One of my favorite bloggers Clay Cane interviewed rapper and actor Xzibit (you may remember him from MTV’s Pimp My Ride) who is promoting his new movie with Alfre Woodard called American Violet, and Clay brought up an incident that happened recently where Diddy had invited Xzibit to a gay club, and Xzibit was quoted by the media as having made homophobic statements on a radio show.

According to Xzibit, his words were taken out of context.  But more importantly, Clay asks him about homophobia in hip-hop in general, and Xzibit says the environment is a lot less homophobic that people think, that it’s “just part of the landscape”.

“It started as just common place; it was just part of the language. I think the overtones that it creates, is not what really exists. I don’t think if you are gay and you go to a hip-hop club that you’ll get beat up for being gay. That’s not what is going to happen. I think words are the way that people express themselves—just like if you say bitch on a rap record for a long time you can rally thousands of women that will say that’s incorrect. You can’t focus on one single thing or bad aspect of what happens in hip hop and try to blanket it. That’s not the root of the problem. It exists, I think it’s how you portray it, and it’s how you use it. You gotta paint with a broad brush when you talk about homophobia because it’s a lot of things that exist in hip hop that aren’t exactly right, but it’s part of the landscape.”

Strangely, I understand the point he’s trying to make.  The overtones of homophobia in hip-hop or the homophobic language that’s used doesn’t necessarily indicate intense hatred or homophobia.  Calling another straight guy a “fag” doesn’t necessarily mean that you hate gay people or want to do harm to them.

But there’s two problems.  One of which is, while for many hip-hop artists like say, Eminem, homophobia is limited to their language and not necessarily their actions, there are plenty of examples of rappers who are outright explicitly homophobic and have no qualms about saying that they are.

The other is that simply because you don’t outright hate gay people and want to physically harm them does not mean you aren’t homophobic, or that your level of homophobia is acceptable.  I’m reminded of people I’ve actually met who have said things to me like, “Well my dad calls black people niggers but he’s not racist.”  Doesn’t that statement sound absolutely ridiculous to you?  So why is it any less ridiculous to let hip-hop artists (and society at large) use clearly homophobic language and let them get away with it because they essentially say “Dude, you’re a fag.  No offense to gay people, though!”

When are people going to understand that words aren’t just words?  That when you say “You’re such a pussy” when what you really mean is “You’re weak” or “You’re a wimp”, you are being sexist.  Or that when you call someone a “fag” because you want to insult their manhood, you are being homophobic.  When you say that something is “so gay” when what you really mean is that it sucks, or it’s bad, you are being homophobic.  When you incessantly say “no homo” every time you happen to come even slightly in contact with another man (men should never hug! so gay!), or when you eat a banana (phallic symbol), or wear a pink shirt (pink is for girls only!!), because you’re deathly afraid of people even thinking for a second that you might be homosexual, all of these things create a culture of homophobia and misogyny.

This conversation reminds me a lot of talking to naive white people who think that because they have black co-workers or black friends, or because they voted for Barack Obama, or because they watch Will Smith’s movies and listen to Beyonce that somehow that proves they’re not racist.  They think that racism only exists in backwoods southern hicks who wear white hoods and burn crosses.  They don’t understand that there is a spectrum of racism.  You may be someone who wants to drag a black man from the back of a pick up truck, or you may just be someone who clutches your purse a little tighter when you see a black man walking past you.  But either way, it’s still racist.

Homophobia needs to no longer be acceptable in any capacity.