Sunday, June 12, 2011

CHALLENGER: Faux Rainbow

With June being Gay Pride Month, I felt it appropriate to make my CHALLENGER poetry series start getting in people's heads. Because the gay community as a whole needs to be challenged on correcting those things that are making us come off as hypocrites, and now is as good a time as any. So that by the time we do a Gay Pride March in NYC at the end of this month, we may have a reason to not only take pride in being gay, but also in correcting the things that separate us. Thereby strengthening the justification for our demands and the potency of our fight for equal rights. With racism possibly being THE main thing separating the LGBT community from within, it is a must that it becomes undone.

Due to some of the implications made by the poem and/or video, I've included a disclaimer with the video. Mainly because of the lines that imply a desire to burn the rainbow flag and Michael Lucas' face exploding, which was prompted by his constant arrogance in claiming how Blacks are the most homophobic, YET he hires Whites with internalized homophobia calling themselves "gay-for-pay" to be in his movies. I DO NOT condone violence, but these lines and images definitely show how I have grown tired of the excuses by not just the likes of him, but many heads of gay media - from magazines, video, movies, nightlife, etc.

So I hope the poem and video speak to you. 
To those doing the shunning, GET IT TOGETHER!
And to those shunned, STAY STRONG as I LOVE YOU.





A rainbow flag waves in the wind
To be symbolic of gay pride
But I am fearing it waves in vain
When I expose what many of you try to hide

You hear wise words come from the dark skin
But you show how it’s light you favor
For you wait to give him a platform
To praise his light skin as the brand of a savior
To raise up our community
But you are steady keeping it down
Limiting the rainbow of skin
That can add to the power of sound

By treating me like an outsider
You induce dreams of seeing the flag on fire
The fact that I can even think this
Shows how much your actions are dire
For I am proud to be my gay self
So I don’t want to see the flag ablazed
But sometimes it seems the only way
To show ostracizing a man over color pays
For I have tried diplomacy
Yet, you persist on ignoring me
Until you want my body for your cause
But once won, it’s “Be silent! Get lost!”

Accuse my color of homophobia
As to why your numbers fall short
But it is YOU who is sick with a phobia
Exiling my intellect from your court
Over your fear that my shade of skin
Can be found smart, sexy and beautiful
If you tried embracing it in those ways
You’ll find your fight’s progression much more fruitful
And don’t play one of us as a token
A facade to say you have respect
Since us non-whites are equally great
Give us more than a little speck

Face how you’re called out on your hypocrisy
Face how your life is a blight on our community
Face how compared to our oppressors
You are actually worse, and far from better
Face how much you need me
Not just as a number, but as a face of beauty
Face how much you stand to lose
If you never get the clues

So I ask you,

Is that a faux rainbow
Waving in the wind?
For I see mostly the lightest colors
Are ever allowed in
To become crowned “Most Beautiful”,
“ …Congenial”, and “…Likely To Succeed”
Leaving the darker colors to appear
That their being heard is of no need
So take in all I have said
And ask your deepest within
Is that a faux rainbow
Waving in the wind?


©2011 LeNair Xavier

2 comments:

  1. You're absolutely right. We need to focus on the commonalities and far too often we take "pride" in our differences. If you ruffle a few feathers, so be it. It's why God put you on this planet anyway.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is very beautiful and I highly praise your work, as it a true reflection of your intelligence and a reflection of real truth. I have followed some of your work and comments on various blogs, and LeNair I must commend you on speaking the truth that so many people are unwilling to hear. It has come to my realization that I have become truly tired of seeing so many males in the gay community destroy themselves with their lack of dignity, class, intelligence and self-respect by doing such ridiculously outlandish, immoral things, and living lifestyles destined to land them a one-way ticket to a life of destruction or death. I wonder of the thoughts of those who are no longer here, who fought for all of us to be where we are and have what we have, only to find their hard work being undone and ruined because so many of us are obsessed with living these glamorized lifestyles that are designed to not only bring ourselves down, but our communities as well. You speak a great truth and I look forward to commenting on more of your amazing work. Take care and stay blessed.

    ReplyDelete

I HIGHLY respect those willing to stand behind their comments with a name. So if you use "Anonymous" on a viewpoint that challenges mine, IT WILL BE DELETED. For your cowardice to not show yourself makes your viewpoint and you irrelevant.

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