DISQUS

Bro Oh, BIG Kahuna. You make me laugh, too! We all know that everyone who voted for McCain
was a clear-minded, rational voter, and the fact that he is white certainly would NEVER be a reason for
other White people to vote for him. It's the lack of melanin! Conversely, OF COURSE brown folks
of all shades only voted for Obama because he's brown, not because we felt he was the best person
for the job. We are simply driven by our melanin! (It's in the genes, see.) Just like we were so in love with That Negro John Kerry that over 80% of brown people who voted, voted for him! And don't forget all the brown-lovin' that went down between Black Americans and the "First Black President" Bill Clinton! I guess Barbara Jordan, Carol Moseley-Brawn, Cynthia McKinney, Alan Keyes, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton must have shredded their Black Cards. If brown people just had to have a brown person in the nation's highest office, why couldn't most of these 6 people even secure their party's nomination, never mind actually winning the presidency. And what's so "racist" about hating Bush II's policies again?

But BIG Kahuna, I assume you already know this. :)

See, that line of thinking, whether conscious or unconscious, that states that Black and Brown people are a monolith and have little to no diversity of thought within their culture, is one of the many things that pisses me off about prop 8 and the reactions to it. 242 Black people in some shitty exit poll, said they answered "Yes on 8." And because of the shitty interpretation of said shitty data, this result is no longer "70% of Black people WHO VOTED ON THIS MEASURE VOTED YES". The meme's now, "70% of Blacks think that gays shouldn't marry." Never mind that Black people are minority within a minority in CA (6.7%). Never mind that a shift in the numbers of any demographic would changed things. <link> Hell, never mind that if more people simply bothered to vote on the issue at all, there could have been a different result! And now, in expressing their (justifiable) anger, many in the White LGBTQI community are saying "THE BLACKS, THEY ARE SO HOMOPHOBIC!" "They should know better, after years and years of oppression," and my personal favorite, "We (ostensibly White folk) did y'all (ostensibly Black folk) a favor by voting for Obama, and this is how you repay us!" A train of thought Which has lead to this.

The passage of Prop 8 more than sucked. I can't imagine how much it hurts, especially for those who have already gotten married under the CA Supreme Ct. ruling. However, EXPRESSING ANGER, EVEN JUSTIFIED, RIGHTEOUS ANGER, ENDS AT YOUR DECISION TO SPREAD AND ACT ON HATE. PERIOD. One great thing that the Obama campaign did was to build a coalition across all kinds of groups -- even and especially groups who weren't traditionally allies. Evaluation of what went wrong is fine. Fingerpointing, blame-shaming and hatemongering turns away allies and boosts your opponents, who you best believe are watching (and loving) every minute of this.

Maybe there was a false assumption that one oppressed group is automatically inclined to support other oppressed groups. Maybe Black folks are dealing with other issues that are more personal to them. Maybe campaign outreach sucked. And yes, many of us in the Black community know we need to work harder to be more respectful and loving to our gay brothers and sisters.

I know that many have said they worked hard on the No on 8 campaign. And that's just it. Advocacy is WORK. Hard work. Convincing folks who may not be cued in to your message to make room in their headspace and heartspace takes effort. Over and over and over again if need be. Anyone who thinks that "I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine" is an effective advocacy strategy is in for a very, very rude awakening. As we've just seen.

ps: And AlexaD, Twanna's intercranial density is fine. :)