I've wondered in recent times if we aren't
losing our sense of black identity -- I see singers or football players with
dark skins and dyed blonde hair. Are they
black and proud? Or are they a new form of black, do they have a sense of
identity that does not need to check back on itself, that has a new confidence
their parents may not have had?
A friend brought back from a college course a
sheet of paper on Queer Praxis by Peter Hocking where he wrote that: "Queer
Theory is not a synonym for Gay and Lesbian Studies. It is a field of inquiry
based in the idea that identity is not fixed and is not determinant of who we
are or who we might become." It is no surprise then that he attracted to his
seminar those who are heterosexual too because identity absorbs us, whether we
are Jewish or Palestinian, Italian or disabled, a Roma Gypsy or a person who
identifies according to their status, religion, work, or physical ability or
disability.
Hocking provokes when he asked: "How are we
trained to perform identities that enable systems of dominance and submission
to define our lives, both collectively and individually."
And then he said something that spoke to my
concerns that perhaps we are losing some of our sense of black pride, of
uniqueness and specialness, our sense of community and commonality, he noted
that over a few decades a movement has advocated that those who identify as gay
"are just like straight people and pursued a political agenda of assimilation.
Many resist the idea that human freedom and agency is tied to one's ability to
simply participate in the existing culture."
Is assimilation more of the fear that if we
aren't like them (those who we see as oppressors), they will oppress us more,
that they may ignore us and divorce us from opportunity?
Steven Bantu Biko said: "Black man you are on
you own." Are we? Should we assimilate more or should we focus more sharply on
that which is unique and develop upon that? I'm wrestling with these challenges
of identity, and I suspect that there is no easy answer, only that we should
not stop questioning.
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