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because we can keep it private, personal, closeted, repressed, the world still re- volves around who sleeps with whom and the power implicit in that. Whoever one is. Who one sleeps with never does not matter. Folk constantly think about who sleeps with whom and where. If I, an avowed lesbian and feminist, were to say that I still sleep with men, what do you think would be the response from my lesbian-feminist sisters? If I come out as a lesbian in the various black groups I find myself among, am I not buked? If I label myself "bisexual," then who would trust me? So, who one sleeps with is a key issue, because the act speaks to how far one might go in perpetuating or tearing down the empire. As a les- bian, a feminist, and a "nigga," I am about the radical restructuring of all systems--whoever I sleep with.

Economically, lesbians thwart capitalism--and the blacker the les- bian the more she should attempt to thwart capitalism and the more she does. Lesbians or women who are "lovers" do not wed themselves to the institution of exclusive heterosex- uality which expresses itself una- bashedly and unashamedly at every turn in our daily existence as women. Of course, lesbians are victimized economically like all women in cap- italism, but there are additional threats to the economic and emo- tional survival of women who are les- bians--whether we are "out" or not. We can lose jobs, our children, our lovers, our freedom, our lives because we are lesbians in a homophobic cul- ture. Thus, many black women who love women are loathe to identify themselves as lesbians. Some of us feel we don't need another "handicap," "strike against us .we already black." Being a black lesbian is not easy, and the more non-middle class, non-bourgeois elite the lesbian, the harder it is. There are fewer mechan- isms in every day life and in the in- stitutions that run our lives for deal- ing with homophobia than there are to deal with racism or sexism. People recognize racism and sexism as legiti- mate oppressions. Many folk still feel the best medicine for homosexuality is to string the "queer" up on the nearest tree.

I name myself lesbian because this culture oppresses, silences, and de- stroys lesbians, even lesbians who don't call themselves lesbians. I name myself lesbian because I want to be visi- ble to other black lesbians. I name my- self lesbian because I do not sub-

scribe to predatory/institutionalized heterosexuality. I name myself les- bian because it is part of my vision. I name myself lesbian because I want to be with women (and they don't all have to call themselves lesbians). I name myself lesbian because it is part of my vision. I name myself lesbian because being woman-iden- tified has kept me sane. I call myself "black" too, because black is my per- spective, my aesthetic, my politics, my vision, my sanity.

A woman does not have to be sleep- ing with a woman or women to cultivate a lesbian perspective. McDowell, Hooks, and Jordan, for example, could cultivate a lesbian perspective. Such cultiva- tion might be therapeutic for their anti-lesbian attitudes. Any self-deter- mined woman can call herself a lesbian if she is about affirming herself and other women.

The issue of lesbianism, as politics, as a way of being in the world, as just plain life needs talking about, not silence, not subterfuge, not coyness. Everytime I meet a black woman, who lives somewhere in the hinterlands of South Jersey, who has been making her way with a woman, in isolation, in the closet, cut off from community, and who thinks she's the only "one," it be- comes ever clearer how much self-deter- mined black feminists, black lesbian- feminists need to do some naming and claiming, regarding our tradition of woman-bonding, e.g., lesbianism.

Toward this end, I would like to know more and write more on the issue of black lesbianism. If black women have trouble with the term "lesbian" then what term can we use to name ourselves? I want to know where black women stand on this issue. Please write me your perceptions, feelings, and opinions on the word, "lesbian." Is there a tra- dition of woman bonding on your family? Eventually I would like to use your responses in an article on black women and woman bonding (lesbianism). Write

Cheryl Clarke, c/o Conditions, P.0. Box 56 Van Brunt Station, Reprinted Brooklyn, NY 11215.

from the current issue of Sojourner.

We thank the author.

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