So, when you unequivocally state that it is The Black or The Latin@ that caused Prop 8 to pass, I wonder if you mean people like this woman?
Or maybe people like this man?
Or perhaps these people?
Rev. Roland Stringfellow speaks out against Prop. 8
Or maybe you mean people like myself, or Renee, or Pam, or Terrance, or the Queer People of Color Collective, or Elle, or Sylvia?
This is why I find statements like this troubling:
I do know this, though: I’m done pretending that the handful of racist gay white men out there—and they’re out there, and I think they’re scum—are a bigger problem for African Americans, gay and straight, than the huge numbers of homophobic African Americans are for gay Americans, whatever their color.
Y’see, In my community, I know “huge” numbers of PoC and White folks that work for equality across the board. I have no doubt that there are also “huge” numbers of PoC and White folks out there that don’t, and have no desire to ever see it. Statements like this make me think that Dan Savage probably doesn’t get out there and rub elbows with a whole lot of PoC. Perhaps he does. I don’t know. But if he does, this is a pretty erasing type statement to me. It’s so subjective and demeaning to the “huge” numbers of PoC, both queer and heterosexual, that are out there fighting on behalf of all people. It just seems a little too convenient when the Facts Belie the Scapegoating of Black People for Proposition 8 that all of this scapegoating is going on now.
So, I say enough! Yes, it is royally shitty that Prop 8 passed. It breaks my heart to know that so much intolerance still exists in our society; but the blame-game has to go. I, as many others, stand in solidarity with my queer brothers and sisters of all colors. I am unwavering on that. We have to do this together, however, and pointing fingers at imaginary monoliths is not the way to go about it.
The change I would like to see: maybe, just once, we can begin to listen to each other and talk to each other rather than talk past each other.
It’s unfair to blame “the black community” for the passage of Prop 8, just as it’s pretty much always unfair to paint blacks as a monolith. Some blacks voted for it, and some voted against it; we can say the same about any single demographic group.
That said, I think it’s particularly frustrating to see so many black people, who have battled for civil rights for centuries, vote against civil rights for others.
Jeff Rosenberg ´s last blog post..Happy to pay for a better Minnesota
What’s especially galling about the scapegoating is that with the current political realities in place in California, Prop 8 did not have to pass. The No on 8 campaign was lackluster, half-hearted, turned away volunteers and didn’t even motivate the base.
There was 49% turnout in San Francisco County on Tuesday. If Prop 8 opponents had done even a little work to energize that base, that’d have put them halfway to beating Tuesday’s vote on 8.
The vote totals among African-Americans, in other words, may well be an artifact of No on 8 folks failing to 1) GOTV and 2) educate people about the lies spread by Yes on 8 folks.
Don’t know whether you saw this related post of mine, K, but I think you might find it of interest: http://faultline.org/index.php/site/item/on_centrism/
Chris Clarke ´s last blog post..Letter From The Desert: Stoip Bush’s End Run Around Nuclear Waste Safety
For my part, as a black gay man who has experienced and been hurt by homophobia from my own people more than I care to remember, I have about as much anger as some of the people who are protesting in the wake of Proposition 8’s passage.
The question is: How to deal with homophobia where it obviously does exist in black communities, and whose responsibility is it?
Terrance Heath ´s last blog post..Their Own Receive Them Not