Happy Black Pride

Happy BLACK PRIDE

Happy Black PRIDE!

I titled this post specifically to encourage monitors of my blog to search Black PRIDE and view the results of what many see as not worthy within the California Prison System.

I am the only openly Black gay man at San Quentin State Prison, and most of you already know, to be black and gay while incarcerated is dangerous on so many levels.

#1. On an official level, all LGBTQAI+ programs are Transgender based, for example, allowable property items, clothing, cosmetics, and Healthcare, also safety and housing

#2 On an Educational and Vocational level, again, not only is programming limited, but again it's primarily designed to engage transgender persons, with curriculum designed for the inclusion of womens issues from a Eurobized perspective, and primarily facilitated by white women that present as lesbians, volunteers, in an all-male prison.

#3 There is an agreement between gangs, and other prison subcultural groups in the entire state of California to remove all gays from Level 4 and now some level 3 prisons, and this removal has been ultra abusive, violent, and amounting to the deracing of all Black men that identify as LGBTQAI+, by fellow inmates, who present as Heterosexual.

Which brings me back to #2. Due to the ethnographic ignorance, and non-presence in areas where the abuses are ongoing, and the total disregard for the physical, spiritual, mental, and educational well-being of Black gays, and Bi-sexual inmates, the programming exacerbates the inhumane treatment for the most underserved demographic of the prison population.

The lack of attention to detail is evident in PRIDE Month recognition in 2020. Most holidays or recognitions only have one day, PRIDE Month is for the entire month of June, in an all male prison, with an influx of innercity youth, and street perspective black culture, not one white person facilitator of any LGBTQIA+ programming at San Quentin State Prison have provided any PRIDE functions, even in the Global COVID-19 virus situations that also affects LGBTQIA+ inmates, have none of them been able to provide any efforts equal to what is being done by other vocational volunteers educational, and religious departments, with inner-prison televised DVDs for the sound, compassion, and informational awareness for inmates.

Today is June 25th, and still, NOTHING, as the COVID-19 virus spreads at SQSP, NOTHING, I myself tested positive for COVID-19 virus a week ago, and I'm housed on Death Row, in fact, for many years I've worked to provided DVDs of LGBTQIA+ perspective in the 1st historical LGBTQIA+ spirituality group, we call our program The Sound Mind Streamer, please check out our post about The Sound Mind Streamer, and our journey right here.

Nothing, and being Stonewalled is an understatement. They say we are all in this together, yet the proof at San Quentin State Prison shows clearly that Black Incarcerated Gay Lives don't matter to anybody, except for Skylar Brown.

They will say this is not true, and yet, won't even search online the facts about why black PRIDE started in the first place, and come face to face with how they are participating in the continued deprivation of the right to human dignity even during incarceration for all non-white gay people who primarily come from places and experiences they did not volunteer for.

The implicit bias, and racial agenda has collectively and systematically fallen into the controlling hands of those enforcing religious homesteading of the San Quentin Media Center Television innerprison in-cell programming that prevent heros from simply playing DVDs.

Some people are so into themselves, that they portray others as wanting special treatment, they refuse to view society as requiring equal treatment, and an equal presence within the San Quentin Prison Media Center.

If you are Black and Gay, it would be a great blessing of your presence for the education, wellness, spiritual growth, and health of fellow Gay Black incarcerated Americans, here is what we have done without you, so far.

South Chicago ABC Zine Distro
P.O. Box 721
Homewood, IL, 60430
anthonyrayson@hotmail.com

Zine issues:
1. Write or die zine * Poetry, Prose & Condz Vol, 3
2. Write or die zine * I AM AZANDE
3. AZANDE Press * The Sound Mind Streamer
4. AZANDE Press * Gaytekeepers
5. AZANDE Press * Liberated Facts
6. AZANDE Press * Direct Message
7. AZANDE Press * 6
(COMING SOON) AZANDE Press * Parallaxboi Mobile EP 2020
(COMING SOON) Write Or Die Zine * Parallaxboi da'VENT 3.0

Now imagine what we are able to accomplish with you.
Enjoy your reading and the music on youtube, and betweenthebars.org/TheSoundMindStreamer

When Black gangmembers file lawsuits, or join movements to expose corruption and abuses in prison against them, they all call it "A Solitary Struggle and Movement."

When Black Gays file complaints that expose abuses against them at the hands of corrupt officers in collective conspiracy with gang members, they all call it snitchin.

To white people who volunteer in prisons, Black becomes the version of Black that they have been exposed to, they believe that if you mention the Black Panther Party, or quote Dr. Martin Luther King, and play anti-death penalty, that they have made the connection required to gain Black acceptance.

White people don't understand that while they have become partners with some Black people, they don't understand that those Black people have deraced those of us that they consider "Abominations," or "Infidels", and have been kicked out of our homes, abandoned by our parents, beaten and outcast by our own people that by default, DO NOT speak for us all, thats facts. White people who present as LGBTQAI+ have partnered with the very oppressors of Gay Black inmates then wonder why the crowded closet door remains shut.

It is not safe to come out of a prison closet into a program that offers ZERO safety after the group session is over, white people drive home after the powerful work of getting people to open up, but they don't go back to the cell, yard, the blindspots/Tha Cut, The religious services, and those environments of the ignorant and violent that is conditioned to believe that homosexuality is a white disease and to present as such, will turn into what white people are unable to engage because they have ZERO experience with what being Black is, to Gay people.

Preaching to a choir is easy for white people that create the lesson. As a choirboy, I teach white people that the lesson becomes oppressive when the choir director is molesting me, and all of the others that chose to join a gang, and cross paths again as adults in prison where white people are the most ignorant, Black people are the most silent, and Gay Black incarcerated Americans view the situation from a position that has created the standing room only, in this crowded closet, the only true safe space.

White people with all of the expert answers have no value in a prison setting where the lessons and PREA responders are ignorant to the developing reasons as to why LGBTQIA+ prisoners in California are being violently removed from Level 4 and level 3 prisons by active gangmembers, they don't care that this is happening in reception centers, and county jails all over the state even as I write this, Gay Black Incarcerated Lives don't matter to white LGBTQAI+ people, or fellow Black inmates who are silent, yes, Black silence is violence in prison.

And while the so-called experts on what Gay is to them, attack, from the Straight side and the fellow Gay side, I end up being the only Black man, or California prisoner at San Quentin State Prison that is openly Gay.

One in over 4,000 inmates? For over 30 years? Where else on Earth can we find these numbers? I was raised in the hood just like everyone else, so "Straight Acting" don't apply to those of us who are like me. This is not an act, not at Gay clubs, no parades.

I never struggled with my sexual identity, I don't want to be a female, and "The Down Low" has more to do with security than lifestyle, I'm not a "Homo Thug" or any of the degrading labels that others have placed on people like me.

I don't require empathy, nor does my Soul require being saved, my foundation is not rooted in the Black Church, as equal protection under the law is exactly what is required. I don't need a program to fix me, I am not broken, and require my own space. I'm not fixed on white people giving us more, I'm protesting anyone who seeks to deny me equal, regardless the melanin density in your skin, I am Human and shall always be engaged on a human level, I am Gay and happy to be myself, as my Humanity, Happiness, Joy and PRIDE is therefore not open for debate.

Happy Black PRIDE!