Staceyann Chin broke the silence with a bang yesterday.
The Jamaican activist, poet and playwright showcased her fiery and candid oratory while speaking on issues of sexuality and identity in the capping event of the LGBT Center's Day of Silence.
An acclaimed agitator for women's rights, Chin spoke frankly about a variety of issues and performed several poems.
"I believe 'whore' is a word we came up with for women who like f-king as much as men," she said. "I believe there will always be something to fight for."
Chin spent the session providing biographical insights into her life, including her exodus from her home country of Jamaica, where homosexuality is illegal. She read portions of her memoir, performed poetic pieces and sought to challenge the boundaries of what many people consider sensitive, taboo or shameful topics.
"I like to push the buttons about race and sexuality and all of that," Chin said. In response to the quiet crowd in Cabot Auditorium, she joked that students today have become so serious that they have lost "nuance and irony and sarcasm and all those wonderful things that allow you to say so much with your body, with your voice.
"You guys must not have any fun during sex," she added.
"I f-k with you, with all of this, because I do believe that a conversation between those of us who are a couple generations ahead of you may engender you talking to people younger than you are," Chin said, describing the importance of encountering many different perspectives from people in varied points in their lives.
The talk concluded the LGBT Center's Day of Silence, in which participants - usually students - refuse to speak for a full day in order to highlight the feeling of isolation that gays feel.
Chin said that today's generation of young people with strong convictions is "the first generation that really can do anything" and that there are "very few boundaries [it] can't cross."
But Chin said she worries about what young people will choose to do with their power.
She also discussed racism in America. "Someone doesn't need to spit in your face and call you a n--r" for it to be racism, Chin said. She said that both sexism and racism are deeply pervasive in American society.
"People talk about black people who are poor, black men who are being incarcerated ... but no one is talking about poor white people in this country," Chin continued. "We are pitted against each other" when issues like poverty are characterized as minority issues and not as widespread social problems that affect everyone.
Chin described her own life's journey.
"A Negro girl from the Caribbean comes to America, succeeds," she said. "She's biracial, abandoned by both parents. She swims the Atlantic Ocean. She arrives panting to the U.S. The f--g Statue of Liberty scoops her up, lifts her up, dries her under the sun. [Then she is given] a book deal so we can talk about how good America is to its immigrant arrivals."
Chin said jokingly, "I have this book. Buy it so other Negro girls can be published. White men should buy two copies."
When asked by a student whether she has to be extra cautious in her home country, Jamaica, because of her homosexuality, Chin answered "absolutely." She said she received threats after appearing on the "Oprah Winfrey Show."
Chin also spoke about her own "diversity," citing it as one reason she believes she has been successful. She listed "the kind of exoticization of Jamaican culture, the kind of counter culture I present," and her identifications as black, Asian, gay and female as "one-stop shopping" for diversity.
"There are so many ways to be famous, being famous is like s-t," Chin said. She said that she is most proud of being "unfailingly honest in what I do."
Chin also addressed masturbation, sexism in the medical sector and puberty. She recited passages from her memoir that described an experience with menstruation during puberty.
She also touched on sensitive, emotionally charged words like n--r, d-k and f--t, saying, "We live in a kind of P.C. world where nobody says anything" and explaining that she uses these words to spark conversation and works to eliminate their negative connotations.
"We spend so much time arguing about semantics that we don't move forward on the actual issues," Chin said. "I work for everybody to have the right to call themselves what they want and to be what they want. The rest of it is just gravy."
