march 29 |
A Typical Week
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III. INTRODUCTION to the THEME HOMEWORK:
"PUNKS, BULLDAGGERS, AND WELFARE QUEENS THE RADICAL POTENTIAL OF QUEER POLITICS?" (1997) by Cathy Cohen
In your homework for Thursday, you will read this 1997 essay named above. It is a historical game-changer. It is long so take your time. For today and the rest of this unit, ask yourself: what is Black queer rhetoric? What does it re-imagine for the world?
"PUNKS, BULLDAGGERS, AND WELFARE QUEENS THE RADICAL POTENTIAL OF QUEER POLITICS?" (1997) by Cathy Cohen
In your homework for Thursday, you will read this 1997 essay named above. It is a historical game-changer. It is long so take your time. For today and the rest of this unit, ask yourself: what is Black queer rhetoric? What does it re-imagine for the world?
On the eve of finishing this essay my attention is focused not on how to rework the conclusion (as it should be) but instead on news stories of alleged racism at Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC). It seems that three black board members of this largest and oldest AIDS organization in the world have resigned over their perceived subservient position on the GMHC board. Billy E. Jones, former head of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation and one of the board members to quit, was quoted in the New York Times as saying, "Much work needs to he done at GMHC to make it truly inclusive and welcoming of diversity.... It is also clear that such work will be a great struggle. I am resigning because I do not choose to engage in such struggle at GMHC, but rather prefer to fight for the needs of those ravaged by H.I.V." (Dunlap).
This incident raises mixed emotions for me, for it points to the continuing practice of racism many of us experience on a daily basis in lesbian and gay communities. But just as disturbingly it also highlights the limits of a lesbian and gay political agenda based on a civil rights strategy, where assimilation into, and replication of, dominant institutions are the goals. Many of us continue to search for a new political direction and agenda, one that does not focus on integration into dominant structures but instead seeks to transform the basic fabric and hierarchies that allow systems of oppression to persist and operate efficiently…. ~Cathy Cohen |
Snail Mail Sent to My Home Last Spring
IV. Black, Gay & Pacifist: The Legacy of Bayard Rustin (1912-1987)
- Have you heard of Bayard Rustin? If so, what do you know about him?
Click here to read this memo (CA12) that Bayard Rustin wrote to Martin Luther King. As you read:
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Complete form below for CA12 or click here: https://forms.gle/iXu6psMT7G2nsMSa9