After speaking to the media about Michael Sam's coming out, Wade Davis has penned an op-ed for Ebony.com, in which he talks about how both Sam and NBA player Jason Collins have broken the stereotypes that we have about the African-American and LGBT community.
The narratives that we hear about ourselves are powerful because they become mapped onto our identities. The mind believes what it is told about itself. Though we may not have consciousness to the fact that this phenomenon is happening; our minds are always trying to find an identity, whether it’s positive or negative. I want to bring consciousness to the dominant narratives that exist in our culture and how they are impacting LGBTQ youth of color who are interested in sports as they are seeking their own identities.
The strength of a prominent and consistent narrative has the ability to be believed if an alternative is never offered or if a new narrative is kept in isolation. Both the Black community and sports community have been labeled as hostile places for LGBTQ individuals to exist.
For years the dominant narrative has been that the Black community is viciously homophobic. And yet today, Michael Sam and Jason Collins both exist as the most prominent publicly out gay male figures in sports and they both are Black. Fascinating, huh? And though their stories and the support they have received maybe framed as exceptional because of their celebrity status, they do not exist in isolation.
Read the rest of the commentary at EBONY.