There’s no shortage of opinions about homophobe “It” boy, Isaiah Washington. While certainly there have been a number of articles, op-eds and general rants penned by white gay men, less attention has been given to opinions within gay black communities. Thus, we’d like to take a little second to ponder a Louisiana Weekly piece by a black lesbian named Jasmyne Cannick.
Over the past few weeks, Cannick’s railed against gay white media, insisting that even though Washington should be reprimanded for his now legendary faggot-flinging, some journalists and activists have been too quick to jump on the Down with Washington band wagon. She writes:
[The protest] reminds of 1876 in the Deep South, when a White woman would scream rape at the hands of a Black man, and that Black man was then dragged out of his home into the middle of the night and beaten and lynched by an angry White mob without any proof or evidence, just the word of his accuser. It was another case of guilty until proven innocent.
…The gay mafia’s wheels were in motion and they smelled meat, dark meat. And whether Isaiah apologized or not, it was all down hill for him anyway.
It seems to us that she’s got a point – to a degree. Yes, people were quick to judge Washington, vilifying him to the nth degree. But, would we have been so ready to blast a white man? We don’t know about other media outlets, but we certainly would have.
Cannick goes on to say that gay media’s been relatively silent on the case of a one Charles Knipp: a white man who dresses up as a black woman named “Shirley Q” and has organized an entire minstrel show around negative stereotypes of black women.
Knipp’s characterizations of Black woman played out on stage in city after city are ones that portray Black women as being on welfare, living in the projects, illiterate, sexually promiscuous mothers who don’t know who their children’s fathers are, alcoholics, and drug addicts …The gay mafia has said nothing about Knipp, but do you want to know why? Because they’re the ones responsible for selling out his shows as he tours around the country.
Knipp doesn’t bring his shows to the people he’s degrading. No, he books his shows in White gay Mecca’s like L.A.’s West Hollywood, New York’s Chelsea District, San Francisco’s Castro District.
So let me get this straight, no pun intended, it’s not ok for the Black guy to use the f-word, but it is ok for the White gay guy to dress up in blackface and perform parodies that mock Blacks.
Actually, we had never heard of Knipp until Cannick’s column and rest assured, Ms. C, we think it’s pretty gross.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
In response to Cannick’s criticism, Knipps assistant wrote her this note, which she’s posted on her blog:
You are absolutely PITIFUL! There’s always someone stirring the pot, and I’m sure glad it’s you this time…. I’m Shirley Q’s personal assistant. The fans and myself find it HYSTERICALLY funny all the time you put into this nonsense, when there are bigger issues to be faced (War, Terrorism, Unemployment, Homelessness). And isn’t it also funny that Chuck Knipp doesn’t solicit his act? PEOPLE BOOK HIM FAR IN ADVANCE, and the fans request his performances. I’m sure we’d all like to retire and not work any longer (you being the exception here with your nonsense).
THANK YOU JASMINE FOR YOUR HELP IN SELLING MORE CD’s THAN EVER! This FAR outweighed a live performance!
Tony
Hmm, bigger problems? Racism’s a pretty big problem, we think. It’s so big, in fact, that we think you could successfully argue racism plays a role in all of those other “issues”.
As for the people who find Knipp’s act “hysterical” – you should really know better. What would you say if Washington dressed up as a white fag and did a little routine. Nothing good, we’re sure.
chiblkdude
As a black gay man, I have tried to avoid the “white folks/white media are coming down hard on Isaiah Washington because he’s black” angle. It’s so easy to feel like your race is being attacked when you see so many people who are not of your race berating someone who is. The same is true for sexuality. I wanted to think objectively, though. After all, he did repeatedly use the “f” word.
But then again, Brad Garrett admitted that people on his set use the word all the time. While Brad received a bit of chiding, no “fire Brad Garrett (or the entire cast of his show for that matter) band wagon” commenced. When Glenn Beck — who repeatedly spews hateful remarks – used the word, there was little outrage. In fact, CNN defended him. No banners to ban CNN flew. I don’t know why. But sometimes I wish those people who are not of color would to a litmus test on themselves. Is it more offensive when a large person of color says something homophobic (especially to someone who is white and gay) than when I white person does it. What if T. R. Knight were black? Would it have been as offensive?
Instead of cries to “educate Isaiah” about how using the word is not okay under any circumstance, so many in the (white) media/blogosphere have called for his head. Listen, everyone knows not to use the “n” word. It’s been engrained in us for enough decades now to know serious reprecussions will follow for uttering it. But, let’s face it, we’re not there yet with the “f” word. While I think rehab is a bit much, I think it was a good idea to make Isaiah look at himself and dialogue with gay people about his actions. We should not think of a cause as lost if someone says something bigotted. This is our opportunity to continue the dialogue, educate the offenders, and pave the road for the time – maybe in 5 years, maybe less – when the “f” word will sound so disgusting, shameful, offensive, and earthshattering when uttered, a collective gasp of disbelief will be gasped.
BeeDee
I don’t care what color skin a biggot and hater has – I’m done with being called faggot and walking up into a conversation between straight people where I overhear faggot.
I ‘ll give Ms. Cannick, I hope there’s a special place in hell for minorities that participate in hate toward other minorities. I regularly call out gays that hate.
I have no more sympathy for Michael Richards than I do for Isaiah Washington. And SCREW Cannick for pretending there’s a difference – I don’t recall her article defending Richards!
logan767
Who the fuck are the gay mafia? Is Cannick a conspiracy theorist?
White or black, using the word “faggot” amounts to workplace harassment. I don’t want to hear it where I work. It’s unacceptable – period. Let’s not play identity politics with this one.
logan767
And one more thing… don’t we see black comics doing parody of gays and “white folks” all the time? I find it irritating and divisive in both directions – but it’s not the same as agressive and hostile language in the workplace.
chiblkdude
I agree with all that you say. So please, let’s ask for the firing of Glenn Beck and Brad Garrett.
Let’s call for an investigation into why the “f” word is used so much on the set of Garrett’s show. If it’s offensive no matter who utters it, let’s place an equally glaring spotlight of the other men.
John
It’s amazing how folks that should have some shared experiences around being discriminated against can find so little common ground.
Cannick is right about racism in upper-middle class gay neighborhoods. Some gay/bi white males still think making racist and sexist jokes is “cute”, “sassy”, or “witty” as long as there are no minorities there to get offended. As far as I’m concerned, it is a disgusting practice. And it happens way too often in queer social spaces.
However, that doesn’t mean black folks should yell “You goddamn white faggots!” to random white people (who may or may not be gay) in the street either. Unfortunately, that happens way too often as well. And it’s just not productive to spout such words.
ousslander
Washington would have been fired already if he were white.
Paul Raposo
So it’s wrong for GLBT’s to compare the civil rights movement to the fight for equal marriage; but it’s apparently ok for an African American to compare the treatment of blacks by whites during the slave years to today’s “white” gay community and Mr. Washington’s bigotry?
Paul Raposo
BTW–Here’s Brad “SECOND BANANA” Garrett’s stupidity. Notice he says Jew, not hebe, or kike? I guess to Brad some words are more “just” words than others. Typical.
http://www.accesshollywood.com/news/ah3653.shtml
Ian D. Stewart
“[The protest] reminds of 1876 in the Deep South, when a White woman would scream rape at the hands of a Black man, and that Black man was then dragged out of his home into the middle of the night and beaten and lynched by an angry White mob without any proof or evidence, just the word of his accuser. It was another case of guilty until proven innocent.”
Please tell me I am not the only one to read this and go “WHAT?!?!”
Brandon
If this commentary has illuminated anything, it’s the fact that gender and race marks us in such ways as to make true objectivity–on subjects involving race or gender–virtually impossible. I agree with what ‘John’ said in his post…it is amazing indeed that victims of bigotry can find no common ground.
Leland
I had read some of her comments before, including that Washington deserved a lighter “sentence” because he “has a good heart”–though I don’t get how she knows that, nor why it should make a difference. As the classic SNL line went, “Even Pol Pot had a mother.”
I totally agree with her about Knipp being beyond the pale [no pun intended], but she demonstrates what a hack she is not just by her Ovitzian “gay mafia” nonsense [could she actually be Ovitz in blackface drag?] but by not realizing that it is hardly a fair “all things being equal” comparison. Like Queerty, I had never heard of the anachronistic creep, but was shocked when I saw his photos. I venture to say few in the rest of gay media know about him either, though I subsequently saw an ad for his show in a southern bar rag, but we know they don’t have any politics, only ad rates.
Is she not aware there was a demonstration in New York against him a few years ago, attended by gays both black and white? Is she not aware that black gay RuPaul not only insists Knipp is not racist but included him/her on one of his/her CDs [drag freaks have a very strong union, ya know]? And is she not aware that comparing calling for the twice guilty Washington to be fired to lynchings of the innocent is not just hyperbole but an insult to the memories of those who were actually lynched?
I say, fuck, and not in the good way, her and Washington and “Grey’s Anatomy” creator Rhimes and Knipp and his/her assistant who sounds oddly a lot like a Reichen Troll.
bubba
I must say, Queerty gets credit for even bringing this up. Towleroad and other white/gay blog kingpins (a few on the black side too) have been myseriously silent about Jasmyne’s tackling of this subject and her handling of Chuck Knipp. Jasmyne opened a big can of worms with this subject, but the dialogue is necessary.
noah
Queerty,
Thank you for addressing Ms. Cannick’s remarks while most other gay media have ignored and tacitly lent approval to Charles Knipp’s Shirley Q. Liquor. To pretend that the Liquor character is not a hateful walking and talking slur is appalling in reflecting ethnic narcissism.
Washington’s words were ignorant and hateful. Knipp, however, is just as bad if not worse. He is not only aware of the offense he has caused in the past but continues to make a buck off this mess. It’s not funny. It’s hateful.
Hunter Hoop
Wait, just because she’s a gay woman she is viewed as someone who has credence to make criticisms on the situation? Never mind that she’s black which I guess is a reason why she may sympathize with Washington…but being a gay woman is different from being a gay man. This woman has most likely never been called a faggot….considering she isn’t one.
I just don’t think that people should be like “Oh a LESBIAN wrote this, so it has more value than that of a straight person” The gay female experience is different than that of the gay male experience.
Not that Ms. Cannick doesn’t have the right to express her opinions, but she shouldn’t be given tons of precedence just because of her lesbian status.
akaison
The reason why she was ignored is because she’s full of shit. I know in this day and age I must prove my bona fides, so let me just say that I am black and gay. The reason why she’s full of shit is the basic concept of two wrongs do not make a right. All the situations mentioned are wrong. The problem her argument faces is that she wants to use one wrong to make up for another. It doesn’t matter how many time she brings up racism, it will never justify homophobia. It doesn’t matter how many times people want to bring up homophobia, it doesn’t justify racism. But, Mr Washington isn’t facing someone calling him the n word, he is facing people who he called the f word. The difference is that he is acting as the opressor here. Justifying one form of opression, by saying that you are opressed by another form of opression is the lowest form of discourse. MLK and others did not fight for our rights so that we could be come what we fought against.
reason
Look, I’m not getting hysterical over Isaiah Washington’s bigotry. But let’s remember, Isaiah is a public figure with a massive salary and a hit TV show. Charles Knipp, whether you like his brand of humor or not, is a relative nobody. It’s simply unfair and unfounded to equate the two and expect that gay groups should issue denunciations of the behavior of specific entertainers who don’t even register on the national scene. And it’s particularly gauling that a black lesbian activist seems to side with a black man who clearly used anti-gay slurs SOLELY because he is black. Does nobody get the irony there? Cannick has shown herself to be a reverse race-baiter who seeks to divide us further. Shame on her.
poodle
She kind of looks like a young whoopi goldberg.
whoopi, whoopi plus one, the whoopi goldberg show.
wake up with whoopi
Randy
I have been covering this controversy for a few weeks now. I’m not sure how I even came upon Ms. Cannick, but I did, and before Mr. Washington fessed up, she had a petition to save his job, and was essentially calling gay men, nothing but powerful white men and a gay mafia, etc. etc. When Washington did admit his calling Knight a faggot, she lost the petition, but went after this Shirley Q. Liquor, as if there was a similarity. That was lost on me. I checked out Knipp’s act, online, because, as you may know, she did succeed in having his shows canceled in West Hollywood. I didn’t find Shirley funny, as when one claims to be a comedian, thats a sin. I suppose the analogy would be when gay men are portrayed as swishy, flaming queens, (often by swishy, flaming queens) it can be offensive, but I don’t call my congressman. Comedy is caricature.
As for Ms. Cannick, as I posted on my blog, she seems an angry woman, ready to pounce on anything slightly politically incorrect. That is her right. I am just confused too often as to what side of the fence she is sitting.
dixichuk
Washington didn’t seeem to receive any more vitriol in the beginning than the dozens of sports figures, coaches, politicians and other public figures get over the course of an average year. They say it, we get all pissy about it. They either apologize through their publicist or apologize when they are threatened with sanctions (generally financial) – or give us the finger, much to the delight of a not so small segment of our society.
The difference with Mr. Washington is that just about the time the whole brou-ha had died down, what does he do??? bring up the whole thing again! I’m sorry, but stupid is an equal opportunity f***K-up.
sher
look, bigotry is bigotry, no matter what race u might be,MLK strved for equalit in all people,, not just a few prefered ppl.
i am a lesbian woman, and i personally take offence at all forms of bigotry.
maybe gay’s have not suffered the death rates of black american and other’s, but we are still being beating’s, disgrace, bigotruy and yes, death.
but whaen especially a black man dies at the hand’s of a white person or person’s, everyone, nor just black, but most whites find it repulsive. but when a lesbian or especially a gay man die at the hand’s of other, no one seem’s to give a shit, not the govenment, not any race, except a certain few. does anyone remember mattew sheppard? no. after all this time ryan white? even though he was a victim of a blood transfsion? no, there’s more, but at the world at large, most gay and lesbian victim’s are not even worth a mention in the news, chance’s are no.
so apparently it alright that a black man, or black or white or other, can still be excused of being a bigot as long as they pretend, for sake of job, especially a high paying one, as long as they tell the cops, the courts, or other’s that they have a problem, they only thing they need to do is get some kinf of theropy, that make’s it alright.
but let people like mel gibson and micheal richard’s are burned at the stake, it’s alright for mr. washington,to sprew his crap and apparently get away with it!
and for the black community to say there is no comapraison to the strife they went through, is totally wrong, we have learned (i’m white), to not say the n-word is wrong, maybe the black community should have some comapsiom for us, and yes, we weren’t owned by a segratied portion of socity, but the hate is still there no matter what color you are! so mr. washington, should lose his job, an make total apology, not not only mr knight, bu the entire gay community. so beng black, is not better than the white community still livinging in the 40’s and 50’s and before. if he’s allowed to only attend re-hab, the same could be said abot the good-ole boy’s of not just today, but yester of all ole-yesteryear!
martini-boy
The difference between the 1876 Deep South lynching incident by an angry White mob and the Washington incident with resepect to the ‘gay mafia’ is that the ‘gay mafia’ is not a dominant culture, as the White mob was in 19th Century America. It is just as under-classed as the black community is, and the same type of discrimination can go the other way (as we have seen with Mr. Washington).
AND, now living in the 21st Century, we SHOULD all know better – that is, both in not using the new f-word and the n-word – given all the advancements in civil rights and identity politics. This is where Washington fucked up big time.
Rehabilitation? Sure, why not. But this MUST be done to anyone and everyone who ever utters the word “faggot” in a hateful manner.