Yesterday, I wrote a post entitled Dear GLBT Community, Whitney Houston Just Died, Give it a Rest Please. I was called out in the comment section by two different people and upon further reflection, I realize that they were right. The title of this post is absolutely offensive. I blamed the entire community for the actions of one. That was absolutely a reflection of my privilege and I wholeheartedly apologize to all those who I offended.
It is quite ironic that I made this mistake this week, considering a conversation I just engaged in with my BFF about the necessity of seeing ourselves as individuals. To give you an extremely rough idea, he was in a situation in which a Blatino decided to use the word nigga in front of a largely White audience and he felt shame, because he saw it as a reflection of himself. At the time, I pointed out that only bigots think that one person can represent the entire Black community, and that anyone who associated him with the man in question was most assuredly a bigot. These words passed my lips approximately 72 hours ago, and yet I turned around and did exactly the same thing with the title of my post. I knew better and still yet I showed the world my ass.
Thank you to those who called out my mistake and for taking the time to force me to question my actions. I have always said that the Black community is not a monolith, but in many ways I think I have been guilty of seeing the GLBT community as one. It's a case of not practicing what I preach and it amounts to hypocrisy. This is one area of my privilege that I definitely need to get a handle on.
Renee
