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like. are white queers even aware that Black queers who aren’t Marsha P. Johnson exist?
Do they know more Black queers have been born since then? Do they know that people are pretty chill with studs’ masculinity in Black spaces and it’s mostly a casual thing? Do they know that the whole “Black people are homophobic” stereotype is way more complicated and nuanced than they think, and way less accurate than they assume (and also their fault because widespread homophobia is some colonizer bullshit)?
Do they know intersectionality is an internal experience as well as an external one? Do they know femmes can have short hair and mascs can have long hair without it being gnc because that’s not how Black genders are perceived? Do they know what a gnc Black woman really looks like, or do they just assume all Black women are a little masculine? Do they know visibly queer Black people in the US have to worry about what will happen and how they’ll be perceived when they get pulled over? Do they know my Blackness is a huge part of both my gender and sexuality, and stud was the main term I used for both for a long time?
Do they know how many Black queers feel excluded from the queer community because white queers don’t care to learn? Do they know how many times we’ve tried to tell them about our cultures and identities just to be ignored? Do they know they’ve stolen almost all of their “gay slang” from Black people and call it ghetto when we do it but cool and trendy when they do it? Do they know we all used butch once, but then they decided Black people couldn’t anymore, then they tried to take stud from us too? Do they care that they have repeatedly tried to gentrify us out of our own language? Do they know not all studs are ok with being grouped in with butches, and some even resent it because butches are always the default and no one talks about studs?
Do they know anything about us?
(white people can rb but think before you speak)
hey white people really don’t need to say in the tags that they’re white. you guys can just learn from it and spread it without saying anything. I intentionally added that bit telling you you can rb so you don’t have to say you’re white or ask permission or whatever you’re trying to do with that. It’s wildly unnecessary at best and an attempt to look good/get “good Black ally” points at worst, and we (Black people) can’t easily tell which one it is through the Internet, so it’s offputting and annoying
also while i’m here, please don’t tag this as “q slur” or anything similar. The word isn’t being used as a slur here and the focus of the post is more racism/intersectionality than queerness itself. I want as many people as possible to see the racism message since it feels like it doesn’t get talked about very often
ok both of these things have happened since I made this addition so can people reblog this version instead
i originally put this in the tags but i feel like i’m better off putting it here.
what op described makes me so mad, and the worse part is that when we call these sorts of things out in many queer spaces, white people only care to play the victim. they don’t care if their activism throws us under the bus because in their eyes, vocal black queers are an inconvenience to the community. addressing racism in the community is treated as infighting so often that it’s sad.
the stud thing especially ticks me off because like..? the caucacity?? first of all, butch and femme were coined in ballroom culture, which was spearheaded by black queers. and what’s white peoples’ response to that? to tell black butches that they can’t be butches. and now you snow snobs want to use ‘stud’ to describe yourselves and then cry exclusionist when a black queer tells you off for it. fuck. no. the reasoning for stud (and fish but that’s not a super popular term, especially nowadays) being coined makes it inherently incompatible with white queer expression.
the reason it was coined in the first place is because YOU ALL were racist assholes who didn’t want black butches to exist. and now you want to steal stud from black queers as well? sincerely, go fuck yourself if you’re white and think you have ANY claim to stud. you CANNOT resonate with the stud experience because studness is inherently incompatible with whiteness, and you cannot separate yourself from your whiteness. there are a million terms that you can use, stud is not one of them.
and like? there are so many black queers who have and still fight for our rights all around the world. but white queers only care to remember one black queer activist to make it look like they actually care about what black queers have done and still do for them. there’s so many black queer activists in american history alone.
- stormé delarverie, the guardian of lesbians, who patrolled the streets with a gun to protect lesbians against anyone who threatened or harassed them.
- bayard rustin, an advisor to martin luther king jr who was denied a place in history for decades because he was openly gay.
- pauli murray, a transmasc nonbinary person who led many protests against racism, misogyny, and queermisia, and who also coined ‘jane crow,’ a term used to describe the unique oppression that black women faced.
- gladys bentley, one of the most vocal gnc queers in the early 1900s.
and it’s not just historical activism either! black queers are still fighting for queer rights today.
- alicia garza, the co-founder of black lives matter who has a strong focus on black women and black queer people.
- laverne cox, a black trans woman who focuses on spreading awareness of transgender issues.
- indya moore, who raised over 20k dollars in covid relief funds for black queers, and who does their best to educate others about transgender and nonbinary people.
- lori lightfoot, the first black lesbian and the second lesbian overall to be the mayor of a major city in the us. she served as chicago’s mayor from may 2019 to may 2023.
- miss major, an 82 year old black trans woman who has been a trans activist for over 40 years and is still making her mark today.
and they’re not just in america either!
- angela robertson, a canadian black queer who used to be an editor of the women’s educational press, where she did her best to give representation to black and queer women in both arts and politics. she has been a black and queer activist for most of her life.
- lady phyll, a black british lesbian who co-founded the uk black pride celebration and spearheads kaleidoscope trust, a human rights campaign that focuses on advocating for queer people in countries where being gay is illegal.
- pearl alcock, a jamaican-british bisexual activist who opened a shebeen for queer people (especially black gay men), hiding it beneath her dress shop.
- gareth henry, a jamaican queer activist who fled to canada due to homophobic violence and persecution in his home country, but continues to advocate for his jamaican queer siblings, working with the organization rainbow railroad to help give queer people who are facing similar homophobic violence a safe haven.
should i go on? do i need to spend all day listing black queer activists from both past and present for you all in order for you to not have to do any of these shit yourself? why should i have to spoonfeed you these things? why don’t you want to learn ANYTHING about black queers? you can’t claim you’re against white supremacy if you know nothing about the people that white supremacy is meant to hurt.
you all need to do a better job of actually listening to what we have to say and better yet- actually CARING about what we have to say. all of you white people reblogging this post with things like “i’m white and i agree with this-” sure you agree, but are you actually going to remember this post in a day? are you actually going to make an effort to uplift black queer people more than you have?
or are you just reblogging this to say “look at me! i’m a GOOD white person who thinks racism is bad!” only to forget all the contents of this post in two hours?
It’s worth noting that Stormé Delarverie was the person whose attack prompted the Stonewall riots! @genderkoolaid has some good resources on this if you want to learn more
And another modern-day Black queer activist is Yasmin Benoit in the UK. She’s asexual and talks about the intersections of her race and sexuality as well as asexuality on its own.
