R. Eric Thomas Response

            Out of the books we have read in class so far, R. Eric Thomas’s Here For It has quickly become my favorite. His immense love for pop culture, to the point that he remarks that “At a certain point, [he] forget[s] where [he] end[s] and pop culture begins” (Thomas 254), reminded me of my own concept of self and way of perceiving the world around me. Thomas constantly compares the events of his own life to things he sees in movies and television, instantly being on board with the thought of time travel at the mention of Back to the Future in spite of his distaste for the hygiene of the past, and oftentimes his first thought in response to major life events is comparing them to moments from pop culture. Upon getting engaged to his now-husband, a pastor, Thomas laments that he “forgot to change [his] profile picture to Whitney Houston in The Preacher’s Wife as had been my intention from our very first date” (Thomas 234). The fact of the matter is that many people might not understand the visual message that would have been conveyed (Thomas’s profile picture being Whitney Houston specifically from The Preacher’s Wife, implying that he himself is a “preacher’s wife” of sorts), but to Thomas the most important thing is that he would have understood the reference and therefore the joke, a sentiment I find very much relatable. I definitely tend to make jokes for my own amusement, frequently referencing media I love without considering other people’s familiarity as much as I should, and so Thomas’s fast-paced reference-filled prose very much agreed with my proclivities.

I also found his more seriously-focused writing to resonate strongly with me as well—Thomas has a fascinating perspective on faith as a Baptist-raised, gay, Black man, and his discussion of misogyny and homophobia in his childhood church in “Eggquity” made me stop and reflect on my own experiences growing up in a Christian community. I found one of his “discussion questions” halfway through the chapter to be particularly moving: “The thing is, the promise of church is community, salvation, and a relationship with God. If the gay music minister and the person with AIDS cannot be part of the church, where do they find God?” (Thomas 201). Thomas is able to flow smoothly between humor and solemnity in his prose, but every once in a while one of his more serious statements jumps out of the page and forces you to stop in your tracks. This is one of them—it’s a question I’ve never allowed myself to outright ask before, that many of Thomas’s readers may not have wanted to confront, but here he lays it out plainly and simply. Where do they find God? There’s no explicit answer to a rhetorical question, but I think there’s one that Thomas probably expects his readers to say: “I don’t know.”