As a black man, it saddens and angers me to see embers of racism and hatred in this country spread again. After many hard fought years these embers were starting to cool off. They were beginning to turn into a nice cool gray, waiting to be extinguished completely. But, thanks to a present day political climate full of errant sparks, these embers have ignited again and become giant flames. Flames that are being fed with even more hatred and racism. Racial slurs easily pour out of the mouths of politicians, judges, lawyers, teachers and neighbors like gasoline being poured onto a campfire. What was once perceived as a small campfire has now grown into a giant forest fire without any sign of being controlled anytime soon. It saddens me that my own country hates me and is completely okay if I am killed, even looking for reasons to justify my death.
As a gay man, my heart breaks at waking up this morning to the news of a shooting rampage in an Orlando gay club celebrating love, friendship, and life. This has become the biggest mass shooting in U.S history. I wept as a mother on the news cried hysterically because her son was at that club and now among those unaccounted for. This could be my mother or any of my friends’ mothers. I became hot with anger when I read that the Lt. Governor of Texas (color me surprised) tweeted out “You reap what you sow.” How fucking inhumane for a so called Christian follower of Jesus to show so little empathy to this mother and other mothers worried about their babies in this massacre and to use a scripture to damn the victims. According to the shooter’s father, the shooter was upset because two guys kissed in front of his three year old son weeks prior and it got him so worked up that this became the end result. Again, blaming the victims. It makes me scared to wonder if something similar could happen here when I attend New York Gay Pride in two weeks with friends. In addition to being worried about being hated and harmed for the color of my skin, I also have to worry about being hated and harmed because of who I love. Both of which I have absolutely no control over.
As a human I am saddened and outraged at how little empathy we as a society have for our fellow man. How can we all sit perched high in our ivory towers and look down below at our fellow man being trampled on and held down because they were born a certain race, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, or happen to belong to another religion different from our own? How did we as a worldwide society lose our empathy for our fellow man? How did we as a society look at other nations where people are living in day to day war zones and think, “Not my problem?” When did the initial reaction of pointing fingers and discussing political and religious blame replace our initial emotion of empathy and sympathy? Can we get at least twenty-four to forty-eight hours of empathy before letting the hatred and political and religious bias take over?
One of the biggest excuses for anti-gay rhetoric is, “we have to protect the children!” But the reality is, the children are just fine. In fact, as a society we should all look to the carefree, frivolous, and naturally loving attitude that you will find in children under the age of five. Children aren’t born knowing to hate a gender, race, nationality, political affiliation, religion, or sexual orientation. Children under five love everyone they come in contact with. They are curious of anything and anyone in their presence. They are only taught to have hatred. In fact, let’s stop worrying about the children. The children are okay. We, the adults, are the fucked up ones. We are the ones that need to be saved from ourselves.
As a gay, black, male, human I struggle with my emotions a lot in today’s social and political climate. But, every day I choose to speak up and speak out. I choose to be empathetic and to love my fellow man. I choose to look for the brighter side and for the good in the world. I choose…happiness. What will you choose?
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