From the Archives: Jaboukie Young-White for Négritude
L
ooking back at this early feature from the Négritude prototype. GOLDEN MEAN is conversation with Jaboukie Young-White by Oluwakemi Oritseja. Jaboukie and Kemi discuss Queerness and Black Third Culture identity.
Concept and Photography by Oluwakemi Oritsejafor
Styled in Neil Grotzinger and KHIRY Collection 002 by Umesi Michael Louis
Set Kierra Bertrand
Experience the full interview here (excerpt below)
Kemi:
"...What does being queer and Caribbean mean to you? I guess for myself, what does being queer and West African mean to me? I think for myself, coming out is still ... I'm still on that journey. I feel like you're always on that journey...Most of my family doesn't know that I'm queer and that I'm bisexual. I guess in a way, saying this now is like my coming out..
Jaboukie:
"That's true”.
Kemi:
"Which is a really scary thought because that's not how I woke up today.”.
Jaboukie:
"Right, but I feel like ... The way that I came out to my family was through a public reveal. I think that it makes so much sense to do it that way just because their whole perception of queerness is tied up in what other people will think, and if you attach your queerness to a project that other people are praising and you're literally being praised for your queerness, I feel like for them, it creates such a cognitive dissonance where they don't know how to deal with it because really, the reason why they would be anti-gay, queerphobic, whatever, is because not not only religion, but they're also afraid of the shame and the status loss that's associated with it. If you're gaining status while losing status, to them, I feel like that just breaks their mind."
