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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.
Hello family,
This is sick we are all at each others throat instead of trying to understand each other. I am African American and gay I myself know that any group of people that have gone through any type of hate should not pass it on. We are at a time of change we have to understand that we are all connected. I know to some this sounds stupid but nevertheless its true. What we have to do now is work toward love and not hate, work toward understanding instead of ignorance. I believe in all of you and I know we will win. African Americans must see that this issue is the same as civil rights movement. Hate is Hate on day we will look beyond color, religion and sexuality.
With love.
“The way the white gay community treats people of color (straight and gay) is the real thing that is particularly galling and repugnant; that white gay freely participate in the day to day denial basic equalities for most people of color to purpetuate their opulent life styles, and then be HURT because they didn’t rise above your failures on their behalf so that you can have even more rights to make your lives even better.”
This is pure homophobic bullshit (and semi-literate at that)that regurgitates every anti-gay cliche in the book. “Opulent lifestyles”? Go fuck yourself, you politically correct bigot.
There are plenty of gay people of all colors who struggle to get by every day in this vicious economy. You single out one small sector to smear an entire social minority. And how exactly do white gays go around oppressing all people of color? Black religious homophobes, along with Latinos to a lesser degree, overwhelmingly supported a referendum that codified separate and unequal treatment of one group. They’re getting justified criticism for that. So take your gay-baiting and shove it.
OK, I get it: racism is bad. OK, I get it: white Mormons and Catholics vastly outnumber African Americans. OK, I get it: a simple majority (roughly equal to the percentage of the popular vote that elected Barack Obama nationwide) voted to prevent equal marriage. These are all what I call “true, but so what?” If I don’t have the right to call out Mormons, Catholics, and people of colour for their filthy bigotry, WHETHER IT MATERIALLY CONTRIBUTED TO THE PASSAGE OF PROP 8 OR NOT, then there is no room for discussion, reasoned or otherwise. I write from Canada where marriage is already available by law to any two people who choose to enter into it. Thanks to the stupidity and bigotry of way too many Americans, the right-wingers in my country may be emboldened to try to turn back that particular clock. Thanks for nothing, folks. Getting back to the “don’t talk about race or racism” discussion: your wish is granted. With your bullshit you have bought my silence forever. Clearly my white privilege makes me ineligible to speak. A time will come when you need my (privileged) support. As Sponge Bob Squarepants would say “good luck with that!”
It is sad how many people voted on this situation. Thinking, speaking, talking with people who went to the ballot box though..we must take in account, many people had no clue in reading certain articles or what was being voted on. For certain people or a majority it was not in plain english as picking a president, as some people needed it to be. There are a lot of people who are not as educated about “law”, legal wording, as you or I, even others are. The people may not have been really aware that they did not have to fill out things they did not know. There is a lot that had to be taken into account, not only those who knew…but a lot who did not know what they were really doing at the polls, other than the picking the president.
What is actually particularly galling and repugnant is how you can actually fix your face to blame this purported 70% of a population that only makes up 6.2 percent of the states total populate for the passing of Prop 8.
The way the white gay community treats people of color (straight and gay) is the real thing that is particularly galling and repugnan; that white gay freely participate in the day to day denial basic equalities for most people of color to purpetuate their opulent life styles, and then be HURT because they didn’t rise above your failures on their behalf so that you can have even more rights to make your lives even better.
Do the math. You have a religious organization provides you some measure of support on one had. You have a bunch of people watched as the myth of reverse discrimination in education was propagated throughout the country, and not only made not effort on your behalf but actually benefited from it. An education, I might add, that not only would have lead to economic opportunity but to opportunities to understand better the needs of diverse cultures.
The so called gay community isn’t kind to all of its own, let alone, other communities. Why, why why, from New York to California was there a such a need to develop separate AIDS organization to meet the needs of less than 6.2% of a population?
Now I know that all white gay people are not as disinterested in the plight of other cultures as outlined above. I would even be to bold as say at least 30% of “gay community” has acted in very sincere ways to help African-American and other communities. They did do whatever positive thing thinking, “if I help these black folks out now they’ll help me later.” They did it because it was the right thing to do. Just like the 30% of California’s 6.2% black population didn’t vote against prop 8 because it was a debt owned. They did it because it was the right thing to do. The 30-percenters on either side are never the problem, it the 70-percenters. They are the ones whose world revolve around “what have you and can you do for me”. YOur 30%s won’t reach my 70%s nor will my 30%s reach yours.
Bottom line: look at the numbers? and point your anger when it belongs, in your own back yard! The white and gay sections if your back yard. Wouldn’t have take much for the straight white population to make make 70% of 6.2% meaningless. How many gays who were eligible to vote didn’t?
Yes it was a close count and 70% of 6.2% could have made the difference. But you haven’t given the a reason to fight for you. And don’t give me that “these are right for everyone”. That’s true only in theory. The same goes for the gays who didn’t bother to vote because they’ve been so alienated but other gays that they think “no one wants to even be my friend cause I’m not buff or rich, or young, so I’m certainly not going to worry about getting married”.
First I want to thank tom for apologizing for the Sarah Palin comment. But I think that its important to actually take what someone has said previously, while we are all bickering and pointing figures instead lets take action. In my opinion when you push the blame game aside I want to say that lets work together to make sure something like this doesnt happen again. When I say outreach, I mean lets go into the black and hispanic communities and make an effort to educate them on our struggle. This morning I participated in a panel for a black studies class talking about the LGBT struggle. I realized from the panel discussion that most just need a history lesson in the gay struggle. I had one man come up to me after the class and say I really appreciate what you said and that he would work to try to help us as much as we need. All anger aside lets do that, lets teach. Lets stop the bickering lets just give information and go from their.
I ask that the fighting between the community stop as it benefits no one but the opposition.
Blacksteel, I undesrstand your point. While, I cannot account for the fluctuation of such figures. I can say that the figures that we are both disputing have gone back and forth for years in the media and within census. Therefore, I do not believe either of us can deemed absolute in our assertions
If I remember correctly, the census I linked had two separate figures, one that counted “white persons” and another that reported “white persons not Hispanic.” The latter of which was significantly lower than the white persons accounted for.
Perhaps the fluctuation in numbers is caused by the varying degrees by which people categorize their own racial/ethnic identity?
I will say that either way, you do make my point more valid in the sense that you shine light away from African Americans as a key player in the passage of Prop. 8. Hispanics were said to be almost evenly split. Also, how many of those accounted for are actually legal and therefore can vote?
I will say this. My main frustration has been and continues to be the fact that race has not been an entirely invalid card, but a *misused* and *abused* card. Since I’m the student, perhaps you can tell me (when all the facts and figures are accounted for) what role do African Americans play?
If people wanted to know, why blacks voted largely for Obama, but for Prop. 8, I could understand that.
If people wanted to know if the same number of blacks that voted for Obama had voted no on Prop. 8, would that had made a difference? I could understand that. And, I have no little doubt that it would have.
However, Besen’s words have been nothing but a persona attack to the religion, namely Christianity, that African Americans have traditionally held a moral standard for their lives as well as questioned their intelligence no only in the classroom, but in relation to government policy. To that, I’m intolerant.
Also, I am frequently frustrated by individuals, not you, that have tired arguments. If Besen really wants to attack the moral foundations of African Americans, why doesn’t he ask “Why do African Americans judge homosexuality based on a religion that was in itself used to oppress them?” That’s a valid question. One that I, a devout Christian as well as an African American, am not offended by. However, to refer to slavery within the Bible as if blacks are supposed to identify with the enslavement of the Jews by Pharoah in Exodus is simply ridiculous and offensive.
If Besen and others do not see that, then I’d say the community has much larger issues at hand than gay marriage. Either way, we do have much larger issues at hand. And the way Besen’s articles have begun to sever ties with the community is quite sad.
I may be a student, but a flub in figures, if one exist, is permissible. A violation of ethical and bias-free journalism is not.
I am sorry to post so much at length, blacksteel. This is a response to other comments as well. I appreciate the information you have provided.
Be well,
Yantezia
Tom, I know you are replying later, but I wanted to thank you for your apology. Also, a comment like that is understandable given the tension and disheartened feelings that are reverberating throughout the community. No worries.
Be well,
Yantezia
Yantezia said: “That article is from 2001…thanks for making my case all the more valid.”
Not quite. I know it was a 2001 article, and I pointed that out. But you’ve too conveniently leaped over a noticeable discrepancy which, as a student of journalism, should pique your curiosity.
How is it that non-Hispanic whites were officially found to be a minority in California in 2001, and then, in the figures you point to, whites are found to be 76.9% of the population in 2006? Five years would not produce such a radical difference in numbers. Could it be that you’re misinterpreting the demographics?
In fact, articles in 2006, based on the 2006 census, were also stating that non-Hispanic whites were a minority in CA.
Here is an Associated Press article from 2006 in PDF file format:
http://www.urbanministrytraining.org/docs/Explosion-of-Diversity-Sweeps-US.pdf – ‘Explosion of diversity’ sweeps U.S., census shows
“When demographers talk about the shrinking percentage of white people in America, generally they are talking about whites who are not Hispanic. Such whites are a minority in four states — Hawaii, New Mexico, California and Texas…”