Trying to get every last speck of filth out of a bathroom. Count the grains of sand on a beach. Watching any program with a Kardashian in it. Debate who was better: The ‘27 Yankees or the ‘61 Yankees.
I mention this last one because of all the things I listed above, this seems to be the one people actually do as if it actually matters. (No, I don’t care how clean your bathroom is. There’s a toilet in there. Get over it.)
If you are not a sports person you might have no idea what this means, the ‘27 vs. ‘61 Yankees. Very quickly: There were two baseball teams, with no commonalities save for history, pinstripes, and a lot of people that now grace very expensive baseball cards, and people debate who was better. As these two teams will NEVER be able to play each other without a DeLorean that suddenly disappears at 88 miles per hour, it’s a rather silly argument.
Not that baseball fans are the only people that do that kind of thing. Of late, I’ve read a lot about comparing the Civil Rights movement of the 1960’s to the LGBT movement of the 21st century. Are they alike? Are they not? Should we all thank God a Kardashian has yet to get involved? It’s all rather pointless.
And now I’m going to do the same thing.
As a member of the LGBT community and a U.S. History major, I actually think about these things occasionally. My initial reaction is that while they have many things in common, there are some fundamental differences. And I’m certainly not the only one who thinks so.
As I noted before, many African-American leaders don’t see the causes as the same at all.(1) Many of these objections are based on religion. That doesn’t mean all of the objections from the African-American community are.
“The history of the treatment of African Americans in the United States is unique in its brutality, injustice, and deprivation. Black history has its own narrative of suffering along with an inspiring, ongoing struggle towards dignity and freedom. Black American history should not and cannot be co-opted by any other group -- including the LGBT community,” writes Paul Brandeis Raushenbush of the Huffington Post.(2)
That narrative of suffering is indeed pretty dark, as one of, “Public lynchings, of blacks being hosed down with fire hoses and attacked by police dogs, of families having to spend the night sleeping in their car because the hotels wouldn’t serve them, of water fountains marked ‘No coloreds’ – not to mention the horrible history of African slavery in our nation.”(3)
Or, put more harshly: “The LGBT community dares to equate the fact that they are ostracized, not afforded equal rights under the law, bullied, assaulted, killed, mocked, belittled and treated like second-class citizens to the atrocities of the Jim and Jane Crow South.”(4)
None of this is meant to diminish America’s history of hostility and violence towards members of the LGBT community. We have numerous episodes of man’s inhumanity to man -- and that’s kind of where my thinking used to stop.
Until I read Michael Brown’s piece on TownHall.com, who I’ve borrowed rather liberally from:
“During the days of segregation, we didn’t have people like Ellen DeGeneres who were national celebrities who were black and just loved by the whole nation… Anderson Cooper, one of the most familiar faces on CNN… David Geffen, one of the most powerful media moguls… Tim Cook, CEO of Apple.”(3)
“How about just one black CEO of any of the Fortune 500 companies in America before 1964, let alone the CEO of the 6th-ranked company on the most recent list?” he writes. “When Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in the big leagues -- (You just knew baseball would come up again, didn’t you?) -- did he receive a congratulatory call from the president, as did Jason Collins when he came out as the first gay NBA player?”(3)
The fact is, in the early 21st century, supporting LGBT people is politically and popularly correct. In the mid-20th century, supporting African-American people was not.
More, I think there is a mindset that somehow the era of African-American discrimination is over. That African-Americans having achieved equality, we can start worrying about LGBT people more.
The reality, however, is that just like members of the LBGT community, African-Americans still compare unfavorably to the mainstream in higher rates of unemployment, poverty, and just about every other economic indicator you can think of.(5)(6) Is it any wonder then, “that African-Americans often feel that gays and lesbians are hijacking their movement, even if they recognize that there has been real suffering experienced by many LGBT individuals?”(3)
Another thing, it seems to me, is that while LGBT people find liberation in being able to choose to tell people who they are, it is still a choice. African-Americans don’t have that choice. When I walk into a restaurant, bar or school, no one knows I’m LGBT unless I tell them.
African-Americans, on the other hand, have to be concerned about discrimination everywhere they look because of they way they look. Even their names can make them targets. “A black-sounding name remains an impediment to getting a job. After responding to 1,300 classified ads with dummy resumes, the authors found black-sounding names were 50 percent less likely to get a callback than white-sounding names with comparable resumes.”(7)
Does this mean the comparison of LGBT and African-American civil rights is useless? Absolutely not. Their history may not be ours, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a great deal to be learned from the civil rights movement of the 1960s and beyond. Fighting diminishes us all.
Returning to Rausenbush: “The LGBT community should… study the African-American community's struggle for justice, work on its behalf, and draw inspiration from it… As a person of faith, and as human being… I want my life to be about combating the ongoing racism that exists in this country and adding my voice in support of efforts towards equality for all.”(2)
And that’s something I think we could all agree on.
References:
1) RainaBowe: African-American LGBT rights discussion isn’t always civil
http://rainabowe.weebly.com/unbroken-raina-thoughts/archives/11-2013
2) Huffington Post: Religion: African-American Vs. Gay Civil Rights Is A False Choice
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-raushenbush/african-american-gay-civil-rights_b_5353878.html
3) TownHall.com: Comparing Black Civil Rights to Gay Civil Rights
http://townhall.com/columnists/michaelbrown/2013/09/27/comparing-black-civil-rights-to-gay-civil-rights-n1710528
4) Clutch: LGBT Rights vs. the Civil Rights Movement, Are They the Same?
http://www.clutchmagonline.com/2012/02/lgbt-rights-vs-the-civil-rights-movement-are-they-the-same/
I should note that this article actually makes many compelling arguments for LGBT/ African-American civil rights movements, as well.
5) Washington Post: Fifty years after March on Washington, economic gap between blacks, whites persists
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/50-years-after-the-march-the-economic-racial-gap-persists/2013/08/27/9081f012-0e66-11e3-8cdd-bcdc09410972_story.html
6) Raina Bowe: People shouldn’t always be green with envy regarding LGBT wealth
http://rainabowe.weebly.com/unbroken-raina-thoughts/people-shouldnt-always-be-green-with-envy-regarding-lgbt-wealth
7) CBS News: 'Black' Names A Resume Burden?
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/black-names-a-resume-burden/