In many countries, some white gays appear to exhibit the same behaviours towards black gays. The same bias you have highlighted in your article exists in the U.K. Black gays are dehumanised and seen purely in terms of offensive sexual clichés and stereotypes. Some will smile at you because they’re in an environment where they have too. However, when you meet them in another arena, they will completely blank you out. I ask myself, what is it they are afraid of? Does being seen talking or greeting a Blackman in public invite the disdain of others? (They have had shame visited upon them because of their sexuality. Therefore, they do not want to invite the additional stigma from being seen to be fraternising with another socially destained group). My heart sinks every time this happens. One can speculate that inherent in this behaviour is the belief that whites are superior, blacks are ugly and sexually aggressive, predators, dirty etc. Equality appears to equate to equality of being allowed to adopt the same prejudices as those who initially discriminated against you.
I have visited some of the gay ‘dating’ website (adam4adam) that are supposedly for those interested in dating other blacks and interracial dating, and boy if you wish to see a visual ‘representation’ of racism and the dehumanisation of blacks and other minorities look no further. The graphical representation of black gays is limited to a narrow field of representation.
Some black gays adopt and promote these stereotypes. It is their right to do so, and one can argue that it works for some. What I am arguing against are black gays being seen solely through these restricted stereotypes of representation. Some have informed me that these representations and role-plays are just sexual games and rituals, calling someone nigger, asking if you are BBC etc. are only part of sexual role play.
One may ask why does one visit these sites? The difficulty is that you have very few options. In the U.K., blacks of Afro-Caribbean descent and those from African countries tend to be predominantly hostile towards black gays.
Some, one can argue view being gay and black as a betrayal of what it means to be a black man. You may ask betrayal against what? And, isn’t this self-defeating? For some, the betrayal stems from the idea of black men representing the pinnacle of masculinity, virility: the machismo culture. Yes, here is the irony, the very stereotype that some rally against is used to stigmatise another group (black gays).
Ironically, many in the Afro-Caribbean and African community view homosexuality as being a white man’s disease. There is an interesting paper on this subject written by Couzens, Mahoney, Wilkinson, 2017, https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00947/full. Of particular interest or for reference purposes is the bibliography.
Discrimination by the black communities and the dormant white group leaves black gays with little support. You have no choice if you wish to explore your sexuality. The only option is to navigate your way through the lion’s dens, of racial and sexual prejudice.
