When I was still in school, we had a politically incorrect slang for white kids who acted black. The word was 'wigger.' I'll let you figure out its etymology. I'm not sure if the term is still popular with the kids today or not.

Wiggers were attracted to aspects of the overwhelmingly black hip-hop and rap subcultures. Like teenagers do, they emulated their heroes obsessively, down to the finest detail available to them. They talked the talk. They smoked the ganja. They drank malt liquor. They wore clothes designed for fat people. They chilled and kept it real and were as ghetto fabulous as you can be—in the clean, virtually crime free, air-conditioned food court of an upscale suburban shopping mall.

I think there are still kids like this. Or at least I still see skinny pimply faced white kids hobbling across the street because they can't keep their XXL pants up.

These kids identified with black people and emulated black people. But they had no idea what it meant to be black.

Do corn rows make you black?

How about a gold tooth? Or does it take a full “grille?”

Are you black if black people let you hang out with them and seem to accept you as “one of their own?”

Of course not.

Originially published January 2008 at Key64.net.

“What about empowerment through vulnerability?” A young male stood up in front of a room full of people and asked me this a few months ago. He did so without a chuckle, with no shame or uncertainty in his voice. A few of his peers nodded and looked to me for an answer, visibly convinced that he’d asked a valid, challenging question. Later, he expressed disappointment because I never responded to his question directly. In a sane world, no one should ever have to respond to this question, making an exception for the parents of very young children who are legitimately confused about the meanings of words.

The question itself, taken literally, makes absolutely no sense. Any dictionary will explain why.

From 1896 through 1931, German author and former schoolteacher Adolf Brand published “Der Eigene,” the world’s first periodical explicitly devoted to the promotion and celebration of male homosexuality. The title of his magazine, “Der Eigene” was intended to mean “self-owner” -- culled from the work of anarchist writer Max Stirner, of whom Brand was an ardent fan. Indeed, “Der Eigene” began as an anarchist publication devoted to the concept of personal sovereignty and freedom from authoritarian structures, but within two years had morphed into a pithy journal that sought both a revival of “Hellenic standards of beauty after centuries of Christian barbarism,” and later dedicated itself to “male art, culture and literature.”

“When a straight man puts on a dress and goes on a sexual kick he is a transvestite. When a man is a woman trapped in a man's body and has a little operation he is a Transsexual. When a gay man has way too much fashion sense for one gender he is a drag queen.”

Noxeema Jackson (Wesley Snipes)
To Wong Foo - Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar

According to one legend, the Stonewall Riots of 1969 were started when one transgendered person, Sylvia Rae Rivera, threw a bottle at a police officer who was harassing her. [1] Whether that is true or not, it is definitely true that drag queens and transgendered people played a prominent role in that historic event often hailed as the 'turning point' of the modern gay rights movement. And it seems that ever since, drag queens and the transgendered have been regarded as untouchable patron saints in gay circles. The drag queen has come to symbolize gay courage. To say something negative about queens around even many apparently masculine gay men is to invite a scolding. I've heard variations on this censure over the years, and even encountered a perfect example of the Drag Queen Creed recently in, of all things, the book Bears on Bears:

“The whole gay movement was initiated by these heroes/heroines; we Bears can continue to learn much from them. Talk about real courage! Do you know any Bear who has had to face the stuff drag queens have? They're the real men!”[2]

But what makes drag queens so damn courageous?