Walt Whitman, a white man with a long, bushy white beard and mustache. He wears what appears to be a wool coat and a brimmed hat. Photo taken 1887.
Content warning for anti-Black racism, nationalism
“I too am a descendant of Walt Whitman. And I am not by myself struggling to tell the truth about this history of so much land and so much blood, of so much that should be sacred and so much that has been desecrated and annihilated boastfully.” – June Jordan
History is full of contradictions, and queer history is no different. One who is reviled in their time might be beloved today, while others made the switch from cherished to vilified. Others still simply existed and didn’t experience much of either extreme during their lifetimes. That’s all a long way to say that Walt Whitman, as he said himself, was a man of contradictions.
Walt Whitman is one of the more popular people to be discussed here, especially among queer writers. Born in New York on May 31, 1819, Whitman’s early life was rather uninteresting. The writer himself described his childhood as unhappy, mostly due to the family’s constant moving around. He attended school only for a few years before he left in search of work to support his family. He found his way into journalism as an apprentice for different printers.
At the same time, he was getting more into the cultural scene; he attended theatre performances and joined a debating society. This time when his family moved again, he stayed and eventually published some of his earliest poetry. He continued to work until economic issues forced him back to his family and into the role of a teacher. He found himself unhappy and eventually returned to journalism. He continued on writing music criticism, essays, fiction and poetry until he was fired as editor from Brooklyn Eagle in 1848 for his involvement with the Free Soil Party.
Here is where we get to some of the major contradictions not only in Whitman’s life but in the beliefs of many who admire him. The Free Soil Party, challenged by abolitionists for “white manism,” derided slavery for its effects on white Americans. Whitman himself opposed abolition for much of his life, saying it did more harm than good in regard to banning slavery. He also agreed with the popular belief that even African Americans who weren’t enslaved should not vote. He feared what their ability to vote could mean and was vocal about his hatred. He called African American voters and legislatures "blacks, with about as much intellect and calibre (in the mass) as so many baboons."
At the same time that he was expelling these beliefs, he was writing his major poetry collection, Leaves of Grass. Whitman noted this was his attempt to reach everyday Americans with an American epic. It seems that, with his beliefs, he wanted to reach white Americans more than anything else.
Walt Whitman is considered by many to be a gay icon. He epitomizes a big issue in the queer community. Queer people are drawn to queer people in our history, and white queer people, in particular, have an awful habit of ignoring racism from those people in favour of focusing on their queerness. For many, there is a sense of connection to a queer, working-class man who didn’t come from an academic background. That’s why it’s so important to read and support the scholarship of LGBTQ+ black writers and academics.
“I’m so tired of being forced to promote the myth of white supremacy by performing works by old white men like Whitman who said blacks were stupid, shouldn’t be allowed to vote, and didn’t have a place in the future of America.”
After refusing to perform a required piece derived from Whitman’s work, Timothy McNair argued, “I’m so tired of being forced to promote the myth of white supremacy by performing works by old white men like Whitman who said blacks were stupid, shouldn’t be allowed to vote, and didn’t have a place in the future of America.”
Black writers and artists have been responding to Whitman for a long time. In a 1980 essay, poet June Jordan wrote, “I too am a descendant of Walt Whitman. And I am not by myself struggling to tell the truth about this history of so much land and so much blood, of so much that should be sacred and so much that has been desecrated and annihilated boastfully.”
Unlike many people we’ve covered, there is not a question of Whitman’s sexuality. He had a number of lovers throughout his life, and there seems to be ample evidence of his lifelong love for Peter Doyle. Even his work reflected it. When he was asked if his “Calamus” poems were intended to be a “homosexual,” he simply didn’t respond. His sexuality isn’t really in question. Instead, the question is the rest of his life. Did his beliefs every change, and does it matter?
Christopher Freeburg wrote, “whether Whitman was an actual racist, ignored racial difference, or thought carefully about racial politics while revising his work, it is important to think broadly about how racial difference figures in Whitman’s notion of US postbellum progress.”
He is one of the most influential American poets, even called the poet of democracy. Poet Ezra Pound called Whitman "America's poet ... He is America." Whitman’s racism and his sexuality cannot be untangled, just as his work cannot be untangled from America itself, nor the racism they share.
References and Further Reading
Disclaimer: some of the sources may contain triggering material
Allen, G. W. (1975). The New Walt Whitman Handbook. New York University Press, 21 W.
Asselineau, R. (1999). The Evolution of Walt Whitman (2nd reprint). University of Iowa Press.
Beckerman, J. (2019, April 22). Walt Whitman is our national poet, and a gay icon. North Jersey Media Group. https://www.northjersey.com/story/entertainment/2019/04/22/walt-whitman-200-one-worlds-great-gay-literary-icons/3429639002/
Ed Folsom and Kenneth M. Price, “Walt Whitman”—The Walt Whitman Archive. (n.d.). Retrieved October 27, 2020, from https://whitmanarchive.org/biography/walt_whitman/index.html
Leaves of Grass, by Walt Whitman. (1882, January). The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1882/01/leaves-of-grass-by-walt-whitman/306166/
Loving, J. (2000). Walt Whitman: The Song of Himself. University of California Press.
Porter, L. (2019, April 17). Should Walt Whitman Be #Cancelled? JSTOR Daily. https://daily.jstor.org/should-walt-whitman-be-cancelled/
Schmidgall, G. (1997). Walt Whitman: A Gay Life. Dutton.
Wilson, I. (2014). Whitman Noir: Black America and the Good Gray Poet. University of Iowa Press.