Why Is Everything About Race? Examining Racial Erasure in Queer Spaces

This essay is from the INDY’s Portrait of Pride series. You can read the rest of the pieces here.

Pride month, at its core, is a rebellion; a rebellion started by people already accustomed to social warfare on account of their multiple social identities. Though we celebrate the joy of gender and sexual expression, the love that has survived the trials of the oppressive forces at work against its people in the United States, and the pursuit of even more liberties for LGBTQIA+ individuals everywhere, it is necessary to acknowledge that the original founders of this rebellion were not just queer, but also Black.

And this fact is one that has received significant pushback.

It is no doubt in the current political and social climate that a person in the United States, regardless of any other identities they may have, has noticed that many of our neo-government policies have begun to center race. But why?

Wondering why everything seems to be about race nowadays is a natural reaction for a person for whom nothing or next to nothing has been about race; or otherwise, for whom race feels like an afterthought as they seek to align themselves along other identifying lines, like queerness in Pride month. This outrage usually ends up in an emotionally charged exclamation about everything always being a certain way which they are totally and irrevocably uncool with—they would much rather seek ‘unity’ in the movement, and see any acknowledgement of differences as derision from that unity.

Despite well-meaning allies, this push for ‘unity’ often results in dilution and erasure. As a person who exists at the intersection of multiple identities, queerness and Blackness being two, I implore a person with this line of thinking to take the steps below to reconsider how they show up in this movement.

First, be aware of what the complaint implies. Saying “why is everything like this now?” is an easy way to open and close a conversation without contributing to it, and oftentimes it is done without intent.

Using catch-all terms like “everything” and “always” exaggerate the issue and derail the conversation, forcing claimants to either spend extra time appealing to reason or assume the overwhelming role of explaining “everything” rather than discussing the topic at hand. If you want an actual explanation, narrow down your frustration. Examples include:

“Why do I feel like everything is about race now?”

Probably because we have enormous access to information now more than ever, and many non-white cultures are now producing what you see and hear. This results in non-white storytellers using race as either the backdrop or main event of their anecdotes, which they at long last get to tell, because their BIPOC identity has shaped their experience in society in unique ways.

“Why do so many people seem to be talking about race?”

Because we are experiencing a cultural war, one that contextualizes every other social issue (including Queer Liberation) and the racial hierarchy that we have finally found the language to describe is at the core of that cultural war. Therefore, we use this newfound vocabulary to make sense of what we see, and open the dialogue we deserve to have.

“All this race talk makes me uncomfortable and I don’t understand why.”

This is a statement, but I can probably tell you why one might feel this way—because race is uncomfortable. It’s uncomfortable to exist in places where either you or someone else is suffering because of the way you look and present in society. It’s difficult to understand why one person might have unearned privileges, and another might have unearned drawbacks. We are conditioned to believe in meritocracy, so when events, anecdotes, and messaging demonstrate that we, in fact, shouldn’t, it is extremely uncomfortable.

In summary:

• Whether one sees the racial divide or doesn’t, that is about race.

• Whether one understands how centuries-old wounds and systemic oppression can weaken an entire population or not—that is about race.

• Whether a person can accept that their truth is not the truth, or instead go on believing only their own experiences, that is about race.
• ‘Everything’ is not about race, but nearly everything can be linked to systemic racism, willful ignorance, and unconscious bias—even in safe spaces like Pride.

If you’ve never had to think about your race before, either consciously, subconsciously, or self-consciously, congratulations! You are in a significant minority.

But this Pride month, in the country where even vanilla ice cream and swimming pools have been racialized, let’s not be flippant. Let’s be informed.

Comment on this story at backtalk@indyweek.com.

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