I recently checked out an LGBT Buzzfeed article where a Journalist conducted an Grindr experiment where he changed his headline to Masc4Masc, grew out his facial hair and put on a few extra pounds. He noticed more messages came in quick asking to hook up and for a gym partner. I decided to do my own experiment. How do white gay men feel about their counterparts who differ from them? I used a picture of my friend (whose attractive and white) and I used the headline “No fems, No Blacks, No Asians, No Fats”. The amount and speed the messages came in was shocking. Over 100 messages in 24 hours was outstanding results and the replies were even better. Unsolicited penis picture, the “hey” followed by a face pic and other greeting filled the inbox. The ages ranged from 17 all the way to 50. I then wondered how was I going to get all these guys to expose their racism? After they sent a face picture I replied with,“Thank God you aren’t a nigger, hey man” and no one called out the racism, in fact guys just expressed that they weren’t into black guys either. Some comments stood out amongst the rest.
“lol not into dark meat either”
“Haha you must be on the same page as me. I don’t like black guys. They’re dirty and most of them have hiv or stds”
“I’m not racist, but I’m certainly not attracted to black guys”
“I don’t like black guys either, wanna hang out?”
Concluding the experiment only one person ever spoke up and said my use of the word N***** was ignorant, the rest didn’t care or agreed. It’s argued that not being into black guys or Asians or fat guys is a preference. The definition of preference is a greater liking for one alternative over another or others. Preferences aren’t stated. An example of preference is when going out to a restaurant the waitress asks you what you would like to drink and you say Sprite but the only carry Sierra Mist. You don’t get up and leave the restaurant, both are basically the same drink with a slight difference in taste from two different companies. The only difference between white, black, Asian and other men of color is the pigmentation in their skin. This “preference” is inherently racist and the exclusion of fat men is fat-phobic. The Masc4Masc ordeal is just hypermasculinity, internalized homophobia and misogynistic all in one. After being told “I’ll make a man out of you” it was a new outlook at the people around me. Grindr located these men, my college mates and local LGBT community members. In conclusion, Grindr is a playground for discrimination.
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