The Historical Realities/Complexities of Black Homophobia!
Challenges and ongoing dilemmas
It seems like only yesterday when Kevin Hart’s acerbic and homophobic remarks (made on social media a few years ago) reverberated intensely throughout the blogosphere and beyond. Indeed, things became so tense that the mega comedian who had been tapped to host the 2019 Academy Awards eventually forfeited “the role of a lifetime,” as he described it, due to intense backlash against his homophobic comments as well as to his refusal to further apologize for what many people saw as inadequate contrition.
Earlier that same year, (oh, 2019!) Joy Ann Reid, MSNBC political pundit and commentator found herself in the middle of a messy, tangled, fierce controversy as reports surfaced that for several years in the early to mid-2000s, she had written a slew of vehemently homophobic blog comments attacking select politicians and celebrities she assumed to be gay, as well as attacking the LGBTQIA+ community in general. This same blog had been disabled by 2008. As was the case with Hart, reaction to such revelations was fierce and immediate.
For her part, Reid issued a public statement arguing that her email account had been “hacked.” Not surprisingly, her suspect response raised even more ire among previous skeptics and die-hard detractors. Indeed, more…
