Lots of discussion on DaBaby’s rant about “Nasty” gay people and Lil Nas X. Let me start by saying DaBaby is 29 years old and Lil Nas X is 23.
People, like T.I., (why did he get involved?) keep comparing DaBaby’s right to voice his “opinion,” about gay people just like Lil Nas X does the same … but that’s actually incorrect.
The Difference between Opinion and Judgment
We must realize that there is a difference … an “opinion” is “Hey, that’s not for me but live your truth” a “judgment” is “That’s not for me and something is wrong with you for doing it, saying it and believing it. You are less than. Something is wrong with you and everything is right with me.”
Do members of the Black LGBTQ community still need hip-hop (or the black church) to deliver this message?
In addition, when you think about growing up in the black community. What happened to the gay kids, especially the males, in the public school system and in the black neighborhoods?
They were usually taunted, bullied, and beat up, to say the least, and the ignorant kids prevailed. Even the smart kids had to take a back seat while ignorant Black kids took over the classrooms in the public school systems and the white (and even the Black) teachers did little or nothing. LGBTQ black kids were nonexistent for decades, written off, relegated to the back of the bus/class, and dismissed.
20 years ago, Lil Nas X would not have been allowed to live his truth and speak up and out for the Black LGBTQ community in the music industry or in radio (still not in radio).
He would have been silenced told how to talk, how to walk, what to wear, how to eat, and given a woman/beard to be seen with BECAUSE of homophobia. On the other hand, 20 years ago it was open season for hip-hop to attack Black LGBTQ people on record with no problem. It was laughed at cheered and even supported.
I’ve worked in the industry for decades and can tell you there are MANY Black LGBTQ people in the industry, from people who work at record labels to radio program directors radio DJs, singers, rappers, producers, songwriters, industry executives, and even Black press.
It’s nothing new and it’s not all stylists and hairdressers. Some of them would shock you but I would never tell you who they are that’s up to them to do that. I will just say it exists.
I will ALSO say, there is a left, right, and middle in the Black community when it comes to things like homophobia. The right is generally Black men, the left is usually other black men, the Black LGBTQ community, Black women, etc and then there is often the discounted “middle” the people who are just trying to make a living, raise their kids, and get around the racism that we ALL face on a regular basis the largest spectrum is the middle.
Times have changed, the bully doesn’t like being wrong so he attacks again but this time the targets (I am not a fan of the word “victims” as it has a tendency to be relegated to losers) are fighting back and they are defended instead of silenced.
They are defended by others instead of adults and other kids being there when they were being bullied who said and did nothing. And bullies don’t like that. Bullies like being in control even to the point of being OUT of control.
In the Black community, there is a silent rule, we are only allowed to be unified and speak out against racism but in order to do that, we have to trip over the huge proverbial lump under the carpet that we have allowed to get bigger over the decades from all the things we refuse to address or face, from single-family homes to mental illness to intracommunity violence to the abuse and the hypocrisy of the Black church to taking responsibility for our shortcomings to Black homophobia.
Nas is living his truth and I guess you could say that DaBaby is living his but the difference is one is saying stop attacking me and let me live my truth and the other one is saying “No, only I can live MY truth. I don’t like your truth. You can exist but you can’t live because that’s what makes ME comfortable.”
Lil Nas X is not asking people to change their sexuality he’s asking them to change the way they THINK about others’ sexuality and to live and let live.
In a better world, we mind our business. Live, Do, Be
