I feel embarrassed to say that I have learned more about Asian-American history in the last two months than I ever did during the sixteen years of schooling I attended (kindergarten through college). That says a lot about what is wrong with American education and systemic racism.
I found this video on YouTube that was very educational. Please take the time to watch it.
The short film is by an Asian-American filmmaker who talks about the long history of anti-Asian hate.
I had the opportunity to see comedienne Maysoon Zayid recently, and she is amazing!
She is a Palestinian Muslim living with cerebral palsy. Maysoon is courageous in her thinking, activism, and humility, and I think more people should know about her!
Another LGBT Pride Month is about to come to a close, and, of course, we have been bombarded with rainbow flags on social media profiles and “pride” branded merchandise. It is a great thing that society has progressed that Corporate America is open to celebrating the LGBT experience.
However, I have many thoughts and concerns about this.
I think there is a lot of hypocrisy with some of the individuals and organizations sending out pride well-wishes. The most obvious one is Trump sending out a pro-LGBT tweet earlier this month when his administration is actively discriminating against transgender soldiers in the military and forbidding U.S. embassies around the world from flying the rainbow flag. Or the National Security Agency (NSA) putting out a pro-pride tweet when this agency, along with the FBI and CIA, has a long, prolific history of surveillance or blackmail in the LGBT community.
But even companies assumed to be gay-friendly are problematic like YouTube, which got backlash earlier this month for not banning racist and homophobic attacks on a gay YouTuber. And there are dozens of other companies that are also questionable when it comes to their true allegiances.
I think Corporate America has been gravitating to “pride marketing” for several reasons:
It’s trendy, and it helps companies get noticed
LGBT people are everywhere in every race, ethnicity, religion, income, geographic location, and most importantly, they have spending dollars
Homophobia is seen by Corporate America as an easier form of discrimination to fight against, unlike other types of bias that come with heavy, historical baggage like racism, anti-Semitism, or Islamaphobia, xenophobia, etc.
And quickly frankly, it is easy to do; anyone can put a rainbow flag on their logo temporarily and give the false, superficial impression to the world that they are pro-LGBT without having to be accountable for why they are doing it. Also, some of these companies will even conflate other marginalized groups and their issues under the rainbow flag.
No one can’t ever accuse us of being anti-immigrant, sexist, or racist because we have pride written in bright, rainbow colors on our website! – Corporate America
We in the black community has been complaining about this hijacking of Black History Month for similar reasons. Many companies purchase large advertisements in major black publications like Essence, Ebony, or Black Enterprise for the February editions to “celebrate” the achievements and advancements made by African-Americans. And, yet, most of these companies, especially the tech companies, have very few, if any, black employees. And if they do have a black employee, it’s usually their token black “chief of diversity” or someone else who doesn’t have a decision-making, leadership role within the organization. The company trots out this type of person only to sell the idea of workforce diversity, not the actual work behind making real workforce diversity happen. I have written previously about why these chiefs of diversity/inclusion/community relation/etc. positions are a joke.
I hope the LGBT community goes back to all of these companies on July 1 when the rainbow flag and pride logos and merchandise go away and hold them accountable. First, they should ask these companies what are they really doing about LGBT equality. While our society has made strides with making marriage equality a reality, LGBT people can still be fired from a job or denied housing because there are still no federal laws protecting them. Gay and bisexual men still can’t be blood donors. Second, what are these companies doing to safeguard intersectional LGBT folks? How are they protecting LGBT people who may also be immigrants or Muslims? What are they doing to protect LGBT people of color who might have a negative interaction with the police or criminal justice system? What about LGBT veterans or LGBT people with disabilities? If these companies are not doing anything about these issues, then they are not authentic, accountable allies.
Waving a rainbow flag is just not enough anymore!
What’s really sad about this is that most of these companies don’t even know what the Stonewall Uprising was, which is commemorating its 50th anniversary this year. The Stonewall demonstrators in 1969 just wanted the right to exist. I think that is a simple request.
Based on all the information as of today, Jussie Smollett is trash.
I have been closely following the curious case of the Empire actor. Smollett, who is black and openly gay, claims that he was attacked in what is being called a hate crime. According to him, while he was out getting food at a local Subway in Chicago during the polar vortex at 2 AM a couple of weeks ago, two men assaulted him with a noose and bleach and screamed: “This is MAGA country.”
At first, like most people, I was angered by his alleged attack, but when I started thinking more about the incident, it began to make no sense to me. Then I started seeing YouTube videos here and here by gay, black men who openly questioned his narrative. Then I heard Smollett was going to be interviewed by Robin Roberts, and I thought I would finally get the story straight from the victim. I really wanted to give the guy the benefit of the doubt. But after viewing the interview, I was more confused than before. There were no suspects, no witnesses, no video surveillance, and no credible evidence. Smollett’s version of the story that he wants us to believe defies basic logic and common sense. Then the whole story started to fall apart over the weekend with the arrest of the two Nigerian brothers.
I really don’t want to believe someone would make up such a story. Making up hate crimes in these times not only emboldens Trump supporters, but it also undermines real hate victims. The next time a person of color or a gay person who is not as rich and famous as Smollett is really assaulted, they might not be taken seriously.
If Smollett did lie about this incident, it shows that he is a psychopath who really doesn’t care about black and LGBT people, and who doesn’t mind putting them in harm’s way when it is convenient for him. With this said, just because Smollett doesn’t care about real hate crime victims, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t.
According to a new Human Rights Campaign report, 2019 Black and African-American LGBTQ Youth Report, 30 percent of black LGBTQ youth have been physically threatened because of their LGBTQ identity, including 41 percent of black transgender and gender non-conforming kids. 2018 was one of the deadliest years for transgender people, especially trans women of color.
I remember a couple of years ago I was watching a TV program about cold cases. There was one segment about this black woman in Louisiana (or Mississippi… I don’t remember) who was found dead in a shallow ditch outside a small town after someone complained about a foul smell. The police figured the woman had been in the ditch for at least two weeks based on the state of her decomposed body. They did an autopsy and found out quickly that she was biologically born a male, based on the typical scares of someone who has had gender reassignment. They couldn’t identify the body and the woman didn’t match any recent missing persons’ notice. The autopsy also revealed that the woman was killed by multiple gunshots and was possibly raped. There was no DNA of her potential killer found on her body or in the vicinity of the ditch. There was nothing on or near the body to positively identify the woman. After some time, the woman was buried in an unmarked grave, and her case has sat cold for the last ten years. How sad is it that this woman was possibly so ostracized and invisible in her community that her body wasn’t identified and no one claimed or acknowledged her in both life or death.
I say all this to point out the realities of what hate crimes look like in America today. For Smollett to take advantage of the real fears oppressed groups in this country have to deal with is outrageous! If anything good comes out of this, maybe we could all take real hate crimes more seriously.
I feel embarrassed to say that I have learned more about Asian-American history in the last two months than I ever did during the sixteen years of schooling I attended (kindergarten through college). That says a lot about what is wrong with American education and systemic racism.
