Today’s Virginian-Pilot contained a reprint of this Leonard Pitts article on homophobe Tim Hardaway. In case you missed it, here’s what Hardaway, a former NBA player had to say on a radio show last week:
“You know, I hate gay people, so I let it be known,” Hardaway said. “I don’t like gay people and I don’t like to be around gay people. I am homophobic. I don’t like it. It shouldn’t be in the world or in the United States.”
Of course, Hardaway backed away from his statements – after the NBA banished him from some events and he lost at least one endorsement deal.
Pitts’ article compares the raw hatred of blacks, as personified by Bull Connor, to that of gays:
Like segregation before it, homophobia is, for many people, still socially respectable. So one hopes that one byproduct of Hardaway’s outburst is that it will become less so. That we will be forced to face it for what it is. It would be a nice change.
So often, we use words to distance ourselves from what we feel, to hide our true meaning, even from ourselves. Hardaway used words to say exactly what he felt, and it is possible to abhor what he felt and yet appreciate that he does not make you guess or infer.
Think again of Connor, screaming obscenities under an Alabama sun. To hear him, to hear Hardaway, is to know that you have finally come down to it, finally met the beast that lives behind euphemism and weasel words.
It is ugly, but it is also, at long last, truth.
So true. What is sad is the lack of a response from the black leadership. Jasmyne Cannick has chronicled her attempts to get a response from the NAACP:
Yesterday I called up the National NAACP office and asked them if they were going to condemn his statements. The answer I got from the acting communications director was that the NAACP gets asked to respond to a lot of issues and that they would examine it and ultimately it would be up to the President, Bruce Gordon to make the final decision.
I really don’t want to criticize the NAACP, but what Hardaway said was just as bad as what Michael Richards said and look at how we got all up in arms over that.
What both Jasmyne and Leonard point to is the same thing that I talked about during last year’s Marshall Newman Amendment fight: that the black struggle for civil rights is comparable to the gay struggle for civil rights and that the two groups should be working towards the same goal of civil rights for all.
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
— Martin Luther King Jr.
What part of that doesn’t Tim Hardaway get?
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
I’m not trying to talk a lot about something I don’t know much of. But it seems to me that there is a large strain of homophobia in black culture, especially among the youth. Hip-hop music is riddled with anti-gay slurs. I don’t know, but could that be part of the reason for a lack of outrage be due to this?
And if I’m waaaay off, just tell me.
I used to be a really big fan of Tim Hardaway, so hearing of his comments was very sad, even more so than hearing that Darrell Green may someday be running for ofice as a Republican.
I was pretty glad to see the NBA boot him so quickly. That was encouraging.
(And not to take away from the seriousness of the discussion, but this is still my favorite response so far . . . )
Sulu’s response is the best:
“that the black struggle for civil rights is comparable to the gay struggle for civil rights and that the two groups should be working towards the same goal of civil rights for all.”
Explain to me how these ttwo struggles are similar?
As a black man, I do not understand how the struggle of black americans to be treated simply as men and women is the same as men and women who want additional rights as gay men and women.
VV – “additional rights”? What additional rights do you refer to?
I can only assume that you haven’t read anything that I’ve posted about the similarities if you are asking that question.
Chris – first of all, don’t equate hip-hop with “black culture.” Hip-hop is a part of the culture but by no means a defining part. And what you refer to – the anti-gay but also anti-woman part of hip-hop – is a further subset of the whole.
Paula Zahn did a piece on hip-hop the other night and if memory serves, she said something like 87% of the consumers of hip-hop are white.
The question that I ask you is – Do men and women who are gay have rights as men and women? If they do, then why must they be granted protection as gay men and women?
When blacks were fighting for rights during the Civil Rights movement, they were fighting for the right to simply be treated as men and women, period.
That’s certainly an oversimplication of what the civil rights movement was about. As I said before, read thru what I’ve written. And I’m still waiting to hear from you what “additional rights” you think gays and lesbians are trying to get.
On the issue of “additional rights”, as things currently stand, gay men and women have the same right to marry as straight men and women. The additional right that gay men and women are seeking is the right to marry based upon their sexual perference. Based upon this arguement then other groups should have the right to marry based upon their sexual preference, such as people who prefer animals as mates, people who prefer young boys as mates and people who prefer multiple women or men as mates. Is this the direction you want this country to go in?
You know, the same argument you pose is the one that was used by whites to prevent blacks from marrying whites. Try replacing “gay” with “black” and perhaps you will see the connection.
To say that gay marriage – that is, marriage between two consenting adults – is the same as pedophilia or bestiality demonstrates your utter lack of knowledge, not to mention bigotry.
Gay marriage is not the only issue facing the gay community. There are tons of others, all of which boil down to treating gay people as human beings, giving gays the same rights to the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness that others have. That is why Coretta Scott King and Julian Bond and other black leaders have embraced the call for equal – not special – rights for gays.
Vivian, thanks for the correction. I think its becasue I’m young and thats what is closest to me.
And by the way, Hardaway was an asshat for what he said.
VV bet you didn’t know you were a bigot, cause you think the country should have morals, huh?
VV take the bigot test and tell us if VJP is correct.
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/