To Be Black, To Be A Man, To Be Gay - Part 1

...Injustice lies in the denial

Of the so apparent facts

The lack of effort and the fear of rejection

Marks the lack of progressionWithin life and then subsequent: profession
- The Mirror (2014)

To Be Black, To Be a Man, and to be Gay

To be Black is a gift from God in itself. While my color radiates it’s own beauty, to some it is looking at my skin gives a sense of distain. To the confines of a Eurocentric society, my skin alone generates a peculiar penalty. My identity as Black defines me first, but my identity as a male. Being a Black male is a condition where you are constantly trying to seek your validation amongst your fellow brethren, your female counterparts, society, and the world. From your brethren, masculinity rains supreme, for women it is the ability to produce and provide. In contrast, society expects you to be a statistic and subject to fail. The bias to be uneducated, to be involved in deviant behavior, and being socially unaware drive why people view black men to have the social standing that they do. But to be gay adds another dimension to this complicated situation.

To be gay is a complexity that few understand. It feels great to live in the liberation to finally love who you seek to love rather than to be cordoned off to what is seen as right to others. However, the complexities lie in three things. The first is that homosexuality if perceived as a choice. But logically, what human being chooses to be ostracized, bullied, threatened, killed, marginalized, stigmatized, and even sensationalized? The belief that someone would choose a life of continual hardship is simply foolish. Secondly, when you’re a homosexual male, heterosexual men and women find the need to remove your “man card”.  Meaning, that since you are gay, you can’t be a real man. Lastly, the expectation to abide by a stereotype or to reject it leaves you alienated in the land of your own kind. (which I will explain later in this piece)

When you put to the three identities together, it creates a unique situation. Where you have become the least desirable person and subject to the division of within your own in-group.