The “black churches”, as Patricia Hill-Collins names them, have “incorporated dominant ideas about the dangers of promiscuity and homosexuality within its beliefs and practices” (107). They have bought in to both the “culture of dissemblance” of their women and the binary thinking that causes homosexuality to be impossible in their culture. I present you with two interesting links that demonstrate both these strands of thinking still highly predominant in these communities today.
First is a blatant example of the creation of the super moral black woman in the church setting. This strange and pretty hilarious video is of a black woman spiritual leader who, while preaching, breaks into the recent Beyonce hit “Single Ladies”. In particular she calls on all the “single ladies” of the congregation to stand, sing and clap along with her. But she changes the lyrics! She implores all the single ladies (not to dance around in booty shorts like Beyonce in her video, but) to ‘Wait.’ I thought I had heard it wrong at first, but what a more clear cut example of the culture of dissemblance than this? Sex is never explicitly mentioned, maintaining ‘the silence’, and yet the reference is still poignant.
Second is this page on the website for the predominantly black youth movement Passion 4 Christ. They have been selling an “Ex” t-shirt series which has taken the internet by storm. Their video testimonies add to the appeal for believers and scoffers alike. While the group sells “ex-masturbator”, “ex-hypocrite” and “ex-fornicator” shirts, the most controversial is definitely the “Ex-homosexual” iteration. I feel that the ‘choice’ versus ‘biological’ debate over homosexual identity is still ongoing, and many people have had homosexual experiences and still consider themselves hetero, or have embraced a bisexual or alternative identity. Still, the religious drive of this reversion to heterosexuality carries with it all the weight that Hill-Collins speaks about in her discussion of the black church and its “hate the sin, not the sinner” mentality.
Mother Wisdom’s remix of “Single Ladies” and the P4C shirts are both manifestations of the tensions and interactions of varied layers of marginalization and display a group trying to make the best of the situation for their own. Still, buying into dominant perceptions, silences and ‘normalcies’ is niether effective nor inclusive to all members of their identity.
