And she's a contributor to the opinion section of the school's student newspaper, The Daily Mississippian.
I'm quite impressed with that, so I thought I'd mention that. MARTIN: Majoring in classics and English. MARTIN: She's a college student at the University of Mississippi. MARTIN: Yeah, she's a - I think that was worth mentioning. GRAHAM: I think it was probably more useful to her original audience in her college newspaper. MARTIN: Was the piece useful in any way, Trey? She points out that, you know, between the poles of outsider solidarity, in which, you know, gay men and black women have some experiences of being marginalized in common, even if they're not identical, and on the other end the kind of oppression Olympics, in which people say, no, I have it much worse than you therefore, you know, you can't talk to me, there's a common - there's a middle ground where, you know, a little mutual support might be welcome. MARTIN: The Advocate being a gay-oriented publication. One of my favorite responses was from Michelle Garcia, who's the - I think the managing editor of The Advocate magazine. And I think you're absolutely right, Bridget, in that until you can acknowledge that this is painful in some ways, you can't get beyond the beginning of the conversation. GRAHAM: It is an argument that I've heard a lot over the years. Talk a little bit more about that if you would.
MARTIN: Trey Graham, what about you? You know, you were actually telling us that this is an old and painful argument. Until you have to respond to that, I don't think you could kind of tear down her argument or her experience or invalidate it because you don't like it. And until that happens to, and until you're put in a position where someone wants to talk to you about twerking because they've decided oh, you're a black woman - that's what you're about, and so we're going to be best friends. And a lot of the people who wrote this - these pieces - weren't people who have to deal with someone coming up saying, hey girl, hey sister, how you doing? - in the kind of Shanequa voice. But I have a lot of issue with some of the pushback pieces that were basically, you know, saying because they don't like what Mannie had to say, that she is wrong or it doesn't happen to her. She kind of brought up some things about gay men not being - not having to disclose their sexuality in a way that black women, you know - you see we're black, you can't.I'm not really with that. Bridget Armstrong, why don't you start?ĪRMSTRONG: Well, I will say I had a few issues with Mannie's original piece. So I just wanted to ask each of you what you think about it. Now, the piece has gotten a lot of support and a lot of pushback. You are not a black woman, and you do not get to claim either blackness or womanhood," unquote. And she says, quote, "Maybe, for some of you, itâs a presumed mutual appreciation for Beyonce and weaves that has you thinking that Iâm going to be amused by you approaching me in your best âShanequa from around the wayâ voice. Last week, Time published a piece by a young writer named Sierra Mannie called "Dear White Gays: Stop Stealing Black Female Culture." In the piece, Mannie argues that some gay, white men have appropriated black, female culture. MARTIN: So let's start with a topic that's getting a lot of traction. Thanks for joining us.īRIDGET ARMSTRONG, BYLINE: Thanks for having us. And Michael Arceneaux is a writer and contributor to and. Trey Graham is a former NPR arts editor and an award-winning theater critic. Bridget Armstrong is one of our TELL ME MORE producers and creator of the pop-culture blog. Sitting in the chairs for a fresh cut or a new do, as it were, are Sarah Ventre, senior producer with public radio station KJZZ in Arizona.
That's our Beauty Shop-Barbershop hybrid where we mix things up and dig into some pop-culture stories with a diverse panel of men and women. I'm Michel Martin, and this is TELL ME MORE from NPR News.