The Native Americans had a good point: White Man does, apparently, speak with a forked tongue! This may particularly be true of gay white men.
For instance they’re very active policing homophobia in Jamaican music while conveniently ignoring the homophobia in their own backyard.
In recent years they’ve vigorously pursued Jamaican reggae artists the likes of Buju Banton and Beenie Man but they’ve not expended the same level of energy pursuing artists like Eminem.
They did boycot the rapper’s 2000 sophomore release, “The Marshall Mathers LP,” whose title song, “Marshall Mathers,” included lines tlike: “My words are a dagger with a jagged edge/That’ll stab you in the head whether you’re a fag or lez.” But they saved their biggest ire for Buju Banton whose teenage single “Boom Bye Bye” is still used today, 20 years later, as a reason to hate him. By comparison Eminem has been vilified and was even voted by Vibe magazine as the Best Rapper Alive. Please do not adjust your sets!
Despite this, the hypocrisy surrounding gay people’s partiality is hard to ignore. Eminem is responsible for resurrecting and re-popularising the word “faggot” whereas any Jamaican using the yard-styled patois term “batty bwoy/man” is immediately labelled a homophobe.
To counter this gays explain how Eminem has apologised for his remarks and that’s the reason for his rehabilitation and acceptance back in the music fold but Buju Banton has similarly apologised, allegedly, yet his contrition was not accepted by these same people.
Even as Buju languishes in a Florida jail amid speculation that he was framed by gay groups, the issue is still simmering and the antagonism between gay groups and Jamaicans remain at boiling point. The issue can only be resolved if both parties come together on the issue. Somehow it seems easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye.
And, there never seem to be a camel the size of a pin prick when you need one!
Photo: Copyright Eminem.com
