Tayari's Blog: Thursday Links!

Comment #1, by Jackie

The Morehouse article is a bit baffling. Who's fooling who on this? I graduated from Spelman over 35 years ago and we all knew guys who were never going to be interested in women, never marry one, had interests only in other men. There were always some wild stories out there about what went on in one of the dorms, the top floor. I don't remember the name of the dorm. Our attitude back then was to live and let live because we all had lives to get ready for.

It is dismaying to me that a Morehouse Man can only be seen one way: heterosexual and if he isn't, he is a pervert, no other choices. It is also difficult to grasp how in these enlightened times, Morehouse and the parents of Morehouse students could be so in the dark about their sons and their sexuality.

I am so angered and disappointed by the attitudes represented in this article. So much denial is going on. So many people hiding way back deep in that closet. And what exactly are they afraid of? Some of those same parents would beat their chest with pride if their little junior was sleeping his way through the Spelman class, yet have the nerve to get all huffy if little junior only has eyes for somebody else's little junior. Everybody: grow up!

Comment #2, by jafari

yes,Jackie, we do need to grow up. i would be very interested to hear more about Morehouse and Spelman in the late sixties/early seventies [especially lesbian and gay perspectives]. i would guess that like other sites in Black communities, even the AUC was feeling the moment of opening up-- which seems to have precipitously shut down again by the late eighties when i arrived. While there were some brothers that were known or suspected of being gay, the attitude toward them was in fact not "live and let live" at all. they understood the very narrow parameters they could exist in and lived everyday in terror of crossing that line and being punished for it. Moreover, there were men who were understood, but undeclared; and those like me who were rumored to be [and before i could even manage to really *be* gay if you get my meaning] but given a pass due to our status on campus-- until, in fact, i declared it. this was similarly true at Spelman and Clark-- in 1989 and 1990 there was a spate of public outings and witch hunts on each campus.

anyway, my commentary on this will be published later, so i won't give it away; but i think it is important to not underestimate the depth and breadth of homophobia, and even more insidious, heterosexism. That Morehouse is not unique or unusual with respect to heterosexism and homophobia should be obvious. The institution represents rather, the “perfect storm” of homophobia in the US—racial and class anxieties of “exceptional Negroes, “masculine gender trouble, class conflict and fundamentalist religious baggage. i hope that this article will impel critical conversations about the parts of "tradition" are best left in the past.