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Dr. Judith Butler Refuses Berlin Civic Courage Award Over Lack Of Minority Acceptance In LGBT Leadership

06/29/10-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
Doctor Judith Butler, PhD Philosophy, has made waves by rejecting the Berlin Civic Courage Award over the lack of racial and transgender integration within the LGBT hierarchy. Butler, who is a professor at UC Berkeley, stated “I must distance myself from this racist complicity.” Her attack, according to Jessie Daniels at Alter Talk, was about “media campaigns that repeatedly represent migrants as ‘archaic’, ‘patriarchal’, ‘homophobic’, violent, and unassimilable while at the same time prominent (white) gay organizations in Berlin encourage a heightened police presence in gay neighborhoods where there are more people of color.” Many of the leading groups, it is pretty noticeable, are lead by white, affluent, gay men.

The group SUSPECT stated about Butler’s refusal:

It is this tendency of white gay politics, to replace a politics of solidarity, coalitions and radical transformation with one of criminalization, militarization and border enforcement, which Butler scandalizes, also in response to the critiques and writings of queers of colour. Unlike most white queers, she has stuck out her own neck for this. For us, this was a very courageous decision indeed.

UC Santa Cruz Professor Emerita Angela Davis stated “I hope Judith Butler’s refusal of the award will act as a catalyst for more discussion about the impact of racism even within groups which are considered progressive.”

Daniels wrote of this particular subject “What Dan Savage and other privileged white gay men fail to understand is the way one struggle is connected to another. In part, I think this is because they fail to see the ways that sexuality and race are intertwined. When you begin to see this, it shifts our understanding of oppression. Rather than seeing ‘blacks’ and ‘gays’ as somehow distinct, disparate groups, such an analysis allows you to recognize the reality of black and brown LGBT lives (such as the recently out entertainer Ricky Martin, who is both gay and Puerto Rican). And, such an analysis makes visible the white privilege that still adheres to the lives of LGBT folks like Savage.”

What follows, via Bilrico, is video of Dr. Butler’s speech. It is in German, but it is captioned.