A Lack Of Self-Love Among Some Black Gay Men

I recently found a letter I forgot I wrote to the editor of the now-defunct New York Native, a weekly gay newspaper. At the time the letter was written, I had edited a black gay supplement for the paper. It was called "Celebrating Ourselves," a title suggested by the poet and novelist Melvin Dixon.

The letter, a response to a reader's letter about Dave Frechette's article, appears to have been written as a draft (with a few editing marks made by me). I'm not sure whether or not it was sent or if it was published.

I started keeping a record of my submissions in a logbook that dates back to February 1987. Anything published before that date would not have been recorded in the book.

If the letter was published, it might be in one of my scrapbooks kept on a high shelf in the backroom closet of my apartment. I'll have to check when I have time. In the meantime, here is the letter as written with the minor edits included. 

18 December 1984

Dear Editor:

J. R. Finney II accuses Dave Frechette (Native 105) of doing the very thing he himself does in his letter-to-the-editor--distorting the truth. Frechette, in his article (Native 101) about the Black and White Men Together** convention in Atlanta, does not, as Finney would have us believe, label as Uncle Toms those blacks who have not heard of the ragtime composer Scott Joplin. (It is possible, J.R., to be an Uncle Tom and know everything there is to know about Joplin.) What Frechette did say--and Finney should re-read the article if he doubts this--is that "a significant segment of the black gay community" sees BWMT "as a breeding ground for Uncle Toms who've rejected their own culture." (The emphasis is mine.)

I have been to several BWMT meetings and one or two social events and I found many of the blacks in the group to be very cold to other blacks while grinning in the face of any white man they found half-way attractive. It seems to me that most, if not all, of the black BWMT members are more apt to be white-identified. They haven't learned that there is no crime or shame in being black or loving other blacks.

Getting back to J.R., I don't know where he got the information that 65% of the black population is unfamiliar with Scott Joplin's name. Did he go door-to-door with a clipboard and a pen asking people, "Have you ever heard of Scott Joplin?" Did he do some kind of "scientific" telephone survey? Perhaps Finney should have said that 65% of blacks in BWMT have never heard of Joplin. That might have been closer to the truth.

In recent years there was a network TV movie about Scott Joplin, starring Billy Dee Williams and a postage stamp commemorating his life and career. Dave Frechette's reference to the 30-year-old  black man was not to berate him for being ignorant about Joplin but to illustrate his disbelief that anyone that old could somehow, in this day of telecommunications, not be exposed to these things. It is indeed a mystery.

Sincerely yours,

Charles Michael Smith

Manhattan

**The group is known today as Men of All Colors Together (MACT).