Trayvon, Gays and White Privilege

At ColorLines, Akiba Solomon writes that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender organizations belong in the conversation about racial profiling, and no amount of seething white male privilege masquerading as gun-control advocacy can change that fact.

In a recent opinion piece titled “All aboard the Trayvon bandwagon,” Washington Blade editor and co-owner Kevin Naff accuses 28 national LGBT groups of hype-riding because they issued an open letter opposing racial profiling and expressing solidarity with Trayvon Martin’s family and friends.

In Naff’s view, the Trayvon Martin atrocity is simply a consequence of lax gun laws. Race only enters the picture because “ambulance-chasing zealots like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson” have intervened. “Racial tension” over the case is purely the result of “typically lazy and even deliberately inaccurate reporting by the mainstream media” and celebrity tweets. And LGBT organizations should have nothing to say about the systemic and pervasive practice of criminalizing black men and boys because race is just a “distraction that pumps up cable ratings and generates lots of heat, but no light.”

I’m going to borrow that last phrase — “generates lots of heat but no light” — and apply it to Naff’s criminally narrow lens …

Read Akiba Solomon's entire piece at ColorLines.