Isaiah Washington guest starring on The Bionic Woman on NBC On Wednesday Night

 

             It was so exciting last night to finally see the great actor Isaiah Washington back on prime time TV. Isaiah will be guest starring on a few episodes of the new NBC show “The Bionic Woman.” The program airs on Wednesday night. I definitely felt the second episode was much better then the first. Since Isaiah is such a  gifted and talented actor the show is just so much more interesting with him on. The show definitely  picks up a notch. Its nice to see Isaiah bounce back so quickly after the drama with the previous show he was on.

      On some white gay internet message boards the white gay mafia “still” yes they “still” are complaining about Isaiah Washington.  I guess they just can’t let it go? Isaiah’s moved on from the previous TV show so why can’t they? See, this is where the hypocrisy of the white gay community and their blatant anti black racism is so pernicious and obvious.  I question their “motivation” and their “anger” about Washington still. Why don’t the  white gay mafia just  be honest they have their own anti black prejudices and biases and they are unleashing their own bigotry.  The white gay mafia had their opportunity and seized it. They wanted to stereotype black people as being anti gay. Yes there is homophobia in the black community just like there is homophobia in the white community and other communities as well.  Yet why can’t some white gays just admit they are anti black?

     Thank goodness Isaiah has bounced back so quickly he’s a talented actor and talent will always rise to the top. I commend NBC for giving Isaiah a second chance even though I do think it was a bit of stunt casting.  Its nice to see Isaiah back on TV even if its just for a short while. NBC obviously wants people to watch their new program and hiring Washington jacked up the controversy and also created free publicity for the show. It was a win win situation for NBC and Washington.

     I understand some white gay people are “angry” and “upset” at Isaiah for using the gay slur.  However, would the white gay mafia really “care” if TR Knight wasn’t white? Would the white gays really be this angry if Isaiah wasn’t a black man? Lets, he honest here, race was indeed a factor here and to suggest otherwise is to be lying. Race is the third person in the room just because you don’t mention race in this saga doesn’t mean race was not a factor. If TR Knight was a black gay man I doubt the white gay mafia would “invest” so much of their “energies” and “power” to have Isaiah removed from Grey’s Anatomy. I doubt very much there would be this “uproar.” Isaiah was wrong for making the gay slur that was obviously totally unacceptable and out of line. However, how many times is Isaiah supposed to apologize? Why don’t some of the white gays just admit there is a vein of racism laced with the so called “anger”?

        Next, white people will say blacks play the “race card” and yet there was no balance in the reporting this summer about the whole Isaiah Washington drama.  Yet some white people never admit they play the “white card” very well.   The “white card” attempts to circumvent and diminish the interlocking systems of racism.  Being white in North America immediately means you have social power.  The “white card” also ignores  the currency of white skin privilege. Race still matters and  covert racism indeed exists. The mainstream media used covert racist tactics to paint the unbalanced view that Isaiah Washington was the stereotypical angry black man.

      I thought Isaiah handled himself very well during the whole drama and I commend him for his personal strength.  The disgusting negative articles I read was drenched in bigotry and prejudice. The mainstream attempted to humiliate and destroy Isaiah Washington but they failed. Isaiah Washington is a good black man and I wish him well. The way the mainstream and white gay media were acting as though the sky was falling and the world was ending. Its like give me a break.

          Yet why couldn’t the mainstream media look at all sides of the story? I also was a bit dissapointed in the black media. The black heterosexual media ignored the incident all together perhaps because they “feared” the anger of whites or maybe because they just didn’t want to deal with the drama. Not one media outlet examined the other side to the story and that’s the pernicious anti black racism of the white gay community.  Why the double standard? Why is the racism of the white gay community consistently ignored?

    Certain white gay media outlets indeed have an anti black agenda and they are deleterious. Although the “mask” of certain white gay media outlets is that they are “fighting” homophobia they are also spreading their own racist anti black prejudices  in the print, on TV, and on the web. Can we be real for five minutes? “The Dallas Voice”, “Afterelton.com”,  “The Washington Blade” “Advocate”, “Out Magazine” are a part of the white gay mafia.  I can go on forever but you get the point. All these white gay media outlets and more  are perfect examples of not only white gay racism but also of their own hypocrisy.  They target and go after any black entertainer that says something they don’t agree with.

       Some people don’t realize despite the white gay community complaining about how hard they got it dealing with homophobia they do indeed have a lot of power.   White gays have white skin privilege and white power and that goes a long way in North America.

             I’ve been to a few of these white gay internet message boards and I’ve read the racist anti black comments so easily tossed around and of course the moderators of “these” white gay websites don’t “moderate” the  racist comments. Its incidents like this that just prove again the white gay community cannot be taken seriously at all.  It also should be wake-up call for black people gay and straight. I think its the job of black gays and lesbians to let black heterosexual people know that we also endure racism in our own lives. I cannot separate being black and gay yet the white gay community consistently wants black gays to choose sides.

        Its also times like this where “white skin privilege”, ” white social power”, and  “white gay economic power” need to be examined. Although organizations like GLAAD claim to be “fighting” for “gay rights” that group needs to be honest the only “rights” they care about are the ones that affect white gay people.  Also, I’ve been to some mainstream gay political websites and they aren’t fighting for the rights of black gay people that’s for sure. Just because GLAAD has a few token black gays on their payroll does not mean GLAAD is not a white gay organization because it is. 

       I also question why some black gay people still “think” white gay organizations like GLAAD  are relevant for our rights? The infrastructure of the mainstream gay community is too Eurocentric focused and I personally believe its a waste of time for black gays to attempt to form “dialogues” with organizations such as GLAAD.  I believe for black gay emancipation we have to do our own thing. Stop worrying about the white man and help ourselves. GLAAD has their own agenda let them do their thing. However, white gay organizations such as GLAAD are just illustrating their own true racist colours.

      Honestly, GLAAD is a pathetic group these days their importance and validity has been tainted by the trouble they caused Isaiah Washington while ignoring the racism of Rosie O Donnell’s Anti Asian racist comments when she was on “The View”. ABC didn’t seem to care about Rosie’s racist comments either when she was an employee of that network. Double standards for blacks and whites thrive at ABC that’s for sure.

      Its ludicrous that they are “still” going after Isaiah Washington  yet losers like Senator Larry Craig are on the loose.  Why don’t they complain about closeted homophobic white gay men such as Ted Haggard. Remember Haggard is the white closeted homosexual minister that has over 30 million followers? Haggard was exposed for being a hypocrite that  solicited the services of a male prostitute.  

        Closeted powerful white gay republicans should be the focus of the white gay mafia’s “agenda.”  How does tearing down Isaiah Washington uplift the gay community? I also don’t believe there is just “one” monolithic gay community I believe there are several communities.

 Another problem is the representation of gays in the mainstream still equals whiteness. Being gay in the mainstream means being white. It also means white gays have the “platform”  in the mainstream media as the “faces” of the gay community. However, where does that leave gay people of colour? Why weren’t black gay organizations consulted when all the drama was taking place? 

            The white gay community definitely does not speak for me that’s for sure.  And this of course displaces gay people of colour. Black gay voices were muted during the whole Isaiah Washington drama. Thank goodness for the internet. The internet is an important tool for an alternative perspective to exist. I don’t follow what the white gay community says I think for myself and march to my own beat. I am cognizant of the undercurrent of racism in the gay community. And anyone that doesn’t think this kind of racism is not real needs to wake up. The Isaiah Washington incident wasn’t just about the gay slur it was also about power dynamics and also about how the mainstream still treats black people gay and straight as the other.

 In my mind the white gay community’s constant attacks on Isaiah Washington exposes their own hypocrisy and racism it definitely doesn’t endear them to me that’s for sure.  However, it does expose the honest truth that there is a racial divide in the so called “gay community”. Anybody that doesn’t think race is not a factor here needs to enter the real world. Race always matters.

       Black  men don’t have the social or political power of white gay males  in North America. However, powerful white males like Larry Craig do have the ability to create  and enforce anti gay laws. 

       For people that don’t know Senator Larry Craig is an anti gay bigot that was caught this summer at  an airport washroom using “hand signals”  to gain the attention of a man he wanted to have sex with. The trouble for Craig was the man he wanted to have sex with was an undercover police officer. The undercover police officer arrested Craig and now Craig is trying to backpedal from the guilty plea.

              I commend all the black gay activists that stood up and spoke out about the hypocrisy and bigotry of white gay America. Isaiah has paid his dues and I’m watching the Bionic Woman because he’s on it. If Isaiah was not on this show I wouldn’t watch and that’s the truth. Isaiah will only be on for about a few episodes. And judging from last night’s program he definitely makes this show so much more exciting.

Here is a link to an article about Isaiah discussing the show.  http://www.nypost.com/seven/09302007/tv/isaiah_rising.htm