So herein lies a situation where a population of people vastly affected by AIDS/HIV addresses their state of emergency by doing what black churches around the U.S. have been trying to do for years: address HIV/AIDS without addressing, and in some cases promoting, blantant HOMOPHOBIA against people who have been vastly affected by the epidemic: homosexual men. The homocidal violence promoted by Beenie Man and TOK featured in LIFEbeat's forthcoming July 18th concert cannot be simply dismissed as a respect for free cultural expression when these lyrics have direct impress on cultures who manifest-- with growing and unchecked proliferation of such hate via music-- an increase in violence against gay and lesbian people.
At the same time, you have privileged Westren political institutions (yes, even black gay ones) who sometimes arrogantly impose their ethical mass to block concerts as a show of intolerance with homophobia. Unfortunately, they sometimes also block the opportunity for conversation. The result seems to a symbolic reaffirmation of cultural imperialism and political egocentrism forced fed to a population of often disenfranchised people who understandibly resist such "activist" efforts in favor of their own "resistance speak" (whether or not they actually and truly hate gay people or not). Hating homosexuals becomes conflated with hating the nation that seems to so quickly come to their defense-- a nation that often unfairly stigmatizes Caribbean homophobia as indicative of their cultural backwardness. Do I think that Beenie Man's and TOK's songs killed people? NO. Do I think they deepen and normalize the already existing hate and homophobia of a society that has too easily conflated gay protest as indicative of global white supremacy at work? YES!
A hip hop artist who can give an expansive list of homophobic quotes from Hip Hop artists, I'm not sure we respond as quickly to expose hypocrisy with our own artists. How many celebs have vowed to fight AIDS while showing evidence of homophobia. It's the American way. Let's be consistent.
Let's stop being lazy!
I just think that there has to be some other way to address this hate between rocks and hard spaces... and perhaps a blog posting and some conversation and visibility about it, whatever lack of resolve I have about the efforts to be advesarial with LIFEbeat, is one way to accomplish that.
We should protest, but the objective should be to engage in dialogue. Merely shutting a show down may do more to impede progress than advance it.
You are encouraged to vist Keith Boykins's website at:
http://www.keithboykin.com/arch/2006/07/11/black_gay_blogg
and share your opinion. Feel free also, of course, to share them here.
Yours in this (beautifully complicated) struggle!
Tim'm
(who thanks you all for the happy 34th Birthday wishes)
2 comments:
what up, Tim'm!
Not sure if I'm comfortable with the idea of "winning" in such a case. Not sure that blocking the concert is a "victory"... but nice to know the power of our collective voices can have such resonance. My question: what next? This seems to me to be only the beginning.
____________________
For Immediate Release
Media Contact:
Jasmyne Cannick, jcannick@sbcglobal.net
Colin Robinson, 917-482-9014
Keith Boykin, keithboykin1@aol.com
Black Gay Bloggers Win Victory; LIFEbeat Cancels Anti-Gay AIDS Concert
Los Angeles/New York (July 12, 2006) –Black lesbian and gay bloggers are declaring a small victory in the fight against homophobia today.
After a 48 hour protest against LIFEbeat, the music industry’s AIDS organization, and its decision to use homophobic reggae artists Beenie Man and TOK, LIFEbeat today released a statement that it is canceling its concert. LIFEbeat cited “the possibility of violence” as the reason for canceling the concert and not the use of anti-gay reggae artists.
“While we are extremely pleased that our efforts paid off, we want to make it perfectly clear to LIFEbeat and others, that no threats of violence were ever made against LIFEbeat’s staff and board of directors, nor the concert,” commented Jasmyne Cannick, activist and blogger. “Our campaign was simply to educate LIFEbeat about the history of the performers that they choose and to make them aware of the recent murders of gay people in the Caribbean. We did this through emails, blogging, phone calls, and faxes from all over the world.”
Author Keith Boykin added, “LIFEbeat still fails to address the issue of homophobia and its connection to the spread of HIV/AIDS.” He continues, “While we support the mission of LIFEbeat to educate our youth about the dangers of HIV/AIDS, we cannot support the use of blatantly homophobic recording artists to achieve that mission.”
“LIFEbeat has basically chosen to cop-out and blame us for their ill-considered decision to use these artists in the first place,” commented D.C. blogger Terrence Heath.
The concert was scheduled to take place at New York’s Webster Hall on July 18. Activists are now calling on LIFEbeat to move on with a new concert using gay-friendly artists and to donate the proceeds to J-FLAG, The Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays founded by the late Brian Williamson who was murdered for being gay in 2004.
"This would be the first time a protest of these artists raised money for us,” said Karlene, co-chair of J-FLAG. “The international protests have helped build awareness and accountability back here. Artists who perform homophobic or hate songs must be sent a strong message that their acts are inhumane and will not be tolerated. But it’s even better when this can result in support for our difficult and under-financed work to counter this hatred where these musicians live.”
A complete list of the Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender bloggers who participated in the campaign against LIFEbeat appears below.
Bejata
Keith Boykin
Republic of T
Pandagon
Clay Cane
Jasmyne Cannick
Journey Into Light
Frank Leon Roberts
A Burst of Light
Blabbeando
J's Theater
FemmeNoir
AnziDesign
PlanetOut's Politics and News
GreasyGuide
Troy Notorious
thebrotherlove.com
Woubi-Yossi Collective
Just My Thoughts
Obsidianbear
The 7 Magazine
The Larry Lyons Experience
Simply Fred Smith
Every Shut Eye Ain't Sleep
Novaslim
Front Porch Storytellin
Taylor Siluwé
Bialogue
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