White Supremacy, Queerness, and Kevin Abstract

Y'all familiar with Kevin Abstract's "American Boyfriend: A Suburban Love Story"? Regardless, give the thirteenth song on the album, Miserable America , a listen (It's good!). The lyrical content of this song is just one example of how Queerness can be Anti-Gay, and often is. My argument for this blog op-ed is that queerness and white supremacy, the creation of a racial hierarchy in which white skin is at the top and above all other identities, have a relationship. I will use this online space to begin exploring that. This is a big topic, so obviously I will obviously have err on the side of generality, but hope to get my point across using a piece by Abstract.

Blackness and queerness are largely understood as opposites. So Kevin Abstract, a gay black man, is himself an anomaly. Of course, I think this is ridiculous. Being black and being queer are two natural things that can exist at the same time and within the identity of one person. However, this both is created by the representation we get for queer bodies is usually a white body- and usually, a thin and white body. This is in part because white gay privilege exists.

What is white gay privilege? Essentially, this means that queerness is only widely socially acceptable when it is white. While white gays fight for popular media representation, acceptance, and marriage equality, black gays often have to fight for survival. Blackness has been constructed as synonymous with criminality. People who are white and queer have some privilege because they have white privilege and are much more welcome in queer and white spaces than black queers. However, when confronted about this white queers may use their queerness to soothe their white guilt. In order to avoid taking responsibility for white supremacy it is easier to focus on the victimhood of one's own identity.

Image from twitter

Because queerness is acceptable when it is white, white queers have permission to focus on their Queer identity. While in many parts of the world it is still very dangerous to be queer. However, this discussion is about Western White Queers. I do think there is a difference when we mean white gayness, as opposed to white transgendered-ness or white gender-queerness. The world is beginning to come around to white gayness, but the world is coming around less to white transgendered-ness- well, this depends on how well someone "passes" as one of the binary genders, "boy" and "girl". It is still dangerous to be white and queer, but it is far more dangerous to be of color and queer, and there are many more safe spaces for white queers than there are for queers that are black or otherwise of color. Moreover, the realization of white guilt is painful, so it make sense that they might want to avoid that confrontation of self. White people have done some crazy awful stuff in the past! (and also many continue to do awful things... ha...)

So what is the consequence of this white gay privilege? Well, we can begin to see that through Abstract's art. Furthermore, the specific lyrics in Abstract's "Miserable America" that are most worth unpacking are in verse two:

My boyfriend hates me, won't let me meet his parents

Says my skin might scare 'em, not afraid of my appearance

Feel like jumping off the building

Feel like saying "fuck your parents"

Son don't feel 'em and I know they never will

They love gays but they hate niggas

What else are we to do rather than talk and paint a picture

I told that nigga before I even tried to tell myself

I wish you thought of me the way you thought about yourself

This verse is about how Abstract's boyfriend, and especially his boyfriend's family are not homophobic but they are incredibly racist, and specifically anti-black. Abstract's boyfriend is not racist in the same way his parents are- he is dating Abstract, but he is complicit because he cannot proudly say to his parents that he is in this relationship with a black man.  This leaves Abstract with suicidal feelings and resentment, all very real effects of this level of white supremacy.