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Film Review: Rag Tag

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Rag_Tag_FilmPosterA few months ago, I watched a film called Rag Tag that had been in my Amazon wish list for literally years.  I hadn’t made a point of watching it because I hadn’t been given any particular recommendations to do so.  But thank goodness for Netflix.

I apologize for the sparseness of this review.  I had really, really intended to write a review within a week of watching it.  Then life happened.  Oops.

So Rag Tag is essentially a gay black love story set in the UK.  Basic premise:  two boys who are best friends are separated in their adolescence and reunited in their early to mid 20s.  Both have lived their lives trying to conform to heteronormativity, but have failed because they were essentially in search of one another.

The bad news is that this is a low-budget film which often looks like it.  But isn’t that the case with so many pieces of art that emerge in support of the black gay aesthetic?  Drawing on my own experience, I know that my first novel Lazarus was not a masterpiece, but it remains a sentimental favorite for many of the readers who knew me way back when.

Similarly, Rag Tag is not perfect, but it is necessary.  There is a dearth of black gay romance on television and in film, so this movie fills the void (somewhat).  It feels authentic.  It feels right.

As a bonus, the viewer will also get to see this story unfold on two continents, neither of which includes the Americas.  The portion of the story centering on Africa drags at times, but it so important in deepening the story of Rag and Tag.

Rag Tag didn’t win any Academy Awards, but it did remind me that it will have a special place in the hearts of every black gay boy who needed to see themselves depicted in a positive and realistic way.

Find it on your favorite streaming video platform or be a pal to the filmmakers and purchase the DVD.

 

Me and Paul Beatty

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In case you missed it, I met my literary hero Paul Beatty this week at DC’s Politics & Prose.  I’m still beaming on the inside.  Here are the photos:

Family and Lovers

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Today’s “Tarot Tuesday” entry will be a little different.  I want to delve into my philosophy and synthesize a few readings I’ve recently conducted.

Someone recently asked me if my Tarot readings were “real” or if I cheated somehow.  I suspected that they wanted to know whether I practiced the art (science?) of “cold reading.”  According to Wikipedia, “Cold reading is a set of techniques used by mentalists, psychics, fortune-tellers, mediums and illusionists to determine or express details about another person, often to imply that the reader knows much more about the person than the reader actually does.”

I wasn’t offended by the question.  There are a lot of charlatans out there.  And for what it’s worth, I don’t think I have some peculiar gift that nobody else has.

I listen.

I listen to what the universe is trying to tell me through the cards and I pass it along to whoever is asking the question.

swords04A young man I know recently embarked upon a professional journey which took him overseas.  For him I drew the four of swords.  This typically means a period of resting or recharging after a period of challenges.  But something about the position of the swords themselves was puzzling me.  Then it occurred to me that the swords represented his family.  Father, mother, and sister were heading in one direction and he was heading in another, not only physically, with his move, but philosophically, politically, you name it.

He’s doing well with his move and I’m happy I was able to give him some reassurance in that process.

More recently, I had a conversation with a woman who was having some internal debate regarding her future happiness.  I drew the ace of wands in the reversed position–a card of exhaustion and a loss of enthusiasm.  From there, she and I had a revealing conversation (details that will not be shared here) that culminated with me reminding her that she has to take care of herself before she can help anyone else.

People only ever really want to know about love, family, and career in these readings.  I’d love a reading that was about passing a class or writing a book.  But it is what it us.

I don’t find readings about love, family, or careers to be challenging.  People come to those readings already knowing their personal truths.  They’re just buried deep inside them and the cards show them symbols that help them make connections that are important to them.  That part is easy.  Doing the work to change your life for the better–that’s the hard part.  And a Tarot card reader can’t do that for you.  But we can point you in the right direction.

I give Tarot readings that begin at $45.  Send me a message if you’re interested!

I can’t trust white women, either: #SAEhatesme

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Yesterday, Dr. Frances Becque posted a brief essay on her website about the Sigma Alpha Epsilon situation at Oklahoma.  I had huge problems with it when I initially read it, but I decided to wait a while before I posted my response.  I have immense respect for Dr. Becque’s research and promotion of fraternalism.

However, her essay is a prime example of what I spoke about yesterday on the issue of people of color being able to trust that white people won’t be racist in closed company, among other things.  Yesterday, I spoke mainly about the aggressors.  Today I will speak about bystanders.

What troubles me most about Dr. Becque’s post is not that she fails to use the word “racism” in the entirety of the post.  (What I liked about the response of both SAE and the President of OU is that each was quite clear that the acts we saw on film were racist and bigoted.)  No, it doesn’t surprise me at all–I am used to white people, well-meaning and otherwise, removing the “race card” from play even though it’s the only card that’s been dealt.

I suppose I could also be upset that she refuses to label those young men “men” and instead makes an intentional point to call them boys, as though to absolve them from the ownership of their words.  (And let’s be clear that it’s not the words that hurt–it’s the environment that the young men perpetuate that hurts their chapter, their campus, and their community.  Racism hurts black people, but racism also hurts white people.)

And sure, I could be upset at Dr. Becque’s appeal for calm, to remember that these “boys” are not “monsters.”  (One could make a very strong argument that racists are monsters.)

What troubles me the most about her essay is that I’m not troubled at all.  It’s just another symptom of white supremacy and patriarchy manifesting itself in the Greek community, perhaps where it spreads most efficiently.

To paraphrase Iyanla Vanzant, let’s call a thing a thing.  White men who exist in white spaces that empower them to be racists are monsters.  White women who empower those men in those spaces are bigger monsters, because they have the ability as parents to raise them right in the first place, but choose to coddle and protect them, to preserve the very patriarchy that continues to subjugate them.

I have no empathy for racists.  It is not my job to fix racism.  It is the job of white people to fix racism.

So fix it.

Stop empowering racists.  Stop trying to appeal to a sense of calm when your “boys” are the ones in chaos.  We will continue to march.  We will continue to protest.  And we will continue to call racism out where it happens and where it is coddled.

I Can’t Trust White Men: #SAEhatesme

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Black people can tell if a white person is the type who says nigger when he thinks no one is watching. We know and we warn others about you. –Me, on Facebook last night.

Over the weekend, a story emerged about a chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon which was suspended due to racist behavior which was caught on film.  For what it’s worth, I was impressed with the swift response from SAE’s National President Brad Cohen, who said “They will be dealt with.”

And dealt with they were.  Chapter closed, members evicted from the house, and expulsions are sure to follow.  Mr. Cohen’s response doesn’t seem to be the standard response of corporate embarrassment and brand protection.  It seems to be genuine disgust.  I appreciate that and I wish more fraternal leaders could be trusted to have similar responses.

But the problem is that white people are racist and I can not trust a white person I don’t know to not be racist.

My lack of trust in white people (men in particular) is not unfounded.  It is not unreasonable.  It is based in the reality of a racist and patriarchal society that was not designed for black excellence.  These young men on this bus already have all the privilege in the world.  It wasn’t enough to just be white in a space affirming of whiteness.  They had to affirm their superiority and their exclusionary beliefs.

Thankfully there was at least one subversive person on the bus who filmed and shared it.

Anyway…

I am glad that the #SAEhatesme movement has begun on social media, but I hope people understand that this is not solely about Sigma Alpha Epsilon.  This is about any institution of all-white (on some campuses) or mainly white (on many campuses) people that gets to decide their own membership.  When picking a pledge class, a chapter may not be chanting about never taking a nigger, but what’s going on inside them when they do vote?  Are they challenging themselves about why they are voting no on a candidate?  Are they really checking their privilege?

Further, are they asking themselves why people of color are not rushing their chapters in the first place?

Do they know that we don’t trust them to do right by us?

I am a Brother of Alpha Phi Omega, one of the most happy-go-lucky fraternal organizations on the planet, and even in our own existence, there have been chapters which have donned black face and had jungle-themed fundraisers.  Although this was decades ago, it is definitely documented in our national newsletter.

No institution of white people is immune to racism.  But ultimately, my mistrust of white people is not my problem because it is not steeped in racism.  It is an evidence-based emotion, signed in the blood of Mike Brown and Eric Garner, with a bullet as the exclamation point.  It is on film.  It is in print.  I don’t trust a white person to not call me nigger behind closed doors.

This is a white person’s problem, not mine.  I’m good.  I don’t have work to do.  White people do.  In the words of Olivia Pope:

Earn me.  Earn my trust.  Show me that you won’t lynch me.  Show me that you will teach your boys not to shoot me.  Show me that you want me in your fraternities and your country clubs.

Until then… just leave me alone.

1987

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Post by Stephanie T. Sutton-Johnson.