Taboos
My Gay Problem, Your Black Problem & Is Homosexuality the Greatest Taboo In reading the two essays, “My Gay Problem, Your Black Problem,” and “Is Homosexuality the Greatest Taboo,” I have found that each makes interesting points on the issue of homosexuality in the black culture. In “My Gay Problem, Your Black Problem,” Earl Ofari Hutchinson writes discusses the “triple burden”. The triple burden includes one who is all of the following characteristics: black, male, and homosexual. The author described reasons why each of these three traits is a negative. He mentions how rappers, like Ice-Cube include in their lyrics, lines like “Real Niggers aint gay.” How is a gay black man expected to respond to a quote like this? It puts them down in a derogatory manner that really comes without a basis. This is part of the reason why so many gay people, and I am not only referring to gay blacks, are so hesitant, and often never officially come out of the closet to the public. Maybe they will tell their families, but even then many gays are scared what others will think of them when friends and/or families hear this.