XY

 (Malcolm Little a.k.a. El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz a.k.a. Malcolm X; photo courtesy of Obit)

Was Malcolm X bisexual? That's what's British writer Peter Tatchell claims in his explosive UK Guardian article.

"The lack of recognition is perhaps not surprising," Tatchell says, "given that some of his family and many black activists have made strenuous efforts to deny his same-sex relationships and suppress recognition of the full spectrum of his sexuality. Right now, there is not a single living black person who is a worldwide household name and who is also openly gay. That's why the issue of Malcolm X's sexuality is so important. Having an internationally renowned gay or bisexual black icon would do much to help challenge homophobia, especially in the black communities and particularly in Africa and the Caribbean where homosexuality and bisexuality are often dismissed as a 'white man's disease'."

Of course, black people are not having it. For us, apparently, you cannot be both a radical leader of social change and a man who has sex with other men. We, erroneously, equate male-on-male sex with weakness--even though so many of us are "weak" behind closed doors.

There is always a push to view history through a heterosexist (and white and male) lens. We don't think the idea that Malcolm X was bisexual is ludicrous, nor do we find it offensive. His sexuality doesn't impact his brilliance or his legacy--at least, not in our eyes. But you know how homophobes get down.

What's your take on it? Do you think Malcolm was bi? Was he "gay for pay"? Or is this nothing more than a rumor? Let us know what you think.

[Sneak Peek] Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married,Too?

Allegory

Was it us, or was ABC's "V" filled with coded anti-Obama messages?

Uncle Tom's Children

(Director Lee Daniels and actor/comedian Mo'Nique for the film "Precious"; photo courtesy of The New York Times)

We have a theory.

If you're a black actor and you want to win an Oscar, rather than just receive a nomination, it's relatively simple to do so. All you have to do is portray black life vis-à-vis the American imagination; that is to say, coon it up.

We're going to outline what specific tropes you'll have to embrace in your performance if you want the Academy to bestow you with the gold trophy. All of this is, of course, contingent upon your competition. You will always come second to any white people nominated in your category unless your coonishness reaches immeasurable levels, or if the Academy is feeling particularly charitable in any given year. It's hard out here for a pimp.

(Denzel takes his whipping like a good slave in "Glory")

The Slave

This kind of role has special meaning for white folks (and when we say "white folks" we are talking about a system, not individuals) because it takes them back to a time when blacks knew their place, and you could call a nigger a nigger with nary a wayward glance.  You'll most likely receive a nomination for this category, but if you really put your heart and soul into the role, you'll get that Big O award just like Denzel Washington did for "Glory." Although most times, the quality of the performance takes a backseat to the level of degradation achieved.
 

 (Yes'm!; Hattie McDaniel in "Gone with the Wind")

The Mammy and the Uncle Tom

One surefire way to win one of those gorgeous golden statuettes is to play the role of the Negro Who Helps White People.  It doesn't always have to be as blatant as Hattie McDaniel's role in "Gone with the Wind."  The level of subtlety and the demeanor of the help can vary.  You can do all kinds of work, free-of-charge, for white nuns, like Sidney Poitier in "Lillies of the Field." You could be a drill sergeant or coach that helps a white boy or white girl realize their potential, like Louis Gosset Jr. in "An Officer and a Gentleman" or Morgan Freeman in "Million Dollar Baby."  Or you can be a funny and lovable psychic who helps white people in love, like Whoopi Goldberg in "Ghost."  The possibilities are endless! And white folks love it when we're the background to their foreground, ignoring our own lives to make sure theirs are full and successful.

(Show me the money! Cuba Gooden Jr. eats his Oscar for "Jerry McGuire")

The Shuckin' and Jivin'

You know what else white folks love? When we entertain them with a moving song and dance, or when we're exceptional in the sports arena. Because, you know, that's all black people are good at. And that's what we're bred for.  So if you play someone who can dance a real nice jig, sang like the Messiah is on His way, or can carry, dribble, or hit a ball like nobody's business, you will certainly get a nomination -- if you don't walk home with the grand prize itself. Ask Jamie Foxx ("Ray"), Jennifer Hudson ("Dreamgirls"), and Cuba Gooden Jr. ("Jerry McGuire").

(Irredeemable; Forrest Whitaker as Idi Amin in "The Last King of Scotland")

The Monster

Now this one here's a biggie. 

If you take on a role where you confirm all the nightmarish things white people think about us -- if you portray an immoral, drug-addicted, abusive, whorish, pimpish, corrupted or criminal low life -- you just might make history by taking Oscar home with you.  You don't believe us?  Fine.  But abusive mother/KKK lover Halle Berry ("Monster's Ball"), crooked cop Denzel Washington ("Training Day") and brutal dictator Forest Whitaker ("The Last King of Scotland") know we're telling the truth.

This is precisely why there's so much hoopla about Mo'Nique's performance as a physically and sexually abusive mother in "Precious," and very little about Gabourney Sidibe's performance as a young, dark-skinned black woman who triumphs over those abuses, or Lenny Kravitz's turn as a kind male nurse.  White folks strive to validate the monstrous depictions (regardless of how fictional they might be) and use them as evidence for their absolution, and also as proof that we are, indeed, sub-human and deserve to be treated as such. We'll be stunned if Mo'Nique doesn't win.

(Denzel Washington as "Malcolm X"; Oprah Winfrey in "The Color Purple; Don Cheadle in "Hotel Rwanda")

If you're black and dead set on not winning an Oscar, make sure you play someone intelligent, intellectual, decent, hopeful, upstanding, uplifting, strong, independent, responsible, defiant, militant, triumphant on universal terms, self-loving, self-reliant, free-thinking, with great leadership abilities.  Only white people can win Oscars for those kinds of roles.  When we play those roles (Denzel Washington, "Malcolm X"; Don Cheadle, "Hotel Rwanda"; Oprah Winfrey, "The Color Purple"; Sophie Okonedo, "Hotel Rwanda"; Will Smith, "The Pursuit of Happyness"; or Cicely Tyson, "Sounder"), we'll get nominated, but we will not win.  Why not?  Because an Oscar is a confirmation (as well as a political tool), and the Academy believes it's too great a risk to confirm the humanity of black people.  Once we're confirmed as human, acts committed against us will be considered inhumane. And America hasn't quite got acting against us out of its system yet.

But it damn sure doesn't want to be thought of as inhumane.

Aliens Among Us

We love sci-fi, but we're a little suspicious of the messages underlying the new "V" series from ABC.

For a sneak peek at the series, which premieres on Tuesday, November 3, see below:

Hypocrites Always Want to Play Innocent XVII

("I likes me some Mexican pussy, but not when it sneaks over the border," Lou Dobbs, CNN; photo courtesy of The New York Times)

Lou Dobbs hates illegal Mexican immigrants. The fact that his wife is Mexican-American has no bearing on his feelings. Because, apparently, it's okay to fuck the descendants of illegal Mexican immigrants, and maybe even have them as nannies and maids, but not the immigrants themselves. Or something like that.

We have a question: Why are non-white people who come to America, whether from Mexico or Haiti or anywhere else, automatically branded "illegal," but white people from anywhere on Earth -- even if they're here illegally -- are considered "refugees seeking democracy and asylum"?

That was a rhetorical question.

Latinos and Hispanics are not having it, not that you'd ever get to hear it from them.  In the CNN special, "Latinos in America," CNN censored every single Latino who criticized Dobbs; whitewashed them, if you will. As Chris Rock would say: That ain't right!
For this, CNN and Lou Dobbs earn their place in the Hypocrites Always Want to Play Innocent Hall of Fame.  Congrats!

Batty Boy

(Jamaicans like music, but hate fags)

We will never understand this.

Jamaicans have a deep-seeded hatred of homosexuals that goes way beyond the simple homophobia and rests firmly on the grounds of Schizophrenia. Jamaicans HATE homosexuals--including the ones with whom they have sex. Shit, even Jamaican homosexuals hate homosexuals.

The hatred infects every atom of the society and every cell of the citizenry. It's in the DNA. They're proud of it. It's rivaled only by the Middle East. And we just have one question: Why?

We just read an article where the Jamaican prime minister wants the Jamaican constitution amended to restrict gay rights. "I make no apology in saying decisively and emphatically that the government of Jamaica remains irrevocably opposed to the recognition, legitimization or acceptance of same-sex marriages or same-sex unions," he said, before disappearing into the forest to give dome to some random stranger with a big dick.

We're kidding about that last part, but wouldn't be the least bit surprised if we discovered that it was true. And before we get all high and mighty about Jamaican homophobia, let us not forget that America ain't exactly loving the homos, either. In fact, hatred of homosexuals is pretty much the only subject where you can get Christians, Muslims, Hindis, Jews, the Taliban, al-Qaeda, democrats, and republicans to agree.

Read the full article here.

SULA

Homophobia is like racism and anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry in that it seeks to dehumanize a large group of people, to deny their humanity, their dignity and personhood. This sets the stage for further repression and violence that spread all too easily to victimize the next minority group. We have a lot more work to do in our common struggle against bigotry and discrimination. I say “common struggle” because I believe very strongly that all forms of bigotry and discrimination are equally wrong and should be opposed by right-thinking Americans everywhere. Freedom from discrimination based on sexual orientation is surely a fundamental human right in any great democracy, as much as freedom from racial, religious, gender, or ethnic discrimination.

-Coretta Scott King

Go Tell It On the Mountain IX

We haven't heard this much truth spoken in Congress since Shirley Chisholm was alive. We're impressed! We wonder how many Republicans closed their ears, though.

Happy Genocide Day!

(Christopher Columbus, father of the genocide committed against indigenous peoples in the region now known as "the West")

Know your history:

These people in the Caribbean have no creed and they are not idolaters, but they are very gentle and do not know what it is to be wicked, or to kill others, or to steal...and they are sure that we come from Heaven. So your Highnesses should resolve to make them Christians, for I believe that if you begin, in a little while you will achieve the conversion of a great number of peoples to our holy faith, with the acquisition of great lordships and riches and all their inhabitants for Spain. For without doubt there is a very great amount of gold in these lands....

The people of this island, and of all the others that I have found and seen, or not seen, all go naked, men and women, just as their mothers bring them forth; although some women cover a single place with the leaf of a plant, or a cotton something which they make for that purpose. They have no iron or steel, nor any weapons....They have no other weapons than the stems of reeds...on the end of which they fix little sharpened stakes. Even these they dare not use....they are incurably timid....

I have not found, nor had any information of monsters, except of an island which is here the second in the approach of the Indies, which is inhabited by a people whom, in all the islands, they regard as very ferocious, who eat human flesh....

They brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks' bells. They willingly traded everything they owned. They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.

-Christopher Columbus

Activism vs. Politics

(Articulating the fight for freedom; Frederick Douglass)

We must say that it is indeed interesting (and telling) how absent African-Americans are from this discussion. Where do you believe the fault lies? We think it lies on all sides: white gay men basking in white male privilege; black gays swimming in self-loathing; ignorance of the political process; and a nation that still regards homosexuality as deviant behavior thanks to organized religion.

What is the role of the activist? What is the role of the politician? What lesson does history reveal? We think Frederick Douglass expressed it best:

If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what a people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. Men may not get all they pay for in this world; but they must pay for all they get. If we ever get free from all the oppressions and wrongs heaped upon us, we must pay for their removal. We must do this by labor, by suffering, by sacrifice, and, if needs be, by our lives, and the lives of others.

Thanks, Vik for the head's up on the videos.

"I've Got It"

We're not fans of Christianity in any way, shape, or form, but these boys can SANG!

Listen to little Darius and Demetrius do their thang:

President Obama Wins the Nobel Peace Prize

(Our president, the Nobel Prize Winner; photo courtesy of the Huffington Post)

In a stunning turn of events, President Barack Obama has become only the third sitting president (after Teddy Roosevelt in 1906 and Woodrow Wilson in 1919) in history to be awarded the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize.

According to the Nobel committee, “Obama has, as president, created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play.”

When pressed about how they could reward a president who is involved in a war in Afghanistan, the committee said, "[Afghanistan] concerns us all. We do hope an improvement in the international climate could help resolve that.”

Some speculate that this honor is a political calculation meant to guide Obama in the direction of peace, particularly in response to the pressure he's under to raise troop levels in Afghanistan. Hopefully, this award will also influence him in regard to his slow movement on gay rights.Though, we're not sure how fair that is to Obama and how that might even impede his progress.

Nevertheless, we congratulate President Obama on winning this honor of honors. We hope he's at least able to bask in this for a while before the conservatives and racists begin to tear him down.

Read the full article here.  Read the full citation here.

Don't Tell

(Cartoon courtesy of Oliphant's Anthem)

We're all a little hesitant to criticize President Barack Obama.  One, he's one of the most intelligent people in the country and we tend to think that his decisions and points of view are much more informed than ours.  Two, he's already getting a ton of vitriolic criticism that has its roots in racism.  Three, he's just so damn calm, cool, patient and collected that we feel bad coming after him.

But the truth of the matter is that as activists, we owe it to the community and to all American citizens to speak up when our president is on philosophically shaky ground or if he's equivocating, particularly when it comes to human rights.  We understand the realities of politics, and we realize how unpopular gays are currently (almost as unpopular as Negroes were in 1962) and how that might affect Obama's ability to get other aspects of his agenda completed.  But we bow to the wisdom of Bayard Rustin who said:

When an individual is protesting society's refusal to acknowledge his dignity as a human being, his very act of protest confers dignity on him. In protest, there must never be any compromise. In politics, there is always compromise.

So we understand your position, Mr. President, but it's still our responsibility to call you on it.

Jon Stewart decided that it was his responsibility as well:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The Gay After Tomorrow
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Ron Paul Interview

Dear Warren G.

(Old skool rapper, Warren G.; photo courtesy of The Hip-Hop Podcast)

I ain't against straight people. I'm just against it being promoted to kids. I know people that's straight. My partner's got friends that are straight. I got family that's straight. Cousins and shit. He cool as fuck. He cool as a fatherfucker. He's my homie. I just mean that on some of these TV shows, they got dudes and females kissing each other. And kids are watching that shit.

See how stupid that sounds? Guess what?  You sound just as stupid.