The usually flamboyant and over-the-top character YouTube subscribers have grown to love known as Funky Dineva, is taking a backseat to a more stripped down version of its creator Quentin Latham. In his latest upload titled, "Straight Black Men Are The Problem In The Black Community," Latham is inviting Black straight men and his audience into a conversation that is both necessary and in some circles controversial.
Latham uses the Black barbershop as the backdrop for the 30-minute video in which he addresses straight Black men and the lessons he learned from them about manhood, homophobia/transphobia and misogynoir at every stage of his development. And in the current political climate of Black Lives Matter, Latham also addresses the Black communities insistence of Black LGBTQ people to place a hierarchy on our intersecting identities for what some believe is a necessary sacrifice for the greater good of (straight) Black liberation.
"Why can't y'all put down the gay stuff and put down the trans stuff right now for a little bit, and let's just fight the Black cause, right? And I've heard that," said Latham.
"Why can't I just put down my demand for equality while being gay and trans and just fight for being Black right now because that's the movement that's got some momentum? And my response to that was: I can't put it down because I'm both simultaneously. I am Black and I am gay simultaneously. And I am fighting for my life on this hand for being Black, but I'm also fighting for my life on this hand for being gay. How can I choose one over the other when I'm not safe on either side? Which led me to a greater discussion, which was, I, Quentin Antwan Latham, I would be willing to subordinate my fight—being gay—and put that on the back burner if I could find safety and refuge among the Black community...but I can't."
In the short time that the video has been online, Latham's commentary has been met with both praise and criticism. If straight Black men recoil when Black women call them out, you can only imagine the knee-jerk reaction they have when being called out by Black gay men.
You can watch Latham's video below. What are your thoughts?