Malcolm X, during the struggle for African American civil rights, made a great distinction between two types of Black people: the House Negro and the Field Negro. The following brief video details what he meant by making this crucial distinction:
In his June 20th post, Mike Signorile wrote:
This is pretty outrageous. In the midst of all the anger from LGBT people over the DOMA brief and the inadequate response -- so far -- by the Obama administration, gay lobbyists, executive directors and assorted others who comprise what is identified as the gay leadership apparently have been invited to a party at the White House thrown just for them.
It's another photo-op in which everyone -- the president and the gays -- can look happy and like they're having fun, but more so, it's a way for the White House to wank off the gay leaders a bit while still not delivering. None of them should fall for it -- and that means they should not attend this event -- most all the Human Rights Campaign. We don't want cocktails for high-paid gay and lesbians lobbyists and executive directors looking to schmooze and feel important. We want action on our rights, and at this point it means DOMA and DADT.
[For the full article, see here.]
It will be the House Negroes of the "gay leadership" who will attend that party; it will be the Field Negroes of the "gay leadership" who have the strength of character to pass up the pseudo-conviviality, the cocktails, the finger food, and the photo-ops until Obama immediately rescinds DADT, and actively works with Congress to repeal DOMA.
John Aravosis of AmericaBlog puts it best, just as he saw the relevance of using Malcolm's distinction between the House Negro and the Field Negro in the context of the struggle for LGBT civil rights:
...the rumor we heard last week is apparently true. We found out today that the White House has decided to throw a big gay party at the end of the month. It's clear that the purpose is two-fold. First, the White House is trying, again, to surround the president with A-list gays in order to show how "gay friendly" he is - he's even willing to give a speech in a room full of them for a full 8 minutes! And second, the White House hopes that a little champagne and fancy food will convince the A-listers to throw the rest of you overboard. Because, after all, what's two gay service members discharged a day and an ongoing effort to legally label you as akin to pedophila and incest, when there's champagne to be served.
[For the full post, see here.]
Tellingly, in his June 21st post entitled, "When Crumbs Suffice,", he writes, in part:
...you're witnessing the problem with our [LGBT] community's leadership, first hand. They, and so many of us, have been beaten down for so long that we expect the beatings. Pain and disappointment have become the new normal. We expect to be treated like second-class citizens. We expect to be slapped in the face and knifed in the back by our friends because, we tell ourselves, the other guy is even worse.
And like the good beaten spouse, we always come back for more because it's all we know, and at least it's something.
Wanna bet that all, or almost all, of those invited will attend?
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