A Muckraker Other: Reducing James Baldwin to his bedroom

I came across a clip of James Baldwin speaking that I hadn't before seen. The particular segment of the clip concerned what white people knee-jerkingly like to (dis)regard as the race card. (You'll notice they never play the race card -as if, for that matter, it is a literal card game or a game in any general sense of the word - only we do.) As it concerned a discussion of "the nigger" I wondered why John Aravosis, founder of Americablog, made a point of mentioning Baldwin's sexuality and dress. So, too, did a few of the article's comments. The majority of the readers, though, were successfully distracted.

Below is the exchange which followed between me and the single-minded Aravosis on Twitter:

AMERICAblog Gay ‏@AMERICAblogGay Mar 27

@twptilden because we're proud of him being gay, and I think he's a worthy role model for a lot of young gays
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Tilden Tilden ‏@TWPtilden Mar 28

@AMERICAblogGay Only thing is James Baldwin was not 'a gay.' Didn't make his living or mark on the world as being gay. He was about smthg!
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AMERICAblog Gay ‏@AMERICAblogGay Mar 28

@twptilden I'm not sure I understand your pt. He was as gay as he was black as he was a man. And his gay mark has been made now
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Tilden Tilden ‏@TWPtilden Mar 28

@AMERICAblogGay Weak. Like celebrating F.Scott Fitzgerald for having #wife. Or drinking lots of gin. Since both were 'equally' true of him.
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‏@AMERICAblogGay

@twptilden Yeah, if people with wives were gassed to death in the Holocaust, then yeah you could make the comparison.

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Tilden Tilden ‏@TWPtilden Mar 29

RT@AMERICAblogGay "Yeah if people with wives were gassed to death in the Holocaust you could make the comparison" {They were. Jackass.}
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