Hippocracy

Okay, follow along now. pilgrimgirl posted a reference to a not-so-silent Quaker meeting, and I followed the link, read it, teared-up a bit at work, then did some push-ups to re-assert my manhood. Then I read the author's previous entry on supporting civil union right for same sex couples and her conversation with and Orthodox Jew about the people who were against it.

And it reminds me about my standard defuse-the-situation joke when faced with questions about my views on homosexuality. I think we black people should be on the forefront of supporting the rights of same-sex couples and hate-crime legislation. We just went through the exact same thing.

Okay, here's the dark joke part. Why don't you ever see black guys harassing gay men the way that white guys seem to? When you see a group of guys harassing a gay man, why don't you ever see one or two black guys sprinkled in the group? They'd be worried about who they'll turn on next.

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to actually work that way. Homophobia is just as alive in the black community as ever. We're not on the forefront of policing sweatshops or other slavery conditions. And we're not alone. Jews seem more concerned with anti-defamation than calling out world governments on ethnic cleansing and genocide. Is there an outcry from the Japanese-American community on racial profiling of American Arabs post 9-11? Maybe it's not fair to put the responsibility on these particular groups. But I think we should be reminding each other of these issues in the general sense, not as they applied directly to us or our ancestors.