UPDATE: Morehouse employee Sandra Bradley was fired.
Vicious homophobia rears its ugly head once again at Morehouse College, one of the nation's premier historically black colleges. Two staff members forwarded pictures of the extravagant wedding ceremony of popular Minneapolis hairstylist Michael Cole Smith and husband Jamil Smith Cole. One employee added an anti-gay rant and works worked in the office of President Robert Franklin, reports Southern Voice.
"I can’t believe this wedding. It’s 2 men. They don’t smile in a lot of pictures and they look like a few brothers I’ve seen in the streets looking STRAGHT. Black women can’t get a break, either our men want another man, a white woman (or other nationality that’s light with straight hair), they are locked up in jail or have a 'use to be' fatal disease. I’m beginning to believe Eve was a black woman and we Black women are paying for all the world’s sins through her actions (eating the apple)," Sandra Bradley wrote.
Vanessa Crites, who does not work at Morehouse, received the email from her partner, who works for Fulton County, and said she was shocked by the comments. I almost started to cry. I almost could not believe what I was looking at, and I thought that Dr. Franklin needed to know," Crites said. "I think she covered all biases, she’s discriminating against gay black men, she’s discriminating against white women, she’s discriminating against people with HIV."
Morehouse's president promises an investigation.
Morehouse employee Sandra Bradley was fired.
The all men's Morehouse College is the alma mater of Dr. Martin Luther King and has seen numerous well-publicized cases of homophobia, including harassment of gay students and accusations of anti-gay hiring bias at the College of Medicine. In November 2002, one "Morehouse man" nearly killed another student with a baseball bat because he believed the boy was gay and made a pass at him.
Michael Cole Smith and Jamil Smith Cole
married Sept. 13 in Minneapolis. The pictures were uploaded to a
Facebook photo gallery, where someone apparently downloaded them and
started the homophobic e-blast. The page is now locked.
To add insult to injury: The pictures have been posted to many black gossip blogs where hateful anti-gay commentary is standard operating procedure. At ghetto-obsessed and fact-challenged Bossip, there are almost 500 comments at the post charmingly entitled "What the Hell is Wrong with These Pictures". The majority are negative. One woman compares gay men to "rapists and serial killers". But quite a few comments were supportive and many criticized Bossip for "spreading hate." One commenter threatened to report the blog to GLAAD: "Stop the homophobia, there are people who are killed because they’re gay!"
The real tragedy: The same week our community condemns the savage beating of a young black boy on YouTube, a similar virtual ferocity is unleashed across the internets to attack a black gay couple. Gang bangers, criminals and babies' daddies who skip child support payments are idolized by our thug-obsessed, hyper-masculine urban culture. Two black gay men in love, who own a successful business and contribute to the economy? Not so much.
UPDATE: Excellent commentary at Kevin E. Taylor's Facebook.
HBCUs and Homophobia on ROD 2.0:
Principal "Appropriate" to "Out" Students
Principal Outs Students at HBCU Prep
Principal Outs Students at HBCU Prep
Homophobia at Hampton?
Judge Reduces Morehouse Sentence
LA Times on Homophobia at Morehouse
