BLACK COPS AND GAY REPUBLICANS

As naive as it may seem, I still tend to assume that "the system" works more than it does not.  So, as naive as it may seem, I was recently shaken by the words of several well-respected Black leaders and activists who condemned the New York City Police Department as being pretty much rotten to the core.

As a gay man who was damaged and corrupted by 40 years in the closet, I have no difficulty understanding the symptoms and manifestations of self-hatred, not to mention the pathetic and often-times frightening maneuvers used by self-haters to gain acceptance and invisibility among the so-called majority.

Last year, New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly challenged allegations of racism in the horrific Sean Bell shooting.  Kelly pointed out that the majority of police officers involved in the incident were in fact Black themselves.  Kelly implied that it is illogical to accuse the NYPD of racism under such circumstances.

Some Black leaders bitterly refuted this defense pointing out that the vast majority of "victims" of police shootings in this city are young African-American men.  They contend that once an African-American puts on the NYPD uniform he ceases to be Black and in fact becomes Blue.

Is the NYPD so profoundly corrupt that it teaches racism to its uniforms?  Are our cops, regardless of race, trained to make automatic assumptions about men on the street based on the color of their skin? Is racism in this most liberal and progressive of cities in fact pervasively institutionalized?  Do Black men and women enter the force to change the system from within only to end up facilitating and enabling an even worse brand of racism?

If the criminal justice system is seriously biased against minorities and particularly against African-Americans, is it even possible for Black police officers to remain true to their own communities and heritage and stand with pride as part of the very organization that represents the enforcement arm of an allegedly racist system of justice?

Are Black officers a defense against racism in our criminal justice system or are they enablers of racism?

These are troubling questions that remain unanswered as we continue to see black innocent black New Yorkers shot and killed by members of NYPD, black and white.

But these questions have also struck an uncomfortably familiar chord within my gay heart. 

As a gay New Yorker, I find myself deeply troubled by the possible analogy between Black cops and Gay Republicans.  In fact, are Black cops cut from the same cloth as gay Republicans?

Gay Republicans take the position that they can change the system by working from within.  The majority of gay men and women, myself included, see Gay Republicans as Uncle Toms who enable homophobia, wallow in self-hatred and sell their souls to gain acceptance by the so-called majority, a majority that openly crusades to deny us, as Gay Americans, our civil rights and our equal right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Gay Republicans use the excuse that they are Republican according to the old standard of fiscal conservatism and less government. In fact, as George W. Bush has demonstrated over these past seven years, fiscal conservatism and less government is as relevant to today's Republican party as oral contraceptives are to a couple of gay lovers.

I've never before considered the New York City Police Department in this way. Have I been wrong?  Are the Abner Louima, Amadou Diallo and Patrick Dorismond incidents of the Giuliani days the rule rather than the exception?

It may be that a few hearings and debates will produce little more than window dressing.  Do we need a revolution at the center?  Perhaps Christine Quinn's gay perspective may be of some real use in this situation as she looks within the system, the police department and the heart of Ray Kelly.  But it may also be that Black cops and Gay Republicans do us all much harm.  The large percentage of Black cops in the NYPD has had no impact on the repeated shootings of innocent Black New Yorkers and the Gay Republicans have had no positive impact on the advance of gay rights.

Comments

[robert]

i used to be a prosecutor and my experience with police officers is that whatever color and wherever they're from, the fact that they are exposed so continuously to bad guys who are also young "male blacks" make them suspicious of everyone who looks like that. I actually don't think it's racist, per se; rather it's insufficient intellect or inclination or both to allow for the distinction between the fact that many of the bad guys they encounter are male blacks, but many male black are not the bad guys they encounter.

As for gay Republicans, it's just inexcusable and unforgivable. They want want to be in the "in" group so badly they'll sell out their brothers and sisters to do it. The parallel isn't to Uncle Tom --they're Jewish Nazis.

[MJ]

I bet more black civilians are killed by other black civilians in NYC daily than are killed by black cops in a year.