The recent incident involving R&B singer Ginuwine has been buzzing a lot in the last week, but I confess that I myself have not paid too much attention to it. That is until I got the shortened version of it from different video clips like the one on the Breakfast Club. His comments and the backlash he received immediately caused me to reflect on another black entertainer who too caught heat for his perceived lack of indifference to the plight of women and in particular women from the dominant racial category in America. Now I won’t go as far as suggesting that the backlash Ginuwine faced is sole because of his color, rather I’m pointing out the trend of men of color being unable to have opinions on women that may not fit into the realm of political correctness.
Beyond the racial implications that could be derived from there, there are the obvious implications of how social status allows groups the power and freedom to travel through race and sex freely. In laymen’s terms, privilege.
Privilege is at the Crux of It All
The irony lies in the fact that we live in a political and social climate that is lambasted all the time for its lack of freedom in being able to express unpopular opinions, but in the same vein, we criticize people for exercising that very right. The issue is not as much as in what is said, rather whose says it. When political leaders express their opinions on people kneeling during the anthem or praising using their privilege to sexually harass women, they are elected to the highest office. When a man of color expresses his views on the women he chooses to date, he is called trans-phobic and attacked. To add to it all, a woman from the dominant racial group in America is at the center of it, and society has shown that when a woman from the dominant class expresses her views on matters such as this they are typically praised and defended while the offender is vilified.
Don’t believe me, consider this: Years back Odell Beckham Jr, the popular wide receiver for the New York Giants was criticized by the writer and actress Lena Dunham for not viewing her in a sexual light. The ludicrousness of her claims and the claims of those who called Ginuwine, fail to highlight the next major point, and that is the fact that incidents like these paint a person and its people in a negative light.
Sexual Stereotypes Stifle Growth
In short, when black men are labeled as transphobic or homophobic by the dominant society, it further promotes the idea of toxic masculinity in the black community, which we know stifles growth. I’m not going to suggest that there isn’t truth in this assumption, nor will I suggest that women of color don’t make the same assertion. I will, however, say that control over the narrative is essential, especially when the narrative influences the culture. In short, we as a society must acknowledge the history of sexual exploitation against men and women of color under the institution of slavery and then work on allowing these same people the chance to define their views on sexuality without judging them.
Wright World 