All Boys Aren't Blue

by George M. Johnson

Wearing a mask for the community’s safety became the new “oppression” for those who have never known true oppression.

The presidency moved from Donald Trump to Joe Biden, which resulted in an insurrection at the Capitol. This threat to the peaceful transition of power occurred because some—mainly white—people felt oppressed again. Oppressed in a country where most people in power look exactly like them.

And for those of you who do have privilege in this world, spend it. Share it with those who don’t have it. Equalize the playing field. Build bridges not walls. Help one another. Form a coalition of equality and equity. Protect the queer persons in your life. Fight for Black folks and Latinx folks and all people of color. You have the power to change things. Don’t use that power to oppress.

I think the majority fear becoming the minority, and so they will do anything and everything to protect their power.

The fact that I couldn’t see my full self in Black heroes or the history books was more about the changing of history to spare white guilt than it ever was about me knowing the whole truth.

I have gone through the unlearning to understand that my community’s treatment of Black queer children is in fact a by-product of a system of assimilation to whiteness and respectability that forces Black people to fit one mold in society, one where being a man means you must be straight and masculine.

Should you not like your name, change it. It is yours, and it will stay with you forever, so do with it what you wish. As we continue to grow through sex and gender, many people will take back their power and change their names—choosing one that fits the person they are, not the one society pushed them to be. Keep your name if you like it. But know that you don’t have to.

Adam

It is unfortunate that we live in a world where owning your agency could be met with rejection, disrespect, or even violence—

Saying that something was “a norm” of the past is a way not to have to deal with its ripple effects in the present. It removes the fact that hate doesn’t just stop because a law or the time changed. Folks use this excuse because they are often unwilling to accept how full of phobias and -isms they are themselves—or at least how they benefit from social structures that privilege them.

But it is important to know that if something bothers you that deeply, you have every right to contest it. Only you know how far you are willing to go for yourself.

Knowledge is truly your sharpest weapon in a world hell-bent on telling you stories that are simply not true.