As it is every year, LGBTQ Pride Month is an opportunity for the LGBTQ community to celebrate its rich cultural identity and diversity. It is an occasion for all of us to unite and recognize our common bond, especially as we march collectively toward full equality in the American sociopolitical landscape.
And so in recognizing Pride, we also must necessarily disassociate ourselves from anything – or anyone – who would denigrate those very ideas or peddle dangerous stereotypes as part of a sophomoric attempt to entertain.
Strangely, the celebration of LGBTQ Pride in the Bay Area this year coincides with the arrival of F. Charles "Chuck" Knipp. For those unaware of him, Knipp is an American-born drag queen who has performed in blackface across the country for nearly a decade. As part of his act, Knipp invokes a variety of characters, including a black female persona known as "Shirley Q. Liquor." Shirley Q. Liquor has been showcased in a number of video clips including "Ebonic Airways," "12 Days of Kwanzaa," and the less colorful, "Church Slave." She is typically featured with a bathrobe and hair rollers, and speaks with a distinctly uneducated flair.
On June 18, Knipp is scheduled to perform at the Russian River Resort in Guerneville, at around the same time as Juneteenth, when African Americans celebrate the end of legal slavery in this country. Knipp argues that his depictions celebrate black women and black culture, but there is nothing celebratory about portrayals that resuscitate old and tired stereotypes about women of color. At its best, comedy is intelligent, thought provoking, and reasoned. In contrast, Knipp has shown himself to be an uncouth opportunist and a poor student of history. He has every right to exercise free speech, but his suggestions that he is not racist – since his racism is used to make people laugh – are disingenuous to say the least.
Unfortunately, this is not Knipp's first time visiting the Bay Area. In 2006, Knipp appeared at a South Bay venue and provided what some would describe as an "edgy," "hysterical," and "twisted" performance. As one supporter said, Knipp's act "slaps you across the face and makes you look at it."
But even in the Bay Area, where artistic license is given considerable latitude, the words "twisted" and "edgy" should not be lauded as giving reverence to all things unconventional. Knipp's act shows profound and unmistakable distaste for the lives of working-class black women, and clearly teeters on the edge of what most would describe as "enlightened" art. We agree: it is "twisted" indeed.
Given that black women still have to contend with the stereotypes of "Hoochie Mama" and "Welfare Queen" (long after Don Imus and Ronald Reagan politicized them), despite the fact that a black woman is this country's first lady, the proverbial slap in the face that Knipp's antics provide should serve as community wake-up call, not as invitation to study a Southern man's narcissistic and risque attempts at counterculture.
In 2007, a number of venues canceled his performances, including those in New Orleans, Boston, Los Angeles, and Hartford, Connecticut. Not surprisingly, Knipp seems unfazed by the criticism. Then again, Knipp can remove his "blackness" anytime he chooses; black women don't have that luxury.
Nonetheless, this issue is really not about Knipp, nor is it about the Russian River Resort, which will be hosting him. Knipp clearly enjoys his celebrity, although it comes at the expense of black women. And unfortunately, the Russian River Resort will seek to capitalize on this controversy because it finds value in racist drivel that denigrates an entire community.
In light of these developments, the question for the rest of us within the LGBTQ community is: what type of community do we want to create? Do we want a community that remains splintered and factious, or do we want to establish a community that respects all of its members? Do we want a community that is party to intolerance, or do we want a community that supports inclusion at its high level?
We think the choice is clear: we must support unity. Given the polarization that took place after Proposition 8 was passed, and given the historical struggles to unite women and men, black and white, transgender and non-transgender within the LGBTQ community, we can no longer afford to enable this type of bigotry. As the social, cultural, and political arm for the African American LGBTQ community in the Bay Area, the Bayard Rustin LGBTQ Coalition believes that the time has come for us to turn away from any ideas of "separation" and to embrace a global perspective.
As a result, we are calling on every progressive organization in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond to renounce Chuck Knipp and the Russian River Resort for their exploitation of black women, and to avoid the resort for the remainder of the summer season. Let us remember that before we can have "Pride," we must also have the consciousness to recognize the humanity and beauty of every person within our community. By rejecting Knipp and embracing more progressive sensibilities, we can lay the foundation for the type of community which we all envision: one where Pride is coupled with "Respect."
Joel A. Brown and Erica Britton, Ph.D., are co-chairs of the Bayard Rustin LGBTQ Coalition.