Religion and Chicken: The Master’s New Whip

Nowadays, I’m sure almost all people are familiar with the outrage of Chick-fil-A's condemnation of gay marriage, or homosexuality in general. Familiarizing myself with this issue over a year ago, I admit that the current rise of outrage and media coverage is quite overrated. Still, then I saw the picture shown above. Such a photo speaks volumes about the African American community. Why are we always portrayed as the lap dogs of wealthy white patrons?  Now I’m sure that Chick-fil-A will never publicly endorse such a photo, but I’m also quite sure that a picture of white churchgoers raising their poisonous chicken contents to the sky won’t surface on the internet any time soon. My issue with the image touches on two key points: The stereotype of black and chicken, and also the Black community's tie to Christianity.

I will keep my rant about blacks and chicken to a minimum, as I’m sure everyone is familiar with the connection. My only question is why? Does music, recorded fist fights, and the high crime rates of our community not hurt us enough that we have to pose for pictures praising chicken? Okay, you might say that the picture isn’t about glorifying the chicken, it’s about supporting the chain, and though you may be right, the picture does paint an image that isn’t easily escaped.

Now onto my second issue; time has continued to prove that whatever issue the Christian-based church seems to have with a subject, most of the black community is sure to jump on the bandwagon. My issue with the black community backing the decision of Chick-fil-A is how, once again, the bible is being used as a weapon. Not too long ago, the bible was being used as a weapon against the African American community. Sure, it allowed us to get married, but it also enslaved and humiliated us. I may not be the most religious person in the world, but I thought the purpose of Christianity was to spread love, not to oppress.

I’m not going to tell anyone what to spend their own money on, but I will point out that it is foolish to support any person/event/venue that isn’t supportive of you. Chick-fil-A’s true intentions will come to light soon, and when it does I hope a lot of people reevaluate their faith and their beliefs. The picture prompts an interesting question: “Have the oppressed become the oppressor,” or are we slowly sliding backward? 

MLK Weekend: A time for Partying

I saw the above flyer in one of the groups I am a part of on Facebook and immediately caused uproar among the members. I understood where a few of them were coming from but me being me I had to get more feedback. Post the flyer in the various other groups I am a part of there seemed to have been a general consensus that the flyer is disrespectful to King’s legacy.

As always I’m the understanding one when it comes to the subject, and I don’t necessarily consider the flyer to be purposely disrespectful but more so done in bad taste. To give you the background on the flyer it was made by a club promoter advertising for MLK weekend. As some of you may know, in the LGBT community MLK weekend is a big party weekend especially in Atlanta. A lot of people find fault with this, but I can assure that the weekend is just as overly hyped among heterosexual party goers. I understand that the creator of the flyer is just doing his job, but it was truly disrespectful to add Dr. King’s image, especially such a monumental picture, next to an image of strippers.

 But I digress, why is it that when it comes to the black gay community whenever it is time to celebrate an occasion the celebration revolves around sex and partying? What does this say about our community when we flock to the clubs and show our appreciation for the legacy of a man who fought for the rights of all by promoting strippers and drink specials; It seems to me that some of us are forgetting the reason behind the holiday and what had to be sacrificed to achieve it.

Gay Is The New Black

In my personal opinion, I feel that the African American community is the biggest critic when it comes to homosexuality, especially among men. The idea of the African American male is this Alpha male, head of the household, breadwinner, ultra masculine, never see him cry type figure or in short the complete opposite of what some people believe homosexual males are. I think this hype, of course, stems from the effects of slavery. It’s an ongoing backlash from African-American males having their dignity stripped and pride broken for years with hope nowhere in sight.

Because of this, the African-American community put emphasis on the new found freedom of  men, expecting us to be the strong superior males that slavery denied us to be, which consequently creates a view that any man willing to have sex with another  man is for lack of better words weak.

I myself find a major flaw with this. As a group, African-Americans should be some of the biggest advocates for the LGBTQ community as not very long being black was the equivalent of being gay today.

Too often the same arguments posed against homosexuals are those that whites used to keep African American’s enslaved for years, even using religion to support their belief that they were our superiors and we were an inadequate species made to serve them. Aside from this, slavery left an everlasting impression on the African American community which leads me to ask the question ‘after years of oppression and injustice why would we subject another group of individuals to the same treatment?’ ‘After years of being persecuted for something as simple as our skin pigmentation, an aspect of ourselves that we didn’t choose, why would we persecute a group for being born a certain way?’ ‘After being lynched, burned, beaten, dragged, and whipped why would we turn around and indulge in the same activities towards others.’

If being gay means being hated and persecuted for the way one is born then it is safe to say that being gay is ironically the new black. Everything about Gay Rights parallels the fight African American’s faced for Civil Rights which is more reason I believe the African American Community should be more sympathetic to the LGBTQ community and their plight. Only time will tell if African American’s will face the reality of the struggle or continue to hinder the struggle.