On imperialism, blacks as The Other, and gays in Uganda

I know it’s hard to believe for some, but American or shall I say, Western values aren’t celebrated by the entire world. And just because we think something is wrong doesn’t give us the right to go butting into how other countries choose to govern. Had we learned that lesson a long time ago, perhaps I wouldn’t be subjected to a strip search every time I travel through LAX.

That’s what jumped out at me from Jasmyne Cannick’s A White Gays Guide on How to Deal with the Black Community for Dummies: Chapter 13 – Before You Come to Me About Uganda…Homie Pump Your Brakes.

Jasmyne Cannick is one of those folks I don’t read often because doing so usually makes my head hurt. But here, I think she is right(-ish). There are a couple of themes in her essay. I won’t rehash them here. But as I read it, a couple of things came to mind.

Too often our rhetoric around these topics has the tone of “zOMG, look at how EVIL (and by extension barbaric) those black (or brown) people are!!!1!” It’s repeating the narrative that cultures other than European ones or a (white) North American ones are less civilized, less human, and less humane than The West.

We think this despite the fact that Nazi Germany wasn’t exactly gay friendly. We think this despite the fact that gay sex could land you in jail in some U. S. states as late as 2003. (By the way Uganda has dropped the death penalty and life imprisonment provisions from the bill. And uh, what’s up with the Rick Warren-ization of Uganda?)

Furthermore, that white (gay) Americans think black (gay) Americans should have a special opinion about Ugandan affairs is a special, insidious kind of racism. Firstly, it frames “American” as “white” and “black” as “foreign.” Secondly, it assumes that black people are a monolith. It denies the cultural differences imposed by geography and history. It reduces us all to a check box.

Also see: On our shared humanity