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Loading ...Besen: Frank talk on race and Prop. 8
On Election Day, 70-percent of African Americans voted to take away a gay person’s right to marry primarily based on a book – the Bible – that calls on slaves to obey their masters.
Mormons funded the measure – even though religious discrimination drove them from Missouri and Illinois in the 1830’s.The defeat of Proposition 8 can’t be blamed exclusively on African Americans and Mormons. There were plenty of white Catholic and protestant religious leaders – such as pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church – that share responsibility.
And there are legitimate questions about how the No On 8 campaign was run, which will be endlessly debated. For example, did the campaign’s decision to closet gay people in its ads lead to defeat?
Still, there is something particularly galling and repugnant about people who have felt the sting of discrimination, turn around and step on another minority. What happened at the ballot box feels like a personal betrayal and the hijacking of history.
To the Mormons who bankrolled the bigotry, religious discrimination is awful, as long as it is happening to them. For the black people who voted for Proposition 8, the civil rights movement was about emancipating black people – and no one else seems to matter. These solipsistic individuals and their pastors appear to lack an ember of empathy and have turned freedom into a private fiefdom.
The civil rights movement was much larger than the plight of black people, just as the fight for religious freedom is bigger than Mormons. Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream that all people are equal under the law and should be judged by the content of their character. Barack Obama largely embodied this universally appealing message and this is why he made history. (His opposition to marriage was the one duly noted stain on his record)
The Congressional Black Caucus, the late Coretta Scott King, basketball star Charles Barkley and Archbishop Desmond TuTu are among those who share this inclusive vision. Coretta Scott King once said that, “Homophobia is like racism and anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry in that it seeks to dehumanize a large group of people, to deny their humanity, their dignity and personhood.”
In the next campaign, this message needs to be taken directly to African-American voters. But before this happens, the GLBT community needs to have a serious discussion – not one that is pandering and patronizing – so we can figure out some solutions. When natural allies vote like enemies, there is much work to be done.
One person not to consult is black lesbian writer Jasmyne Cannick. In a hypocritical op-ed in the Los Angles Times, she said that the Prop 8 Campaign should have done more to reach out to black voters. Then she turned around and said, “to tell black people how to vote on something gay isn’t effective outreach either. There’s nothing a white gay person can tell me when it comes to how I as a black lesbian should talk to my community about this issue.”
This is a perversion of Dr. King’s dream. A white person should be able to talk freely to a black person about discrimination and vice versa. Cannick’s ideas are abhorrent and the antithesis of judging a person by their ideas or the content of their character. It is also shameful that Cannick claims that she went door-to-door on behalf of Obama and proudly refused to ask African-Americans to vote against Proposition 8. Her actions were closeted and cowardly.
Cannick also asks, “Does someone who is homeless or suffering from HIV but has no healthcare, or newly out of prison and unemployed, really benefit from the right to marry someone of the same sex?”
Imagine how grotesque it would have been in 1965 if a black person had written:
“Does someone who is homeless or suffering from cancer but has no healthcare, or newly out of prison and unemployed, really benefit from the right to marry someone of a different race?”
Another way to stop progress is for those hurt by this stinging defeat to verbally or physically assault African Americans. There were reports that this was occurring at rallies condemning Prop. 8. Mirroring the ugly actions of anti-gay haters is anathema to what our movement stands for, which is widening the circle of liberty. We need to be smart, rational grownups and not look for scapegoats.
There is a lot of blame to go around for the failure of Proposition 8 and the first step to healing and moving forward is honesty. Let’s not pretend that the repudiation of Martin Luther King Jr’s dream by African American voters did not hurt more than, say, rejection by white evangelicals. It did.
Equal rights for some, or at least those who look the same or hold like beliefs – is not the movement I signed up for, nor is it one that I want any part of.
In moving forward, we must move beyond pig-headed parochialism and build a coalition that embraces a universal set of principles that apply to all people. If we stupidly divide ourselves by sexual orientation or race – we can only expect a race to the bottom.
Real news papers have reported the facts. This site, and many of its posters, continue to play a race blame card even in the face of facts.
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Prop 8 Myths
Writes Dan Walters of the Sacramento Bee:
Last week, however, 10 percent of voters were African American while 18 percent were Latino, and applying exit poll data to that extra turnout reveals that the pro-Obama surge among those two groups gave Proposition 8 an extra 500,000-plus votes, slightly more than the measure’s margin of victory.
To put it another way, had Obama not been so popular and had voter turnout been more traditional – meaning the proportion of white voters had been higher – chances are fairly strong that Proposition 8 would have failed.
Certainly, the No on 8 folks might have done a better job of outreach to California’s black and Latino communities. But the notion that Prop 8 passed because of the Obama turnout surge is silly. Exit polls suggest that first-time voters — the vast majority of whom were driven to turn out by Obama (he won 83 percent [!] of their votes) — voted against Prop 8 by a 62-38 margin. More experienced voters voted for the measure 56-44, however, providing for its passage.
Now, it’s true that if new voters had voted against Prop 8 at the same rates that they voted for Obama, the measure probably would have failed. But that does not mean that the new voters were harmful on balance — they were helpful on balance. If California’s electorate had been the same as it was in 2004, Prop 8 would have passed by a wider margin.
Furthermore, it would be premature to say that new Latino and black voters were responsible for Prop 8’s passage. Latinos aged 18-29 (not strictly the same as ‘new’ voters, but the closest available proxy) voted against Prop 8 by a 59-41 margin. These figures are not available for young black voters, but it would surprise me if their votes weren’t fairly close to the 50-50 mark.
At the end of the day, Prop 8’s passage was more a generational matter than a racial one. If nobody over the age of 65 had voted, Prop 8 would have failed by a point or two. It appears that the generational splits may be larger within minority communities than among whites, although the data on this is sketchy.
The good news for supporters of marriage equity is that — and there’s no polite way to put this — the older voters aren’t going to be around for all that much longer, and they’ll gradually be cycled out and replaced by younger voters who grew up in a more tolerant era. Everyone knew going in that Prop 8 was going to be a photo finish — California might be just progressive enough and 2008 might be just soon enough for the voters to affirm marriage equity. Or, it might fall just short, which is what happened. But two or four or six or eight years from now, it will get across the finish line.
We shouldn’t scapegoat anyone but we can’t ignore anti-gay bigotry in ANY community, but Besen is right. We have to work on building coalitions.
FYI
I will be on FOX’s O’Reilly Factor this evening with Ms. Cannick to discuss Proposition 8 and race. (8PM EST).
I will also be on KABC’s the Al Rantel show this evening at 8PM (PST) with Pearl Jr. to discuss the same topic.
Wayne,
Good luck. Hope you get a a word in tonight!
Sincerely,
James
This I applaud! We need to continue the momentum and be vocal, protest, march, demonstrate etc. etc. But we should not turn our anger into hate. Whether it is towards the religious or ethnic groups that oppossed gay rights. It doesn’t dismiss what they did or how much it hurts – but 2 wrongs don’t make a right! But be perfectly clear that our voices will not be silenced and we will no longer tolerate the tyranny of the masses. WE NEED TO CONTINUE TO PROTEST UNTIL WE ARE HEARD AND UNTIL WE FINALLY ARE EQUAL!!!!
I was also offended by what she said. When I was volunteering and speak about proposition 8 the black community was the community that called me names, flipped me off and walked away. On another comment here, one guy wrote that the No on 8 side didn’t even put black people on their commercials, as if black people don’t speak English. I have always witnessed reversed discrimination from that community and that is the part that angers people the most. They, of course, don’t see it that way.
Yeah, GOOD LCUK at getting a single WORD in edge-wise Wayne!!! Not sure why you would go on FOX NEWS to begin with when you know how biased they are against GLBT rites to begin with! Do you really think you will get treated fairly?
Chris:
I have been on this show 5 times and have been treated fairly. I hope this treatment continues.
Interesting quote:
“All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.”
- Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, and one of the most influential Founding Fathers.
Glad to hear and best of luck!
As someone who is over 65, I have lived through, and participated in the Civil Rights struggle so that the black people and all people could have the same rights guaranteed by the US Constitution. Those people who I marched next to, have stabbed me and others who have struggled also. Should I continue to support and resptect those who followed the dictates of EVIL religious organizations who have always subjugated their women, and now support making the gays second class citizens? Not hardly!
We’re going to win this through the legislature or through the courts just like every other minority right has been won.
We don’t need to reach out to get anyone’s vote because we’re never going to win a majority vote. We just have to be a pain in the butt long enough for the government to cave.
There’s no use in reaching out to groups who believe that being gay is a sin. The only thing we’ll get from them is “Love the sinner, hate the sin”. Meaning even if they stop hating us, they’ll never vote in favor of same-sex marriage.
Michelle, thanks for your comment. I think you are correct with one caveat: Yes, we will not win over the religios people who love the sinner, hate the sin. We must claim our equal rights in light of their bigotry, and religious outreach aka HRC is wrong-headed because we appease their religious beliefs. We need to stand together in opposing their beliefs.
But, yes, we will win via the courts or legislature, not the ballot box. We didn’t bring on this initiative, remember, they did.
What we can do in being out and open and loud and demanding is show the fence sitters how wrong their neighbors who go to church are. We need to convince as many people as we can who have not been brainwashed into religious hatred.
We will help our cause and help those poor people the priest prey on in one fell swoop (by helping them see through religion), providing yet another civic benefit from your friendly neighborhood gays.
You need to blame someone and, as usual, it is the African American community the easiest target. This vote was wrong period, it wasn’t worse when blacks or mormons voted Yes than when white catholics did as you suggest. This might come as a shock to you, but even within minorities there’s room for dissent. I am extremely saddened at how how the election turned out but I am not going to assign blame based on race; that’s is disgraceful.
Over the last week I have read your op eds and have been very disappointed in the slippery slope you have created. I think blaming and pointing fingers in response to the prop 8 passage is a waist of the time and unproductive in the greater movement. At this point I think it is the gay movements responsibility to create outreach programs for minority communities. It is obviously apparent that minorities have been left out of the conversations of the leaders in the gay rights movement. Before we begin blaming people lets have clear communication. Before you begin using your white privilege to make generalizations about academia and black education about the issue of gay rights (which is the true topic and your previous op ed was both ignorant and disgrace to 365gay.com), lets reach out to these communities. It is the white heterosexual man’s use of in fighting to not really focus on issues that has created a delay in many civil rights. Not the civil rights movement of black America is not the same as the gay rights movement however, they are interconnected. Perhaps, if you would take a step back and realize that we should be talking about the intersectionality and not how they are the same, because not to fights are the same, then we can work together. In many realities queer people are at fault for not reaching out the communities they believe should just understand. And its definitely your white privilege to come at this from a standpoint of angry gay white man as you have stated your self.