I was lazy today, sleeping until past noon. I wrote a speech that I will give to a multicultural education class at UMass/Amherst. I copied it for you below and I'm eager for your comments, hopefully before 9:30 AM when I leave for my busy Election Day!

Before I begin this speech I would like to a small survey. Would all the women in the class please stand up? Thank you. Would all the people of color in the class please rise now? Would all the disabled people please join your classmates if you are able? If you can�t stand signify in some other manner. Now look around the room. Today is November 4th and I would like to remind all of you, both standing and seated, that your classmates who have risen when I have asked them questions were not allowed to vote at some point in this nation�s history. I hope you all will vote today. You have approximately 5 hours until the polls close. I don�t care who you vote for. Your vote is your own business. I do, however, care very much that you do it. Now, on with the speech.

In the course of your class, I�m sure you�ve talked about cultural relativism. However, in case you haven�t, it is the concept is that people of different backgrounds respond to things differently. We eat different food, listen to different music, dance different dances, play different games, and so on. We even respond differently to insults, hearing words like �nigger� and �faggot� have a different effect on me being both black and bisexual, than they might on a person who doesn�t belong to either minority group, although especially here in Massachusetts, they are likely to offend everyone, which they rightly should.

Another thing that annoys me as I member of multiple marginalized communities- I�m bisexual, disabled, African-American, and female in one body- is the tendency of people, often with whom I share at least one community membership- to assume that I am some first. For example, that I prioritize being black ahead of my other identities, such as being bisexual, female, or disabled. No one I know who is a member of multiple oppressed groups does this and for most part the question annoys us. My favorite quote on the subject comes from filmmaker Marlon Riggs- a black, gay man who died of AIDS. In his magnificent film, �Tongues Untied�, Marlon addresses this concept by relating the conversation he had with a fellow black man who asked him whether he considered himself first black or gay and what he wished his response would have been, �Or to speak in language this brother could understand, what would he choose, his right eye or his left nut?� I was 20 years old when I first saw this movie and I remember sitting in the theater crying because someone understood what I was going through as a member of more than one oppressed community.

I never met Marlon Riggs but he profoundly affected me as an artist and a person of multiple oppressed identities. He helped me find my voice. The next time someone asks me what I am first I�m going to tell them plainly, �What I am first at this moment is someone who badly wants to hit you in the face.� I may not actually hit them because I don�t believe in violence, but I think I�ll get my point across.

Thank you for listening and please, as I said at the beginning of the speech, go vote today.

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