Note: I’m hoping people can recognize snark, sarcasm, and the ironic use of generalizations when they see ‘em. I mix these tools of rhetoric. With that in mind, please read on ...
So Prop 8 has passed and the gay community is pissed. As one who has had first hand experience dealing with the gay community, it comes as no shock that "Blame the Blacks" is the focus. For a community that likes to deny its own racism yet often ascribe "hate" solely to blacks, Latinos, and Christians (as if "gay" is mutually exclusive to all these groups), perhaps it would be best to look in the mirror to ponder why Prop 8 passed.
Lest you believe I’m merely an alarmist, hypersensitive, radical nationalist, please review blogger Rod’s report on what’s happening on the ground: "N-Word Hurled at Blacks During Westwood Prop 8 Protest"
Some nuggets that show how some rational, non-racist, non-hateful protesters are taking the high road:
YOU NIGGER, one man shouted at men. If your people want to call me a FAGGOT, I will call you a nigger.
Three older men accosted my friend and shouted, "Black people did this, I hope you people are happy!"
...because of 'you people gays don’t have equal rights and you better watch your back,'
"Black people make me feel like a piece of shyt when it should have been a night of celebration for all,"
...the niggers better not come to West Hollywood if they knew what was BEST for them.
These were comments from gays shouted at black gays at (and in support of) the No on 8 protests. The Left is lovely.
The Numbers
One should always take exit polling results with a grain of salt, but if you want to live by those numbers and blame demographic groups for Prop 8’s passage, there’s plenty of blame to go around:
Vote by Race/Gender Yes No
White Men (31%) 51% 49%
White Women (32%) 47% 53%
Black Men (4%) N/A N/A
Black Women (6%) 75% 25%
Latino Men (8%) 54% 46%
Latino Women (11%) 52% 48%
Of course, the white gay community could blame white men for Prop 8, but many can’t muster the strength to blame what they idolize (which is essentially themselves). So consequently 3,000,000 whites who voted Yes on 8 get a pass because 700,000 blacks did also, and many gays prefer to direct their ire towards The Blacks. Of the 5,200,000+ votes for "yes", 700,000 (or 13%) deserve special attention and displeasure.
Never mind if no blacks had voted at all, Prop 8 still would have passed albeit by a far slimmer margin. All the black vote did was neuter the votes of white women, making the voting edge of white males and Latinos/as stand as the final margin of the total vote – 52% vs 48%.
In the eyes of many on the left, because blacks have suffered the most and the longest in this country they are responsible for voting in a manner satisfactory to every other victimized group. If they don’t make a decisions as a bloc that posit them as the most enlightened and progressive, shame on them! Oppressed people are supposed to be examples for us all.
Of course we could also blame everyone over 30 for Yes on 8:
Vote by Age Yes No
18-29 (20%) 39% 61%
30-44 (28%) 55% 45%
45-64 (36%) 54% 46%
65+ (15%) 61% 39%
But of course, no one wants to be part of the blamed group, so non-blacks can just blame The Blacks – the perennial outsiders. That decisive vote majority from The Blacks gives everyone else the right to train their anger towards them – call them niggers, hypocrites, vote against "their issues" (whatever that means), threaten to kick their asses in the safe confines of West Hollywood (like really).
In this spirit, I’d like to blame, curse, and threaten The Whites for voting in majority for Reagan, Bush I, and Bush II. Blacks and Latinos did not vote these guys in. YOU are responsible for all that has been wrought by these Presidents, and you should know better. Your people did this!
In the same spirit, The Whites deserve no credit for the Clinton terms or Obama’s historic win:
Vote by Race Obama McCain Other
White (74%) 43% 55% 2%
Black (13%) 95% 4% 1%
Latino (9%) 67% 31% 2%
Asian (2%) 62% 35% 3%
Other (3%) 66% 31% 3%
Isn’t that how exit polling, the numbers game and The Blame Game work?
Oh, how about Proposition 209 in 1996, the early years of Blue California when Clinton won handily and we decided that weed is medicine:
Vote by Race Yes No
White (74%) 63% 37%
Black (7%) 26% 74%
Latino (10%) 24% 76%
Asian (5%) 31% 69%
Courtesy of LA TIMES
Thank you, thank you for your progressive voting – not thinking just of your own interests but for the good of all Californians. Oh wait, am I reading those numbers right? Oh then I curse, threaten, blame, and blog against you, like the No on 209 folks did in ’96. They did do that, did they?
Well, forget about that let’s not restrict all our righteous indignation over gay marriage bans to those in California. I know Californians are better than everyone else and we really don’t care about The Gays elsewhere (and Florida really isn't a true blue state), but let’s not miss an opportunity to blame The Blacks in Florida and Arizona too:
Florida - Vote by Race Yes No
White (72%) 60% 40%
Black (11%) 71% 29%
Latino (14%) 64% 36%
Arizona - Vote by Race Yes No
White (76%) 55% 45%
Black (4%) N/A N/A
Latino (16%) 55% 45%
Asian (1%) N/A N/A
Oh wait, am I reading those right? Can we still blame only The Blacks for the sake of convenience and consistency?
Because, you know, Righteous Indignation is reserved for The Blacks. Like when Grey’s Anatomy castmates said Isaiah Washington used the f-word, the gay establishment rightfully spent months organizing a lynch mob and a campaign of public malign, and to have ABC fire him and blacklisted him from Hollywood, because the utterance of that word is the most hurtful thing that can be heard in the gay community (even though we didn’t hear him say it). Sure, months later a video of Paris Hilton posted on the web in which she says "faggot" about three times in reference to two different men barely garnered a yawn from The Gay Lynch Mob. These transgressions are only hurtful when coming from The Hateful Blacks, not The Caring Whites of Privilege who’ve earned the adoration of The Gays. The Gays are fair and only direct their anger towards those who really, really, really deserve it.
Besides, The Gays are loyal Democrats. They supported Hillary over Barack by a 70% to 30% margin. Yet none of them were PUMAs after Barack became the nominee, because The Progressive Agenda was too important to use a vote as a vindictive tool(?) Along with 95% of the rest of the country they showed more support for Barack in ‘08 than for Kerry in ’04. Listen:
Comparing exit polls from 2004 and 2008 makes the breadth of Barack Obama's victory clear. Obama received a larger share of the vote than John Kerry among voters of all genders, races, education levels, and income classes, and virtually all religions. The only groups with whom he underperformed Kerry were older (65+) voters, and gay and lesbian voters.
(Courtesy of FiveThirtyEight.com)
Wait, is that right? Aren’t The Gays all progressive and stick to The Ordained Leftist Voting Pattern? The McCain/Palin ticket was a tempting and viable option for gay rights (haha), but The Gays always remain loyal to the Democrats and The Blacks, because you know they always vote with the interests of their fellow minorities in mind.
Look, politics is tough and so is the fight for civil rights. The gay establishment chooses to liken its struggle to that of blacks but in the mind of many blacks that’s dismissive of the depth of the black struggle. Gays were not enslaved in this country for two centuries. Gays were not denied the right to vote or to own property. Gays were not subject to Jim Crow laws. Gays were not at first denied education, then when given education segregated in intentionally inferior schools. Gays were not restricted from colleges and universities. Gays were not lynched en masse. Gays were not subjected to the dogs, hoses, tear gas, bombings, and beatings that blacks have. Gays were not legally and restrictively ghettoized and segregated for decades in the last century. White gays are born to a white male and a white female – presumably straight – and reap the benefits of a history of access, opportunities, and rights that have been accorded – often by law – only to whites.
Sure, gays suffer from hate crimes and all hate crimes are atrocious. If their sexuality has been acknowledged or found out, they could suffer from housing or job discrimination. But unlike gays, blacks cannot hide what makes them a "minority" and they suffer accordingly – as the black supporters of No of 8 have experienced at recent protests. Yes, Stonewall happened a few decades ago, but there have been centuries of fight, struggle, protest, resistance, mobilization, voting, compromise, coalition-building, and accomplishment for blacks to get just to the point where they are now – which isn’t the most sought after position in the USA.
As a victimized group, it might be tempting for gays to co-opt the black struggle as like their own without their parents, grandparents, other ancestors or even themselves having to experience the depth of repercussions from that struggle. What white gays don’t realize is that to many blacks, it appears that gays want all the benefits without the wounds. It shows when gays are aghast that blacks aren’t at the bottom of the political totem pole. "How dare the blacks be able to marry whoever (of the opposite sex and of age) that they want? Isn’t that what they fought for and shouldn’t I get whatever they have at the very least? We shouldn’t have to suffer like them to get what they have, should we?"
Sure there were white gays who participated in the fight for black civil rights, but there are also people of all colors in the struggle of gay rights. Neither fact means that it should be or will be easy for gays to get the equality they seek just because blacks went through it. The struggle is long, sometimes painful, and minds are hard to change, but you can’t wholly turn on people whose support you need. Learn from and appreciate the black civil rights movement – and try a little respect for the people of and from that movement – rather than using it and them as mere political anecdote, analogy, and toolery.
If there’s any blame for the passage of Prop 8 it lies on the No on Prop 8 campaign and the gay political establishment. Their lack of outreach and effective strategy only allowed the message, outreach and money of the Yes on 8 camp to prevail. Specifically, since the gay establishment already has in their mind that blacks are generally homophobic so they don’t need outreach on this issue, then don’t chastise the black community for the gays’ failure to reach out and then blacks voting as expected.
Conservatives are not afraid to outreach to blacks – especially through black churches. They identify a commonality – like religion, concern of family stability – and seeing an opportunity to align, they seek that coalition and don’t take that vote for granted. They don’t just assume that because most blacks are Christian that they’ll vote for a proposition like 8. Ironically it’s the conservatives who actively fund, promote to, and communicate with institutions and people in the black community on issues like this.
On the other hand, many gays take for granted that a commonality like "minorityhood" should guarantee them votes of blacks, and "f@&<‘em" if they don’t vote they way they "should". Many gays don’t even bother to try and understand why blacks vote the way they do on this issue. For example, exit polls show that about 75% of black females voted "yes". If the overall black vote was 70%, then the black male vote was like 66 or 67% "yes". That would be by far the largest disparity between male and female vote within an ethnic group. Why is that? Perhaps – as anyone sensitive to and knowledgeable about the issues facing black women might conclude – because black women more than other women are single and find it hard to a mate or husband for various reasons. Why would they vote to potentially allow other legal marriage options for single black men that might reduce their dating or marriage pool? I’m not saying that this is a widespread sentiment or the cause of any women’s votes, but there has to be an effort to figure out the reasons. Providing reassurance is the first step in winning people over. In this case, the reassurance is that your marriage pool won’t change ‘cause the gay men are gonna be gay whether they can get married or not.</p>
There are many other possible concerns in the black community. Some might feel that it’s hard enough for young black men (and women) in this country that they don’t want the added disadvantage of being gay – and a visible gay through marriage, at that – to be a hindrance and added struggle for their family or friends. For some, the family image might take a hit amongst some of their peers should a gay marriage take place in their family; why not prevent that option. For some, gay marriage conflicts with there religious beliefs.
Many messages can help people reconsider. Assure people that strong families are a priority, that children will not be unduly influenced by talks of sexuality. "Committed couples with the same benefits of marriage can help care for older parents, can help adopt and provide homes for the many black children in the foster care system. Family and the community can be strengthened."
Assure people that gays are not just being political opportunists, and they have a genuine concern for and stake in fighting for racial, gender, age, etc., equality both within and outside of the gay community.
Forcing churches to perform gay marriages will not be the agenda or intent – there is freedom of religion. Respect people’s religious beliefs but also remind them of the separation of church and state. "One version or interpretation of beliefs should not necessarily be supreme over others. Clergy differ on biblical interpretations. Marriage doesn’t equal sex. Gays will be gay whether they marry or not. Would you support a law making adultery a misdemeanor? Repeated offenses of adultery a felony? How about a child born out-of-wedlock not being able to be counted as a dependent for tax purposes? A law forbidding the consumption of shellfish? Therefore, whose religious beliefs should be reflected in laws of the state? If you’re concerned about religious beliefs, why not consider abstaining from voting on such measures? If you vote for such measures for religious reasons, shouldn’t you not vote for a candidate like Obama for the same reason?"
The gay establishment needs to face the fact that the Yes on 8 message and outreach efforts won. Disrespecting or disregarding people’s religious beliefs won’t work. Cursing them won’t work. Hoping they just disappear won’t work. Chastising and talking down to them won’t work. Ignoring them won’t work. Demonizing them won’t work. Trying to hitch the gay civil rights movement to the black civil rights movement won’t work (unless you do a lot more visible politicking on behalf of the black community).
Follow Obama’s example. He didn’t receive a majority of gay or Latino votes on Super Tuesday and throughout much of his primary campaign. He, his campaign, and his supporters didn’t call them betrayers of the Left. He didn’t call Latinos betrayers of the assumed expectancy of ethnic minority solidarity. With his signature calm, judgment, and intellect, he continued to fight for the votes of everyone, eventually winning over many groups. His road to the White House wasn’t easy – or cheap. Think for a second all the names he had been called, the threats on his life, the accusations and smears. Those parts are not fun, but are part of the climb to the top – especially if you are a so-called "minority". He reached out to everyone including conservatives and Republicans. He even went into Bill O’Reilly territory. He didn’t let anger, frustration, erraticness, or bitterness take hold of him, even when he was down in the polls. Ask McCain where that got him.
Also follow Antonio Villaraigosa’s example. When he ran for mayor of Los Angeles in 2001, he lost 80% of the black vote to Hahn – and Villaraigosa actually campaigned for black votes. He lost the election, but didn’t blame or curse blacks. He didn’t call them betrayers of the left or of ethnic solidarity. He just figured that they stuck with a traditional, known quantity (Hahn) and that his own message didn’t overcome that comfort. Yet he didn’t give up on winning them over. He could’ve tried ignoring them – what with media proclaiming the decline of black political influence. He could’ve just tried to put together the same coalition of Riordan which included a majority vote of every ethnic group except blacks. Instead, because he knew that in principle and on policy most of the black community was aligned with his views, he fought just as hard, if not harder, for their votes in 2005. This time he won a majority of black votes at around 52% - not large, but a dramatic turnaround from four years earlier and enough to help him win the election. Again, step-by-step is part of the political fight. Reach out and build support, don’t take it for granted or be dismissive.
Unfortunately, because of the actions of many gays on the streets, on the blogosphere and in other media, there’s too much damage already done. The hate and blame directed at blacks over Prop 8 has now been reported in mainstream (ie, straight) black press and The Blacks don’t seem very pleased with the spectacles (and especially the slurs). I don’t know what folks were thinking when they decided to lash out at black people. Sadly, that’s what happens when dramatics and emotions override intellect. Gay community, your struggle just got harder, but it’s on you to fight your battle. Proceed with caution ... and a brain.
BIG FAT UPDATE:
Many of you who are replying are making assumptions that, if you were to put 2 and 2 together and you're pretty good at math, you shouldn't be making. Take off the stereotype-colored glasses just for a few minutes for the sake of civil rights for all.