Rich, White and Gay :: Adhamh Roland

Tomorrow I will be traveling back to Luther. Since I will be in a car for a large portion of the day, I decided it would be better to just blog now while I know I have spare time. Lucky blog reader you, you get two songs in a day!

I love Riotfolk. Nothing like an anti-profit radical collective of musicians and artists. My friend Mugsie introduced me to Adhamh Roland from riotfolk, and I got sucked in to the entire collective. Today I'm posting the first song by Adhamh Roland I ever heard, it's called "rich, white and gay" but if you enjoy it and have spare time to mess around on the internet, I suggest checking out the website and the other musicians.

What I love about this song is that Adhamh was able to articulate many of my frustrations with the "gay community" and the type of change that is being fought for by many of the big "glbt" organizations. I get really fed up with gays who don't realize that race, class, gender, sexuality, etc are all connected. I truly believe that it's not possible to have "equality" unless we deal with all of the -isms, not just the ones that directly apply to us. I'm gonna stop there or ya'll will end up reading pages of me ranting about the shortcomings of assimilationist activism, and really, the song says it more concisely than I do anyways. I really can't pick any favorite lyrics, the whole thing is pretty fabulous. I'll leave it at "thanks H.R.C. for being my advocate."

Click here to hear the song. That's right, click on "click here" in the last sentence. I wasn't able to find it in a format where I could embed it in the post. I'm sure if I had more computer techie know-how it would've happened, but alas, you'll have to deal with multiple windows instead.

well, what do you see of the gay mainstream?
queer eye, queer folk—it’s queer t.v.
and you say ‘oh my goodness look how far we’ve come’
but that all depends on where you’re coming from

chorus:
‘cause when you say ‘we’
i think i know what you mean
it’s that rich, white, gay and lesbian
so called community

it’s the folks who wanna end housing discrimination
but ban youth shelters in the name of beautification
who think their partners should have health coverage to share
but don’t give a damn ‘bout universal health care
who fight in the courts for tougher hate crimes
but think the racist system is working just fine
‘cause it’s o.k. to haul off to jail the homeless and the youth
people of color, trannys, sex workers too
as long as it’s not people like you
then you can maintain you’re agenda
that benefits the few

it’s a gay mainstream that votes anti-poor
as long as civil unions are accounted for
they don’t seem to see their obvious connections
between race, class, ability, and gender expression
they don’t think of the black drag queens that battled for us all
hurlin’ high heels at the cops outside of stonewall
when they vote to put more pigs on the streets
and never hear about the people that they beat

‘cause the human rights campaign is sponsored by nike and coors
who violate everybody’s rights but yours
they claim to advocate for queers and trannys
and then don’t write them into nondiscrimination policies
they even endorsed a republican candidate
thanks h.r.c. for bein’ my advocate

it’s the log cabins, the don’t ask don’t tell
it’s consumerisms choice demographic to sell
it’s climbin’ up the ladder leavin’ everyone behind
it’s the best pecking order capitalism can find
it’s the upwardly mobile that want to marry
it’s the strict butch/femme dichotomy
it’s queers who equate true equality
with straight privilege like shows on t.v.
as long as the butt of the jokes are still based on misogyny
and the lead roles are straight in reality
it’s a slap in the face to kioshi
and every other liberation warrior since the sixties
and anyone ever arrested on your street
cuz they might lower the value of your property

when you say we
i think i know what you mean
it’s that rich, white, gay and lesbian so called....
well it’s not the trannys, it’s not the dykes
it’s not anyone who’s not white
it’s not the whores, not the fags
not asians, latinas, natives, or blacks
it’s not the homeless, the deaf or blind
it’s not fake cocks or chests that bind
it’s not the fat folks, or the freaks
or any combination of any sort of identity

except that rich, white, gay
that rich, white, and gay
that rich, white, gay ...
...and sometimes lesbian
so called community