Sometimes, a political issue is about much much more than politics. Sometimes, it is about lives.
I am not gay, I am not black, and I am not a Southerner. Any opinions I have about the Barack Obama-Donnie McClurkin situation are simplistic and marginally informed. Cynthia Tucker is a black Southerner, although I don't know if she is gay. I do know that she is a Pulitzer Prize winning columnist, and the editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's opinion page.
Six years ago, Tucker wrote a column that really gets to the background and root of the current controversy. It was about a humanitarian crisis, not a presidential campaign. It was about a humanitarian crisis that was killing people, yet:
You don't see black activists taking to the streets on this one. You don't see Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton calling press conferences. You don't see African-American politicians demanding that Congress or the White House take action.
In other words, you don't see prominent leadership. Not even in the black community. The subject?
According to a new study from the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 15 percent of gay and bisexual black men between the ages of 23 and 29 are infected with HIV annually. AIDS researchers say that infection rate, frighteningly, compares to that of South Africa, where the disease threatens national stability.
You would think you would see leadership, in the black community.
But the deadly virus provokes few alarms. Instead, the subject fills African-Americans with shame and fear, embarrassment and apprehension, so we are silent. And silence and shame allow the virus to spread.
In 2001, African-Americans comprised twelve percent of America's population. In 2001, African-Americans accounted for over half of the nation's 40,000 new HIV infections.
As Tucker pointed out, there was still a stigma about AIDS, and a national reluctance to address it the way it needed be addressed. Furthermore:
Black America is more vulnerable to AIDS because it is more vulnerable to every disease. More likely to be impoverished, less likely to have access to health care, African-Americans have shorter life spans than whites.
But here's the real killer- literally:
But there is another factor at work here, one that only black America can confront: Homophobia runs rampant in the community, reinforced by conservative black churches and their narrow-minded ministers. The stigma is so widespread that few prominent black activists will speak out on the subject of AIDS.
While Tucker acknowledged the still rampant homophobia in white America, she pointed out that gay whites have been able to network, and support each other, including in the cause of AIDS prevention. She said that the same avenues of support are much less available for gay blacks. Because of that, many black gays and bisexuals remain closeted, denying even to self-identify as gay or bisexual, while continuing to practice furtive, unsafe sex. In the years since Tucker's column, Al Sharpton has stepped up, and spoken out, on the issue of black homophobia (h/t melvin); but Sharpton is never going to be a serious candidate for the presidency; Barack Obama is, and if he doesn't win, he will be again.
In 1988, when the Eighteenth Century Franciscan missonary Junipero Serra was beatified, he seemed on track to canonization. There was much lobbying towards that end. Many Native Americans were outraged, because the California missions Serra founded had been notorious for using torture and murder as means of forcible conversion and punishment for refusal to convert. Some of Serra's supporters dismissed the issue with the blithe explanation that such means had been common, at the time. I didn't understand that explanation. It seemed to me that sainthood implies having a morality and a humanity that transcend common behavior; but what did I know- I'm not a Catholic, either. For what it's worth, Serra has still yet to be canonized.
I don't expect a presidential candidate to be a saint. I do expect a Democratic presidential candidate to be a leader. I expect a Democratic presidential candidate to push our national community towards greater understanding and humanity. When one makes a mistake, I hope to see rectification and genuine contrition. People are human and flawed, even truly great people; but true leaders learn from their mistakes, and grow.
In the years since Tucker's column, the situation, for gay blacks, has not improved. According to a 2004-2005 five-city study by the Centers for Disease Control (h/t pico):
Of the 1,767 MSM, 450 (25%) tested positive for HIV (range by city: 18%--40%). HIV prevalence was 46% among blacks, 21% among whites, and 17% among Hispanics.
Think about that: according to this study, 46% of gay blacks are HIV positive! This is an absolutely devastating crisis! The gay community and the black community don't need an argument about bigoted singers performing on behalf of a presidential candidate, they need someone who can help them address the causes and effects of this crisis!
This is a defining moment in Barack Obama's young national political career. He can continue to play political games, make excuses, and change the subject, or he can do what many of his critics are asking him to do; but even the latter would be only a matter of political expedience. For Barack Obama, this moment of error could become a moment of greatness. The gay and black communities have for much too long put off engaging in a critically important dialogue, and for it, gay blacks continue to suffer and die. Barack Obama can now choose to find the best way to put out the political fires, or he can do something of which this nation has seen much too little, of late: he can lead.