Dutch far-right leader Pym Fortune showed it is possible to be openly gay and anti-black. Outrage! must learn lessons and end bullyboy tactics against black communities.
We have endured attacks from the far-right before, but nothing could have prepared us for the barrage of threats and bullyboy tactics employed against us in the last two weeks.Our crime? To begin a debate over the tactics Peter Tatchell and his group Outrage! have waged against reggae artists and the venues which host reggae gigs.
Despite our stance in condemning homophobia, the moment we took on Tatchell from a race perspective we were inundated with accusations of homophobia. It was simply a stick to try and beat us away.
Our internet provider and the Internet Watch Foundation has received complaints against us from the gay rights lobby accusing us of homophobia. Gay activists are encouraging their supporters to complain to the CRE about us.
strong-arm
We have had threats of legal action. We have had calls from people pretending to be ordinary members of the public but then try and get us to verbally defend comments from Blink readers.
These are the sort of tactics that the BNP use. We are neither going to fall for them, nor be cowed by them.
We are not accusing those gay rights activists of being neo-Nazis, just behaving like them. Our experience has clearly shown similarities between the gay rights lobby and the far right in terms of the strong-arm tactics being used to try and silence us.
Pym Fortune, the late Dutch former far-right leader, was openly gay. He was also vehermently anti-black. We are not accusing Tatchell of sharing Fortune?s far-right politics but we do believe Tatchell is following a racist agenda.
An editorial by Brett Lock of Outrage! claims race is not the issue. We disagree. As we said in an editorial on 13 September, Outrage! has shown no interest in winning the hearts and minds of black communities ? only winning hollow victories when gigs are cancelled.
redeeming
Tatchell chooses not to work with reggae artists because he wants to keep them forever as the homophobic offenders. ?Boom Bye Bye? by Buju Banton was released eleven years ago.
Homophobic lyrics by the likes of Elephant Man and Vybz Kartel are also old. Yet Tatchell seems hell-bent on preventing these artists from redeeming themselves.
Due to his tactics, any opportunity to build alliances and work with reggae singers is squandered. But not only is Tatchell demonising singers who might otherwise be won over, but he is trampling over their legions of fans.
This, we argued, is increasing homophobia amongst what we believe is the majority of the black community ? those who do not consider themselves homophobic but are angry at Tatchell.
When we see gigs being axed, and artists being kicked off the MOBO nomination awards, this is not winning hearts and minds ? it is creating the impression that the whole reggae music genre, and our entire community, is under attack.
dynamics
Brett Lock says it is ?absurd? that anyone should suggest this, and that they are only interested in tackling ?murder music?.
Yet Tatchell?s track record shows he has pursued black ?prey? ? Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, boxer Mike Tyson, and now reggae artists.
This creates the impression of an anti-black agenda. In each case these people are perceived differently in black and white communities. This is because there are different race dynamics at play, which Tatchell seems unaware of.
He also appears ignorant of the fact that while a ?literal? translation of homophobic lyrics might be encouraging violence against gays, these lyrics are not culturally received in this literal way ? a point illustrated in Shirley Brook?s Word Up! Column.
The literal interpretation of these lyrics quite simply, a white mans interpretation of black culture. Again, we are not defending anti-gay lyrics. We condemn them. But, Tatchell, if you are going to campaign against them you must understand the context.
What gay rights campaigners fail to realise is that we are actually on their side. We don?t want to see any lyrics endorsing violence against anybody ? gay or straight.
colonial
At Blink we have a long record of standing up against homophobia. We are not, as Brett Lock claims, mounting a ?vigorous defence? of anti-gay prejudice.
We believe that the wrong way to challenge homophobia in the black community was to have white people with colonial mentalities telling the world how homophobic we all are, and that the right way is for black people to take ownership of the issue away from Tatchell and Outrage! in order to win the hearts and minds of black communities.
We also believe that reggae music has been used as a ?soft target? by Tatchell to gain him more publicity and feed the self-centred cult of personality which he has developed to such an extent that he completely overshadows black gay groups.
A gay or lesbian is much more likely to be violently attacked by a white racist who also happens to be homophobic, than by a black person. A gay or lesbian is more likely to be denied a job by a white manager because while there is undoubtedly prejudice in black communities, white people have prejudice and power.
Outrage! revel in each ?victory? when another reggae gig is axed following their campaigning, but we believe that while they are winning battles they are losing the war. The impression that black communities and a whole music genre are under attack is probably increasing homophobia.
Alliance-building, especially between black gay groups and others in the black community, is essential to overcoming the impression created by Tatchell that our community has been ?picked on?.
