 There were also charges of racism , due to his portrayals of blacks and <unk> . Baker denied those charges , and pointed out that the protagonist later realized that the blacks were also gay and the <unk> " was just a sweet old woman putting up with a lot of ( stuff ) that I couldn 't even imagine . " He went on to say , " I just wanted to explore the conflicts between gays and <unk> and gays and blacks ... the real feelings [ and the ] <unk> of each other . I realized it wouldn 't all be nice and politically correct . If blacks ( and <unk> ) want my respect , they have to deal with their own homophobia . I 'm not playing guilty liberal anymore " . 
