Pride & BLM at Naked: What We're Reading & Watching
Written by Naked
This year’s Pride coincides with waves of protests across the globe against police brutality and widespread mistreatment of Black people. Black voices have always been a driving force in the fight for LGBTQ+ rights, but this year, uplifting their experiences is especially vital.
In recognition of Pride month and the Black Lives Matter movement, Naked wanted to highlight pieces of digital content about both, including some living at the intersection of Black and LGBTQ+ cultures that resonated with us, and hopefully with you, too.
How Grindr Is Helping Tackle Ghana’s
Hidden HIV Epidemic
Dan Mullie, Copywriter
“There’s a lot that’s striking about this article, not the least of which was the resourcefulness and humanity that comes through in so many of the characters. The challenges, stigma and danger they face are remarkable, but they figure out ways to take steps forward.
Image via Esquire.com
What stood out to me was learning the racial, colonial and legal underpinnings of the challenges that the LGBTQ+ community in Ghana face. On the one hand, it’s a big hurdle because it means these backwards views are ingrained over a long time. But on the other, it’s proof that they’re learned—there’s nothing inherent about them.
So when people like Roland and the others at the WAAF-IHCC do their work, they protect people, but they also slowly steer that society to the right path. Which is a pretty amazing example to set.”
Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man
David Kenyon, Creative Director
Image via YouTube, Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man
“This series, created by former NFL linebacker Emmanuel Acho, has its premise pretty much spelled out in the title: Acho invites potentially cringe-worthy questions from his guests (famous white Americans looking to better understand issues facing Black Americans) and answers them honestly from his own perspective as a Black man.
Compared to some of the more academically robust resources being shared around, this is pretty introductory stuff, but Acho applies his media savviness and Hollywood address book to great effect – creating a positive and sincere “safe space” for these awkward conversations to happen. They’re an easy and enlightening watch that left me feeling a bit more hopeful about a path forward.”
White Jews should Understand why Black Americans need Reparations Now
Dayna Goldhar, Social + Digital Lead
“As a Jewish woman and granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, it's hard not to compare my family's experience with Anti-Semitism to Anti-Black Racism. Like Black people in America (and abroad), Jewish people have been targeted, oppressed and murdered for many years in blatant racist attacks. I also feel the need to hold back certain parts of my identity from my non-Jewish friends and co-workers because I fear I'll be unfavourably profiled or stereotyped.
Image via Hey Alma
I want to believe that I empathize with the struggles endured by other minorities. But I don't, because I'm white, and my skin colour has never been a cause for discrimination.
This article on Hey Alma (a blog aimed at Liberal Jewish people; very refreshing) explains just how white-passing Jewish people in America benefit from its white-favouring tendencies just as any non-Jewish white person does, and how Jewish ancestral trauma makes us even more obligated to fight for the reparations of Black Americans.”
Kaytranada and Jaboukie Check In on Each Other
Seamus McGill, Copywriter
Image via Paper Magazine
“Jaboukie Young-White and Louis Kevin Celestin—aka Kaytranada—are two of the most exciting young creatives working today, and both are Black, queer, and very online. If you’ve spent much time on Twitter you’ve undoubtedly come across Jaboukie’s hilarious pot-stirring shenanigans, and if you’ve been on a dancefloor in the last few years you’ve heard Kaytranada set a party off. The two did a joint interview for Paper magazine’s Pride issue where they talked about the Internet as a queer safe space, their experiences as gay men in Caribbean families, and their shared admiration for each other.
Twitter and music are both a big part of my day-to-day life, and Jaboukie and Kaytranada are two of my favourite creators. Social media and queer parties are two places where my understanding of Black and LGBTQ+ culture deepened greatly, and hearing two creatives I admire discuss how their existence in those spaces, online and offline, shaped their work was super interesting and inspiring. I hope they and other Black queer artists get more of the mainstream shine they deserve moving forward.”