Abagond, You Will Never Learn

From the post of the same name on Womanist Musings, July 13th 2008, before it compleyely disappears from the Internet:

Abagond: ..Homosexuality is a sin. St Paul says so in the book of Romans. With all due respect, I think he knows about this better than either of us. Going by whatever American society says is right is a terrible moral guide. I have not taken any survey, but I think most black people know that.”

Right, because the bible is the most neutral source to turn to. Can you point to a book with more acts of violence, and misogyny, I doubt it?  It interests me how you can point to the bible as the source of your hatred and yet conveniently ignore things like judge not lest ye be judged, and do unto others as you would have done unto you, or how about  let he who is without sin cast the first stone?

I don’t believe that I need to provide more than his own words to prove his homophobia.  The point I think that it is important to fixate on, is how isms interlock in his mind.  This is not a phenomena that is unique to him. Someone like him is only capable of seeing oppression in the way that it effects him, and this is only possible because despite his position as a marginalized body he exists with forms of privilege in this world. By not being able to stand up for another group that is equally marginalized, what he is in fact doing is reaffirming the same power that constructs him as less than, the very same dynamics are at play.  Oppression, is oppression, is oppression, you are either for it, or against it. There is no such thing as a good or acceptable form of oppression, and to perpetuate it through thought, deed, or action while decrying it when it happens  to you, is to use the master tools, as Audre Lorde would say.

All of the “isms” are interconnected and  in fact they form the cycles of power in our society thus creating the demarcation of difference.  It does not weaken your position to admit that others share a similar plight with injustice. Seeing the pain that is inflicted in marginalization should give rise to allies,and new partnerships, not to further ‘othering’.  If he could understand that homophobia is just as much a civil rights issue as racism, sexism, abelism, or classism, etc what he could potentially do is increase the number of people with which he had access to, to build a foundation for a cohesive attack on privilege. When you say I don’t like those “type of people”, or that “those people” are less than, not only do you limit them but you limit yourself. I know that even if Abagond should decide to read this post, it will probably fall on deaf ears, but for those of you reading who are active in the struggle for justice, remember that if you cannot empathize with others, you should not expect the same courtesy in return.

See also:

• responses:
  • Am I homophobic? – written by me 6 days later
  • Am I still homophobic? – written by me 10 years later
  • Am I homophobic, part III – yet to be written
• Do Brown lives matter? – wherein I use an argument similar to Womanist Musings
• Audre Lorde
  • Audre Lorde: Eye to Eye
• Womanist Musings also quoted in:
  • We darkies were just born bad
  • Can Michelle Obama be her true black self?
  • Toure on sexually heroic slave women
  • the feelings of white people
• some blogs of old
• link rot