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Mike Tyson and Boosie

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I promised I wasn’t going to write about rapper Lil Boosie any more. After the comments he made about orchestrating the rape of his underage children, I knew I had nothing else for him.

But recently, Boosie sat down on Hotboxin’ with Mike Tyson. And in an uncommon turn of events, we watched as a problematic Black man, held another problematic Black man accountable for his hurtful rhetoric and even questioned some unresolved trauma that might be lingering his psyche.

Tyson, asked Boosie outright why he had so much to say about the gay community when it’s really done of his business. The line of questioning began right at the start of the interview after Tyson asked Boosie who are you.

Mike Tyson: How do you feel about other people’s feelings? You offend a lot of people. You talk about f*cking gay muthaf*ckas, homos and f*gg*ts…

Boosie: A lot of times, I need to shut the f*ck up.

Mike Tyson: Why don’t you?

Boosie: I don’t know, man. It be hard. My momma got on my ass yesterday, talking about I need to shut the f*ck up. But when it be on my heart, I gotta say something sometime.

Mike Tyson: You know sometimes—I’m sure your mother said this. It’s what everybody says. If you don’t have nothing nice to say, don’t say it at all. Sometimes, it’s hard to say to yourself, ‘I don’t like myself. But I don’t know how to change.’ I didn’t like myself for a long time because I did a lot of sh*t to people. It’s just who I am.  I’m an abused kid, who abused people. This day, I haven’t abused anybody—probably myself. But I’m still a predator. All of us are on our survival sh*t.

I always wanted to die. I wanted to kill myself. So now, I got to change who I am. I got to find myself. I have to change myself. I got to look into myself and find out who I am and why do I say these things about certain people.

Why do you say things about a person, whether they be a homosexual? Why do you say that about them? Do you feel there’s a possibility that you’re a homosexual and by disrespecting them you further yourself from being a homosexual or thinking you may like homosexuals?

Boosie: Nah, nah. I’m straight as an arrow.

Mike Tyson: I’m not saying you are. But if you’re straight, why do you offend people?I

Boosie:  I really commented on the Dwyane Wade situation because I got offended because it’s a child. That’s why I really got offended. If it was a 19 year old, 18-year-old grown person, I know I wouldn’t have said nothing.

Mike Tyson: But why did you say something about a child? I’m not judging you. Don’t ever think I’m judging you. I’m just trying to understand you. Cuz I got some demons. You ain’t even in my world when it comes to demons. But just tell me why.

Boosie: I just felt like that’s a child. I felt like a child, ain’t at 12, can’t make that decision. I felt like that was going too far. You calling him a her. That’s going too far.

Mike Tyson: I agree with you 100 percent. I agree with you. But who the f*ck am I to say anything? What I think don’t mean a muthaf*cking thing. But I got a big ego. I think I can help the world. We have to know who we really are. We think we know who we are. Who the f*ck are we to make a comment about somebody else’s life? What happened to you that you think you can make a comment? I used to think I could make a comment.

Boosie: My momma said the same thing. But I said it and I stand on what I said.

Mike Tyson: Really? F*ck.

I won’t go so far as to call Tyson an ally for the LGBTQ community. He admits that he agrees with Boosie. But this is surely a start in terms of Black men holding one another accountable for the bad behavior that hurts all of us within the Black community.

If there were someone else in the room, they might have dug a little bit deeper in this conversation. They might have told Boosie that no decisions about Zaya’s body had been publicized—which is what Boosie was really concerned about.

If Zaya changes her mind about her identity in the future, what will it have hurt to know that her parents supported her?

Furthermore, Boosie’s rationale that a 12-year-old child can’t make those type of decisions for herself doesn’t really hold much weight considering the decisions he made about his son’s sexual experiences. If he really believed a child can’t make those type of decisions, then he would have realized he was actively participating in the rape of his children.

The issue here is transphobia and the demonization of feminine persona and characteristics. And while this wasn’t the perfect call out, and I’m sure Mike Tyson’s physical strength and reputation had a lot to do with Boosie’s reception of this message, it was a step in the right direction in terms of how Black men need to handle one another.

You can watch the interview below. The confrontation begins right at the beginning.

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