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The BMX-NY  Gatekeepers  e-NewsletterDECEMBER  10th, 2010
Black Men's Xchange-National

 
In This Week's Gatekeepers Issue
This Friday's Topic: JUDGEMENT CALL: Are We Overly Critical of Ourselves & Each Other?
Friday Forum Recap: RELIGIOUS PRIIVLEGE As An Extension of White Privilege
Upcoming Topics: BMX- NY 2010 Fall Calendar
SGL Black Heroes
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BMX Mission Statement
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Greetings Brothers!                 Bawabisi SGL Symbol

Welcome To The Black Men's Xchange-New York (BMX-NY) Gatekeepers e-Newsletter. This e-newsletter is for the gathering on Friday, December 10th, 2010.

"Bawabisi" African SGL Symbol


Brothers, please if you would take the time and tell us about your experience at a BMX-NY meeting. This is a confidential Survey with no names required. We appreciate your time and comments as we continue to try and make your experience at BMX-NY one of true community.
  

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BROTHERS! Although not required, BRINGING A POTLUCK DISH AND/OR BEVERAGE of your choosing would be a generous offering for the repast after the group discussion! Your offering defrays a cost to the organization.  Also, end of gathering DONATIONS are also greatly appreciated, too. THANK YOU!

ACHE!
 

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Topic  For  This  Friday,  December  10th,  2010

JUDGEMENT CALL:
Are We Overly Critical of Oursleves
And Each Other?



Judging Hammer


Is there a difference between judging someone and standing in judgment of someone?



Baggy Pants 1

Do you think Black youths should be arrested for wearing their pants off their asses?



RuPaul 1


What do you think when you see flamboyant homosexuals in public?


Wesley Snipes - Tax Evasion


Wesley Snipes was sentenced to three years in prison for tax evasion.  Do you think he was fairly judged?


Black Woman Baby Sitting White Baby


Are we socialized to care more about other people than ourselves?


Do you feel that you're being fairly judged when you're out in the world?


By what standards do we judge ourselves and each other?


Where do our values come from?  Are they really our values?




Friday  Forum  Recap
(Topic   Hi-lites  From  Friday,  December  3rd,  2010)  

 RELIGIOUS  PRIVILEGE
As  An  Extension  of  White  Privilege



During this week's Black Men's Xchange-New York dialogue, participants took up the notion of Religious Privilege as an Extension of White Privilege.

Among perspectives we took into account included:


 

Cross w-Sky Light


 How do you define white privilege? And, of what is it comprised?


"Where there's prestige and advantage to being White..."

"A social construct within which people, by virtue of their [white] skin color, are granted social, political and economic advantages..."

"I don't see privilege as [involving] prestige or advantage...privilege is bestowed..."

{Facilitator proposes that "While 'prestige' may be but a by-product of privilege, but 'privilege' is synonymous with advantage and involves a permit."  Facilitator looks up the word 'privilege' in the dictionary: "A special or peculiar benefit, favor or advantage; a right or immunity enjoyed only under special conditions; a prerogative, franchise or permission..."}

"There is an 'in-group' and an 'out-group'...White people are the 'in-group,' non-white people are the 'out-group'...the prevailing religious group [constitutes] the 'in-group'..."

{Facilitator asks, "Even if one is a person of color?..." }

"Yes, in a colored community...The assumption is that you will uphold the values of the 'in-group'..."

"In and out groups relate to power...White is power...In the past, if you weren't White, you were really out of it...Moving forward, Yellow people are going to rule...[We are] moving into a world that is not uni-polar ay more..."

{Facilitator says, "For our purposes, we are focusing on the world we occupy now..."}

"Privilege = power...Who has the power?"

"White people..."

"They were civilized, and went into parts of the world that were uncivilized..."

{Facilitator asks participants to define 'religion'...}

"[Religion is an] institutionalized belief system to insure the survival of the [group]..."

"A set of beliefs that determine conduct [including constructs] outside of this sphere...Centered around an idealized being..."

"A system of accountability..."

"[Religion] was a way to answer the unknowable before it was used to control people..."

"Most of the rules are unnatural [in] Islam, Judaism, Christianity..."

"[It is a device to] control [people] and support those in power...[also] for the propagation and maintenance of the people..."

{Facilitator asks: "What are privileges that come with religion?"}

"Exclusion...in this world, and in the other..."

"The right to determine who is civilized and who is not...to set standards..."

"White privilege is synonymous with White supremacy..."

{Facilitator asks: "How is White supremacy sustained?}
"Assimilation..."

"Assimilation is relinquishing your identity to adopt another identity so that the original identity is obliterated..."

"We need to make a distinction between assimilation and acculturation..."

"Acculturation or enculturation is where one identity is subsumed by another..."

"The media [is how White supremacy is sustained because] White people are invisible by virtue of their ubiquity..."

"[White supremacy is sustained by] Their control over the intellectual materials of the society..."

Christianity 1559_1

Does religious thought impact same gender loving people's regard for ourselves? If so, how?

"[By projecting the notion that] being SGL is wrong...If I feel I'm wrong, I may make unhealthy choices including suicide...[I] feel separate...alone..."



Where does religious privilege extend itself in society outside of the church?

"If you are privileged there is a sense of self-worth that comes with that [which people who are not privileged are exempt from]..."

"[There is a] support system...If you are in need, they will come to your rescue..."

"Letting yourself off the moral hook by deeming others outside of the grace of God..."

"Salvation is the main selling point...There is a bounty if you submit..."

"The function of religion is power and control...For submitting, one acquires instant community..."

"Religion is sometimes mistaken for the voice of God...I self-select what works and what doesn't work for me...It blows my mind how, when thinking about sexuality, they refer to a book...God has suns and galaxies to create...people self-flagellate with the bible..."

"People are trapped in families...The twelve-year-old in the Jehovah's Witness family has that kind of thinking forced on them..."



Who was Constantine?

"Constantine ruled the Roman Empire and legitimized Christianity..."

"Constantine was called The Great Law Giver..."

"He stopped crucifixions and the enslavement of girls..."

"He was being political...in his inner circle were pagans...There was controversy about whether he was baptized..."



How did Constantine influence Christianity as we know it?

"He didn't write anything..."

"He did gather the Bishops together..."

"He gathered Bishops and noted that within their fighting there were things he could use against them to consolidate his power..."

{Facilitators screen excerpt from John Henrick Clarke's "A Great & Mighty Walk" on Constantine}

[During the video excerpt, Clarke states that, prior to the Nicene conference, there had been three African Emperors and three African Popes in Rome... Constantine decided to make Christianity the religion of the whole of the Roman Empire...The Africans began experiencing some disenchantment with the Roman interpretation of Christianity... Constantine called a council of Bishops and priests at Nice... At the conference, the Europeans began creating a European concept of Christianity...They began to take the African saints out of the literature of Christianity...The physical concept of Jesus Christ did not exist at this juncture...The Pope commissioned Michaelangelo to paint Christ, using one of his relatives as the model..."One of the finest pieces of propaganda ever projected in history...It has changed the minds of millions of people about who is supposed tor represent God, whoever He or She is..."]



What impact has Christianity had on Black Americans?

"It has made us unnecessarily dependent...When we look at other groups building their countries, they move forward with action...[Many of us] believe slavery saved us...It makes us less likely to challenge the status quo..."

"There was always a picture of the White Jesus [in the house when I was growing up]...It made us devalue our indigenous spiritual beliefs and view ourselves as inferior...The Cato Kalen syndrome...The little White man that lives rent-free in our heads...Cato Kalen is the Jesus syndrome..."

"Christianity makes the White man's power unattainable..."

"The locus of control...[the belief in destiny or agency]...Everything White people do is from an internal locus of control [belief in one's own agency]...Everything Black people do is from an external locus of control...Every time we [have] attempt[ed] to act from our internal locus of control, we were thwarted, and in turn, [we] reverted to an external locus of control..."

"There is a writer, U.S. Anderson who wrote a book called, "Three Magic Words"...[They are] You are God..."

{Facilitator says, "I buried my cousin who had helped to rewrite the Gospel of Inclusion, and [he] didn't include himself, so that the family never even knew that he was same gender loving..."}



How does the idea of sin impact us?

"The original meaning of the word [sin] was an archery term, meaning, You missed the mark..."

"[The notion of sin] creates internal conflict...anxiety disorders...inability to manage internal conflict that comes with believing you are wrong..."

"It makes other family members sick too..."

"It has f_ _ _ed my life up...My mother was a Christian...My mother was ashamed of me...My mother abused me...It put me in an identity tailspin as an SGL person..."

"You don't have to leave the religion of your birth to find enlightenment...There's a lot of spiritual woundedness...You should go back to it to find the essence..."

"People have a tendency to take experience and parse it...Spirituality...people keep trying to define it...Buddhism, Islam..."

"The diabolical nature of trying to control [people through] education...So that we don't throw education away...We have to sort through it...Look at it critically...See Christianity as an extension of White supremacy...Depending on what denomination you grew up under, you may not even be allowed to question..."

"Whatever kind of faith I have in a higher power, I have to have faith in myself..."

"Christianity is a bastardization of ancient African religions..."

"I think about my church...I get calls monthly to go back...But, I'm lacking there...I don't know how I can go back there and be authentic without taking away from what they believe in...I want to go in, but I have to be authentic..."

{Facilitator says: "West African Shaman and scholar, Malidoma Som� introduced the construct of the Gatekeepers to us...  Among the Dagara people of Burkina Faso, The Gatekeepers' charge is, when there is crisis in the community, taking cues from nature and the ancestors, to restore balance and harmony to the community...Not all Gatekeeprs are same gender loving, he told us, but all same gender loving people are Gatekeeprs...As we sit there invisible in the church pews, it's as if the community has fired us from our job, and then complain about how we're not doing our job...We have to reclaim our rightful place in the community...That they keep calling you back is an indication that they understand that they need you...If you risk being authentic as you go back, you may be able to help add something to them that they don't even know they need..."

"Being able to reconcile one's sexuality with the bible...If the church is not salvageable, why work within the system?..."

"I may be sovereign unto myself...I may be God...We all are...Until we all are free, no one is free...Maybe I am supposed to overcome my nature to hate that which hates me and go into it and help heal it...moving beyond [simple notions of] Top and Bottom and Versatile [as identities]..."

"Hate is hate, no matter how you cloak it...It is our people in the church...A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand...Any time someone can stand and call someone abomination, [that's hateful]...It's not about salvaging the church...But all the same gender loving children who are being damaged by the church...God is so much bigger than a book..."

"It's like the Matrix...Do I have to go in and bring them out...Not out of the church, but out of the negative notions which would make them less than...A Gatekeeper..."

 




Upcoming  Topics:  BMX- NY  2010  Fall   Calendar

(PLEASE NOTE THAT TOPICS ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE;
WEEKLY E-NEWSLETTERS WILL REFLECT ANY NEW CHANGES)



Friday, December 17th, 2010

TO BE ANNOUNCED

 

SUNDAY, December 26th, 2010

KWANZAA Celebration


 
Friday, December 31st, 2010
 
BLUE LITES IN DA BASEMENT NEW YEARS EVE PARTY




SGL  Black  Heroes

Benjamin Banneker
Benjamin Banneker's Almanac
Image Credit: Maryland Historical Society

Benjamin Banneker -- author, scientist, mathematician, farmer, astronomer, publisher and urban planner -- was descended from enslaved Africans, an indentured English servant, and free men and women of color. His grandmother, Molly Welsh, was an English dairy maid who was falsely convicted of theft and indentured to a Maryland tobacco farmer. After working out her indenture, Welsh rented and farmed some land, eventually purchasing two African slaves whom she freed several years later.

In violation of Maryland law, Welsh wed one of her former slaves, Bannke or Bannaka, said to be the son of a chief. Their daughter Mary also married an African -- a man from Guinea who had been enslaved, baptized as Robert, and freed -- who took Banneker as his surname upon their marriage. In 1731, they named their first child Benjamin.

Young Benjamin grew up in Baltimore County, one of two hundred free blacks among a population of four thousand slaves and thirteen thousand whites. He was taught to read by his grandmother Molly, and briefly attended a one-room interracial school taught by a Quaker. He showed an early interest in mathematics and mechanics, preferring books to play.

At the age of 22, having seen only two timepieces in his lifetime -- a sundial and a pocket watching -- Banneker constructed a striking clock almost entirely out of wood, based on his own drawings and calculations. The clock continued to run until it was destroyed in a fire forty years later.

Benjamin BannekerBanneker became friendly with the Ellicott brothers, who built a complex of gristmills in the 1770s. Like Banneker, George Ellicott was a mathematician and amateur astronomer. In 1788, with tools and books borrowed from Ellicott, Banneker nearly accurately predicted the timing of an eclipse of the sun, discovering later that his minor error was due to a discrepancy in his expert sources rather than a miscalculation on his part.

In 1791, Banneker accompanied Major Andrew Ellicott to the banks of the Potomac to assist him in surveying the new federal city that would become the nation's capital. A notice first printed in the Georgetown Weekly Ledger and later copied in other newspapers stated that Ellicott was "attended by Benjamin Banneker, an Ethiopian, whose abilities, as a surveyor, and an astronomer, clearly prove that Mr. Jefferson's concluding that race of men were void of mental endowments, was without foundation."

In 1792, Banneker published an almanac, based on his own painstakingly calculated ephemeris (table of the position of celestial bodies), that also included commentaries, literature, and fillers that had a political and humanitarian purpose. The previous summer, he had sent a copy of the ephemeris to Thomas Jefferson, along with a letter in which he challenged Jefferson's ideas about the inferiority of blacks.

Between 1792 and 1797, Banneker published six almanacs in twenty-eight editions. He continued to live alone, selling off and renting his land, then giving the rest to the Ellicotts in exchange for a small pension. He died in 1806. On the day of his burial, his house and its contents (including his clock) caught fire and burned to the ground.


Benjamin Banneker Honor




 
About  BMX- NY...
 
 



THE BLACK MEN'S XCHANGE - NEW YORK (BMX-NY)
was founded in Harlem in 2002 and is a gathering for same gender loving (SGL) and bisexual Black men to powerfully and respectfully address issues that impact their lives, and to connect with one another in a positive, affirming, nurturing and transformational environment. Ages 18 and up.


BMX  Mission  Statement

BMX Logo (Black)
THE BLACK MEN'S XCHANGE (BMX) was founded as an instrument of healing and empowerment for same gender loving (SGL) and bisexual African descended men. We create an environment that advances cultural affirmation, promotes critical thinking, and embraces diversity.  Affirming ourselves as African descended people is strengthening.  The focus on critical thinking involves identifying and unlearning ingrained anti-black and anti-homosexual conditioning.  We recognize and celebrate same gender loving men as diverse in sexuality, class, culture and philosophy.  
 
BMX is built on a philosophy that embraces same gender loving experience as an intrinsic facet of everyday Black life.  Integral to BMXNY's approach is the understanding that, in order to decrease internal and external homo-reactionary thinking and demystify differences around diverse ways of living, loving and being, same gender loving, bisexual and transgendered Black people must engage in supportive dialogue with each other and the community. 

 
BMX-NY MMM Photos 11

The Black Men's Xchange-New York And Our Allies At The
Millions More Movement (MMM) In Washington, DC
(October 15th, 2005)


We believe that self-determination is crucial in achieving success toward healing and empowerment.  We understand that our cultural and experiential uniqueness requires a uniquely focused and precise approach.  Affirming strategies born out of our own experience is powerful; hence, the adoption of the terms, Black, African American and Same Gender Loving.



The Term Same Gender Loving

The term Same Gender Loving (SGL) emerged in the early '90s to offer Black women who love women and Black men who love men (and other people of color) a way of identifying that resonated with the uniqueness of Black life and culture.  Before this many African descended people, knowing little of our history regarding homosexuality and bi-sexuality, took on European symbols and identifications as a means of embracing our sexualities, including: Greek lambdas, German pink triangles, and the white-gay-originated rainbow flag, in addition to the terms gay, and lesbian.

The term gay, coined as an identification by White male homosexuals in the '50s, was cultivated in an exclusive White male environment.  By the '60s, the growing Gay Liberation movement developed in a climate largely excluding Blacks and women.  In response to this discrimination, White women coined the identification lesbian, a word derived from the Greek island, Lesbos. The Lesbian movement, in turn, helped define a majority White movement, called feminism.  In response to the racism experienced by women of color from White feminists, celebrated author, Alice Walker introduced the term womanist.

The term womanist identified women of color concerned with both the sexual and racial oppression of women.  In this spirit of self-naming and ethnic-sexual pride, the term same gender loving(SGL) was introduced to enhance the lives and amplify the voices of homosexual and bi-sexual people of color, to provide a powerful identification not marginalized by racism in the gay community or by "homophobic" attitudes in society at large.

As gay culture grew and established enclaves in San Francisco, Chelsea, Provincetown, Key West and other territories, Blacks especially, were carded and rejected from many establishments.  Even today Blacks, Latinos and Asians often appear in gay publications and other media solely as potential sexual objects.  Ironically, gay rights activism was modeled on the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements initiated by African Americans.

In the years since the advent of the Gay Rights movement many Black SGLs have found scant space for the voices, experiences and empowerment of Black people.  Additionally, the rigid influence of the Black church's traditionally anti-homosexual stance has contributed to attitudes that repress and stigmatize Black SGLs.  The lack of acknowledgment and support in the Black community has shunted multitudes of same gender loving African descended people to the White community to endure racism, isolation from their own communities, and cultural insensitivity.

The high visibility of the white gay community along with the absence of illumination on same gender loving experience contributes to the tendency in Black communities to overlook and ridicule same gender loving relationships as alien or aberrant.  The SGL movement has inspired national dialogue on diverse ways of loving in the Black community.  The term same gender loving explicitly acknowledges loving within same-sex relationships, while encouraging self-love.

The designation, same gender loving has served as a wake up call for Blacks to acknowledge diverse ways of loving and being, and has provided an opportunity for Blacks and other people of color to claim, nurture and honor their significance within their families and communities.



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CRITICAL THINKING.  CULTURAL AFFIRMATION.  SELF-DETERMINATION.


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