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Loading ...Besen: Prop 8 and race
I can understand why white gay people are angry. I certainly am.
But let’s take a step back and look at this dispassionately. I believe our failure with the African American vote (70 percent voted in favor of Prop. 
has more to do with education levels than race. In general, people with lower levels of education – of any race – do not vote for gay rights. White people are twice as likely to graduate college as black people. This accounts for the difference by race on Prop. 8.
Uneducated people – black, white and Hispanic – often derive their power from physical strength. They perceive being gay as weak and antithetical to real manhood. By voicing support for gay rights, they lose status and often fear rivals may perceive them as gay. The easiest way to gain status is dissing faggots. I see this attitude all the time in Brooklyn – in the gym and on the basketball court, where I often play. (Not the best sample, I realize this)
Meanwhile, educated people of all races gain power by outsmarting opponents – not beating them up. This creates a safe space to support gay rights and not lose social status. (Unfortunately, the fact that the conservative black church is a central organizing point for politics makes even educated blacks less likely to vote for gay rights. But, this is secondary to education levels.)
It is understandable that black support for anti-gay efforts drives white gay people nuts. It is difficult to understand how people affected by bigotry can promote bigotry – as if they are selfish people who learned all the wrong lessons from the civil rights movement. But, remember, uneducated people – of all races – are not students of history. They react to the environment around them, which often rewards homophobia.
(Compounding this perception problem is that the vast majority of overt homophobia experienced by urban gays comes from black people. In places like New York City, you almost never hear a white person say “faggot”. But, we hear this from uneducated blacks too often. This makes the problem seem worse than it is. We often forget that we moved to places like New York to escape uneducated whites in rural areas that were just as openly homophobic. In other words – it is about education – not race.)
A few of possible solutions to ponder:
1) We must air public service announcements with people like former basketball star Charles Barkley – who is a tough guy and supporter of same-sex marriage. We must show masculine African American figures who are supportive, every chance we get. Obama is also a huge help, because he is inclusive and is the ultimate example of power though academic success. His leadership will improve our fate.
2) We must work to raise the education levels of all Americans – which will lead to less homophobia of all races. The fact that we have so many African Americans in prison – and not graduating is a legacy of racism and a national disgrace. This must change.
3) We must also have substantive discussion with the African American community – as many of you have suggested. But, until we raise education levels, there is only so much we can do to win support of urban blacks – or rural whites. In other words, scholarships for urban blacks and rural whites are as effective as spending money on education specifically about gay rights. Keep this in mind.
4) While I recognize that there are many supportive pro-gay black churches, as long as this is the central organizing place for black politics, this is not helpful for gay rights. Alternative organizing places for aspiring black leaders must be strengthened.
These are my thoughts….I’m certainly open to your ideas and especially your criticism of my theory, as I am most concerned in figuring out how to succeed in the future.
I understand the whole education thing, but what I find infuriating, is the fact that black minister’s encouraged their church members to vote for Obama. It’s perfectly acceptable to vote for a black candidate that supports abortion!
In my opinion it’s total hypocrisy, you can’t have it both ways. It smacks of prejudice to me.
I agree with Besen on his point about education. But I think there’s more to it. It’s also about how gays are misperceived by the American population in general and by blacks specifically.
We’re not perceived as an underprivileged group that deserves sympathy. Our second-class social status seldom arouses moral outrage. Often, our issues are not even taken seriously. On the contrary – and you can read this frequently in the comments posted on political sites, including those of the left – gays are perceived as selfish, privileged, white males who already have more than others do and are wallowing in self-pity. At best, we are tolerated as relatively harmless.
For blacks – and I include the blacks of Africa and the Caribbean – there are racial overtones, a resentment of real and perceived oppression by whites. Since black gays in America are still mostly in the closet, it’s easy for black communities to think of gays as whites who have more than blacks do. That’s how we look in the media. Voting against us is a way of getting even with privileged whites.
For African and Caribbean blacks, attacks on gays are a coded message expressing resentment of their former powerlessness under white colonialism. They’ve convinced themselves that homosexuality is a Western import, a corruption of true African culture, a disease that needs to be purged at any cost. (The recent attacks by Nigerian Archbishop Akinola on the American Episcopalian Church for ordaining a gay bishop are a prime example. With funding from American conservatives, he is trying to expanded his church’s authority into the United States as a kind of reverse missionary activity, of Africa imposing its will and its “superior” moral values on the West. See http://www.advocate.com/print_article_ektid46836.asp – Akinola’s Power Play.)
While it’s unfair to blame blacks alone for the passage of prop 8 they have to accept some level of accountability. Frankly, form what I’ve heard, they seem proud of their ability to mobilze and defeat another minority group. The rhetoric as been downright disturbing at times when I read the local papers and the reasons given by blacks for supporting prop 8. The reality remains, however, that the bulk of people voting in favor of prop 8 were older, uneducated, white, christians from inland California. Blaming African Americans seems to misdirect the discussion from the real culprit here: older christian conservatives. And the complicity of the mormon church in turns of funding the hatred we saw on display on November 5th in the golden state.
With that said, the fact that blacks voted so overwhelmingly for prop 8 is troubling. Frankly, it’s why I was always fearful of Barack Obama winning the nomination. This never would have happened with Hillary as the nominee. But all the woulda, shoulda, coulda’s isn’t going to change anything…
A final thought: All of these blacks that are doing the ‘comparative harm’ thing (e.g. ‘gay civil rights is nothing like black civil rights etc because we were lynched, counted as a third of a person and enslaved’) seems so disingenuous and woefully ignorant. Do these people realize that gays and lesbians are being raped, beaten, murdered, and executed all around the world and have been all throughout history? Certainly the last 500 years anyway. No group’s experience is identical to another’s. That doesn’t discount it. Things like racism, homophobia, and anti-semitism still produce the same results. For one group to dismiss another’s struggle, or worse yet, join forces with an oppressor to facilitate discrimination, is inexcusable. And sadly, that’s what happened in CA on Tuesday. Frankly, I fear a rift was formed that is unlikely to be healed in a long time…
Pete said: “To start with, African-Americans make up only 6.2% of Californian’s..”—
You are mistaken Pete. The Black population makes up 10% of the California voting block. And those may be conservative estimates as estimates of the true uptick in voter registration of the Black community by the Obama campaign has yet to be fully totaled. But even at 10%, the Black community voted overwhelmingly in favor of Prop 8. No other ethnic group voted so heavily in favor. And Whites by a slim majority actually voted “No” on Prop 8. As I have said the Mormon Church should also be held to account, but to ignore the blatant anti-gay bigotry within the Black Community would be foolhardy.
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/results/polls/#CAI01p1
Mr. Besen: I support your ideas. Particularly number 2.
Wayne: I too find the preacher’s comments disgusting. I think we need to target our efforts toward seminary students so that the next generation of pastors is not bigoted.
Ken C.: Though I cannot speak for him, but I believer you are taking Mr. Besen out of context. He said that 58% of African-Americans are under-educated, along with 57% whites. If I read him correctly, the other 12% stems from the influence that that 58% wields within their community. (I believe, I’ll leave it up to him to correct me.)
Either way we need to be proactive in our next steps. We need to start pushing for our rights, instead of reacting. We need to start putting forward laws that say approximately: “As a homosexual relationship is equally valid as a heterosexual relationship, Those who choose to pledge to a state-recognized monogamous relationship shall be granted rights equal to but not greater than a heterosexual marriage.”
Yes I know this is marriage-lite, but I think it will work in denying conservatives that this about anything other than equal rights. They can’t say, we our asking for special rights, they can’t say we’re are trying to destroy marriage. And if we run a proper ad campaign we can dismiss the argument that we are trying to recruit children. Make it about us as friends and neighbors simply trying to visit our loved ones in the hospital, be in the same nursing home when we grow old. Things like that.
Even with this we probably will still lose elections, but at least we will be able to say, “See! They don’t want us to have rights!” If we ask for just the barest of minimums we will be able to bait the homophobes out and we will be able to shine a light on them and expose their intolerance for what it is.
This article is so misguided, but I agree we need to stop blaming people of color. The deep historical role of religion in some communities played a huge role. TO suggest we should only use masculine role models, or any of that just continues the shame-based campaigns that lose gain and again. Let’s try being authentic for a change!
Wayne, as usual you’re letting someone else frame your arguments, playing to your enemy’s cues and holding a huge bulls eye which reads “kick me”. You did this with John Edward’s haircut, the whole Islamo-fascist issue and you’re simply repeating your worse behavior.
To start with, African-Americans make up only 6.2% of Californian’s, so therefore we blame them for passing Prop 8? Did you eat a brain tumor for breakfast? By your very arguments, you should at least be talking about the Hispanic vote. At 35.9% of the population, any argument about how Hispanics vote at least has some credibility. But you’re just rebleating some talking point you saw on a web site somewhere, so why think? In short, who cares how Blacks voted on Prop 8, ’cause in California there aren’t enough of them to make a difference.
Oh, blame those stupid, uneducated rural whites you say? Is this your strategy for gaining support on the next round of elections, or are you intent on shooting yourself in BOTH feet? Because, insulting people always works. Here’s a clue, nimrod: the 10 least populous counties in California have only about 57,000 voters total. That’s not even a single suburb in Los Angeles County. The 20 least populous counties contain less than 170k voters. That’s not even one smallish city in this state. Who cares how rural voters vote? There aren’t enough of them to turn the election.
Why did Prop 8 fail? WE don’t need to look elsewhere or far afield. WE ran a bad campaign with lousy media presentation. WE lost Los Angeles County and San Diego County and Orange County and Sacramento County. WE lost in the cities where the voters live with the largest gay populations in small media markets. There are no excuses. And blaming ethnic minorities is a coward’s response.
Wayne, I always love your articles. My question for you is “What is education?” Is it high school, college, grad school? Or, is it where a person was educated? Not just the college itself, but the state in which the college is located?
Also, I want to note that Ann Northrop and Andy Humm give a breakdown of the numbers of people voting on Prop 8 by race/ethnicity. This brings clarity to these assumptions that are being made about whose votes actually had great impact on Prop 8. Please see Gay USA http://homepage.mac.com/depeche7/GayUSA/Personal13.html
to get information on where it is broadcast in your city.
I agree with everything you said. However there was another failure in the no on 8 campaign. There was no attempt to counter the argument that being gay is a choice. Some were offended by our attempt to link this with African-American Civil Rights. To many of them our love is a choice and not a good one either. Every morning since they could recognize themselves in a mirror, they new they were black and that fact was the cause of so much anger and hate from the white community.
We on the other hand didn’t see any difference in our mirror. It was in our heart and in our very soul. We have not made that message clear. We are born gay even if it isn’t an obvious to the observer trait. Left handed people had many of these same problems and we need to take a cue from their struggles to further our own success.
Don’t let African Americans off the hook by saying its ignorance and religious piety. It’s ironic that after spending nearly two decades in the 60s and 70s fighting for equal rights for black Americans,including their right to marry what ever person of any race they chose, the African Americans in California voted overwhelmingly to deny me that same right with a person of the same sex. After being spat upon, hit, called many vile epithets including a “nigger lover”, and having my life threatened, I don’t see any leader in the African-American community willing to put him or herself in the same situation (except for Al Sharpton perhaps) to protest the denial of rights for gays. I am bitterly disappointed and angry. I didn’t see Oprah or Jesse Jackson shedding tears of sadness because the gays got screwed again; they shed tears of joy that a bi-racial president won the election. Does anyone know how much money did Oprah donate to the No on 8 cause? A truly historical event in American politics will be when a 100 per cent African-American Lesbian atheist who was married in Massachusetts is elected president.
Though education may be part of it, I think the real culprit is religion. The black and hispanic communities — even when they vote Democratic — are more heavily rooted in evangelical and Roman Catholic Christianity. Better educational and economic conditions for these communities should also make members of the communities more willing to break with traditional religious authorities, but that takes a while.
I love it when a commentariat has to find a way to worm out of facts that clearly challenge their world view. The fact is 75% voted against gay rights. Are you really putting forward the idea that 75% of blacks in California are uneducated?! If that’s true, America’s education system is even more screwed up than I thought.
I am with you Wayne…it’s time to rise up, call it what it is…just another type of “ism”. Can’t really call it racism, but it’s right there with it. At least they are not hiding under hoods so it makes it easier to identify them. I don’t propose hate, but a little righteous indignation has gone a long way for their side…maybe we should try it? I think we should crowd the church houses this Sunday and sit in their midst while they speak it about us. The fact that they do it in the name of God puts them in the same company of Jihadists.(sp?) That’s including the Phelps of the world…any and all who would preach this crap that spurs into action these hate crimes against us…I can’t see the difference between them.
I don’t totally discount your theory that the root cause of homophobia and anti gay bigotry in the Black community is based in poor education, but the level of anti gay hatred in the Black community goes beyond mere educational levels. The Black Church is notorious for their gay bigotry, as the video link I posted shows – and the Gospel singer and anti gay bigot Donnie McClurkin also comes to mind. It’s beyond educational, it’s cultural, and actually historical. Many African countries are known for their hatred of Gays. And Jamaica is notorious for their anti-gay violence.
The facts are that 70% of African Americans voted against gay equality. A staggering 75%of Black women voted against gay equality!Those numbers don’t lie. No one should discount the effect the Mormon churh had on the vote, but to ignore or excuse the blatant bigotry within the Black community and how their vote was a defining factor in the passage of Prop 8 would be inexcusable and counter productive. The African American community make up 10% of the California electorate, several News agencies (including last Night’s NBC News piece on Prop 8 report that the Black vote was crucial in passing Prop 8 and would not have been possible without their overwhelming support. To try and ignore the blatant homophobia within the Black community will not make the problem go away.
I’m posting a video link below which exemplifies the anti-gay bigotry sadly found in much of the Black Church in America. The prominent African American “Yes on Prop 8″ advocate actually accuses gay people of being pedophiles, and says gays “Can’t Reproduce, so they Recruit” children. This is the type of hatred that we CANNOT ignore. We have to speak out against it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrwj7SVWBMA