In 1968, Eldridge Cleaver stated, "Homosexuality is a sickness, just as are baby-rape or wanting to become head of General Motors." To be a healthy male, then, is to be homophobic, afraid of and opposed to homosexuality. It may be no accident that Cleaver was a Black male, spokesman for a generation asserting their rights to power and authority in a hostile environment. Power and authority were not only political and economic, but also sexual. The Black male, according to Cleaver, should reject social pathologies in the forms of capitalism and homosexuality. More recently, homophobia by Black males was also reinforced by Louis Farrakhan who equated homosexuality with prostitution and drug addiction in his 1995 "State of America" address. Black male leaders, it seems, view homosexuality as a barrier to racial progress.
Black feminists have accused Black males of homophobia, forging direct and indirect critiques against Black males in projects such as Alice Walker's The Color Purple, a literary work in which sexual and other bonds among women are portrayed as symbols of racial strength and the endurance of positive values. While The Color Purple is not overtly anti-male, it portrays a radical feminist ethic whose power overwhelms and threatens the male attributes of force, self-absorption, and authoritarian control.
In a 1989 essay, the Black feminist bell hooks addressed "Homophobia in Black Communities." She argued that homophobia is less likely where poverty enforces "a context in which structures of dependence were important for everyday survival." hooks' views are similar to those of the social scientists Charles Zastrow and Karen Kirst-Ashman who state that, "nonwhite gay men may see their racial and ethnic communities as safe havens from the oppressive white majority culture." hooks also suggested that homophobia may be less common among southern Blacks who may be more "openly expressive of their sexual preference" and whose communities may be more tolerant of diversity. hooks raises the interesting possibility that Blacks may be perceived as homophobic because they are more likely to express anti-gay opinions. Cleaver and Farrakhan may not be more homophobic than their white counterparts, then, they may simply be more predisposed to express their homophobic beliefs and attitudes.
We decided to investigate the issue of Black male homophobia with a sample of 30 heterosexual males at a historically Black southern college. Subjects were asked to select 20 traits of homosexual men from a list of 72 personality traits including 49 positive traits, 19 negative and 4 neutral traits. Our results demonstrate that, among the top 10 traits most frequently chosen to describe homosexual men, the top three are positive traits ("friendly", "energetic", and "outgoing"). Three other positive traits, "sociable", "neat", and "prideful" ranked 6th, 8th, and 10th, respectively. The inclusion of "prideful" as a positive personality trait suggests to us that heterosexual Black men may acknowledge and respect the solidarity of gay men. One neutral trait, "skeptical", was ranked 9th.
Three negative personality traits appeared among our subjects' top ten choices to describe homosexual men: "sly", "boastful", and "rebellious" ranked 4th, 5th, and 7th, respectively. These personality traits suggest that Black homosexual men perceive gay men as arrogant and non-conforming and that the heterosexuals disapprove of these perceived traits. If our interpretation is correct, the results indicate that homosexual men are viewed as an outgroup, or as "the other" by our sample of heterosexual students, a mind-set that may provide the basis for homophobia in certain circumstances.
Our "straight" male students appear to view their gay male classmates as basically
outgoing but arrogant. Thus, the potential exists, it would seem, for both positive and negative associations between the groups. Productive relationships might develop wherever differences in sexual orientation would not lead to conflict, such as in the pursuit of purely academic or certain extracurricular goals (e.g., library research, science experiments, or musical groups). Homophobia would be most likely where relationships would require the expression of emotion or self-disclosure. In these circumstances the potential exists for intimacy to be confused with sexual orientation.
Psychological research has shown that homophobia is a likely outcome where males are expected to seek emotional intimacy with other men, a condition that generally results in different friendship styles for males and females and, possibly, for heterosexual and gay men. Some studies suggest that Black males, in particular, experience overwhelming pressure to exhibit non-feminine friendship styles, possibly making them more vulnerable to homophobia.
James Lock and Brian Kleis propose another explanation for homophobia that may have particular relevance for Black males. In their view, males who are less competent or less accepted socially may associate these traits with homosexuality, thus developing a homophobic defense. Black males may be likely to exhibit homophobia, then, because of feelings of inferiority. This hypothesis is similar to one proposed by Sigmund Freud who argued that homophobic men were those with feelings of sexual inadequacy, possibly those fearing that they themselves were latent homosexuals.
Contrary to Cleaver and Farrakhan who view homosexuality as a threat to Blacks, Alisa Solomon argues that homophobia is a threat to heterosexual Blacks because the radical right, particularly the Christian right, is targeting gays in an attempt to advance their conservative agenda. Blacks and gays, according to Solomon, are viewed by the right as "sexually incontinent, immoral beings who try to trick the state out of scarce resources." As bell hooks points out, the Black liberation struggle and the gay liberation struggle are both undermined when conservatives attempt to divide them.
We are optimistic that our study indicates that heterosexual Black men perceive gay males in primarily positive ways, possibly revealing limits to homophobia and the social conflict that may result from it. Gay and "straight" Black males have more in common than may at first appear. The political interests of race and class that are being exploited by the political right may form the basis of a new political agenda stronger than the potentially divisive issue of sexual orientation. The views of Cleaver and Farrakhan may not represent the sentiments or interests of the majority of Black men.