Brother / Sister / Comrade / Friend (In homage to Pat Parker)
2011; Feminist Studies; Volume: 37; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/fem.2011.0019
ISSN2153-3873
Autores Tópico(s)Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies
Resumo388 Matt Richardson BrotherISisterI Comrade! Friend (In homage to Pat Parker) Is it a Boy or a Girl? I am walking down the street in my own Black neighborhood. Is it a boy or a girl, they ask, not to me, but at me, like a slap in the face, like a punch in the stomach. "What is it?" rings in my ear, rattles in my skull, shooting through my temple like a bullet. I am no longer recognizable as one of their own. Even though this is my Black neighborhood too, my street, my place to call home. Even though this is where I meet the eyes of other Black people and we nod in self-recognition. Now, they look away, try not to meet my eyes. They try not to recognize me in their own families, their own friends, and even perhaps, their own secret selves. What are you? They ask. Six months earlier I was a righteous sister, now, I am a traitor to the lesbian sisterhood. This is woman-only space and we have only one way to be a woman. What pronoun do you use? Is a question draped in concern, dripping with contempt. I heard you are one of them now, a man, she says. She is my sister one day, gatekeeper the next. What are you? Pick a side, Choose one or the other, no in between. Matt Richardson 389 Are you a lesbian or a man, which one? I am squeezed tighter than ever before, crammed into a small space, shoved into a corner, jammed into the crevices of identities, tucked away behind someone else's platitudes. But who will I turn to when they come? When the white boys in cars, "We hate nigger faggots," spit at me as I am driving home, contemplating these questions. The white boys, they do not care that this is my Black neighborhood too. They want me dead. Their pink, red, white pinched little faces, twisted into grotesque masks against the night sky scream "We are going to kill you," "We hate nigger faggots." They try to carjack me, jack me up, make me into a statistic, a candle on remembrance day. Yet, Where should I turn when they come? Will I be your righteous brother/sister/comrade/friend? Will you hold out your hand to help me up, to fight them off? Or will you stand there with your arms folded, demanding to know, waiting to hear, reserving your help until you obtain the answer to the question. What are you? They do not care that the lesbian sisterhood is suspicious of my membership. ...
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