First off, before I get into this, I do want to thank you for the suggestion of the For Harriet website. It was not my intention to get into a row with you, but once its on, its on. I wanted to better understand where you were coming from, but I'm not going to be down with slamming either me, or other straight black men, just because.
As for Dr. Marc Lamont Hill, what you consider 'polite' criticism was him co-signing an insulting post about Dr. Welsing. And also Dr. Hill did a video, perhaps on Huffpost Live about "Hoteps" which conveniently didn't include any members of the alleged Hoteps but feminist critics of them, which of course Dr. Hill co-signed. How is that for a free exchange of views? And you can't see how feminists and LGBT activists in turn could also do the same thing you say they say about the "Hotep" people (I said people because I would think there are female Hoteps as well, though it is often derided as a male thing), by policing black thought and behavior?
You say I am twisting your words, manipulating the conversation, well I know you have twisted mine. You keep harping on the 'evil' black male thing, and I said pages ago by now that you didn't say that, that was my words. Yet perhaps you skimmed over that as well.
Fragile ego male thing again? No one here has said anything about not criticizing each other, or the unenlightened straight black males. People disagree on these boards all the time. And you skimmed over what I said before about criticism of black males, and that I have done so myself. It's not criticism per se, it's the who, the why, and if it is justified? And does it go in the reverse as well? What's fragile about that? I'm not going to let you attack me, especially if it is unfair, and there is no push back. It's unrealistic to think that people are going to sit there and get bashed and not respond to it. Fragility has nothing to do with that. Fragility would be bowing to that criticism, especially if it is unwarranted or flat out wrong.
So is it only unenlightened black males that deserve to go the wood shed? Black people are often criticized in this country, talked to the way other groups are not, and its been going on for so long and we've accepted our subordinate status in so many ways, that we accept it, we think its actually a corrective of sorts. I'm not going to add on to that criticism-if it is unwarranted-and if I do criticize I'm going to try to do it with an understanding of the social, economic, and political forces that have warped black life for half a millennium. I'm not going to bash black men because it gets me in the good graces of some feminists, intellectuals, or activists.
Unlike you I am skeptical when it comes to mainstream media or comics saying they will discuss racism 'later'. Later often amounts to never. And its not the end of the world that Ayo and Aneka are in the book, stop exaggerating. My major issue with that is why they were at the forefront of the first issue. You seem to have skimmed over my saying I've read other comic books with gay characters. But for Black Panther I do want Black Panther to be the star, not two new characters. And if these two characters were heterosexuals, I doubt they would have been given the same spot light.
Black feminists and LGBT members are black, no one said they aren't. But I also know that feminism and LGBT issues are transracial causes as well, and I can easily see the whites among each group putting their interests first and the blacks going along with that. Except when they don't, which is why you do have discussions about racism in both of those camps, and black feminists renamed themselves womanists as a result of that. And talking about gay issues is not as threatening to white people as it is talking about black issues because white people can more easily see themselves in gender and gay issues, whereas they can't if race is emphasized. So you're saying that black feminists and black LGBT aren't focusing on what white people think? Black feminism is an offshoot in large part from white feminism, so how can you separate the branch from the root?
Comics are in the business of selling and how it has generally been done, by getting white readership and support. Priest attempted to do so, Hudlin went in another direction, but I would argue the post-Hudlin writers went back to trying to make Panther amenable to white readers. I don't think its a stretch for Coates to do the same, and focusing on an LGBT storyline would make white readers less uncomfortable than one about racism or colonialism. And if you couple that with T'Challa mired in failure and images of black men abusing black women all the more good. Time will tell if the increase in feminist and LGBT readership, which you think Coates has gotten, will keep the book afloat. I'm thinking that Coates new support is from white liberals who like his work at The Atlantic and became of his celebrity status.
So are you saying straight black men don't talk about issues affecting feminism or LGBT? I'm sure there are websites that do that, even ones that focus on geek stuff, like Black Nerd Problems. But surely you won't find any black males on sites like TheGrio or TheRoot not supporting feminism or LGBT issues.
One more thing, you talk about non straight black people wanting to be included in mainstream comics. That's fine, but you're assuming that straight black people are included which is an exaggeration at best, but which I feel is erroneous. You can probably count on one hand how many black creators are at either major comic book company right now. Coates, David F. Walker, John Semper (coming up on Cyborg), Christopher Priest (coming up on Deathstroke). I can't think of any others. And how many books exactly right now are headlined by black characters? Cyborg, Captain America, The Ultimates, We Are Robin, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, Power Man and Iron Fist, and Black Panther. That's pretty good compared to some years, but not a lot, so its not a situation where you have had a ton of straight black books, written by straight black men or straight black women. I think your perception of straight black male advantage of straight black male privilege in comic books is skewered.