Johnson, and I think it’s difficult for people to acknowledge – because acknowledging that would also mean needing to acknowledge how Black LGBTQ community members are treated differently from non-Black LGBTQ community members. I would argue that they’re not, because, yes, James Baldwin has a significant impact on the community and on society and also within the LGBTQ community, but he was Black. “The starting place for most people is acknowledging that the Black community is not homogeneous,” says Priscilla Ofosu-Barko, director of programs and services at KOJO Institute. But really, are they celebrating those individuals if they’re not seeing them as a whole? Johnson or James Baldwin because somewhere along the line they became mainstream for particular reasons, but that mainstreamness had nothing to do with the community. So when Black History Month comes around, people may bring up, but not always, Marsha P. What I believe is that talking about race and acknowledging how intersectionality sort of plays into how people are in the world is not something that we as a global society are entirely comfortable with. ![]() And so your question about why the Blackness of certain figures essentially becomes erased when they are brought up during Black History Month or Pride, I think, is a complex one. I don’t identify as one, so I’ll be speaking from my experience in terms of how I’ve engaged with the community, on a personal level or on a professional level. Priscilla Ofosu-Barko: Full transparency, I have worked with a lot of Black and other non-white LGBTQ community members. Why do you think this happens and what can we do about it as members of the African American community? If James Baldwin comes up during Black History Month he often gets straight-washed, erasing his importance as a Black Gay man. Johnson – a prominent figure in the Stonewall uprising of 1969 that was the start of Gay Pride – and James Baldwin, a Black Gay author, were assigned to one or the other Black History Month or Pride. Sumiko Saulson: Where it regards the intersection of Blackness and queerness, often we see important Black queer figures like Marsha P. We support organizations in achieving equitable outcomes for their employees and their service users within all sectors, working with not-for-profit as well as for-profit corporate organizations. ![]() Our founder and leader, Kike Ojo-Thompson, has been engaged in equity work for over 20 years, and KOJO Institute will be 24 this year. Priscilla Ofosu-Barko: I am the director of programs and services with KOJO Institute, an equity consultancy. Sumiko Saulson: Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and your organization? ![]() In my interview with Priscilla Ofosu-Barko, B.A., CYW, RSW (she/her), of the KOJO Institute, we explore these questions. Why do most institutions honor the same few figures every Black History Month, cherry-picking their histories to center and pacify whiteness, erasing the Black LGBTQ community and Black history before the transatlantic slave trade? What can we in the Black community do to challenge this? Johnson, key figures in the Black Gay Civil Rights movements. Above are Storme DeLarverie, left, and Marsha P. “When you think about the Civil Rights Movement or the Gay Rights Movement and the people who were integral and moving things forward, oftentimes they were Black and non-white,” says Priscilla Ofosu-Barko.
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