GUEST BELI-BLOGGER LEE MCD: THE CONTENT OF OUR CHARACTER

Thursday, August 28, 2003, is the 40th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington in which Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered the now famous "I Have A Dream" speech. Ford Church has blogged about race relations and the apathy of an American citizenry toward our basic and inherited privileges. A lot has changed since 1963, but a lot remains the same. I personally know (otherwise) respectable people who use the word "nigger" in a demeaning way to refer to blacks, especially the "lazies" in their own words. My dad burned a bed mattress because my brother slept with a half-black woman on it. My dad wouldn't let us watch The Cosby Show in the 1980's because it was "a nigger show."

Even professional colleagues and vendors make the occasional references which betray their open or subtle racism. I do my best to create an awareness event from such comments and have taken extraordinary measures in my own life to combat racism and discrimination of any sort. As a gay man, I can understand prejudice and even hate, in a particular way. I had a hard time fully accepting transgender and pansexual people because those orientations or situations were virgin territory for me. In my small corners of the world, I make the differences I can. Folks like John Rocker, the baseball player, David Duke, and others have a larger platform and contnue to peddle their overt & subtle racist and exclusionary ideas. I think globally and act locally. If you have time for a story, ask Mikal about his first trip to visit me at Brown University in Providence, RI. For a personal story of someone who attended the original march, please see Charlie Bakst's recent column. Keep hope alive!

Hell yeah Lee, keep fightin' the good fight. Racism is still prominent around the country, especially where I grew up in New Orleans. I went to high school with kids who truly thought the South was going to rise again - no shit! My friends and family know not to use the "N" word around me or I go off like a 4th of July firecracker.

Living with a gay woman and workshops I have attended through Prescott have opened my eyes to gay rights and issues. After one colloquium, I went around tagging the chalk boards in town that read, "Straight man for equal gay rights." Keep on thinking globally and acting locally my friend.