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comment by b_b
b_b  ·  4521 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: "Why I'm not proud of being gay"
I think "gay pride" is similar to James Brown's "Say It Loud". I think the message of gay pride is "I'm proud and I'm gay", not "I'm proud that I'm gay". They're two totally different things. Both gay pride and black pride were started in eras in which it was considered slightly sub-human to be either.




mk  ·  4521 days ago  ·  link  ·  
I believe that there is some difference there, but once you try to answer "Proud of what?" it gets muddy.

I feels good, and it's empowering, and for the downtrodden, it's really hard not to excuse it, or even to support it. But fundamentally, it just isn't right. I could tell James Brown that I liked him because he was funky, but I couldn't tell him I liked him because he was black.

It's so very messy. But we need to get away from it. We are all in this together. A black person might suffer panic attacks just like a white person on his right, and have nothing in common with the black person on his left.

b_b  ·  4521 days ago  ·  link  ·  
In principle I agree with you, but my point is that the pride rallies are more about restoring humanity to those who have been robbed of it than celebrating the thing itself. One doesn't need to be proud of anything in particular to be proud of one's life generally. I don' think that's narcissistic; its just about self respect and dignity.