the truth.
Our first attempt at this tactic:
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/1a4af347eb/eco-c...
Just spent another enjoyable lunch hour reading BH, and I'd like to shout out yet another big KUDOS to Charles!! What a terrific post!! There are soooo many good writers here!!
I was once accosted by a Latino survey-taker outside of an IKEA (yes, I'm poor).
Once I agreed to take his survey, he asked my race. I said "human". He looked at me like he didn't get it.
He said, "No, I need your race." I said, "The hundred-yard dash." He looked at me, again, like he didn't get it.
Finally he said, "I'll put down 'white'." I said, "I'm sure you will." He completely missed the subtlety of THAT one.
Ya know…if we're supposed to be so racially-enlightened that a "black" (or "African-American") man is President, then why continue to bring up the man's race at all? And if we're so enlightened, why do Sharpton, Waters, Jackson, the Black Caucus, the NAACP, et al., still exist?
This is so true! To Democrats its like voting Dem absolves them of all sins. How many times have you heard, "Hey I'm not (racist/sexist/homophobic/etc). I vote Democrat!"
Mr Winecoff is echoing (hell, maybe leading) a movement I've noticed in the gay community for some time (as much as one can notice these kind of things from the outside).
Many are starting to shift from liberal to libertarian, in part because of the gun issue (The whole "Armed gays don't get bashed" thing). That combined with the fact that most of the gays I know are devout free market capitalists and may others realize that Islam is a greater threat to their lives and liberty than the Southern Baptists and I think we'll see a sort of conservative/libertarian awakening in the gay community (then they'll REALLY be liberated).
"I thought it was lonely being a Jewish Republican… "
Try being an atheist Republican.
LOL! I caught a Martha Stewart moment when Iman (David Bowie's wife) was on the show. Martha referred to Iman as African American! Iman, of course replied, No Martha, I'm just African.
Charles –
Powerful. I hope it has your intended impact. It's opened my mind.
Much Respects
The comment above made it through moderation – some do, some don't. There seems to be no rhyme nor reason for what goes and what doesn't – purely arbitrary. For those of us who work at home and pop in and out of BH (in my case when I'm stuck and need a break) don't have the time to spend typing, retyping, changing words, especially when we don't have a clue what's taboo and what's not. Because I'm looking for intellectual discourse not name calling and spitting, I am always careful never to use ad hominem attacks, never to make racial or bigoted slurs, never to do anything that MIGHT be interpreted as racial, gender or national slurs and yet I go into moderation more times than not. I don't know if the web masters monitor the site, but I think their filter needs some diddling with.
funny! How about the white South Africans who are American who keep getting called African Americans? Boy, I bet they are getting it togeher to get some Acronyms going on
I participate in an American History blog where the participants, mostly professors and historians, routinely refer to Black slaves as African Americans.
When I pointed out one day that slaves weren't Americans, but were chattel, all hell broke loose.
They also hated it when I pointed out that Hussein Obama is a mulatto, and not the first black president….
and only the second mulatto president.
Of course you love your brother, I would hope so. Gay or straight he's still your brother, and more importantly, a human being. As a human being, he's as deserving of respect and love as anyone else.
God bless him for being a practicing Christian too! He's been handed some challenges that he never asked for, but with his trust in God, I believe he'll do just fine.
Jeepers, Growltiger!
I wish there was someone who we can ask about this – or at least EXPLAIN to us the whats and whys of 'moderation'.
Heh, awesome late-night cartoon called "The Venture Bros" on adultswim, very funny and exciting, made a crack at this very notion. There's a black vampire hunter, Jefferson Twilight, a parody of Blade, on the show and he hunts "blackulas". When someone mentions "African-American vampires" he goes into a tizzy talking about how sometimes he has to fight vampires in England, and therefore they can't be "African-American vampires" so until they come up with a PC name that makes sense (in other words an oxymoron) he's gonna keep calling them "blackulas".
people on the right are far more obsessed with political correctness than people on the left. you know what is "politically incorrect" on the right? Just ask RNC honch Steele. He was politically incorrect and got slapped upside the head for misspeaking about Rush! NOW THAT WAS POLITICALLY INCORRECT!
So in other words, we don't know WHAT to think about Obama's stand on gay marriage.
He says one thing to one group of people but something quite different to another.
How do we know which statement is the truth and which is a lie just to get votes?
"Because equality, my friends, is not the same as freedom."
Amen, Brother!! You are either equal OR free. And…you are either African OR American.
Who was the first? >_>
When I was in college, I had several friends who were Jamaican and Haitian. When the term "Africa-American" became popular to refer to any black person, I wondered, "well what if they aren't from Africa, but Haiti or Jamaica?"
I'm German, Irish, Scotch, English, French and a little bit Indian (don't know which tribe). I'm a Mutt.
Multiculturalism/PC is a GROTESQUE corruption of anthropological principles. I remember the horrible bias and teh snickering sneers my Anthro teachers made towards Western Civ and Caucasian history. If Id been smart enough Id have defended it better, because it was Western Civ and those Caucasian civilizations that I wanted to dig up…and I was consistently told by them that it was useless to do any more because everything had already been found. Central America was where it was at! It has taken me getting into homeschooling to revive my interest in Western Civ. and appreciate its archaeology.
Anyway, despite the Leftist bias of my proffs, they WERE still good enough, and professional enough, to insist that anthropology was to rely on science and objectivity when examining a culture – NEVER to use it to evaluate and philosophize and lump into groups so that those groups could be pitted against each other. That is something that sociologists do. The idea that a culture could not be judged against another was for the purpose of employing the scientific method where before un-vetted stories brought back by sailors and extreme bias based on physical characteristics were the sole premise behind a desire to justify tyranny and domination. The "all cultures are relative" is the idea that an anthropologist has to keep in mind if he is to approach and present a particular culture – for the purposes of discovering the history and why of their developement. It is those people who wish to politicize and capitilize on a particular culture taht have turned those principles into a weapon against those they dont like. And the Left has successfully infiltrated the disciplines, allowing the language of anthropology and the scientific influence in anthropology to be corrupted. Its no longer about making sure that one culture is not belittled because it is not the same as another – it has become about taking those differences and using them to gain advantage.
I don't know if individual contributors get to set the level of moderation of their threads, or if Winecoff just touches on subjects that rub close to the edge of the limits, but I've noticed that most of the time when one of my posts here get lost in moderation limbo its in a Winecoff thread (I just assumed Charles didn't like me or something :p ).
I don't know if individual contributors get to set the level of moderation of their threads, or if Winecoff just touches on subjects that rub close to the edge of the limits, but I've noticed that most of the time when one of my posts here get lost in moderation limbo its in a Winecoff thread (I just assumed Charles didn't like me or something :p ).
I also REALLY miss the occasional "Open Threads" on DHP where issues like the moderation could be brought up.
Similar story. The Night Stalker in L.A. was Hispanic. But the news descriptions of the suspect rarely mentioned that. They described his height, his weight (he was skinny), his bad teeth, and his pock-marked face. Fortunately, the Hispanic community was not as PC as the L.A. Times, so when Ramirez showed up in a working-class Mexican neighborhood acting strangely, they recognized him, and went after him with baseball bats. The police arrested him, but it was the locals who actually got him.
This post reminds me of that great quote from President Teddy Roosevelt about how it's best if all Americans drop the hyphenated identifications and just call themselves simply "American".
Also, when the US had troops in Somalia in the 1990's, a couple of black US soldiers said (upon returning to USA)
"No need to call me African American. I've been to Africa, seen many Africans, and I do not identify with Africa.
Just say I am an American."
Ever notice how when someone irritates us, we are inclined to refer to them in terms that emphasize however they are different from us, as if those details are connected to the offensive behavior?
So for example a young, tall, skinny guy might complain about the bad driving of an "old, short, fat woman",
as if those traits are offensive to him now, when really all that's bugging him is just how she was driving.
Yeah, I understand where you're coming from. I have a two weeks on two weeks off kind of schedule so I get bored and spend too much time online some days … like today. And it gets tough to figure out what will or won't get you sucked into the mod abyss. Most of mine appear after a few hours though. I just try to pretend I'm talking to my parents about controversial stuff and it generally seems to work even if there is a killer lag.
I reached the point you've reached yesterday. I post between preparing papers and calls from the local barristers. I'm semi-retired, so I have more time than you, but it's still very frustrating. Had five things go into moderation yesterday, for most of the reasons mentioned above, which is to say, no reason at all. Four of the five showed up much later, killing the immediacy of the post. I've been sending the posts to the "tips and feedback" link with the query "why?" I get a robo-response about how much they care. I wish they would care enough to fix it. It's going to kill this site, and that would be a real shame.
I'm a liberal, and I'll admit that some of the speech codes and multicultural reading lists of the 90s were pretty bad.
But you're right that there are right-wing PC police. Want to see them in action? See whether they say "thanks!" or get angry when you greet them with "Happy Holidays!" in late November.
I hate victim mentality. When you become a victim, it means that you've let someone or something else control your life. Sometimes, it's unavoidable such as when you are the victim of a violent crime. But when someone calls you a name you don't like and choose to let it own you and define you and control your happiness and sense of self-worth, that's all your own doing.
The combination of institutionalized victimhood and political-correctness is killing civilized discourse and clear thinking in America. While carefully phrasing a good red meat comment to avoid any of the pitfalls, the comment usually ends up turning into dry oatmeal. It doesn't offend anyone, but nobody's going to eat it, either.
It's not even about being in a majority or minority society. In any society with people of different ethnicities, your ethnicity is one tool to describe you. It's like watching those cool clips on the crime show where they have the huge suspect pool of names and they keep typing in descriptive factors that narrow down the list of suspects until they're left with just a few out of hundreds. There is always one key piece of information that narrows that list down a lot. Imagine deliberately leaving that piece out because it just isn't culturally acceptable to use it.
That's like every other Obama statement – it carries an expiration date.
I hope they're monitoring this thread. There are a lot of interesting, intelligent people on this board who are getting seriously frustrated with the "moderation" comments.
This comment says it all "I wish they would care enough to fix it. It's going to kill this site, and that would be a real shame."
Not being a web designer, I cannot tell them how to fix it, however, there has to be a way to monitor posts without losing, as you say, the "immediacy" of the post. I understand growing pains, that BH has taken off like a rocket, however, if they drive off the thoughtful people who want to interact on an intellectual basis, all they'll have left are trolls and the amen chorus.
I have a friend who is from Johannesburg S. A. if that is what it is still called. He now lives in the U.S. He is quite white also. So is he an african american also?
I.M.
Not to mention, age of consent is 16 in DC I believe. Not that I found it palatable, it was obectionable in the extreme on both sides, but hardly as illegal as it was painted to be. Pure theatre set up to swing votes. They know how to play people.
Sometimes, I think random social security numbers chosen every four years would govern better than most of the twits we've elected.
As well as having college friends who were from Jamaica and Haiti, I was also friends with white Africans. So yeah, what about them?
I went to lecture in high school. I wish I could remember the guy who gave it, but essentially, my gifted teacher, my firend and I were the only white folks in the auditorium aside from conspicuously armed security and lots of black folks. The guy giving the lecture was himself black, and taking an unpopular view of the popular "back to Africa" movement of the time. The lecture was magic and eye-opening. I imagine it generated the intesity of feeling that an AnnCoulter lecture would today. The best moment was when the lecturer went off on back-to-Africa and being African-American he said something akin to "forget Africa! You don't know Africa! You've never been to Africa! It would eat you up."
Nothing really to add, just wanted to commend Mr. Winecoff on a great post!
I remember reading that Martin Sheen, discussing his pro-life stance, said he would never presume to tell a poor, African-American woman that she couldn't abort her baby. What? How is that not racist? What does race have to do with it?
I always wondered about that. Seeing that I live in Canada, Africian Canadian or African American, I never knew which one. I am a Caucasian Canadian (Irish, French and Metis)
!!!!!!!
You = Ewe verbally, hate being called a female sheep…LOL!!!!!!!!!!
"Well, I've never been with an african-american before."
Why does that even matter to them? Do they feel obliged to complete their PC-sensitivity set? "Oh look, there's a Laotian-American, let's try one out!"
If we are going PC on descriptions, I am vertically challenged, horizontally enhanced, and pigment challenged. I am 5'4" and 180 lbs (not afraid to admit it…LOL!) and white.
It's a "collect-them-all"/sexual lab rat mentality. Liberals decry stereotypes, but keep the ones that they like – -for their own dirty secrets.
*MissQuinn*
The single white straight male obviously must be the strongest member of our society, because the news hardly ever reports them as a victim of anything! If it wasn't for religion and drug use you wouldn't know they even existed, nothing can be filed in the news room without labels attached.
The single white straight male obviously must be the strongest member of our society, because the news hardly ever reports them as a victim of anything! If it wasn't for religion and drug use you wouldn't know they even existed, nothing can be filed in the news room without labels attached.
Good stuff Charles.
So how am I an Italian-American when I havent stepped off US Soil? Does the upper west side still count as US Soil? If so, this means I am just an American?????
My dad always told me to use the term I'm a "Heinz 57"… (so little did he know about the Ketchup maiden!)
"I'm so glad I researched Vietnamese culture! It was a great half-hour, they like to cuddle!"
Easy. Assume he's never telling an unalloyed truth.
ROFL.
Yeah, it can be like that sometimes. I sometimes don't even mention being Jamaican to dates, because they think that they went to the Bob Marley festival a couple times… oh, they understand me.
*MissQuinn*
I’m with you guys, it would seem if the “moderator” has a reason to moderate our comments perhaps a quick email saying why would be helpful. I to have a business and by extension am busy. I pop in when I can and it’s a real pisser when everyone can’t see our brilliant comments, ha! BH your IT people need to get hopping!
Or a Republican under thirty.
I just got mod er at ed (trying to avoid the filter here) on another thread when I commented that "amens" don't seem to get mo d er at ed. BIG GRIN
Steele is on the right? Hmmm…
Or an under-thirty atheist conservative female lawyer in the Bay Area
Hey man, there's nothing wrong with IKEA. The only bad thing about it (for us, anyway) is that the closest one is almost three hours away.
"So when asked for my "Race" these days, I put down "Human". "
…me too !
Great article Charles. Instantly I was thinking "Animal Farm" and the part where the wording is changed to "some animals are more equal."
Orwell was a master at mocking PC speech even before it existed.
Or a conservative female lawyer in Eugene, Oregon
When asked about my race, I always put down Pacific Islander because I was born in Hawaii. Of course, I'm German with a little Seneca. By the way, why isn't Obama a Pacific Islander? He was born in Hawaii too.
I think this might be the real issue, rather than filtered words, and it's why I've been on the fence for a while as to whether to keep reading and commenting on this site. There is some good stuff here, as well as some mindless and shrill posturing. This article and thread represent, for me, some of the best of what BH has to offer.
Or a bisexual Asatru Conservative
Seriously? We're playing the "Victim Game"? We're simply Conservatives!….Aren't we?
This is classic left wing double speak. You try to make it unacceptable to say Christmas, then blame Republicans when they don't go along with it! Classsssic.
I'm a Pagan (and theoretically one of the people jokers like these two are 'protecting' from being offended) but I make a point to say Merry Christmas just to annoy snots like these two.
I agree with you, SgtTank. Thank you for your tolerance. A Christian who is also gay would seem rare to me. Several gay people whom I have met are either athiest or anti-religion for being told by so many that their behavior makes God angry. There is no evidence it the bible that Jesus ever spoke on the subject. We are all sinners, even the Pope, even Billy Graham. I don’t consider homosexuality to be a behavioral flaw, but whatever God actually thinks about that is not our business. I would also never oppose gay marriage; Jefferson writes in the Declaration of Independence on “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
I'm sure this is beating a dead horse by now, but … Mormons (the original branch, not the people who call themselves "fundamentalists") haven't been polygamists for more than a century.
Or a 24 year old, long-hair Republican living in a student housing co-op occupied by 30 fringe hippies.
That was me seven years ago. Did it for two years.
loved the quotes around "social justice". Perhaps the term I hate most in all the world. As though force of law makes thievery just. Liberty for all!!! Equality for none. Be your own person and stop crying!
Charles, I was trying to think of a suitable term for you and I came up with "pink cracker." But then I thought you're probably not from the South, so you can't really be a cracker like me. And then you might get offended with the "pink" part because that could allue to Code Pink and Medea Benjamin, who is certifiable. So now I'm just stuck. I'd like to think of you fondly as my kind of hardass, but I wouldn't want that taken out of Texas (where I'm from) context.
It's extremely difficult to come up with the right terms for our fellow human beings. I suppose "people" is out of the question because the term is colored by the Barbara Streisand song, and we all know about her!
This is sooooo difficult…
As a gay Republican, I get to see frist hand the poltical correctness, and the shallowness of the gay community, or more accurately, the shalllowness and political correctness of the LEADERS of the gay community, oevrwhelmingly Democrat.
Even in our local community here in Cleveland Ohio where the local Democrat Party of Cuyahoga County is under investigation by the FBI and IRS, our gay leaders continue to heap praise at the slightest progression of gay rights, including Cleveland's new "domestic partner registry", the first leap in gay rights in Cleveland in 12 years.
I invite anybody, gay, straight, indifferent, whatever, to join a Log Cabin Republican table at the upcoming Gay Pride events around the country this coming June. Political correctness is not as bad as it seems – it's worse.
June 2009 will be the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, the birth place of the modern gay liberation movement. Do not be surprised when LGBTQs are surprised to hear that fact.
An excellent essay, Mr. Winecoff. Thank you.
Your statement . . .
"Because equality, my friends, is not the same as freedom."
. . . summarizes exactly what close-minded liberals do not understand.
I am of Indian origin as in South Asia. When I shave my head, I am considered African-American and I am allowed through by airport security without any problem. When I have longer hair I am considered Pakistani or Middle Eastern and detained. That is life!
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