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

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?