Tip o' da hat to ProfGeo
"It's just a shame to see the sort of coalition that came out behind Obama, and then you come back to California and you see white gays say 'black people cost us the election,' " said David Binder, a white gay San Franciscan and a polling expert who spent the past two years working for the Obama campaign. "It bothers me that people look at the race of the people involved rather than factors that are more explanatory."
For many black gays and lesbians, the result has been a reminder that even with the stereotype-shattering election of a black president, caricatures of black people continue to flourish.
Trends beyond black vote in play on Prop. 8
Matthai Kuruvila, Chronicle Religion Writer
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Since the election, there's been a tremendous focus on the fact that 70 percent of African Americans voted to ban same-sex marriages in California.
The vote coincided with the overwhelming support among African Americans for a black presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama. In the aftermath, some Proposition 8 supporters are viewing the black vote as proof that same-sex marriage is a moral rather than a civil rights issue, while some Prop. 8 opponents tout it as evidence of one community's particular homophobia.
But demographers say the focus on one race not only disregards the complexity of African American identity but also overlooks the most powerful predictors affecting views on same-sex marriage: religion, age and ideology, such as party affiliation. Prop. 8's racial fallout raises the question of how the groundbreaking multiracial support of a presidential candidate could coincide with the racial scapegoating now following a failed state ballot campaign.
"It's just a shame to see the sort of coalition that came out behind Obama, and then you come back to California and you see white gays say 'black people cost us the election,' " said David Binder, a white gay San Franciscan and a polling expert who spent the past two years working for the Obama campaign. "It bothers me that people look at the race of the people involved rather than factors that are more explanatory."
For many black gays and lesbians, the result has been a reminder that even with the stereotype-shattering election of a black president, caricatures of black people continue to flourish.
"African Americans get demonized when it comes to topics of sexuality," said the Rev. D. Mark Wilson, a black, gay, American Baptist minister who grew up in Oakland and worked on the No on 8 campaign.
The focus on the black vote comes as two social movements came to a climax: the election of a black president and the vote on same-sex marriage in the nation's most populous state. Those two events have unleashed social upheaval that people are still grappling with.
"People aren't responding from a rational analysis," said Andrea Shorter, a black lesbian and No on 8 spokeswoman. "They're responding from an emotional place."
Exit polls show that various social forces played out across California on Prop. 8.
The older voters were, the more likely they were to vote for Prop. 8. Highlighting the trend was the fact that 61 percent of those older than 65 voted for it, while 61 percent of those younger than 30 voted against it.
Ideology also had a pronounced effect, particularly party affiliation. Eighty-two percent of Republicans supported Prop. 8. Only 36 percent of Democrats supported the measure.
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I know David Binder. Good
I know David Binder. Good for him.
As many black gays will tell you
the so-called "gay community" -- an iconography presented in mainstream media as a happy-go-lucky community rid of any racial animosity and bigotry towards the "other" -- is no more colorblind and tolerant than society as a whole. Even the late great James Baldwin hinted at the fact that white guys can be just as racist as their heterosexual brethren. This whole meme about blacks being the swing vote for Prop 8 was started by none other than I-can't-stand-blacks-but-got-a-raging-hard-on-for-Obama arch propagandist himself: Andrew Sullivan. Perhaps because I'm gay I tend to read through his fawning of Obama differently than other folks; a type of fawning that seems similar to Freud's Madonna Whore Complex, only with a racial twist. But each and every time Obama pointed out some foible among black people, holding black people collectively as people with worst pathologies than other groups, Sullivan used this as a way to say Obama's an exceptional Negro compared to the indigenous blacks with all their issues with race. Obama's so exceptional that he'll even go into black churches and chastise black people for their rampant homophobia, nihilism and anti-Semitism. I've even read white progressives using the same lines as Sullivan that Obama may "teach" blacks to be less homophobia, or how Obama needs to "speak to his key constituency so they'll become more astute to right wing tactics."
I expected this to happen once the poll numbers came back on Prop 8. Blaming black people for every ill in society has become an ad infinitum in America politics. No matter how many times black gays try to remind white gays that we're part of the struggle too, just like the white feminists in the 60s who also snubbed and ostracized black feminists until they needed them, white gays ignore our existence until oppression creeps up on them, and THEN that's when our presence becomes important. When all you see in our media of gay people is wealthy, privileged whites who for the most part are socially acceptable in America, then gay marriage compared to poverty, poor schooling, unemployment, policy brutality, corrupt drug sentencing, etc., just doesn't seem much of a major civil right issue compared to black folks who go through a series of depressing issues day after day. (This is not to say black people's being discriminated or black people's oppression is worst than gays; its to make the point that gay oppression and black oppression are both unique and should be treated and viewed as such.) Nor does it help matters when gay folks say "being gay is the new black," particularly in a country that continues to sweep under our grievances under the rug as a thing of a past and nothing to address head on through policy. This is something I've tried to explain to many of my white gay friends, but like talking to a white conservative about racism, it goes in one ear and out the other. "Blacks have a history of being discriminated and treated as second class citizens, they SUPPOSE to understand our struggle!" is what I often hear from them when discussing this issue.
I've had many conversations with brothers and sisters -- staunch Christians -- who aren't fond of the gays. Most of the homophobia I encountered among black folks has a lot to do with not fully understanding what gay represent (again, many of them look at the gay struggle being a white person's struggle); a lot of the disgust or aversion comes from clinging to the most primitive part of the Old Testament; a lot of it has to do with the fact that they get tired of gays using black folk's history of discrimination and oppression is the same as gays being denied the right to marriage in today's society. (Many of the folks I've encountered feel that no one doesn't know if a person's gay unless that person tells them or they're such a stereotypical cartoon character that it's obvious one is gay; but one will automatically recognize when one is black.) But after talking to these people, while not totally sold on accepting you for who you are, warms up to you a bit and become a little less judgmental than before. It all comes back to the fact that the gay rights movement is often presented as a wealthy, white people's struggle rather than a struggle that all people -- regardless of race, ethnicity and gender -- experience in American society.
But each and every time
Yes, yes more than a few of us here cringed every time Obama was offered up to us as our Lord, Savior and HNIC by whites. Thanks for your post, Preston. I still feel, however, that black folks need to get beyond the failings and faults of white gays and lesbians and try to see the justness of their cause on this issue. We can't dole out people's civil rights and legal protections on the basis of whether we like them or not or whether their arguments are historically and logically analogous to the Civil Rights Movement.
Oh, I totally agree with you, ptcruiser.
I guess the point I'm making is that many black people who are averse to gays can be reached on this issue if one just try. It really irritates me as a black gay man who lived most of my life around black Christian folks -- many who aren't fond of gays -- automatically written off as "homophobes" because of some faulty poll and preconceive notions of blacks being far more closed-minded and hypocritical than others. I feel the tactics that many gay folks use (I shouldn't solely single out white gay and lesbians either since I've seen my fellow gay and lesbian brothers and sisters do this too) to reach black folks on this issue isn't working. Contradistinguishing one group struggle with another group struggle will fall on deaf ears if not done carefully. No matter how many videos one makes of images of black people being beaten, hosed, arrested, etc., when marching in the 60s at the height of the Civil Rights Movement, juxtaposed with images of gays marching in San Fransisco, having Sam Cooke singing "A Change Is Gonna Come" on the soundtrack, to some older generation of blacks, this will strike a wrong note and appear sacrilegious.
No doubt, I think if one thoroughly analyze black identity and gay identity, or how subcultures from both groups continue to influence and shape American culture as a whole, to a degree, one may see some parallels. However, gay activists and advocacy groups must regroup and think of better ways to appeal to people who may otherwise stand alongside them on issues such as gay marriage. I think many can be reached, it will just take time.
(By the way, thanks for the kind words. I've been a huge fan of this blog for quite some time and decided to register a few months ago. I often felt intimidated mixing it up with the people here since most posters who contribute to this blog are so smart!)
I often felt intimidated
That's seriously not the intent, but you look like you can hang so it's all good. Though I will give it some thought.
I am getting pissed off with White Gays
Like Sullivan and Savage and any black person who has been harrassed or hurt during these "protests" the blood is on their hands. And Obama knows if he goes in those Black Churches lecturing the Black Parishoners on what they feel is Biblical Scripture he will prove Rev. Wright correct that whites and others want to destroy and intimidate the traditions of the Black Church and it will backfire on him politcally. I told a freind of mine from Cali the next time some gay person calls you a nigger and tells you not to come into West Hollywood or they will kick your black ass have a gun at your side and say I got your "Prop 8" solution right here. I am a stuanch believer in self-defense.