Where did I say I did not...?
Yes...and as I read these respose to that afticle I saw that same disappointment reflected in their aegument. Which looks to me a bit like jackals ripping up a carcass.
Hilton Als on Langston Hughes
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Where did I say I did not...?
Yes...and as I read these respose to that afticle I saw that same disappointment reflected in their aegument. Which looks to me a bit like jackals ripping up a carcass.
You didn't say you did not. I was making a statement to the whole thread, and whomever else is reading here, not only to you, nor was I implying anything.
I believe it would help if you didn't infer quite so much from the posts of others. Asking direct questions is much better than assuming you've read correctly. Which you did, and I expect that if we are patient, anyone who DOES feel critical of or disappointed in Hughes for not coming out, presuming he was in fact gay, that person will speak up and make his or her case.
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Personally, no. Coming out is a highly personal and private decision and nobody should be berated or outed to serve someone else's political and social agenda.
That said, if you are closeted publicly and active privately and in your public life you are actively and consciously working against the interests of gay people (see numerous politicians and clergy), then you're a hypocrite and probably deserve to be dragged out of your closet kicking and screaming all the way.
There are rumors that Queen Latifah, John Travolta, Tom Cruise and Oprah Winfrey are all on the down low creep. Maybe they are and maybe they aren't. Maybe it's none of my business.
My enjoyment and appreciation of Langston Hughes is neither enhanced nor diminished regarding his sexual orientation.
I am more inclined to take that attatude today than at any time before 1989 or so. Today it's far less about life and brutal death than it was before then. Maybe Hughes--if he was gay--believed he had already given enough reasons to make him a target to be getting on with.
Agreed. It has no bearing what so ever.
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No, not in the least. Or I know for sure that I'm not. He lived at time when being gay could get a white person killed, and being a POC got many non-white people killed. He wasn't only facing potential rascim and homophobia from outside the Black community, but additional homophobia from within it.
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Sadly, that hasn't changed much within the Black community.
I recall when Michael Sam was drafted last year by the St. Louis Rams and the camera crews caught him planting a big kiss on his White boyfriend. Sam caught ten different kinds of hell on Black Twitter and Facebook. The brothers were mad he was gay and the sisters were mad he kissed a White guy.
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Yeah, that was something I noticed too. Our community is slowly progressing and getting more accepting, but that change is very slow. By that contrast, the gay community is still very racists in its views a lot of the time. Both are working towards being better, but are clearly not there yet. I can't count how many times I've experienced even extremely mild and unthinking homophobia from the Black community, but gotten shot down by other LGBT Black people when I mention it. And I've had the same thing when I mention racism within the LGBT community to Queer people who are White.
Which reminds me, I never saw the big deal with Sam's lover being white. I'm mixed race myself, and I take pride in being mixed and being Black.
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