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The Racial Context of Prop 8
www.projectilepolitics.blogspot.com
Since election day, there have been numerous articles about the black vote's impact on Proposition 8. According to exit polls, 70% of African Americans voted for Prop 8. Somehow the blame for this hateful piece of legislation was not directed to the Mormon Church, which lobbied vigorously for the Proposition, but to Black Californians, who constitute less than ten percent of the electorate.
It certainly is an interesting issue. Why do African Americans, potentially the most oppressed group in history, oppose extending civil liberties to another minority group: homosexuals? Below is one explanation from Slate.
These examples prompted a slew of criticism about the Black community's impact on Prop 8. Gay activist Dan Savage said that African Americans are a bigger threat to homosexuals than racists are to African Americans. Even though it appears that blacks had a disproportionate impact on the result, those criticisms are misguided and highlight some disturbing sentiments. Unsure who to blame, we accuse another marginalized minority thereby precipitating a race to the bottom.
The appropriate question is Why do African Americans overwhelmingly oppose gay marriage? In the African American web journal The Root, Kai Wright writes that this is primarily the fault of the gay rights movement. In an attempt to streamline their message, gay rights activists have sidelined the black community. Wright acknowledges the conundrum facing African Americans and Prop 8, saying that their impact on the proposition "ought to shame black folks everywhere." But Wright continues to say that the gay rights movement has been self-serving in the past, using black experience only when it was convenient.
When it comes down to it, guaranteeing civil liberties to a wider cross-section of Americans will benefit all minorities and strengthen the country. We are only as good as what we accept, and we wont be much of anything so long as we deny the right for men and women to love who they want. So let's focus on the fact that more than 50% of California's population - white, black, gay, straight - voted for Proposition 8. Let's stop the blame game.
Since election day, there have been numerous articles about the black vote's impact on Proposition 8. According to exit polls, 70% of African Americans voted for Prop 8. Somehow the blame for this hateful piece of legislation was not directed to the Mormon Church, which lobbied vigorously for the Proposition, but to Black Californians, who constitute less than ten percent of the electorate.
It certainly is an interesting issue. Why do African Americans, potentially the most oppressed group in history, oppose extending civil liberties to another minority group: homosexuals? Below is one explanation from Slate.
They think sexual orientation is different from race. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke of a nation in which individuals would be judged not "by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." Whites, on balance, have come to believe that sexual orientation, like color, is immutable. Blacks, on balance, haven't. They see homosexuality as a matter of character. "I was born black. I can't change that," one California man explained after voting for Proposition 8. "They weren't born gay; they chose it."
These examples prompted a slew of criticism about the Black community's impact on Prop 8. Gay activist Dan Savage said that African Americans are a bigger threat to homosexuals than racists are to African Americans. Even though it appears that blacks had a disproportionate impact on the result, those criticisms are misguided and highlight some disturbing sentiments. Unsure who to blame, we accuse another marginalized minority thereby precipitating a race to the bottom.
The appropriate question is Why do African Americans overwhelmingly oppose gay marriage? In the African American web journal The Root, Kai Wright writes that this is primarily the fault of the gay rights movement. In an attempt to streamline their message, gay rights activists have sidelined the black community. Wright acknowledges the conundrum facing African Americans and Prop 8, saying that their impact on the proposition "ought to shame black folks everywhere." But Wright continues to say that the gay rights movement has been self-serving in the past, using black experience only when it was convenient.
Many black folks wince when they hear gay rights compared to the black civil rights movement. And when it comes from white gays whose only interest in black people is appropriating our history, I do too.
When it comes down to it, guaranteeing civil liberties to a wider cross-section of Americans will benefit all minorities and strengthen the country. We are only as good as what we accept, and we wont be much of anything so long as we deny the right for men and women to love who they want. So let's focus on the fact that more than 50% of California's population - white, black, gay, straight - voted for Proposition 8. Let's stop the blame game.
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A few notes...
Black Californians account for approximately 6% of the population. So remember that your numbers are reflective of 70% of 6%.
At the DailyKos there is an insightful post by "Shannika" who painstakingly went through the numbers. Read it. It puts the real numbers of who voted for what into perspective. The blame lies not with black voters, but the white ones.
A better explanation -- but by no means definitive -- for why blacks see anti-gay discrimination as not in the same league as racial discrimination, is that gay people have always been able to hide in plain sight and thrive. Gays have been able to "pass" for straight. They were able to live productive lives, even though they were in the closet. They made money, bought homes, had good jobs. A few blacks were able to pretend to be white. Even those gays who were all but out -- the Truman Capotes and Liberaces and designers and artists -- did not suffer at the same level of average black men and women who cleaned their toilets and their shined shoes and their hauled luggage and their cooked food andtheir opened doors, and kept their secrets. From that vantage point, being "gay" certainly looked a lot more like a choice than a burden.
I'm looking for the post that questions why so many thinking, seemingly enlightened, intelligent, tolerant WHITE people voted for Prop 8. Because if only 500,000 of them had voted the other way...
Stop blaming African American. The fault lies elsewhere.
November 13, 2008 9:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't think this vote was placing the "blame" on any particular demographic; he writes, "According to exit polls, 70% of African Americans voted for Prop 8. Somehow the blame for this hateful piece of legislation was not directed to the Mormon Church, which lobbied vigorously for the Proposition, but to Black Californians, who constitute less than ten percent of the electorate."
The fact is, anyone who voted against it is to blame. It is just a curiosity that a large percentage of African-Americans voted against it, and people are trying to understand why. People aren't questioning why white people voted against Prop 8 because white people historically have been the oppressors...we don't expect any better from them.
I think the Slate article made a good point about possible reasons African-Americans voted against prop 8 in high numbers, and so do you. Although I am not typically in favor of comparing the suffering of different minority groups. Even if "passing" for straight made it possible for homosexuals to find more success then some African-Americans, as you suggest, that doesn't mean that it wasn't a burden.
November 14, 2008 9:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
Edited to add that every time I wrote "against" Prop 8 I actually meant "for" Prop 8.
November 14, 2008 9:25 AM | Reply | Permalink