Sykes, race, sexuality, and oppression Olympics

William769

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Mon Jun-06-11 08:30 AM
Original message

Sykes, race, sexuality, and oppression Olympics

Wanda Sykes was interviewed on the CNN show “Piers Morgan Tonight.” She argued that right now it’s harder to be gay than black in America. “I don’t know of organizations and groups like Focus on the Family and such anti-gay organizations who are putting so much money, millions and millions of dollars, into stopping me from being black or telling me that I can’t exercise my blackness. There’s no equality for LGBT people.” Never sure where the sliding scale of oppression gets us, but what do you think? Is she right?

http://www.365gay.com/blog/060611-monday-watercooler/

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MikeMc

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Mon Jun-06-11 09:03 AM
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1. Scumbag racists have to sneak around mostly, except for a few high-profile

White supremacist rallies. But Dobson's people proselytize right out in the open, from their 'moral higher ground'.

If you're black and run into klan or skinheads, you're in trouble. If you're gay, and run into an anti-gay 'moral' gang, you're also in trouble.

Five to three, and pick 'em.

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Behind the Aegis

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Mon Jun-06-11 11:57 AM
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2. Wanda rules!

There is truth in what she says.

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TheWraith

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Mon Jun-06-11 12:12 PM
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3. She has some good points, but I would say in large part it's apples and oranges.

The types of challenges for the two groups are far different. If you're gay, there's discrimination, legal roadblocks, and individual attitudes. If you're black, particularly if you're young and black, there's vastly higher unemployment (almost always at least double the rate for whites), violence (a young black person is 10 times more likely to be murdered than the national average), and cultural pressures.

I have no doubt for Wanda that it's been harder far being gay than being black--she has a solidly middle class upbringing which kept her out of the worst of the hardships that still affect large segments of black Americans.

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Vanje

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Mon Jun-06-11 02:10 PM
Response to Reply #3

6. Wanda Sykes is both an apple AND an orange.

She probably didnt have to worry about being rejected by her family, friends, and church when they discovered she was black.

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Maven

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Mon Jun-06-11 04:23 PM
Response to Reply #3

7. GLBTs don't face increased violence

versus the rest of the population?

Cultural pressures?

Employment discrimination?

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Staph

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Mon Jun-06-11 12:19 PM
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4. Wanda gets the triple-whammy!

I wonder what she thinks about being discriminated against as a woman. Which of the three is worst these days?

I suspect that discrimination against women is so institutionalized that it becomes invisible, no matter how pervasive it is.

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justiceischeap

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Mon Jun-06-11 12:31 PM
Response to Reply #4

5. Really she gets the quadruple whammy

Being black and gay is harder than just being gay. For some reason the AA community takes a harder line on homosexuality than the white community, or so my gay black friends have informed me.

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