California proposition 8, race, and assumptions

[redbird]

This was a comment to a discussion in bcholmes's journal, after BC linked to sparkymonster tallking about the racism involved in blaming black voters for Proposition 8. I was going to save it for my next "misc. comments" post, but I think it's worth getting out there now, not in a month or two:

I also note that this is a convenient way of ignoring the white people who organized and mostly led the anti-marriage forces. It wasn't black churches that wrote Proposition 8, and it wasn't black Obama supporters who put it on the ballot and wrote those dishonest ads. It was middle- and upper-class straight white people.

I suspect that most of the white gay and bisexual people who are blaming black voters right now are more likely to be sitting down at a family dinner with middle-class, straight white bigots than with black heterosexuals, and sitting down to dinner together will be easier if they can ignore the idea that their relatives are part of why this thing passed.

Comments

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

That's a valuable perspective.

[pyrzqxgl.livejournal.com]

Very much so.

[catelynn.livejournal.com]

There was a very interesting discussion about this on Rachael Maddow last might. Women professor from Princeton(happened to be black) was doing vote analysis about this.

They were talking about how not enough outreach was done to the black community and the black churches by the anti prop 8 people. That there are strategies that are more likely to appeal to that community. Stuff like not continuing prejudice, that separate but equal (as in domestic partners instead of spouses) is neither.

You point about it being mostly white voters at fault is valid but if they could have swayed more of the black voters, especially since so many more were voting, it might have passed.

[whumpdotcom.livejournal.com]

If there had been a queer/PoC alliance forged at the start of the campaign, they could had have gone with advertising with spokespeople of color explaining that this was discrimination and may have been more persuasive to the white voters.

Re: California proposition 8, race, and assumptions

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

yeah, indeed. that's what i argued on dkos -- because if one runs the numbers, in fact 100% of black voters could have voted NO on prop 8, and it would still have passed. it's disappointing that 70% of blacks voted NO, but that points out to me that there's probably not been enough education, not enough outreach from the GLBT into the black community.

i am seeing a lot of angry racist slurs right now from gays directed at blacks. not good. being at each other's throats distracts us from who's really doing this to us.

Re: California proposition 8, race, and assumptions

[bugsybanana.livejournal.com]

If 70% of blacks voted no, I'd be delighted, but my impression was that a majority voted yes?

[callunav.livejournal.com]

worldmage has a really good breakdown of the numbers, and then some really important discussion of what the blaming discussions indicate.

I think it's sad but telling that the same election which made a Black man our president is providing such a concrete example of the impact racism still has on the nation's thinking, and the way people make meaning out of events.

And in light of the comment above, I think it's very telling that the white gay community in CA didn't see the Black community (of any orientation) as potential powerful allies against discrimination. It's a kind of willful blindness and immersion in one's own stereotyping that leads to that kind of break-down.

There's two different issues going on, here, and the reason it's important to separate them out is so that we don't get confusing and, in getting confusing, lose people: Prop 8 didn't pass because of the Black community's vote (as also stated in comments above). It couldn't have passed solely because of the Black community's voting, and the ease with which white gay people have sucked up the media suggestion that it's all Their Fault is racism at a basic and fundamental level. That's one piece. The other piece is that even though it wouldn't have decided the vote in any case, it's still a racism-based failure that the white gay community failed to do significant outreach and make allies among Black voters. As worldmage points out, there is a common (though certainly not universal) preconception among white gay people that Black people are likely to be (somehow 'inherently') homophobic. That kind of prejudice is - and I'm not being hyperbolic here, actually - going to kill us all, if we can't work our way out of it.

[ruth-lawrence.livejournal.com]

Quite.