In the Mind of Marcus! #2Strikes
Article By: Marcus Stewart (FrontPaigeMeStaff) Ok, now one can imagine what it is like being Black in America right now, as of August 2017…. right. Now just think, what if you were also black and gay at the same time. Just let that sink in for a second. Now this is not an introduction to the “Black Gay Pity Party”, but I just want you to take a moment and really think about that and try to put yourself in your neighbors’ shoes. Being black in a predominantly white world is already 1 strike against you and you may have it a little rough at times. Now to add the second strike, being black and gay. My family once told me while I was in the process of “coming out” and going through all the motions that, “black people (men especially) are born with one strike against them, period but you are gay too, so that’s two strikes against you, so you might have it a little rougher”. Now, hear me out, let me elaborate on this subject. Black people in general may already have negative perceptions about them from other races and ethnicities and this can lead to many African Americans feeling like they are being stigmatized and treated unfairly as opposed to their Caucasian counterparts. Example, the way some police officers handle some situations involving black people. In times such as that many victims were able to fall back on and lean on the black community for support hence the emerging of the BlackLivesMatter movement. Black people were able to come together as one and fight against injustices. But why are black people not able to come together as one on a daily and stop petty disagreements, fighting, black-on-black crime? This is not discrediting BlackLivesMatter whatsoever but it should not have to take a tragedy to bring the community together. This brings me to my next point, equality. In a world where everyone is created equal, why are people not treated equally especially coming from the same community? Being a black gay man you not only get hate from other races and ethnicities, you get hate from both sides including other African American who don’t look at you as their brother simply because of your preference. Being a black gay man you experience hate from straight men, heterosexual black women, and worst of all family sometimes. The black community has a way of shunning black gay men in sense and makes it seem as if being gay is wrong and this goes back to the way many black men are raised. This does not apply to everyone as everyone has their own feelings about gay people, but what I want from you is to see things through a different lens and realize we are all struggling, whether you are black, white, gay, straight, orange or purple everyone deserves to be loved. People need to come together and unite now more than ever especially with president “45” in office right now trying to separate us all over again. People need to stand up for everyone and put petty differences such as black vs. white and gay vs. straight, to the side so we can all succeed. We can go far with love and nowhere fast with hate… Thank you for reading,
