Summer of Hate
By Keith Boykin, in sexuality
Monday, August 8 2005, 10:13AM
New York Newsday calls it "the summer of hate crimes." Although Mayor Mike Bloomberg says hate crimes are actually down in New York City, two new incidents over the weekend raise the ugly spectre of hate violence once again.
In the first incident, which is likely to generate more media coverage, a gang of white men attacked a black man in Brooklyn. In the second incident, a black gay man (yes another black gay man) was attacked on Sunday while on his way to the Roxy nightclub in Chelsea.
Although New York Newsday reported the attack took place in the Meat Packing district, the actual location of the nightclub where they were headed is more like Chelsea. According to the report, "the man was walking to the Roxy with a male friend when they were approached by two men. The first man yelled an anti-gay slur, and then both perpetrators assaulted the pair."
The New York Sun reported the ages of the victim and his friend. "About 12:50 a.m. a 33-year-old black man was walking with a white male, 29, in the Chelsea area. When the men reached the corner of 18th Street and Ninth Avenue, a male made a homophobic remark and with his fists struck the black man in the face, police said. A struggle ensued, during which another male allegedly punched the black male in the back of the head. The suspects fled."
The New York Daily News also ran a short story about the anti-gay incident, but I could find nothing about it in the New York Times.
The attack over the weekend comes after recent attacks on Dwan Prince, Jamal James, Rashawn Brazell and others. In fact, the New York Daily News just reported over the weekend that Dwan Prince is still paralyzed from the recent attack on him.
I'm not sure if there are more hate crimes happening to black gay men or if we are just hearing about them more, but the pattern is still very disturbing.
Comments conceal
michaeliv
August 8 2005, 11:49AM
I have a question for you Keith.
Forgive me if I word this incorrectly..
I was wondering if you could elaborate on the parallel between the disporportionate amount of media coverage that missing staight minorities get to the amount of media coverage that gay black men get when crimes are commited against them.
I think back to the the coverage that Matthew Shepard received during that time.
Was the circumstance during that incident "more marketable" for lack of a better term? Did the fact that he was white make a deference?
Just asking.
Mike
Keith Boykin
August 8 2005, 1:11PM
Back in 2003, Professor Kim Pearson at the College of New Jersey compared the coverage by major media following the May 11 murder of Sakia Gunn, a 15-year-old black lesbian, in Newark, New Jersey and the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard in Wyoming. She found 507 news stories about Shepard in the two months after his death but only 11 stories about Gunn in the same time period after her death.
Professor Kim Pearson's website:
http://professorkim.blogspot.com/
Jazzi
August 8 2005, 7:10PM
It's a shame we have to deal with sick individuals who have nothing better to than to fuck with someone who doesn't know them or have done anything to them. Tell you what, let a motherfucker try to run down on me! You'll be reading about me in the papers but not for the reasons you'd think!
BlackmonPHD
August 8 2005, 7:30PM
Two years ago, while I was teaching at a college in a small Louisiana town, one of my students, a young black gay man, was mysteriously murdered in the town. His body was mutilated, burned, badly beaten, and thrown in a ditch. His vehicle was torched to cover the evidence. A wealthy young white man confessed to murdering the gentleman. Oddly, this is where the story ends. He was never charged, and the local newspaper quickly suppressed the story. His family's old money name kept him out of jail. I am thirty-two years old, the same age as the victim. That could have been me.
This is often the outcome of hate crimes committed against gays in the south. These stories are hardly ever reported, and the suspects are never brought to justice. As a psychotherapist, I have several white patients who have confessed to me that they have abused homosexuals, especially black gays. As a professional, I try to keep an open mind in my sessions with my patients. But as a gay black man, I have developed a deep sense of disgust for them. Am I wrong not wanting to counsel those patients? Should I disregard their bigotries as a simple emotional and psychological illness, as I was trained to do? Tell me if I am wrong.
DB
August 8 2005, 9:38PM
Hate is bliss these days. In Mississippi, a young man that I knew very well was mysteriously burned alive in his vehicle on a secluded country road. To date, there are NO witnesses, NO one charged, and NO report or news coverage. When and where does the madness end? My heart goes out to the families. All I can say is, travel in packs and protect yourselves and eachother. The enemies are busy and abundant!
Bklynbro
August 8 2005, 11:40PM
We continue to have people commit violence against us, march against us, preach against us, sing against us and disrespect us in all kind of ways - and what do we do about it? Where's our collective outrage? We get together in large numbers not to march or protest but to party. We primp and pose at parties and call that pride. What good is all that muscle without strength, courage and brain power? Nothing but useless meat, that 's what. We give our money and support to homophobic religious and entertainment enterprises instead of more worthy causes or building our own. And we wonder why folks tend to think so little of us.
We don't work together as a community should to build, using our creativity and strengths and then giving in ways that warrant credibility.
FEAR is the opposite of LOVE.
Regan DuCasse
August 9 2005, 11:28AM
Perhaps the difference, or indifference is in how invisible victims are.
Without the results of the crimes or graphic details, there is no shock value.
Perhaps what we need is shock.
Photographs of the coffins returning from Iraq are not in the press.
The murder of Emmett Till might have gone on unnoticed, but for the photo of Till in his glass topped coffin.
The sensation around his killing was comparable to that of Shepard because of Mamie Till's determination to SHOCK.
She was vilified by some for such a thing, but that's what it took for the world to take notice.
Blackmon and DB...I am so sorry for your loss.
But people need to be shaken out of their topor.
What that will take, I have no idea.
Our culture seems to devoid of shame, or aversion to violence and gore.
But something, somehow....has got to WAKE THEM UP!
Maraboudoktorn
August 11 2005, 2:34PM
OK. This "Summer of Hate" piece is really unsettling and scary -- especially the gay hate crime incident near the Roxy in Chelsea. You know what's scarier -- it could've been me. Believe it or not, I was at the Roxy that Sunday morning from 1 am 'til 4 am, around the time this man was attacked. I rode the ACE trains uptown to take my boyfriend home and to go clubbing, which I did, luckily I wasn't harmed.
This recent incident really hits home to me the immediacy of hate crimes and how, any given moment, they can touch us.
I do remember several incidents last year (which I didn't report) where I was walking home from the Roxy and people in the highrise Chelsea housing projects were throwing water balloons down at us (and I believe they were shouting "faggot"). I ran, screamed and nervously laughed while me and my friend ducked the onslaught of cascading balloons. I thought to myself, "wow, even in a city like New York, in the gayest of areas, we are not free to just *be*."
Like Gwen Stefani and André 3000 said so resolutely, "We got a long way to go."
blueribbon
August 12 2005, 9:48PM
I feel so alone. No matter where I go in this gotdamn city I'm excluded. People, the city I'm referring to is Pensacola (FL). As a black gay (closeted) male in his senior year of high school I'm desperately counting the days to graduation so I can get the hell out of town! Yes, this city (aka Emerald Coast, the Panhandle area, North West Region of Florida, Redneck Riveira) is known for it's beaches and warm weather but it also is full on throatle racist and homophobic as folks. (noticed I said folks and not white) Blacks here are fucking crabs and the nonblack minorities stick with the whites) I swear this place is so fucked. Like I said don't come to Pensacola.-cuz it ain't shit!
Peace