BLACK BLOGS CONTINUE TO SHUN THE BLACK LGBT COMMUNITY!
Last night one of the hottest reality TV shows of the spring crowned its winner. Unfortunately this show is called Rupaul’s Drag Race, a show in which talented Drag Queens from all over the country compete to be crowned America’s next drag superstar. The show is executive produced by and stars one of the most successful African Americans in TV, Rupaul. The shows Season 1 winner (Bebe Zahara Bonet) as well as its newly crowned Season 2 winner (Tyra Sanchez) have both been Black.
And yet as of 1:17 PM not one of the following black blogs had a single post dedicated to the the show or its winner.
www.theybf.com
www.concreteloop.com
www.crunktastical.blogspost.com
www.necolebitchie.com
Now the aforementioned blogs don’t slack on their share of coverage for other reality shows like Tiny & Toya, Fantasia For Real, Flavor of Love, What Chilli Wants, or any of the other many shows featuring heterosexual African Americans. Despite these shows being no where near the success of Rupaul’s Drag Race the three Black Blogs listed shower them with coverage but couldn’t dedicate a single sentence to Rupaul Drag Race Season 2 winner Tyra Sanchez. Now don’t get me wrong the blogs don’t completely ignore the Black Gay Community. Crunktastical in particular has an affinity for offering up pictures of flamboyant gay men for public ridicule. The sites owner and its many members log on and hurl whatever clever thing they can muster about black gay men.
There’s a message being sent by black blogs and that message is clear. They are willing to cover black entertainment as long as that entertainment is predominately heterosexual. Of course they will include Dwight from Real Housewives of Atlanta in a post or two all the while rolling their eyes. But given the chance to dedicate a single post to the winner of Rupaul’s Drag Race, they couldn’t be bothered.
It’s interesting that Entertainment Weekly and Jezebel.com both sites that are predominately white have showered Rupaul’s Drag Race with coverage and love. But the very black blogs that pretend to exist to showcase and comment on Blacks making waves in the Entertainment business have failed to do so for the Black Gay Community. Their homophobia is just a window into the treatment that Black gays face in the Black community.
It’s unfortunate that the Black Blogs mentioned chose to pretend to not know that Rupaul’s Drag Race had crowned it’s new winner but ultimately their exclusion affords us a sad realization. Blacks go on and on about how the mainstream media overlooks us and only cares about certain people (Whites), but when given the chance to be inclusive of all Blacks our Black bloggers turn around and do the same thing.
Posted on April 27, 2010, in Black Blogs Homophobia. Bookmark the permalink. 9 Comments.
I couldn’t have hit the nail on the head any harder.
Wow, you really calling folks out. Just because the winner was black, don’t mean that all black blogs need to post about it. To each their own. It’s not about being homophobic, and if you actually paid attention to any of those blogs, you’d know they have love for the kids.
If the only damned multisyllable word in your post is homophobia or Entertainment Weekly, then get the fuck out of here.
“This man dressed up and won a talent show. Blog about it.” “I feel you should blog about this because this happened.”
You want someone to blog about a surface effect: a black man won a drag show. That’s nothing epic. Black men always win drag shows.
I would have appreciated this a lot more and cared to read more had you thought to bring up that this show broke the heterosexual barriers that do not allow homosexuals, as a group or singled individual, to make it into mainstream media.
This is America. There is a freedom of speech. This is not a homophobic issue. It’s a bloggers personal preference to blog about what they would like to blog about at their own discretion of what’s worthy to be talked about.
I have to agree. I opened my Google Reader this morning all ready to read all about it and NOTHING. I don’t understand why there was no coverage at all during the whole season on the show and if it was it was for sh*ts and giggles and not taken seriously. They are showing the show on VH-1 and Centric along with Logo so I don’t see what the problem is.
@Anti-intellect:
I know this completely unrelated to the post(which I agree with) but I was wondering how you
came to be an atheist. I’m new to your blog and while I’m not an atheist I definitely fall into the skeptical/progressive/liberal Christian category. What materials did/do you read about religion, and how has your family reacted to your atheism(if they know)? Just curious, because it’s so rare to meet a black atheist/agnostic/anything besides Christian lol.
BULLSHIT…
Boy stop. I don’t know about the rest of them but I didn’t watch the show. In fact, I don’t watch reality shows at all. Black or white. Gay or straight. Still love the kids though! *shrugs*
EXCELLENT! Black blogs have completely over looked a successful show that features one of the most prominent men in entertainment. And it is reprehensible! Here we have a show that features men of color in a competition (that they actually have a chance of winning!) and they get no love from the black web entertainment? I call bullshit! It is a common phenomenon for black blogs to show support and back new reality shows that feature preeminent black entertainers, but no love goes to RuPaul’s Drag Race? A fucking mess!