STOP! You cannot possibly be gay and black, right?! Wrong. Homosexuality within the black community is usually degraded upon. Some heterosexuals believe that the gay and lesbian lifestyles add to the many negative connotations of black manhood and womanhood. The negative connotations or stereotypes that are affiliated with the black community, such as homosexuality, have the possibility of segregating the entire black community all because of a thing we call patriarchy and gender oppression.
“Women are kept, maintained, and contained through terror, violence, and spray of semen”, says Black lesbian feminist Cheryl Clarke. Clarke’s interesting statement in reference to lesbianism within the black community should help us grasp a better understanding of the breast to breast lesbian movement.
SLAVERY. SILENCE. BATTERED. DISRESPECTED. NON HUMAN. RAPED. These words are representations of the black woman’s struggle and the submissive nature patriarchy has put them through. Yet lesbians are BREAKING this SILENCE because black women have been stuck between two worlds- male dominated and heterosexual patriarchy- for so long. For women to finally stand up for one another and fight against male and white patriarchy gives all women some type of freedom and hope when their was none to be found in “A man’s world”, as the late James Brown would say. The variety of sexual-emotional relationships with women metaphorically gives answers to the long history of tyranny and suffering due to male and white patriarchy.
Homosexuality in the black community has had such negative connotations mainly because of the issues within the community itself verses the outsider’s opinions about our race. Aren’t brother’s and sisters supposed to stick together? Where is our brother? Where is the brother who walks in unison with his sister and uplifts her instead of pushing her away into submission? In no form or fashion are we slandering men for playing the dominant roles in black society. However, it’s the inequality and hierarchy of men within the black community that is the focus at hand.
According to authors such as Clarke, lesbians were burned as witches simply for trying to rise above the patriarchy so many women continue to fight against. For a woman who has taken a woman lover, kissing the frontal lobes is more than just pleasure but a sign of resistance, lesbian liberation, and a team effort to gain equality. Never leave a man to do a woman’s job.
The Bluest Eye: We Are Merley Players 