"Burn Hollywood, Burn!" The Emasculation Proclamation. Hollywood’s deceptive tactic of LGBTQ Tokenism!
Disclaimer:
This opinion piece serves as a means of critiquing the underlying practices within the entertainment industry and is not an attack on the LGBTQ community. Should anyone vehemently disagree, you are obviously deflecting what is true. And with that disclaimer out of the way, let's get into it!
Originally written on June 30th 2022.
As Pride Month wraps up, where the LGBTQ are celebrated for their heritage and contributions from Alan Turing, Langston Hugues, Freddie Mercury, Josephine Baker, James Baldwin to Marlon Brando, (yes, Brando!) I often asked myself, "what the hell is up with all these tokenized LGBTQ Blacks popping up within the mainstream media?"
As an both a Film and Television blogger, over the past five or so years, I noticed that there’s this trend courtesy of your friends from Hollywood which showcased more black characters portrayed as LGBTQ and sometimes, "IA!" Yet, most blacks are hetero, and they do not have any, decision making within the mainstream media whatsoever.
Back in the early 2000s, HBO debuted The Wire, a crime drama set in Baltimore MD that became a phenomenal success, thanks in part to Omar little played by Michael K. Williams. The fictional stickup legend was admired by so many within the black viewership and we gravitated all to this character as a badass antihero regardless of his sexual orientation. Mr. Williams’s masculine portrayal of Little easily avoided the stereotypical trappings of a black queer, thus we didn’t take offense. Around that same time, The Shield premiered which featured a complexed black officer Julian, a devout Christian who is a closet homosexual.
Then came Vampire slash Dramedy True Blood made its debut and while most if not all the White characters especially within the main cast was heterosexual, the one black male was portrayed as a flamboyant Homosexual Lafayette Reynolds, which most viewers me included, overlooked as some comedy relief. But in hindsight, we did not realize how Alan Ball's series served as a tentpole to use Blacks as a proving ground to perhaps coddle the insecurities of many White straight men, by emasculating others. Or white LGBTQ who pulled the strings to usher in their agenda via proxy. It's almost like insinuating that most blacks are gay. LMMFAO
Primary examples include:
In this loose adaptation of Jack Kirby's immortal Superhero ensemble team,
Phastos is seen as an overweight scientist who is married to a man and has inadvertently caused the destruction of Hiroshima, Japan thanks to his technology. So, he didn't use his genius to help liberate black people from oppression instead, contributes to the nuclear arms race.
Sons of Anarchy
SOA's Charming gang chapter has a member called "Juice" Ortiz who on the surface, looks Hispanic but is black?? And out of fear of being discovered and retaliated by the alleged racist Bike gang, Juice is blackmailed and does the bidding of a Sheriff to the extent of killing one of his own. When discovered, Juice "redeems" himself by committing an offense that has him locked up with notorious gangster, Tully (Played by Marylyn Manson of all people!) who now makes Juice his prison bitch, but not before getting gangbanged by a bunch of Asian inmates! I think I rather have Jax put a bullet to my head, than give head, but I digress.
HBO's Watchmen
So here we have the enigmatic vigilante "Hooded Justice" who literally puts law in his hands along with the rest of the Minutemen, the predecessor of the Watchmen.
Well, his identity is revealed to be Will Reeves, a survivor of the Tulsa massacre, who was recruited to join the Minutemen by Captain Metropolis.
Now the shits and giggle’s part are, Reeves, who was this stoic black man with a wife and son has an affair (graphically displayed) with the captain. Afterwards, "El Capitan" dismisses Reeves' discovery of a Klu Klux Klan plot. Reeves being made into a fool, stays with his wife and kid.
The End!
HBO is a more blatant culprit here. As if True Blood and Watchmen weren't bad enough, let’s look at Love Craft Country.
Montrose, who is main protagonist Atticus' father, has sex with Sammy and struggles with both Homophobia and racial oppression. Montrose was played by the late Michael K. Williams who previously played Omar Little in HBO's The Wire.
Arrow
The first black Superhero on Arrow's team is Mr. Terrific, now if the name sounds familiar, Terrific was a major supporting player on Justice League Unlimited. But In CW's Soap Opera called "Arrow," he's a 6'2 guy who is discloses his sexual orientation and when teaming up with the "Arrowengers" Terrific, is not so terrific when fighting crime. Instead of being a genius and expert of hand-to-hand combat, he gets his ass handed to him. That's not what I would call, "Fair Play!"
And that's just the icing on the cake! Here is the rest!
Lightyear (Disney/Pixar)
Hollywood (Netflix)
Hunters (Amazon)
Young Justice (HBO MAX) +
Doom Patrol (HBO MAX)
John Brown (Showtime)
Peacekeeper (HBO MAX)
Yellowjackets (Showtime)
Power Ghost, Raising Kanan and Force (Starz)
Oh, and it's not just cinema or TV that is guilty of implementing these unwarranted practices, as plenty of ads may be seen as, offensive.
Eharmony:
Effeminate gay black guy shows a piece of toast in his lover's mouth. Does that imply something?
Target :
Again, another highly effeminate black man is being paraded around.
Ritz
Taste of Welcome
Biktarvi
Very demeaning commercial Dimitri, the black male queer kissing his partner, While Zach is presumed as this adventurous hetero White male archetype. Look at how he carries his canoe then there's Nikki, a morbid obese black woman.
Loreal
Two Black lesbians walking in a pride parade all lovingly. But “Where da white women, at?”
Etsy
With ongoing racial disparities in healthcare, wealth, and the judicial system, I think the last thing anyone should be initiating is ushering more queer black characters in cinema, television etc. Hell, let's keep it a buck here, as with heterosexuals, there has been discrimination between LGBTQ Blacks and Whites, yet the community is very adamant when it comes to propping gay black celebrities such as, Billy Porter and Lil Nas X, (both very annoying mind you) as LGBTQ symbolic poster boys. The hypocrisy is real!
While some would counter this OP with "Well, it would make sense to showcase two marginalized groups in one as a marketing tool to celebrate diversity." And I can easily debunk that sentiment.
To be honest, the percentage of LGBTQ within the black community is far less than whites despite their low percentage as a race altogether says, "Captain Obvious." What's disturbing is how mainstream media for the most part, would not implement other ethnicities albeit Asian, Hispanic, and definitely not Middle easterners for the LGBTQ agenda because the backlash from certain communities would be swift and merciless. The sad truth is how Black people have been a bit docile to react thus giving Hollywood a wide berth to craft more emasculating portrayals of Black men which is metaphorically speaking, the new "Blackface?"
Now lookie here, boys, girls and gender fluidity peeps,
I'm 💯 all for representation and equality, and don't care what consenting adults do with their business as it's really none of mine, but if Hollywood is all for "equality, “why not create movies and television series with LGBTQ characters of ALL races instead of exploiting Black people to promote the agendas of others, especially when they are at a high disproportionate advantage when it comes to economic wealth and social justice? The least you can do, is donate funds to improve impoverished communities, if not offer other tangibles. After all, it was Black Americans that got Hollywood out of its slump during the early seventies!
But should this continue, people such as me, will vote with our dollars, and opt to no longer patronize. Cease and desist, or we’ll resist! 😉
On a sad note, Nelson Ellis, who played Layfette, died of alcohol poisoning and Michael K. Williams (Omar) died of drug overdose. The actor Michael Jace who played Julian Lowe, murdered his wife and was sentenced to 40 years to life in prison.
"Hooray" for Hollywood.💩💩