My Eyes Are Green

I believe that one who is to be great must surround himself with great people. As such, I always encourage those people in my life who I see as future leaders to make a conscious effort to deal with other future leaders. And I try to do the same in my life. *Sigh* So I should be happy that a good friend who wants to pursue a life in the Academe has made substantial in-roads with several up-and-coming academics. However, one particular connection that he has made has my eyes green and I really don't know what to do with myself in this respect. Let me explain. Anyone who knows me can point to three particular groups to which I belong in which I have substantial pride. I love being Black. I love being a non-heterosexual male. And I LOVE being an intellectual. And it is the intersection of these identities which informs and shapes my desires. More to the point, I pride myself in being a black SGL intellectual and therefore long for close relationships with other black SGL intellectuals. And here our problem begins.

My friend is a heterosexual black intellectual and he, given the fact that he is still at Princeton, has been able to make connections with many people since I left the place, including a particular Black gay male intellectual with whom I would like to make in-roads. Now I'm not jealous on a level where I would not want them to be friends and colleagues. However, I am envious of my friend and wish I could somehow share in this.

EDIT: So, after re-reading this, I see it sounds kinda crazy. LOL. But, given some context, hopefully it will sound less so. There is a seeming scarcity of Black gay male intellectuals, particularly younger ones. This intersection of race, sex, sexuality, and generation forms a specific sort of imaginary and therefore allows for a different sort of conversation surrounding certain issues than would occur with older Black gay intellectuals, Black lesbians, White gay intellectuals, etc. It is due to this scarcity that I am envious of my friend. I simply wish that I could have made a similar connection when I was an undergrad.

And to the obvious question of why I can't just have my friend introduce us...maybe I'll just ask him and that might solve my problem. :-)