Stereotypes In The Black Community

As a child, being black was never an anomaly for me. I was educated on the issues of white privilege and how black people are often targeted in a world riddled with injustice; my family on my mother’s side hailed from the deep south, so my grandparent’s lives were obviously filled with the turmoil of the racist south. While equality was always something on my mind, even as a child, being born (and raised for a semi-short while) in New York opened my eyes to the many cultures, religious, personalities, genders, and sexualities of the world. Despite this, the general heteronormative nature of the black community (and the bigotry that can spawn from it) worried me especially in a time where I was still learning about myself. Growing up, I’ve
Some black men grow up being taught to not show their emotions properly for the fear of being seen as a “sissy”. This sexist notion then leads to black men to grow up afraid of being ourselves and not being able to be comfortable with our sexuality, causing intense internalized homophobia, as well as depression. Black families are totally known to enforce this; I’ve had friends who have been ostracized and abandoned by their families after coming out or would be too afraid to come out for fear of abandonment. This was due of course to the homophobia within the black community and the ignorance that leads to it. Many amazing and legendary men in the black community, like Bayard Rustin and James Baldwin, queer men of color who were beneficial to the Civil Rights Movement, are generally ignored by some in the black community, or their sexualities are generally disregarded. Learning about them in school would have further encouraged me to be comfortable with my own sexuality. It took the double-edged sword (more commonly known as the internet) to open my eyes to men like Rustin and Baldwin. Why is it so easy for the black community to not