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Jason Collins struck a blow against racism, too

I spent a lot of the last week tearing up over Jason Collins’s announcement that he’s gay. It’s a moving, courageous, beautiful statement that may change us forever, the way Jackie Robinson did. What leadership; I feel like we’re going to be watching Collins for a long, long time.

But let’s not forget the racial piece of this puzzle. Collins’s piece begins in this manner:

I’m a 34-year-old NBA center. I’m black. And I’m gay.

Black comes before gay, and the piece has several racial references. To Martin Luther King’s inspiration to him, to the struggles of the civil rights movement, to his parents’ refusing to let him get rap music before he was 12. His parents believed in diverse cultural experience and forced it on their children:

That early exposure to otherness made me the guy who accepts everyone unconditionally.

That’s an incredible line. And as someone who has struggled with issues of elitism and racism, I think one great thing about Collins’s action is that it blasts away generational stereotypes of cultural advancement. My privileged cohort is used to new social trends being at the very least escorted by white people, often by Jews. From civil rights to gay rights to women rights, Jews took incredible pride in our role in those movements– and duly our role was rewarded, with cultural and political status.  

The often racist notion in American culture that white or Jewish communities are more progressive on this issue has been dismantled by Collin’s brave act. For this moment of cultural liberation and advancement is led by a black man and hosted by many other African-Americans, including the president, the first lady, Kobe Bryant, and Jason Collins’s twin brother. It blasts away the stereotype– reinforced by coverage of black churches’ resistance to the gay marriage movement, or the sexist attitudes said to be inherent in rap music, or H. Rap Brown’s famous statement that the role of women in black liberation movement is prone–  that the black community is behind on this sort of cultural change. As we honor Collins’s personal courage and political creativity this week, I’m reminded to check my own elitist notions of who drives social change.

I of course relate this to Israel and Palestine. At the heart of pinkwashing– Israel’s offering itself as a leader on advanced cultural matters like acceptance of homosexuality and women’s rights– is the idea that Jews are better at social freedom than Arabs. And whatever Israel’s real freedom for Jewish gays and women, the racism and arrogance at the core of that claim destroys the claim. Just as Jason Collins challenges us to overcome stereotypes, we should remember that Palestinians are at the forefront of political action globally: the humble villagers of Nabi Saleh, and Bil’in, and Budrus command the world’s attention, they speak a sophisticated language of freedom. When Palestinians achieve actual political rights, I’m sure they will astound us in other assertions of cultural freedom.

We are all involved in a conversation with the other; and Jason Collins’s declaration about his race contains the dream of a postracial world.

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reading his article was really moving. i cried. it’s so sad people have to live like that for so long. it’s wonderful he can finally be who he is all the time no matter what. such a beautiful voice.

While I agree with most of your reflection about Jason Collins, he is not exactly a kid from the ‘hood. He is a grad of one of LA’s toniest prep schools and a star athlete from Stanford. He and his twin brother Jarron were my students. I knew Jason better, and he was a thoughtful student with a great sense of humor. Although he has mentioned his tension about his sexuality, I thought he was a relaxed and funny and a great addition to a class. I never had a clue that he was struggling. Certainly he did not radiate any hint of gayness, at least to this person! Possibly because of his extraordinary athleticism, Jason was not marked racially as the Other. What he felt as a younger person, pre-Stanford I do not know. I do know that he has now taken the strength and confidence he gained at Stanford to call on his cohort for support — which he has received — and become a leader again, this time for the gay movement among the most visible of athletes, who have been waiting for a leader. And Jason is beloved by most of the people who know him. Needless to say I am proud of his courage; i admire how well he put his feelings into prose in the SI article. While he has been 7-feet tall ever since I met him, now he seems 10-feet tall.

Since kids growing up in homes are enmeshed in the bias array happening there daily, what to do about it? The Jesuits use to say something like, “Give me your young kid, and he will be mine for his lifetime.” That’s also the deep striving or happenstance of every parental household, whether for good or bad. In the end, the kids either rebel or they don’t, and that itself may be good or bad for those outside the home. So what’s your point, Phil? I mean, I get it, you seek to inform that tolerance taught in the home from an early age is a positive thing generally. I agree. But what to do with intolerance, or the fostering of “otherness” in the home (as a well-intentioned defense mechanism), for example, the home you grew up in? I’m sure you get that many parents (these days often a single younger woman, living off the dole, or a couple jobless and/or in mortgage default), are inadequate to even imbibe survival principles, let alone tolerance for the myriad humans they intersect with comprising their slice of the human race. And the wealthier parents teach the kids by example and/or preaching: get yours, no matter the fall out on others–that’s the American dream.

One problem within white liberalism is the tendency to see whites as the sole and important audience. When he referred to his blackness, I took that — and I know other people did as well, as addressing both whites and blacks since Homosexuality is demonstrably more taboo in the black community. This is true both in the “Down Low” culture as well as in the mainstream black churches.

As for pink washing, you are right Phil that changing the subject to Gay or women’s rights is not an acceptable method of addressing (or rather failing to address) Palestinian rights in Israel and in the OT.

But the reverse is equally true. Israeli suppression of Palestinians and racist double standards for Palestinian Israelis does not mitigate Israel’s measurable advancements in rights for these groups. If someone were to infer this as stemming from an inborn trait or even an essential ethnicity– that would indeed be racist.

I think another huge aspect of this story is precisely that he went under everybody’s gaydar. It helps people understand that not all gay men conform to one way of talking or acting. Bravo.

The heart of Israel’s claim that gays in Israel receive better treatment than elsewhere in the Middle East is the fact that gays in Israel receive better treatment than elsewhere in the Middle East. It’s way simpler than you make it.