If You Don't Like The Effects, Don't Produce The Cause

I borrowed the title of this post from a 1972 Funkadelic album song back in the day that a track on the America Eats Its Young LP.

The song has two interrelated themes. The beginning part of it focuses on hypocrites who want to change reality without accepting the blame if anything goes wrong.

In the latter part of the song it talks about those people who make half-hearted attempts at social change. It also whacks people who protest the "big" problems but are not willing to make changes in their own lives to respect what they claim is right for all of society.

Does that sound like a certain community we all know and loathe at times?

Now y'all know why I love Parliament-Funkadelic so much. But back to the original post.

The problem I as a chocolate flavored transperson have with the GLBT community at large is that they are not only making half-hearted and boneheaded attempts at social change, but are unwilling to make the changes in their own lives to respect others while demanding respect for themselves in our society at large.

I'm going to break it down still further. I roll my eyes at peeps in the GLBT community that can dish out criticism, but can't take it, especially after their actions cause the criticism to be leveled at them in the first place.

You produce the drama and get mad when people justifiably call you out about the effects of it.

If we are going to move this diverse community forward towards achieving our civil rights goals, the first lesson has to be that we are NOT a post-racial nation.

Racism has been a part of life in the United States for over 200 years, and the first step to eradicating it is acknowledging its existence.

The other thing is acknowledging that yes, the GLBT community as a subset of the parent society, has serious problems with racism in our midst.

Before you can even talk to my community, you not only have to deal with those inner racist demons, you have to deal with all the privilege issues that flow from it and cause problems that perpetuate the cycle of negativity.