CAPITAL COVERAGE NEWS SERVICE
media in the public interest
White Male Privelege Called 'Core' of Societal Problems
by John Zeh 2/12/99
Capital Coverage News Service
Caveat: Some of the language used here may be considered offensive.
CINCINNATI - (Feb. 8) -The roots of homophobia and racism are nourished by white heterosexual males and "a few closeted gays" who want to keep their class privileges, a provocative African-American church leader told a National Organization for Women forum here February 1.
"Race, color, and gender are secondary issues," said Pastor William Land of the United Church of Christ told NOW's Black History Month discussion group. "Discrimination against gays and lesbians is not because of (sexuality), but because some folk want to maintain privilege and decide how and what you can do. To keep their privilege, they have to remove our humanity, dehumanize us."
NOW invited Pastor Lamb to speak after he had linked racism and homophobia at a Christmas vigil against the Ku Klux Klan's cross on Fountain Square downtown. That December night, Lamb put his message in a classic tune of struggle, singing, "Before I be a slave and be buried in my grave, let no more homophobia come over me."
But at NOW's First Unitarian Church appearance, the 60-year-old
pastor used colorful, pointed remarks instead of melodic musical
riffs to detail "problems of the human spirit" he sees.
Some of his remarks about Jews and white women could have been
considered offensive, but NOW leaders defended his right to speak
his mind.
Women are "living in terror" because of "systemic"
sexism and machismo, he said, but then attacked a local women's
crisis center for "cutting off men's testicles." Contacted
after his talk. Rev. Lamb explained that he has "no problem"
with how Women Helping Women handle cases involving rape and
other violent crimes, but said in cases involving lesser offenses
WHW "separates families" by advocating jail time instead
of mediation or treatment.
Rev. Lamb, who calls himself a "woman-ist, not a feminist" because of the racism he finds in the feminist movement, challenged NOW to expand its gender-related focus. By becoming more multi-racial and multi-cultural, NOW can expand its power base, he promised.
Making no apology for his frank choice of words, he said people must learn more about the "niggerization (sic) of American women, the poor, and people with different sexual orientation." Later, Rev. Lamb lashed out at newly-working white women for "robbing" minority women of child care and Jewish men who own slum housing. In a phone interview, he denied that he is anti-Semitic but blames Jews for America's failing education systems. "This happens to be fact. Jews, and increasingly Asian store owners are oppressors."
Activists should determine their own struggle and existence, he said. "Whoever determines the word determines how you will be remembered in history. If you wipe out the word 'nigger,' you wipe out the ability to explain (blacks') condition," he insisted. "Whoever sets the language for the debate, sets the debate."
The American system is set up to dehumanize people, he charged. "If you can't say it in terms people will recognize," they won't remember how the system has mistreated us. "If you can't say it and define it, you can't deal with it, and realize the pain and the hurt - nor the good feeling of redemption" that result," he added. "I say it as I see it."
NOW vice president for action Kate Curry, who invited Rev. Land to NOW after hearing him at the anti-Klan vigil, said she welcomed his frank remarks. "That's exactly what we're working to do with our forums, shake things up. He's part of the movement of firestorm, brimstone preachers. He's hard on everybody. That's the minister's role."
"He's saying that there's no free ride just because you're a Jewish landlord," Curry added. "He knows than many whites get out (of criminal cases) but blacks go to jail. And we don't mind if someone comes to our meeting and says we're not doing our best. We recognize it as a challenge."
Veteran NOW leader Kathy Helmbock said Rev. Land's remarks were not criticized by anyone at NOW's business meeting after his talk, noting that "everyone has a right to his or her personal viewpoint."
Stonewall Cincinnati director Lycette Nelson responded by phone that "When we're looking for allies, you don't have to agree on everything. You look at where you have common ground and certainly he pointed to ways to a position we can build on. A low of where he is coming from is very legitimate. Racism is institutionalized. Issues of economics, day care, employment are all core issues for African-Americans living in Cincinnati."
"Rev. Lamb definitely touched on a lot of sensitive topics," Nelson noted. "But I think his basic message was very pertinent. I think that we in the gay community often approach coalition building with the African-American community as if we know what the issues are, and whoever we are trying to build coalitions with should know, too. There's a lot more to be gained by getting to know our potential allies and finding out what is important to them. I thought that was clear in what (he) answered about day care vs. housing.
As far as the gay community, I think he left the way open for more dialogue. That's my main interest right now."
For longtime human rights activist Kim Surber, "the bottom line of the Pastor's address was that the struggle is not, or should not be, based on race, gender or sexual orientation, but rather, on class. The true enemy is economic oppression. However, he also laid it out that white liberalism doesn't cut it. That apologists, liberals and political activists need to understand the cultural differences among people and quit going on perceived differences," she said.
"It could produce a new understanding and unity between the black community and the (GLBT) community," said Surber, a leader of the Greater Cincinnati Coalition to Free Mumia Abul-Jamar (an African-American journalist on death row in Pennsylvania). "I think that Rev. Land has his own bias and that (some) of what he said was stereotyping and inappropriate. Ah, but we all have our own foibles."
Rev. Lamb worked in the 1950's Selma civil rights struggle, "signifying against the wall" of Alabama State Police with school children and female teachers he credited with winning victory there. He returned from the Vietnam War to lose his wife in childbirth and survived New York City's drug-infested ghettos, "becoming an activist through conscience," he said.
He chair of the non-sectarian Baptist Ministers' Conference Social Action Committee here. He holds a Doctorate of Ministry from United Theological Seminary of Dayton (OH), Master of Divinity from Eden Theological Seminary in St. Lois, Mo., and a Bachelor's each in theology from Baltimore Bible College and industrial engineering from University of Maryland.
Rev. Land is vice chair, Ministers for Racial and Social Justice and past chair, Council for Ethnic Representation of UCC, and consultant on racial justice to the National Council of Churches. He works here as minister at the Freeman Avenue UCC congregation, is social action chair of the powerful Baptist Ministers' Conference of diverse clergy, and heads UCC's national Commission on Racial Justice.
At NOW's forum, Rev. Land declined to tackle a question about white gays' gentrification of black neighborhoods, instead focusing on "racism in day care" where white women new to the work force have taken away child care from families of color, "making them latch-key kids with no after-care."
Too many feminists "don't see the pain of other women who are still in hell," he told NOW members and several male guests in an audience of about 35. "You have the knowledge and power to work with (women of color) so you all can get out of the swamp."
He noted that even in the gay and lesbian communities, blacks are not totally accepted and are treated by some men as sexual "animals." The key to acceptance, he said, is "seeing each other like human beings." Rev. Land quoted T. S. Eliot's poem, "The Hollow Man," saying the shadow depicts the space between one's dream and its fulfillment as problems of the human spirit are explored. "Bringing reality into existence requires us not to get frustrated and act defensive. We ought to define our struggle on a human basis."
Asked about Issue 3, the City Charter amendment that outlaws civil rights protections for gays, lesbians, and bisexuals here, he attacked "the arrogance" of Issue 3 opponents in gay and straight-supportive circles. The "No on 3" campaign "was not framed properly," he said.
"White activists don't know how to talk to black people. Even flaming gay black preachers could not come out to oppose Issue 3 because the battle was based on racism and arrogance." A better approach would have been to approach gay choir leaders, who have pull with preachers, he said.
It all could have been expressed simply, because blacks do "understand the extended family, the interlocking support system" that they and gays have, he said.
Stonewall's Nelson, who is helping organize an Issue 3 repeal campaign, conceded at the meeting that "we have to find better ways to talk to each other" because "mistakes were made (in battling Issue 3) and the coalition effort was not as solid last time."
But she stressed that the Issue 3 vote in the black community was split. "We have to realize who benefited from Issue 3 - white conservatives pushing their own agenda. We must stop thinking about whose fault the loss was and realize it was Phil Burress and (Citizens for Community Values), " said Nelson, who holds a Ph.D. from the State University of New York in comparative literature.
"We must move Mr. Burress out of his pain," Rev.
Land smiled. "Life is battle. They've declared a war on
our souls, no matter who you are. If you expect to be victorious,
you've got to have some spiritual force on your side."
