It’s something you have to constantly work against. I have some ignorant questions, probably.Ĭharles: So much of how I understand what it means to be anti-racist, if that’s even possible, is not just about mastering the right or wrong things to say. Mark: Can we talk about gay men, black and white? And I also want to discuss what it means for an HIV advocate who is white to be a supportive ally.
In our very candid chat, we discuss gay men, sex, racism, HIV, and the thrill of the taboo. But it’s that very hesitancy, according to black gay academic Charles Stephens, that only makes racism worse.Ĭharles, the founder of the Counter Narrative Project in Atlanta, proved to be the perfect person with whom to chat about race (and sex, and fetishes) - when he wasn’t turning the tables on me with uncomfortable questions of his own. It makes me uncomfortable, or perhaps I feel unequipped, unqualified. In thirty years of HIV work alongside black advocates, I have rarely written on the topic of race.
Detail from Rotimi Fani-Kayode’s “Untitled,” courtesy of Autograph, London
