Rapper Wale has quickly gone from being a target to a celebrated straight figure after that back-and-forth over D.C.’s Black Gay Pride. If he keeps this up, he might just earn himself icon status.
Carlos, of the blog Carlos in DC, caught up with Wale as he was … waiting, for something over the weekend … and peppered him with a few questions. “At the end of the day, whether you accept it or not, it’s not going anywhere,” Wale says of The Gs, of whom he doesn’t know any. But!: “A common denominator is that you have a heart and a soul.”
Lamar
GO WALE!!!
JT
I’m beginning to wonder what his target audience is…
Charlie
@JT Let’s hope his target audience is all people so he can change the hearts and minds of many intolerant Americans.
hephaestion
God bless Wale. He has a good heart and good common sense. Thank you for speaking the Truth, Wale.
blackjack44
the rap community needs a lot more Wale’s period!!! That will be a huge contributing factor breaking down homophobia in the black community.
EdWoody
He may not think he knows any. But he does.
James_From_The_Great_City_of_Cambridge
Oh Jason, where are you? Look, a non-homophobic Black man, a rapper no less! I’m sure we won’t see you in this thread because it belies your racist stereotypes about Black people but still…don’t be a coward. Please come tell us why Wale isn’t really tolerant, is a horrible gay-basher, Black people suck, etc…
jason
He’ll probably be shunned by his homophobic black brothers. Rap and hip-hop are basically a form of pimping, a sleazy sexualized paradigm designed to prop up the sleazy straight guy fantasy. It’s a very conservative form of music.
whatever
@jason: You’re just just a piece of shit.
jason
I don’t really care what you think. I call people out, you call people names. I win.
Perhaps what you should be more concerned about is homophobic blacks. I’ve never once heard you criticize them. Not once.
James_From_The_Great_City_of_Cambridge
@jason: He doesn’t need to call out homophobes by race. Most sane people will call out homophobes as they come along. They don’t have to call out all Black people or all White people or all Hispanics because guess what, not every group is all one thing or another. Yes, maybe Black people are slightly more religious than White people but they are by means no more homophobic. If you knew Black people (as half of my family is Black I do Jason), you would know many who are non-judgmental to a fault. They hesitate to judge ANYONE, right down to the people that persecute them. No one is quicker to forgive or more reluctant to judge than many Black folk, probably because of all the racism they have and do encounter. I don’t know what happened to you personally but whatever Black person may have hurt you physically or emotionally does NOT represent the vast majority who are very well aware of their history and don’t like to judge others because of it.
Kev C
Sincere congratulations to Wale. We need more rappers to come out of the closet.
jeffree
Yay Wale! I was very wrong about this guy on my prior post(s), so I am publically apologizing. He did the right thing and isn’t backing down from that.
Hey @ Jason:> Try saying “i’m sorry, I was wrong” once in a while. It does a body a world of good.
whatever
@jason: You’re still a racist piece of shit. You fail at life.
jason
Don’t fall for the notion that you can’t criticize a black person simply because he’s black. This notion is a form of political correctness enforced by the powers-that-be. If we subscribed to that notion, we’d find that all our rights would vanish. We wouldn’t have any rights as gay people.
I say this because I’ve seen how American black culture functions. Socially conservative, heteronormative, fanatically religious…these are the same qualities you find in extremist Islamic cultures.
Of course, I’m not saying that you should be prejudiced towards black people. Far from it. Every black person is entitled to the same rights as everybody else. This is a no brainer. You shouldn’t criticize a black person because they’re black but because of what they believe and how they set out to enforce it.
Just today, it’s being reported that African nations have combined to prevent accreditation of a gay group at the United Nations. How much more evidence do you need?
James_From_The_Great_City_of_Cambridge
@jason: Talking to you is like talking to a dense wall with neo-nazi graffiti on it. You’re not interested in the truth, just grinding your racist ax. The fact that you would compare religious African-Americans to Islamic fanatics just proves how out of it you are. It also proves you don’t know any Blacks whatsoever. Seriously Jason, you’d love Stormfront.org. Go there.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
@jeffree: You, like I are pretty vocal in defending the gates of Gaydom. Howeva when someone does the right thing and does good by the Gays I too say sorry and welcome…………….
Hilarious
@jason: Can you just die already?
Your irrational racism and hatred are so disgusting and ridiculous at this point I have to wonder if you’re even remotely sane at all.
Stop being worthless, just off yourself. You serve no purpose. Nothing of value will be lost.
James_From_The_Great_City_of_Cambridge
@Hilarious: I second that. He can contribute greatly to humanity and the gene pool by doing so…
Yet Another
You guys, stop responding to Jason. It does no good and ruins the thread for everyone else.
I appreciate all hip-hop artists that perform for gay events and prides. Wale joins Mr Cheeks, Lil Kim, Nicki Minaj, Picolo, Trina, and numerous others. And those are just the events that I’ve seen or attended.
Hip-Hop is as beautiful as it is diverse, as is its fanbase. Its good to see more than just the hyper-masculine psudo-black caricatures pushed by mainstream america’s music and entertainment industries.
anonymous
Thank god this is over. I have never cared for rap and the audience does not appear to be moved by his performance.
I am reminded of a group who appeared with Rupaul back in the early nineties at the University of the District of Columbia called Gangster Queens. Yes, they were a gay rap group. Anf believe it or not they were good performers. They just went no where with their act. Does anyone know what happened to them?
DR (the real one, not the guy who made post #12)
@jason:
Which is just as bad as certain segments of white American culture, what’s your point? Every segment of world culture has good and bad. Yes, there are issues in Africa which need to be addressed, but asserting that the ENTIRETY of African and African-American culture is homophobic is just stupid. I’m not going to say racist, but clearly you’re either misguided or inarticulate (or just plain dumb, I haven’t decided).
Wale decides to perform at a Pride event, and you’ve gotta be the rain on the parade. Please take your negativity and leave, we don’t need this constant digging at various parts of American culture, and don’t even get me started on your total biphobia.
tjr101
@jason:
Do you even personally know any black person? You seem to have a chip on your shoulder when it comes to black issues and it shows everytime a black person is the subject of discussion on Queerty.
Should I ask you about the tens of millions of white evangelical Christians that think you and all gays are an abomination? Using your logic on black issues you should know about that since you’re white.
jason
You black homophobe-defenders still haven’t addressed the issue of black homophobia. Where is your objective fairness? You don’t have any. All you do is blindly defend anything with the word “black” in front of it. You’re more prejudiced than I’ll ever be.
The GLBT community needs to get tough with black homophobia. Not racist, not prjeudiced, just tough. If we don’t, our rights will vanish. Black homophobia is being given a pass by the politically correct, and will contribute to the end of our rights if we don’t act now.
Don’t attack their color, simply criticize their beliefs and behaviors. It’s high time we did it.
tjr101
@jason:
You’re a hopeless racist who is conveniently ignoring FACTS!
Why don’t you stop defending white homophobia in America?
1) Blacks make up 12 percent of the population (your hysteria of losing gay rights from blacks is laughable)
2) Whites make up 75 percent of the population
3)The US senate is majority white (it’s not blacks preventing you from getting married)
4)All the joints chief of staff are white (it’s not blacks who’ll fire your ass from the army)
5) The last 43 presidents all white men discriminated against you in some way or the other.
No one here is defending any type of homophobia but you seem to be defending WHITE HOMOPHOBIA while wanting to call out blacks.
Tackle
@TJR101 graet points. and to add to it:
1)Blacks only made up 6-precent of the electoral vote in prop 8. And cannot pass or fail a vote on gay rights in the U.S. due to not having the electorial numbers.
2)Did not rais Millions or go on vast foot patrols to defeat gay marriage.
3)Are not responsible for the majority of GLBT bashings and murders in the U.S.
4)Are not the owners of over 90percent of U.S. property. So when a GLBT person is denied renting or evicted chances are it wasen’t by a black person.
5)When a GLBT person is denied a job or fired because of sexual orientation It’s more than likely to have been done by a white. Whites hold more managerial positions and are a larger force in the job market.
6) Millions of Catholics,over 80 percent white. Mormons, 95 percent white, Church of Scientology,over 85 percent white. Evangelical Christians,over 75 percent white
Have contributed millions to defeat gay marriage. And believe that GLBT people are sinful,going against nature, and to some,going to hell.
7) Many times when a GLBT person has been murdered, as in the case of Matthew Shepard. You are more than likely to have whites marching and chanting, FAGS WILL BURN IN HELL.
Im not saying that there is no homophobia among SOME blacks.
But the belief that as a groupe that blacks are the most homophobic is a big gay lie.
whatever
@Tackle: “1)Blacks only made up 6-precent of the electoral vote in prop 8. And cannot pass or fail a vote on gay rights in the U.S. due to not having the electorial numbers.”
Right on. The aftermath of Prop 8 brought out the vilest racism in the gay community, which always existed. People suddenly felt at liberty and emboldened to air their racism on the basis of one questionable exit poll which showed blacks voted for Prop 8 in higher rates than other communities. This is all it took.
That genie is not going back in the bottle, no matter what anyone in the black community does or says, and will always be used by racists like Jason to bash the black community with.
jason
Whites can be just as homophobic as blacks. But black culture, of which blacks are so proud, is inherently homophobic. Don’t deny it – you know it’s true.
Whites don’t go around wearing their color like a marketing scheme. Blacks, on the other hand, do. Blacks play the color card whenever it suits them. Well, I’m playing it back.
Black culture should be criticized – I’m not backing down on this.
Chitown Kev
@jason:
Dumb racist ass piece of shit, I know puh-lenty of black people that criticize black culture all the the damn time.
tjr101
@Chitown Kev:
That’s the thing, Jason doesn’t know any black people, he lives under a rock.
jason
Black music is a perfect example of the heteronormative black mindset. When watching a music video by a black male artist, you can be sure that, at some stage, a woman in a tight dress or revealing shorts is going to appear, usually within the first 10 seconds. LOL.
Flush black music down the toilet. It truly is a conservative – and homophobic – paradigm.
jeffree
Ignore Jason’s racist, xenophobic, & sexist rants — the same as you would with any troll. It hates women, people of color, foreigners….. It thrives on negative attention. Absent attention, it will eventually go away.
We have bigger issues to deal with: ENDA, DOMA, DADT, Adoption, etc.
Jason just is a distraction from our priorities,
Jesse Helms
This gay sure is ugly!