Sunday Bitter Sunday #10

I’m currently fighting off a cold, but I’ve got irish coffees and Bitter Batman to help me.

He fights crime... and colds!

Tonight’s topic is massive enough to write several books about, but I’m going to focus on a recent example I came across.

Sunday Bitter Sunday #10: Blackface

I like Of Montreal. Sure, their song titles are pretentious as fuck (“Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games” anyone?) but the music is poppy, psychedelic fun.

I was listening to the album Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?“ again last week and got curious about the inspiration behind the music, so I did a little digging on Kevin Barnes, the brains behind the outfit.

Turns out Hissing Fauna… is all about Barnes dealing with depression and a near nervous breakdown by “transforming” into Georgie Fruit, a black transsexual:

Barnes as Georgie Fruit. Hate crime?

Now I’m sensitive to the pain that comes from depression. I’ve been there more times than I’d like to remember and I know what a terrible place it is to be. But goddammit I am sick of white people appropriating blackness to work out their shit. I know that songwriters sometimes adopt other personas to help with their creativity (with Garth Brooks as Chris Gaines being the epitome of failure at this strategy). But from what I’ve read, Barnes seems unwilling or unable to question what it means for him to adopt the Georgie Fruit persona. And this is a problem, particularly in the context of the ways in which race and gender play out in our society. In an interview here Barnes says that “If I’m Georgie Fruit, I can say whatever I want — I can be raunchy and rude and insensitive, but it’s not me.” Blackness is a chance to be loud and to be sexual. It plays into all the old tired stereotypes.

Earlier this year, I remember looking at the website for Transgender Day of Remembrance and being incredibly disheartened by the fact that a) the violence is at a level where we need a Trans Day of Remembrance and b) so many of the transfolks we’ve lost this year seem to be black and brown people.

So. A straight, white man takes on a black trans persona while actual black transpeople are beaten and murdered, just for being who they are.

This is not a fucking game.

Sunday Bitter Sunday #9

This was supposed to be posted last week, but me and Bitter B were too bitter to even finish writing it.

Sunday Bitter Sunday #9: The Advocate

Although I will give The Advocate props for being the oldest running gay magazine, that’s about all I’m willing to give it props for. Much like Human Rights Campaign and other assimilationist queer groups, it’s not for the whole queer community, but is geared towards white gay men and lesbians. For that reason, it’s been awhile since I’ve picked up a copy, and it’s generally been “out of sight, out of mind” for me. Until I saw the cover for the most recent issue:

Fail. Complete and utter fail.

For so many reasons.

First of all, the work of the Civil Rights movement is not finished. Racism is still a reality in the lives of black people in this country (and of people of color in general). The passage of the Civil Rights Act didn’t change that. To suggest that the struggle for racial equality is over (or is antiquated) is doing a huge disservice to people of color in this country. It is denying and bellitting our experiences, as well as completely ignoring the fact that some people are both gay and black (wow, what a concept).

Secondly, there are far too many other social movements and struggles happening now to suggest that gay rights (and notice how the terminology used is “gay rights”, not queer or LGBTQ or anything more inclusive) is “the last great civil rights struggle”. That whole language is just buying into “oppression olympics” bullshit. What about transfolks, intersex people, immigrants, fat people, and atheists/non-believers? What about all the complex intersections of identities that people have. What about all the other issues facing the queer community? Although I think queers should have the right to get married if we want to, I’m sick of the idea that that’s the most important issue facing the community. In some ways, I feel like the marriage movement is about white gays and lesbians wanting to gain access to the same privileges as their straight counterparts. I worry that once we achieve marriage equality, all the trannies, and the brown people, and the freaks, and the outlaws in the community will be left in the dust and forgotten.

When I look at that Advocate cover, I can’t help but think about all these problems. It’s like a visual representation of the failures of the mainstream gay and lesbian movement.

Sunday Bitter Sunday #3

Well, after a week off, me and Bitter Batman are back! Check out my new hair (Bitter B helped, because he’s Batman and he knows how to do everything). I didn’t cut it or anything, just wrapped each lock into a tightly coiled ball of bitterness.

This week’s topic: “Hard-working white americans”

I don’t have a problem with actual hard-working white americans (unless they’re racist homophobes. Then they can suck my 8-inch black strap-on). But I am completely fucking sick of this whole meme that’s pushed in the media and the entire Republican campaign that “Joe Sixpack” and “hockey moms” (and the various other bullshit euphemisms being used for white middle and working-class midwesterners) are somehow more American than anyone else. That they are somehow more authentic.

Fuck that shit.

Being a person of color and a queer person, I have a complicated relationship with this thing called America. It hasn’t worked out so great for people like me in the past. But whatever complexities are woven into that, I’m still from here. I was born here and I was raised here and I’m a citizen just like anyone else. I’m sick of the idea that anyone who’s not “Joe Sixpack”is considered out of touch with real America, is an outsider, an Other, a second-class citizen.

Me and Bitter B, we’re those west coast/east coast elitists you hear about. His family has that whole Kennedy-esque thing going on (east coast, old money, liked by many, struck down by terrible tragedy). And I’ve got that whole Bay Area black queer feminist thing going on.  But whatever. Aside from the fact that he’s a fictional character, we’re just as real as anyone else and it’s way past time people realized that.

Sunday Bitter Sunday #1

Sunday Bitter Sunday #1

This is me:

And this is my friend Bitter Batman:

He keeps me company at my computer desk and stares endlessly into space with perfect, undiluted bitterness. You cannot beat this guy in a staring contest. Every Sunday we’ll be bringing you a regular feature about the things that are making us bitter.

This week’s topic:

Hippie white people who put their feet up in public places

Please, just stop.

Last weekend I went to the movies with some friends in Berkeley. It was a small theater, kind of like the size you would imagine that movie stars have in their houses. We we’re sitting, waiting for the movie to start when a group of really obnoxious white undergrads walks in. They sat a few rows in front of us and were pretty loud and just not really seeming to be aware that there were other people in the theater. I was a little annoyed, but I was like, “well, they’re just college kids having a night out, I’m sure they’ll chill out in a minute.”

And then they proceeded to put their fucking feet up on the seats in front of them.

What if someone had wanted to sit there? What if the people who sat there next didn’t want your feet germs right where they’re going to rest their heads?

I have seen people do this in buses and trains and cars. I have heard stories of this happening on airplanes (but in those cases, the feet are being put up on the arm rest of the person in front of them!). I’m sure there are probably some people of color out there who share this habit, but in my experiences I have only seen it done by white people (typically in sandals).

For me, it really just hearkens back to privilege. Putting my feet up on a surface is something I would only do at home and even that depends on what surface it is. At home, I’m in my own domain and I can take up as much space as I want. When someone puts their feet up like that in public it’s saying that everywhere is their domain. They never question their right to take up space, which is something that people of color, women, queers, fat folks, etc… learn to worry about early on. There’s the danger of being too big, too loud, too much. Of your behavior in public reflecting badly on your group and supporting every nasty stereotype about you.

And don’t even get me started about guys who insist on spreading their legs really wide on crowded public transportation.

Seriously dude, your penis is not that big.