CW: transphobia, racism, nightmarish attempts at Barbara Bush's aesthetic
This past Friday fountain of hatred, Milo Yiannopoulos, appeared as a guest panelist on noted edgelord in liberal drag, Bill Maher's, online segment, Overtime. The segment went about as well as one would expect. If you want to watch, you can here. But fair warning, expect lots of transphobia and racism in there.
Amidst all of the insanity of the Maher segment Milo said something that essentially made me pull a Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor. When asked if he is the true face of the alt-right party he responded, "how can this movement be an antisemitic, white supremacist, hateful, bigoted, racist, homophobic, movement and a gay Jew who never shuts up about having a black boyfriend is the head of it?" I immediately thought about how none of those things make him beyond criticism, but then it hit me, I myself am a queer Jew with a black boyfriend. So as someone who has been there in regards to all of the labels that Milo loves throwing out to try and protect and victimize himself I decided to pen an open letter.
Milo Yiannopoulos,
There is so much i could say to you, too much actually. So I'll just focus on what I am best able to speak on. I noticed outside of the Maher segment it has been brought up multiple times when you are called out for hate speech you respond with the gay Jew with a black boyfriend defense, as if by saying that you are immediately innocent of all charges. As if you yourself put egg on your opposition's face. While it might be tacky to open my case with a meme:
I literally do not care how many labels you try and pull up to cover yourself. At the end of the day you are a rich white man whose job is getting paid to talk down on other people and cultures. What part of any of that makes you a victim? You complain that people want to silence your right to free speech when your events get cancelled due to protests, but think nothing of the protester's right to protect the marginalized from the likes of you, someone who said they have zero apologies for publicly ridiculing a trans woman and got paid to do it.
When you mentioned intentionally misgendering the trans woman you took to task you laughed, shrugged, and rolled your eyes. Her suffering became a joke to you. These are not the actions of someone who is connected to their place in the LGBT community. Nor are they the actions of someone in touch with their Jewish heritage. Where you come from has such a deep history of suffering at the hands of genocide and hatred. Despite this you only continue to fuel the same fires of hate that has caused the deaths and torture of our people. Your status as a "provocateur" (hateful troll) obviously means more to you than the history of your people and where you come from.
I will admit though that I myself have spent a lot of my life out of touch with these things that I'm putting you on blast for. After all, despite my identity I did grow up as a white girl in small town South Carolina. There was a good stretch there that I let the environment around me shape me instead of my precious family and Jewish identity and status as a queer person. I was trash and eventually I hit the point where I was starting to learn that "edgy" humor just wasn't as cool as I once thought. Finally something that happened needed to happen. I got called out. And by my boyfriend at that. And Milo, the place where we differ all boils down to one word, accountability.
If a black person tells you you are being racist, believe them. If a woman tells you you are being misogynistic or that you make her feel unsafe, believe her. If a Muslim tells you your rhetoric is Islamaphobic, believe them. If gay people tell you that they feel like you turned you do nothing to help the LGBTQIA community, believe them.. I promise this shit isn't being made up. Every call out you receive puts you at a crossroads to either take accountability and attempt to grow into someone better, or to give a group that hasn't had the same privileges as you the middle finger by saying that their suffering exists to serve you. Honestly, the fact that I feel the need to explain things that I started to learn and recognize when I was a teenager to someone who is in their 30s is pretty sad.
And finally, I really feel the need to talk about the black boyfriend point. First of all has anybody ever even seen you with a boyfriend, or really any friends now that I think about it? I do suppose there always is the possibility that you want to protect their privacy or whatever, but still. So let's say you really do have that boyfriend, and you aren't just talking big to try and cover your own ass. The whole thing about a relationship is a partnership, and the whole thing about the word partnership is that it implies the word equals. Let's take a quick look at just how equally you view these men you claim to love so much.
So not at all then I guess. Heads up, talking about how much you love having sex with black men and boasting about having an interracial relationship, and then saying things like this or showing direct opposition to Black Lives Matters does not make you innocent in regards to racism. I'm actually pretty sure it might be even worse. You are objectifying black men for your own pleasure while getting paid to write articles and host talks about how you disagree with movements aimed to help black people. You are directly profiting from their struggles, and then feel some sense of entitlement to their bodies. I promise you that that is not love, and not an equal partnership. It's narcissistic, predatory, and downright gross. I don't even see any evidence that you see black people as human in all honesty.
In addition, when you are in an interracial relationship that is not an opportunity for you to seek brownie points. If you are white and dating someone of another race they are not your shiny trophy that only says "look how progressive and not racist I am!" Yet somehow you think that's exactly how it works.
And on that thought I'm going to veer off and pull a blogception and have an open letter within an open letter.
To Milo Yiannopoulos's boyfriend (if you actually exist),
If you are real please love yourself and dump him for someone who sees you as a valid person and cares about your life and your struggles and doesn't try and push their privilege onto you. That is all.
Sincerely,
Bimbeaux
*Edit* Holy shit. In the time it took me to write this article, proof it, go for an afternoon drive, and then cook dinner shit really blew up. Expect an updated post on the Milo saga ASAP.
