I haven’t blogged in a long time… I know.
I wasn’t planning on blogging today either… I know.
I am sure hundreds of thousands of people with be blogging about the failure to indict Darren Wilson in the murder of Mike Brown. And let’s be very clear, this was murder… this we all know.
I am writing today not because of the decision of the grand jury, not because of the actions of the protesters and police, not as a result of my disgust in a society that would allow this to happen. There are many people who can do a better job about that from much larger platforms.
I am writing here because of a Facebook status (and subsequent comments in agreement) that popped up on my timeline. A post that angered me so much that I literally had to put my head down and pray before clicking unfriend. A post that sickened me so much that I wanted to look through old emails and find the number of its creator.
In hindsight, I wish I had screenshot the post.. or copied the text.. but as it is, it is now ingrained in my brain. Because to this person on my “friends list”, to this person who I have worked with on SEVERAL LGBT centric campaigns, to this person who I have smiled and hugged and laughed with, to him “the protesters in Ferguson were ANIMALS that deserve everything the police throw at them tonight”.
What the …?
There are many things wrong with this statement. Many things that are indicative of an extremely ignorant and extremely dangerous mind. A mind that is more of a danger to my children and my children’s children than the “animals”. A mind that fails to return grand jury indictments when black male bodies lie in the street. A mind that thinks George Zimmerman was right in stalking and murdering an unarmed young man. A mind that can fix itself to call a town and a people in agony, ANIMALS.
Am I in agreement with a lot of the actions of the protestors? No.
This is not my veiled attempt to approve the acts of a few misguided people. I am in now way heralding arson1. But I have to ask a few questions. I have to be made clear. By his logic (and the dozen of commentators before I unfriended him), rioting, protesting vigorously, and throwing things are the act of animals… Right? Right?
Wrong. Not when I know he switches his ass to the beat at every Stonewall RIOTS annual celebration. Not when he sheds a tear for those ANIMALS (per his logic) who violently fought police, hurled garbage cans, garbage, bottles, rocks, and bricks at buildings.
Don’t make that face. What, they aren’t animals? They didn’t deserve what they got that night? Why not? Because they looked like him? Because it was unfair for the police to infringe on their rights to gather? Because they had had enough?2
Oh right… that’s different.
Just like when I am told I am that the use of the word nigger3 is just a part of the cultural landscape, but calling someone a faggot can make you lose your job.
That’s different too.
You have an attitude with our church leaders for not stepping up for gay rights, when this particular person touts the name of one of the largest LGBTQ organizations in the country in their job title.
Yep, different.
It makes me wonder, if I wasn’t a lesbian woman working on LGBT causes, why I would just be another one of the animals?
No this is not Ferguson… this is the Stonewall Riots that gets parades.
- Except that one scene in Waiting to Exhale ↩
- I have said it once and I will keep saying it, if Trayvon Martin was an effeminate man, George Zimmerman would be under the jail. ↩
- Nigger, nigga, nigguh… same history different spelling. ↩
Hello 40s (formerly the Kword) 
K, I appreciate your post, especially the question at the end. I often converse about being a Black lesbian and the recent events reinforce my identity as a Black woman first and foremost, in all things. As radical as it sounds, we have choices to make…as a community.
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I can’t believe it took me so long to realize that. I mean I knew it but I think it took reading the comments on that post for it to shake me into reality. We definitely have to make choices…
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This is my challenge with being involved with LGBTQ activities in south florida. Too much hypocritical action and there is hardly any representation of TRUE diversity so I can’t help but wonder why even bother to integrate myself in to groups that more than likely are so close minded to OTHER social cultures. That’s the problem with getting older/becoming maturer…you realize the truth on a daily basis and it becomes that much more difficult to continue to swim upstream. Staying prayerful and making a difference in my own way is how I’ll keep pressing forward. -AJ
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