Alright, here we go, the white girl is about to talk about white privilege. When discussing white privilege in terms of sexuality, we see the normative idea of queer is, in fact, a white person. Our society sees these ideas created into norms through media representations and daily interactions and coverage of the LGBTQ community. But what is it like to be part of that group, but never to be correctly represented? Imagine, in a society where it is already hard to come to terms with your sexuality, you also have to come to terms with the color of your skin being how you will be represented, or, in most cases, underrepresented. This is the reality of all people of color in the LGBTQ community; ostracized from “normal” society as a whole for being queer, and from their community for being “non-white”.
In the book Queer Injustice: The Criminalization of LGBT People in the United States, the authors give several instances of unfair treatment of human beings due to their race and their sexuality. They write, “failure to recognize and affirm the intersections of race, gender, and sexuality...erases the experiences of LGBTST people of color from the discourse”. How can we all fight for equality and give the facade that we have the same goal when we really don't? This is a egregious abuse of human rights because it creates a hierarchy. By the non-colored LGBTQ community not accepting people of color or letting them into the discourse, they are creating a social structure that outs them above others. But isn’t that exactly what they were fighting against in the first place? To be equal? To be, as Michael Warner would put it, part of the normal? Mogul et al. goes on to say that “LGBT people of color are overrepresented among those targeted for homophobic and transphobic violence”. This is a tragedy that needs attention brought to it, the fight of marriage opportunities may be over, but there is still much work to be done among justice for the colored LGBTQ community.
I found a great article from an independent paper in Seattle titled, “Deeply Embarrassed White People Talk Awkwardly About Race”, in which, the author noted that, “For white people, the only word that begins to approximate the emotional violence a person of color experiences being called a nigger from a white person is 'racist.' It's a trigger for white people that immediately conjures pain, anger, defensiveness—even for white people who are clearly racist”. What this article is proving is that white privilege, for most white people, is something we don’t want to discuss or admit. Admitting that the system works for us, and not for others, means we also would have to admit that life is easier for ‘us’ than ‘them’. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about my race, we don’t like to admit we’re at fault of anything, which is a huge part of the issue.
Just as we create a hierarchy for racism in our country, we also create a hierarchy of sexuality. In a speech at the CUNY Graduate Center, Urvashi Vaid noted that, “Issues, identities, problems that are not “purely” gay – read as affecting white gay men and women – are always defined as not the concern of “our” LGBT movement – they are dismissed as “non-gay” issues”. By simply being born straight, you already do not have to fight for certain rights that non-straight people give up their lives for. Isn’t that the ultimate form of structural injustice?
The invisibility white privilege maintains, for those who use it the most, is part of the problem, and it’s time for them to listen to all of the voices in the discourse instead of just their own. POC’s and queer POC’s need their voices heard too, an attempt to be more inclusive can only happen after we grapple with how white privilege permeates throughout the LGBT community. obviously, this is a goal that can’t happen overnight. However, I remain hopeful that with education and the dying off of old beliefs-and for that matter the dying off of the older “right-wing” generation-ignorance will decrease and we will be left with an open space to speak on the issue. Hierarchies can be broken, new policies can be made to protect LGBTQ people of color, and the system can start preaching equality for ALL, not just SOME.
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