FEBRUARY | 2020 | FRONT PAGE

CULTURE CLUB

There is, or at least should be, a certain pride that comes when acknowledging our culture and the impact it has on the world. This pride is double for us as we reap the sometimes overlooked benefit of belonging to both black and gay culture. Some might classify our gay as a subculture, and while it may have started off that way, its certainly made its way into mainstream society. Culture is defined as a set of symbols, language, norms, and rituals.

We, as card carrying members of both get to experience the privilege of both cultures. What makes our culture so bad-ass part about our culture is that it evolves just as quickly as its appropriated. None of us asked to be here, and we had even less choice in deciding the culture that we were born into , however, as same gender loving gentlemen of color, there’s much to be proud of when it comes to our combined cultures, and we’re unapologetically holding space for this pride this month’s Front Page!

Let’s kick things off by talking about our individuality. Culture is but a mere collection of shared attitudes, behaviors, beliefs and experiences, but it means nothing if we don’t create a space for ourselves within it. Our individuality will always be key, but our culture is the lock into which our individuality fits. It’s the freedom we have do what we please, and to please to do what we do, it makes us unique.

Our individuality, the essence of our character, is what distinguishes us from one another. Although we all belong to ”the culture” as a whole, our individuality is what allows us to contribute to the culture. It's us being us within a collective of individuals who are also being themselves, and one of the many things that makes us different from ants, bees, and other hive like creatures. We should always work to demonstrate just as much pride in ourselves as we do in our combined cultures. 

t's no secret that black culture is the shit. While it can sometimes contradict itself, it is as multifaceted as it is fluid. It’s one of the few things people who exist outside of the culture want until it's time to involve the law. Marketers use it to fine tune messages to their audiences, studio executives build entire productions around it, and the fashion industry does its best to relate it to their respective brands. Black culture is so lit that those existing outside of it often find themselves solely focusing on these parts while turning a blind eye to the experiences that fuel them. They love the way we come together, our humor, and our art.

As much as any of us can appreciate the way they covet our natural rhythm, many of them have demonstrated a chasm of ignorance when it comes to understanding our blues. The pride to be found in all of this is that everything they love about our blackness comes from their hatred of it. Don’t get us wrong, because the culture was created for greatness, but they’d do well to recognize that these particular aspects of the culture were born from their hatred of it. We came, and continue to come together as a result of being all that we’ve got, and the humor they love so much comes as an aftertaste to all the bullshit they’ve served us. 

Gay culture has been on the rise for quite some time. It may appear bland in taste when paired with things not of color, but it's never without spice. The culture has been often viewed as social, and carnal in nature, but there’s more to it than that. There’s always more. Yes, some of the culture loves to club, a good read, and always dresses to impress the scene, but these aspects are superficial in depth and don’t fully capture its core. The culture of gayness is about more than a good time.

It, much like the culture of blackness, was sired by rejection, mothered by oppression, and born of the will to overcome both. Sure, the people love us now, but they didn’t love us when they decided that we were a disorder, prevented us from getting married, and painted portraits of us as promiscuous child molesters without bounds. However the culture found a way to exist beyond the closet.

It found its both its direction and its truth amidst homophobia, and sometime between then and now it found ways to nurture itself to the extent that it was able to create its own nature, its own culture. Gay culture as a whole, has the same tenets of black culture. It's about inclusion, acceptance and fairness. No matter how gay many of us are, we still hold firm to the same religions, family values, and traditions that other cultures do. The only difference is that our gayness was the reason we had to fight to be able to do so. 

Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall, but this isn’t always the case. Cultural pride is important because it is the epicenter of our values and identities. There’s nothing wrong with holding space for the pride that comes with being both black and gay, as the mettle of both has been tested and remains undefeated.

The pride preceded fall only occurs when we allow ourselves to be caught in the gravity of ethnocentrism, in evaluating the value or worth of other cultures. Our blackness doesn’t make us any better than those who lack it. We are not better than or superior to them. We might have a little more rhythm than they do, but it doesn’t make us better than. Similarly, our sexuality doesn’t place us over or above anyone whose sexuality is different than ours. Okay, so we’re probably having better sex than they are, but that doesn’t make us any better than they are, especially since the only difference between us and them is the way we love.   

The hold that these combined cultures have on us is apparent. The thing about culture is that it will always influence our individual behaviors, but not to the extent that we should freely lose ourselves within it. Culture exists as one of the things that serve to nurture us throughout life, but we are always in control of our individual nature. We grew into our blackness, learned with it as much as we learn from it, and have found a way of life within its borders.

Much of the same can be said about our gayness, as it too is a “thing” that we’ve come to accept, to appreciate, and to embrace. We should not only work to stay in touch with our black and gay culture, but share it as well. This doesn’t mean that we should sit idly by as others appropriate then, but that we should do our best to educate them on the experiences their aspects were born from.

Being black is about more than Madea, Popeye’s Chicken, and BET, and being gay is about more than circuit parties, anal sex, and the Real Housewives of wherever. Many will never know these things to be true, which is why cultural pride is essential. We demonstrate this pride by holding the culture in the highest of regard, by doing the things that must be done to preserve it, and by defending it whenever necessary. Outsiders will always want to know what the noise of all this is about, and its okay to clue them in. The pride we demonstrate in our culture is not to be used as a way to make those outside of it feel inferior, but to hold space for the involvement, growth, and personal development of their future members. Each and every culture is a club that is as exclusive to itself as it is to its members.