Rhodes University’s annual Pride Week began in full force this week (10-16 March), with the organisers, OUTRhodes, hosting a discussion on Tuesday about racism within the gay community at Rhodes and in Grahamstown.
Rhodes University’s annual Pride Week began in full force this week (10-16 March), with the organisers, OUTRhodes, hosting a discussion on Tuesday about racism within the gay community at Rhodes and in Grahamstown.
Tuesday's event, facilitated by Psychology lecturer Natalie Donaldson, highlighted the perceived whiteness of homosexuality, racial stereotypes and preference versus racism.
“The reason we don’t get into relationships with different or certain race groups is because we believe the so-called cultural differences… will cause issues,” Donaldson said.
Indeed, homosexual people hesitate to adopt children of a different race, because they feel uncertain that the child will be raised according to their culture.
Homosexuality is also often racially stereotyped and said to belong to "white" culture. "Many people see being gay as a white thing, brought by whites… and [that]black kids get sent to Model C schools and come back with white tendencies,” Nokukhanya Ntsaluba, a participant in the discussion, said.
“It is much easier to be a white queer than it is to be a black member, purely because it is viewed as 'unAfrican' or 'learned’,” said Rhodes student, Neo Baepi.
During the 2012 Johannesburg Pride parade, One in Nine campaigners were physically assaulted by Pride organisers because they called for a minute’s silence to honour and mourn victims of sexual orientation violence.
This incident mentioned to show that mainstream Pride events are mainly attended by white people and involve colourful parades, partying and people showcasing their pride in being queer, but fail to address the issue of the rape of black lesbians.
“It steers away from the political movement it needs to be,” Donaldson said.
A Grahamstown resident, who identified herself as a lesbian, said she was strongly aware of racism within the queer community, saying that in the wider Grahamstown there was a major race divide because there is no community-wide organisation for homosexuals.
There was also a lot of debate on whether sexual preference for a particular race was racist. Some participants felt it was no different from showing preference for particular hair colour or height, while others felt it was a much deeper issue.
Donaldson said, “The biggest problem is that people [don’t want] to acknowledge that we ourselves have prejudice and discriminatory ideas and beliefs based on race.”
Additional reporting by Tegan Scales.
