I received the following response, presumably from Jeremiah Camara:

Here is the text:

“It’s unfortunate that you’ve chosen to only highlight what you perceive to be the negative aspects of my large body of work. Yes, I’m aware of the many other factors that contribute to the demise of the Black community. However, I tend to concentrate on the church/religion because it continues to make the boldest claims. I’ll explain this in much greater detail in my upcoming article entitled, “Why Faith is to Blame.” It’s also unfortunate and inaccurate to label me as being homophobic. In many of my lectures and interviews I have unapologetically expressed my support for the gay community. Many gays support my work and have worked with me on many of my projects including the movie “Contradiction.” In the Slave Sermons video above entitled, “We Men Ain’t Me?”, my intentions were to bring attention to the disproportionate number of Black men in movies who’ve seemingly been required to put on dresses. I took the same position as Dave Chappelle when he said, “I’m funnier than a dress.” Mr. Chappelle took umbrage at this same phenomena but was never accused of being homophobic. Regarding my connection with BlackSon, I think this is fallacious on your behalf. It’s a classic case of “guilt by association.” Nevertheless thanks for your support. Your comments and criticisms are appreciated.”

1) I don’t think that it is merely my perception- what I took from your work was negative. These are aspects of your work that you could have distanced yourself from and or edited out of your large body of work.

2) The church makes the boldest claims? In a country where we are witnessing the destruction of our social safety nets, school closures, etc. , you think the church is making the boldest claims? Well given that you think effeminization of black men is a bigger issue than sexual violence and predatory behavior, I guess i shouldn’t be all that surprised.

3) Which speeches are you referring to? You all but blamed the effeminization of black men for the correlation of the rise of homosexuality with the expansion of mega churches and acts of sexual violence committed by men of god (in the black church). I wonder how the gay community or the “many gays” that you have worked with would feel about that?

4) The description of the video “We Men.. Ain’t We?” says that you are examining “the effeminization of the Black man in Hollywood.” And now, you are telling me that your intention was to “highlight the disproportionate number of black men seemingly required to wear dresses” and yet you intentionally included performances where black actors were not wearing dresses? You included performances and representations of men who were not transgendered or transexual? What about the image of men who are simply gay? Or the men simply sagging their pants? What about the rape scene from Pulp Fiction? How does that fit in? If your goal wasn’t to label all those things as effeminizing or anti-male why did you put them all together? You did not take the exact same position as Dave Chappelle, because he unlike you, he never conflated cross-dressing with transgenderism/transexuality, or sagging. But, having seen Chappelle’s interview I would have to say he made a homophobic remark when he asked, “… What is this? Brokeback Mountain?” in response to a person he felt pressured him into wearing a dress. Again, cross-dressing does not make one homosexual. The reference to a film about a relationship between two men is a significant clue to his homophobia, as he was asked to wear a dress not to simulate consensual sex with a man, which also would not have made him gay- it’s called ACTING. Even if black men were being forced into wearing dresses as a part of their roles what is unclear to me is how that would then effeminize their black male viewing audience? Though I am still confused about how flowers effeminize black men. Is it the pollen? Do the flowers emit some kind of sexual orientation altering pollen or particle that affects some but not others like in that movie “The Happening”?

And notice that you employed a version of the classic defensive response that usually begins something like “some of my best friends are…”. Who are you trying to convince?

5) “Regarding my connection with BlackSon, I think this is fallacious on your behalf. It’s a classic case of “guilt by association.” Noted. That was actually a very small part of the article in question. But it seems you have a way of associating with bigots and tofu-dashikiists (like Hagins and Awadu)… so there ya go.

Notice how Camara never actually refutes or repudiates any of his earlier statements. And that he unapologetically (and yet, invisibly) supports the gay community but said nothing that would distance himself from “We Men…Ain’t We?”, his blog, or his comments he made on the War on the Horizon podcast.

There you have it, Camara is not just a homophobe but he panders to audiences regarding his beliefs concerning sexuality just like he panders to audiences regarding the problems of the black community.

See earlier post entitled Contradiction(s)