Answer the question...

This slogan, coined by the Quaker –led Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade in the 18th Century, posed a serious moral question that was meant to quicken and convict the conscience of those who approved of the dehumanizing and ghastly African slave trade in the Americas. Although it should be noted that this particular group of abolitionists sought to merely eradicate the slave trade and not necessarily slavery itself, this slogan and the emblem that bore it spoke to the premise that African men and women, young and old, were moral, intellectual, spiritual - need I go on – equals to their imperialistic oppressors.

Is there a need to pose this question once again? I would answer, most avidly, hell yeah!

As a gay black man living in America amongst scores of diverse groups of people, I often find myself kneeling, as if pleading, like the image of the brother engrafted on the coin before others defending my equal status as a moral, intellectual, spiritual – need I go on – equal to my myopic country men. The ferocious physical acts of brutality and the malevolent psychological effects of slavery that my ancestors were subjected to is incomparable to be sure. Yet, the countless numbers of young black men who get by, not sojourn, in the most dreadful closets of their lives and the young women who are subjected to ridicule and isolation because of who they are…who they know themselves to be…and who they love is enough to shatter the hope in their lives. Simply, it is time out for the self-righteous, all-perfect, and hope-deferring socio-political, theological, and psychological shackles that are often imposed by the other.

Am I not a man and a brother? Moreover, am I not a creation of God, a free thinker, a child of liberty and promise, and an American? Am I not a tax-paying citizen guaranteed the rights extended to those in our democracy?