Outverising member Nwora Emenike has written a thought piece following the issues brought to light by the #BlackLivesMatter movement.
Berubé states that “there is a monolithic image of the gay community as white and well-to-do”. This monolithic image is perpetuated and reinforced by the media, advertising & legislation that has furthered the rights of middle-class white gay men but barely reaches the most vulnerable in our community (Black trans women). As comrades in the fight for liberation it is our duty to ensure the safety, protection and advancement of every single intersection within the LGBTQ+ community because none of us is free until all of us are free.
The original Tongues Untied is a documentary film created by the late Marlon Riggs in 1989 and has served as an artistic and educational text to understanding the life of a Black gay man.
These past few weeks we’ve seen many people speak out, exposing racism & homophobia in companies such as Vogue, Facebook, V Magazine, Anthropologie, Temple Coffee & Doughnuts and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. I’ve been privileged enough to have candid conversations with a number of Black people in and out of our industry. Although we don’t all have the same experiences we are all saying the same thing that we’ve been saying since 1619. We’re tired of the polite racists that smile in your face whilst asking to touch your hair and call you sassy when you decline, the non-racists who say nothing, do nothing and put their comfort above the mistreatment of Black lives. Your silence as an “ally” serves nobody, choosing not to see colour serves nobody. Our tongues are untied and we’re no longer afraid of the repercussions of speaking out.
This may come as a shock to you but Black queer people have just as an awful time in our queer “community” as we do with the rest of society. A lot of our experiences can be put into 2 boxes. 1. you’re fetishised because they want a “taste of chocolate”, they’ve “never been with a Black person before” or they “want to see if the rumours are true” or 2. you’re othered, excluded, ignored and made to feel less than, all in an aid to maintain whiteness as the face, voice, legs and arms of the entire LGBTQIA+ community and the queer experience. It’s exhausting, especially during pride month when you’re seeing people post about Marsha P. Johnson, whilst using their Je*ery S*r pallets and sending racist & hateful messages to the Black queens from RuPaul’s drag race.
The issue is that a number of white queer people overlook their whiteness because they are not afforded the same privileges as their heterosexual cis-gendered counterparts. I’m not saying a white queer person’s life has not been hard but the colour of your skin is not the reason why. White privilege is moving through a racialised world in an unracialised body. But we already know that, everyone in a marginalised group knows how privilege works, hence why marriage equality was passed 7 years ago but in 2020 a Black trans women’s life expectancy is equal to someone born prior to the industrial revolution.
It’s been very unsurprising seeing some organisations scrambling to virtue signal so they don’t have to actually make any long-lasting change. What we’re seeing is a tactical response where the impact is not measured so we can’t track anything or say if the solutions are truly working. True inclusion is a systemic cultural change, which requires the burden of racism to NOT be placed on the shoulders of Black people, especially Black queer people who deal with racism, homophobia, femmphobia, transphobia all at the same time. It’s not Black people’s job to solve a problem we didn’t create. The real question is, why are we begging for a seat at a broken table? Instead of trying to change systems that were designed to keep us at a disadvantage no matter how hard we work, we should just build our own. We’re not here just to occupy space, we’re here to create.
Nwora graduated from the University of Liverpool in 2018, having moved to London from the vibrant city of Leeds at the tender age of 17 to gain a qualification in Advanced Marketing. They worked with the Advertising Association, Vizeum UK, adamandeveDDB, the UK Government Communication Service.
Currently, Nwora is a Client Lead and Business Manager at Brand Advance, and has a keen interest in the role advertising can play in promoting the fair and full representation of people from marginalised groups.