Those Oppressive Gay White Males

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Zack Rosen demonstrates the contortions that gay white men who aspire to be part of the LBGT progressive world have to undergo. He writes “In Defense of the Gay White Male,” but his defense is extremely tepid and his column is more about recognizing his privileged condition as a non-transgendered non-person of color while asserting, mildly, that he really doesn’t quite understand why he should be apologizing for this. Give it up, Zack, cause you’re never going to escape the oppressive white male accusation with that crowd.

10 Comments for “Those Oppressive Gay White Males”

  1. posted by h8 str8s on

    The word Queer is exclusive of older gays who find it an offensive and painful reminder of past violence. Zack Rosen is repulsively insensitive to use it in his article; the word rendered everything after it unreadable, in my opinion.

    • posted by Throbert McGee on

      This thread has just reminded me that the Wikipedia article on “white privilege” exists only in English and German. (If you stop for a minute to think about current U.S. racial and ethnic politics, the fact that there’s no Spanish translation is rather startling, and possibly revealing.)

      P.S. And by “possibly revealing,” I mean, of course: sheee-yit, all this “white privilege” and “heterosexual privilege” and “cisgender privilege” jive was invented by white Anglos largely for the purpose of browbeating other white Anglos, and also to create work for white Anglo grad students in the humanities.

  2. posted by james on

    im a white male and i tend to agree with this. give it up. some people will always be and love to be the “victim”. they will always refuse to take responsibility for their life and will always look to blame the state of their life on someone else. i feel bad saying it but i see it everyday and have also seen some of the speeches like the guy in the article saw. i guess as humans we are just to feeble minded to see past all the B.S. and try to pull ourselves up together.

  3. posted by Jimmy on

    Rosen is too motivated by fear of what others think of him for his own good. He needs to get over it in order to be an effective writer. The truth as he sees it is the only master he need serve. Not everyone has the same POV, even if everyone is ostensibly on the same side. That is no excuse for not doing your job.

  4. posted by BobN on

    Oh, that silly bit of drivel. It sure is making the rounds.

    There are plenty of white men in the movement. They’re just not as whiny and self-absorbed as this fellow.

  5. posted by Tom on

    Rosen seriously needs to get a life. Who cares what the clones think?

  6. posted by RJ on

    “The word Queer is exclusive of older gays who find it an offensive and painful reminder of past violence. ”

    I have found that there is nothing age-exclusive about using the term “queer”. In fact, there are many individuals who do not self-identify as gay or lesbian, but opt to use the word “queer” instead.

    Zack had brought up an interesting observation based on sound reality from any among us who belong to activist organizations at the grassroots level: racial remarks and/or conflicts can and often do cause a fair bit of unnecessary drama. Sure, there are goals to any organization for full LGBT equality and social awareness. Sure, everyone is aware that women and people of color face additional hardships re: social attitudes towards their sexual orientation, especially when compounded with racism in America. Either way, there are genuine fights for gay rights where race and gender are brought into the arena when they have no particular reason to be there.

    Yes, I am a Caucasian, gay man. I recognize that my skin tone has afforded me a certain level of privilege when it comes to the world around me. In activist activities, I have had conversations with gay men and women of color about certain issues only to have race thrown into the mix without, it seems, any catalyst whatsoever. Once race is interjected, it seems that a dialogue often transforms into a very hostile monologue (justified given the topic at hand). Once the monologue and tension is established, the ideal of planning events to raise awareness for full federal equality for LGBTQ individuals is almost always drastically diminished.

    Don’t believe me? Just look at the comment section in Zack’s article.

  7. posted by another steve on

    There are plenty of white men in the movement.

    Just as long as they flagellate themselves with self-criticism for their racism, sexism and (unless they’re dirt poor) classism, along with fealty to every cause in the leftwing “rainbow.”

  8. posted by Houndentenor on

    The only people who take any of that far left crowd seriously are those on the far right who want to use them as strawmen. They have no clout, not even among liberals.

  9. posted by Justin on

    Matthew Shepard was a white male.

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