From what I’ve observed in McBride’s ‘Straight Black Studies’ – it discusses the politics of African American lives and how the response to defy racist assumptions with kindness and respect leads to African Americans assimilation of American Values instead of giving the black community a separate base of cultural values. It also began to heavily alter the fate of Black Studies in academia, making African American scholars forced to endure strict standards on their behavior–from their body language and verbiage.

        This subject of respectability politics opens us up to the base assumptions of why many people in the queer community often have a debate on how they should approach things regarding queerness, and adding the racially marginalized identities of queers adds another layer of intricacy and meaning to the behavior of queer people. James Baldwin is the main star of this essay, where McBride analyzes the author’s identities which is not able to be separated into boxed descriptions because every part of Baldwin’s life as a black and queer man plays into his current decisions and role in life. 

He is also a writer as well as an activist–being one of the first people to come out on his homosexuality. I also find it very interesting how Baldwin, who was especially a big figure in earlier decades, has similar yet different values on the views of sexuality, as well as representation – “,who are so obsessed with the particular details of anybody’s sex life. I don’t think those details make a difference.” In comparison to my experience in the 2020s, I also agree with him on the viewing of sexuality, but still, things have changed. I do agree that what goes on in the sex life of queer people should not be offered to the public, the politics of queerness has changed. There are many other insights to the queer community even as our values stay foundationally the same. 

Not to mention, James Baldwin faced a society that was even more determined to ignore both parts of his identity in the 1950s, which was the decade his book–Giovanni’s Room– was published. An interesting decision he made was that the main protagonist was designed to be a white american boy – due to the fact that a large percentage of Americans would only believe that had he wrote it with a man of similar racial heritage would be the protagonist, then they wouldn’t believe that he meant to make it a story centered around nationality, sexuality, and social environment targeted to an overall audience.

These types of stories do well to represent a certain kind of mindset where our queerness can represent many other things than sexuality–due to the fact that one factor can always affect the rest of our lives, even if it isn’t as obvious. Cathy J. Cohen’s essay ‘Punk, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens’ also addresses what queerness can stand for in a certain context, as well as what it still fails to include at times, even now. 

Intersectionality isn’t always a given in certain places, especially since we still tend to completely separate sexual identity from racial identity and vice versa. These parts of our lives determine our lifestyles for most, including how people receive opportunities or a lack of. If we do not pay attention to the issues that are still rampant in the queer community–we will not have anything to protect. 

When I first think about representation and queer media, my mind goes to tragedies and forbidden love – like the bury your gays trope. I was very well made aware of this when I was first introduced to queerness on the internet and I feel like there wasn’t many queer couples in media, much less queer characters with a happy or decent ending. But now? There are definitely more options for representation. 

It is tricky terrain but the media has also begun to dig deeper into the other sides of these characters, including the intertwining conflicts that result from the inherent prejudices of the system–starting to be more reflected as we see the conversation around representation change. Jade D. Petermon and Leland G. Spencer’s “Black Queer Womanhood Matters” analyzes the role of black women as well as the Black Lives Matter movement and how while there is good intention–some shows who do decide to cover the issue of subjects like police brutality subsequently end up easing up on the writing like in Scandal. 

The purpose of the episode is to display more awareness of racism but despite that–many shows including Scandal have the urge to please their white audience, who presumably wouldn’t handle the actual reality of these incidents well–causing a loss in money, and the authors of this article guide us well into the subject of respectability politics. The episode labeled “Lawn Chair” ends up giving us no nuance to deal with, exaggerating the good and the bad. The victims are framed as a good, innocent, heteronormative family, which also puts aside the other groups of people who wouldn’t be looked at as good or reliable (undocumented immigrants, people with prison or other records, and other marginalized groups). Not to mention, the villain is only posed as the individual that's the issue, which directly goes against what BLM believes in. 

It is a systemic issue, and not just an individual. If it was that easy, I think a lot of things would be less filled with grief if we had the answer that easily. Petermon and Spencer also break down other popular media that handle this subject–and the consensus is that while these subjects are a huge opportunity in of itself, why does it always miss the mark? 

Well, it's not surprising to say that money runs the world, including in how these subjects are addressed. But it is also true that black media is becoming very well known as well as seeing new writers and talents enter the industry. Personally, I think the media is gradually fighting back the narrative of the white savior framing as we continue to use the internet and share thoughts with each other. It’s not over yet, especially when I think we are seeing a new era of black representation in many aspects of the entertainment industry.

There are many interpretations of many terms that have been popularized in things like music, social media, etc. The general thought/interpretation of terms like Ratchet is commonly used as a derogatory term, targeting black women, but this word is argued to be kept instead of buried. Black female scholars like Heidi R. Lewis insisted that if this word is buried, it would only serve to imply that Black women are on a binary scale of roles and expectations. The bad connotations of this term covers up the other definition of where every black woman, including upper class ones can undo their professionalism and get down. The motives of Ratchetness is a way to release the inhibitions and resist the norms of society that already shames black women in the first place for factors like economic, appearance, etc. So getting down at the club and expressing their sexuality through dance and dress up is almost like catharsis. 

And much like black women, there is another group/demographic in the black community that also suffers from misconceptions and need another means of release through things like music and other programs: Black queer youth. It’s not often discussed but there is a connection to their roots of their cultures through music. For example, Bounce is a music genre distinctively rooted in Afro-Caribbean style through the beats, rhythm, and style–dismantling the politics of respectability, which I think is an integral part of this culture. When I was reading the parts about “respectability politics” I think it's interesting seeing how these aspects of a “standard” refers to the prim and proper state is actually heavily referenced in even modern cultures of the internet. 

If you’ve heard of memes like “respectfully looking” or “disrespectfully looking” - in a way, i think that can also apply to this reading. There is even a twitter account called “respectful memes” where inoffensive, wholesome memes or images are posted, and honestly its pretty nice. But also the implication of “disrespectfully looking” is an indicator of more mature and out of typical discussion things like sexual interest, and vice versa, so it feels interesting reading this. The thought of politeness/respectfulness directly puts in the etiquette that limits your behavior to a certain extent. And environments like parties, nightclubs, and other private settlements for adults give people more freedom and privacy to go out of their usual behavior, to release your inhibitions and energy. 

That’s also why music is important in general, especially in black culture. The black community has created so many genres and famed songs that are still heavily impactful to this day especially since they are highly connected to the music and in a way, music gives us the ability to express ourselves and explore other abstract ideas like sexuality, which is why things like Bounce music and other genres are important to the experience and understanding of Black Queer Youth. 

However, there is still a large invisibility towards many other identities of the queer community. A white man is focused on more than a white man. A man is considered more important than a woman. And a cisgendered person has more representation than a nonbinary or transgender person. There is a large assumption of many gender roles in many spaces (physical and systemical) that a man should be a cisgender man or a woman should be a cisgender woman and throws out the marginalized groups that dont follow these conventions. Even cisgender men and women get mislabeled if they don’t fit the margins of society well enough and it is definitely hard. But even if a transgender person is passing in gender norms – they are still not ever considered into the conversation. 

There are many instances of people being discriminated against and not spoken of. There are still groups I have failed to mention, because there is a group of people who are often never discussed. Disabled people. They exist in many types of groups but are only represented as elder people or people who get into accidents, or are depicted as freaks. And even if there is positive representation of disabled people – they often depict white people instead of a more diverse count of other groups. The implication of only white disabled people being the only type of disability representation in media and other things inherently erases the existence of BIPOC folks who also suffer the same things, but due to how bigoted the system is to marginalized races and ethnicities, they lack the same opportunities as a whole in comparison to their white counterparts. Many people of many colors, body types, sexuality, and gender exist, so the fact that only the non-marginalized groups get discussed in these conversations is frustrating, especially in already marginalized areas. 

These people already exist, and they don’t deserve to be dismissed and ignored because it wasn’t commonplace for some people in higher up positions to discuss the inter marginalized groups. There are billions of people and minorities are not rare, only underrepresented in most cases. It would be easier for minorities to exist without hiding themselves had there been any type of media representation and more conversations that discuss the fact that not everyone is on a binary presentation.