African American Culture Appropriation(hypocrisy?)

[columbus]

When people say they feel disrespected or offended your first inclination should not be to ask them to justify their emotions.

So when a black person offends me, because they are offended by a fact, who's offence Trump's who's?
When a black person feels ownership of equal rights, and doesn't think that I should have them, is their being offended by my use of the term on behalf of gay folks my fault?
Tom

 

[Thermos aquaticus]

So when a black person offends me, because they are offended by a fact,

That goes back to your neighbor offending you because he complains about your dog pooping in his yard.

 

[columbus]

Your first reaction should be to be a good person and see if changing your behavior in trivial ways will alleviate those negative feelings in other people.

In a world where"microaggession" is a thing, I don't see how that's possible.
People who want to be offended will always find a way.
Tom

 

[columbus]

That goes back to your neighbor offending you because he complains about your dog pooping in his yard.

No it doesn't.
Not in any rational way. Pooping in my yard causes a problem. Using ASL doesn't.
Tom

 

[Thermos aquaticus]

In a world where"microaggession" is a thing, I don't see how that's possible.
People who want to be offended will always find a way.
Tom

As this thread has shown, there are people on all sides that will go out of their way to find offense at the smallest things.

 

[Thermos aquaticus]

No it doesn't.
Not in any rational way. Pooping in my yard causes a problem. Using ASL doesn't.
Tom

Again, you are deciding for other people what a problem is.

 

[columbus]

As this thread has shown, there are people on all sides that will go out of their way to find offense at the smallest things.

But not everyone.
When I found out that black people had appropriated the rainbow, my response was to join the NAACP.
Tom

 

[Epic Beard Man]

Let me tell you a true story about appropriation, black people, and respect.

Strap in folks we are in for a treat for a REAL story about a black guy talking about cultural appropriation as it relates to black people. Wow, how many times have I had a white guy try and narrate a story to me about the TRUE story about someone he or she knows that is black!

Back in the late 90s, my lesbian friend Danielle and I started a Gay/Straight Alliance here in a small midwestern city. The goal was a group that could provide a comfortable place for well meaning people to learn about gay folks. Learn more about us than the media coverage of AIDS, dysfunctional culture, and child molestation.

Good for you!

One of our strongest straight allies was PJ, rest his soul. He was black, and mostly did race stuff, but his passion for justice went way beyond that. Women's issues, gay issues, immigration, he was on it. He was smart, informed, and busy.

At a preliminary meeting, someone suggested asking the NAAACP for support. They had a track record of fighting for equal rights, and strong connections to local organizations like churches and community center.

PJ flat out said, don't bother. Many of your worst enemies are in the black community. They're already angry that you sodomites appropriated Jesse Jackson's "Rainbow' coalition symbol.

Oh yeah keep on this is good! So he refers to gays as Sodomites, something a term that is specifically attached to fundamentalist Christianity, something, the NAACP's core message, isn't what its all about!

"This issue is dear to my heart and to that of the NAACP. The African American community and the gay and lesbian community are not and have never been separate communities. Gay and lesbian African Americans are members of our families, our communities and our churches. Affirmation of same sex marriage is simply an affirmation of the full range of African American families.


Throughout our history, the NAACP has opposed the customs, traditions, practices, and laws that denied rights to a select group of Americans. That’s why we fought Jim Crow. That’s why we took on the case of Loving v. Virginia, eventually knocking down miscegenation laws that prevented people from marrying who they loved in the 1960s. That’s why we are in this fight today.


The NAACP will always stand up against discrimination, segregation, and unequal treatment. I am proud that society has changed so dramatically on the issue of same sex marriage, and this week the Supreme Court has the opportunity to acknowledge the beautiful social changes that are leading our nation ever to greater equality, stronger liberty and, I pray, Justice, for all.”

NAACP | NAACP Speaks Out for Marriage Equality

But I asked a few other black people, in case he was hyperbolizing. He wasn't.

Without knowing exactly what state in the Midwest its hard to even take this seriously. Again you could be making this up. That is not to say there aren't prejudiced African-Americans, but given the decades of discrimination and the lack of white allies, hard to ally yourself with some random white person with regards to sexual orientation when not many whites were actively assisting blacks with riding the system of Jim Crow and even after getting rid of it, there are residual feelings of wariness in the black community.

I occurred to me that I hadn't done anything positive for black people either.

You're not doing anything different now...

I grew up in a really white world. I had to work to overcome my own racist inclinations. So I went to a NAACP meeting. I was more than a little bit of an anomaly, being a really out white gay atheist with a gut level inclination to racism. But I listened and learned and offered to help with stuff. A couple of years later, they elected me to the board of directors.

So when someone like @Epic Beard Man tells me that I cannot understand something simply because I am white, I call BS. And when someone tells me that feeling offended matters more than the facts, I call BS on that too. I will call BS on anything I think is BS. I am always open to counter arguments. But just telling me that I am wrong based on my melanin level, gender, orientation, or whatever is a counterproductive form of bigotry.

One that I am very familiar with, despise, and will call out, even if you are a deaf black lesbian.
Tom

And I'm calling BS to your entire concocted story but it was nice to read though. I give two s***s about your supposed black friend either as I've heard in all my life the "well I have black friends too." Going to a meeting because you decided to supposedly make an attempt to understand. I know what I experienced as a black man and I know what others adopt without giving credit when credit is due. The fact remains is you can deny your sexual orientation I cannot deny being black. Sometimes I'm sick of homosexuals thinking that your fight is the same as mine. It is similar when we discuss discrimination itself, but we have had a system that many white gays have benefited from for centuries and that is systemic racism.

Nice "Tom"

 

[Epic Beard Man]

Again, you are deciding for other people what a problem is.

Exactly!

 

[columbus]

And I'm calling BS to your entire concocted story

You don't need me.

Call me a liar if it makes you feel better.
But you could go back and look at the exit polls when California voted on Prop 8.
Black voters voted over 2-1 to put civil inequality back into the California Constitution.

You are Welcome.
Tom

 

[Epic Beard Man]

You don't need me.

Call me a liar if it makes you feel better.
But you could go back and look at the exit polls when California voted on Prop 8.
Black voters voted over 2-1 to put civil inequality back into the California Constitution.

You are Welcome.
Tom

I personally do not care if it was true. I don't care if your friend was black. The fact remains is you haven't lived my shoes. You don't know what it's like to be stereotyped and typecast by society based on your skin pigmentation. Considering statistically whites being the biggest benefactors of governmental programs, welfare programs affirmative action are still associated with my demographic and so any success I achieve many white Americans believe that it is not meritocracy that I succeed but because I received help.

There is no stigma behind that being gay......

You'll never understand what its like to have a cross burned on your lawn, or have experienced going to a separate water designation based on your ethnic demographic. I often wonder how many gay white males there were during these times who fell silent to the ills of racism and who utilized "whites only" designations but never spoke on the "coloreds only" designations. I often wonder how many years pre and post my grandfather's era including my era how many gays were silent during those times.

Oppression has many faces but I will never concede that our fight is the same...

"I can't go in a closet and hang up my race when it's convenient," said Vernetta Adams, a 24-year-old history major at the University of the District of Columbia. Ms. Adams is black and heterosexual. "Gays hid in the closet when they wanted to advance. Now they're out and demanding rights and yelling 'discrimination.' "

Blacks Rejecting Gay Rights As a Battle Equal to Theirs

 

[columbus]

I personally do not care if it was true.

One of the advantages of being black in modern America is being able to offend people with impunity, and dismiss their feelings and concerns and fact based opinions with a hand wave.
There certainly is such a thing as black privilege. You wallow in it.
Tom