GLAAD Is Not Anti-Black

Blogging at BET.com, Cord Jefferson raises the specter that the GLAAD has come off as anti-black in its defense of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights in the smoldering aftermath of the Roland Martin Twitter flap.

It was the tweet heard round the internet on Super Bowl Sunday. While some people were upset by pop musician M.I.A.’s scandal-inducing middle finger at halftime, many others were incensed when Black political pundit and CNN mainstay Roland Martin tweeted what appeared to be a homophobic attack. When an H&M underwear commercial featuring soccer star David Beckham aired, Martin tweeted, “If a dude at your Super Bowl party is hyped about David Beckham's H&M underwear ad, smack the ish out of him! #superbowl.”

Immediately, LGBT groups were calling Martin out for what appeared to be him imploring people to hit gays. Martin said his offending tweet was actually a diss on soccer, which he regularly mocks. But skeptical followers wondered why, then, did Martin insist on singling out men getting excited about the Beckham ad? Martin couldn’t answer that question, and it wasn’t long before famous gay-rights group GLAAD was calling for his firing from his CNN job. Soon after GLAAD got involved, CNN suspended Martin, who is now going to meet with GLAAD in an effort to repair the bridges he destroyed.

While Martin and GLAAD try to settle their differences, some in the Black community are setting their sights on GLAAD. In an opinion column at website Kickmag, Cleo Manago argued that GLAAD is “Blackphobic.” “I believe that GLAAD, or the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, has been using the media to lynch a disproportionate number of well known Black men in recent years,” writes Manago. “These men include Tracy Morgan, Isaiah Washington, Kobe Bryant, Barack Obama, and T.I. along with several others. We can now add TV ONE host and CNN contributor Roland S. Martin to the list.”

Read Cord Jefferson's entire story at BET.com.