Thread by @RogerSneed

Let's unpack the incipient homophobia in this whole Caldwell v. #Dariuscrooks mess. Why would Darius respond to Caldwell and not his many other critics? Why wouldn't he respond to @iamdonvaughn? Why would he deploy the word "sissy" in his tweets? Settle in for a long thread: /1

@iamdonvaughn I noted at the outset of all of this that Darius has all the smoke for ANY Black woman...but seemingly had NONE for men who came at him. I need to find the screenshots, but over on FB, I had an exchange with him that went far differently than his with Black women. /2

I am also a Black gay man. However, his "energy" with me and my clapbacks and so forth NEVER reached the level of his with Black women...and then yesterday, with Andrew Caldwell. /3

So, as my mentor and friend Victor Anderson would always ask, "What is going on when all of this is going on?" And then I thought about my own experiences as a younger Black gay man living in Atlanta in the late '90s. /4

A lot of us Black gay men had been conditioned to think of Black women as our "competitors." Simultaneously, we also were a lot of Black women's "good gay friends." We also dealt with the dichotomy of being "butch" or being "femme." A LOT of internalized homophobia was at work /5

I think--I could be wrong--that Darius and Andrew are exemplars of that internalized homophobia. Darius would respond to Andrew because he "presents" as a femme--though deeply closeted--gay man and is read as being more "like" a woman. /6

This then gives Darius the space to present as a more "butch" gay man--and therefore, more "acceptable" to his following (Black cishet women who are churched). In short, Andrew presents as the ever present threat to Black heteronormativity /7

However, the dustup itself reinforces stereotypes of Black gay men as "catty," "shady" and every other version of "sissy" as we might have seen on RHOA. Darius's own cozying up to/tearing down Black women is part and parcel of internalized homophobia /8

I think he sees Black women as both "friend"...and threat. Remember the screenshots of early Darius basically saying Black women weren't his target demo? He didn't "need" Black women THEN the way he "needs" them NOW /9

The Caldwell/Darius is his way of saying, "See, Black churched women, I am not a threat to you. HE IS. I may be a 'sissy,' but I'm a sissy you can trust." /10

Interestingly enough, both of them rely on Black church culture's homophobia and misogyny to present their sissified selves as acceptable. Andrew's is based on the stereotype of flamboyance, while Darius's is based on the cult of the Black male preacher. /11

And! If Darius's persona is based on the Black male preacher, he can weaponize homophobia against Andrew, just as he's weaponized misogyny against other Black women (e.g., his followers' responses to other Black women who have called him out). /12

/13 This is an example of how he weaponizes misogyny and seeks to be understood as a "butch" gay man--and thus, totally in line with the ways his followers have been conditioned to view Black male/female relationships as antagonistic/inherently homophobic: