The N-Bomb is Dropped on Black Passersby at Prop 8 Protests

You could see this coming, and this is what I'm talking about when you ignore the elephant in the room. Rod McCullom of Rod 2.0 blogs reports on the escalation of the "blame the blacks" meme that has been swirling about the blogosphere and the MSM.

A number of Rod 2.0 and Jasmyne Cannick readers report being subjected to taunts, threats and racist abuse at last night's marriage equality rally in Los Angeles.

Geoffrey, a student at UCLA and regular Rod 2.0 reader, joined the massive protest outside the Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Westwood. Geoffrey was called the n-word at least twice.

It was like being at a klan rally except the klansmen were wearing Abercrombie polos and Birkenstocks. YOU NIGGER, one man shouted at men. If your people want to call me a FAGGOT, I will call you a nigger. Someone else said same thing to me on the next block near the temple...me and my friend were walking, he is also gay but Korean, and a young WeHo clone said after last night the niggers better not come to West Hollywood if they knew what was BEST for them.

Los Angeles resident and Rod 2.0 reader A. Ronald says he and his boyfriend, who are both black, were carrying NO ON PROP 8 signs and still subjected to racial abuse.

Three older men accosted my friend and shouted, "Black people did this, I hope you people are happy!" A young lesbian couple with mohawks and Obama buttons joined the shouting and said there were "very disappointed with black people" and "how could we" after the Obama victory. This was stupid for them to single us out because we were carrying those blue NO ON PROP 8 signs! I pointed that out and the one of the older men said it didn't matter because "most black people hated gays" and he was "wrong" to think we had compassion. That was the most insulting thing I had ever heard. I guess he never thought we were gay.

The backlash is upon us, and it's going to get uglier unless our organizations step forward and say something. The desire to scapegoat blacks for Prop 8's defeat has exposed the now not-so-latent racism in our movement.

I have already blogged a lot about why the lack of effective communication (and I'm not even talking about outreach on gay issues to socially conservative blacks) between white people in general and people of color. That dearth of understanding and mutual respect for difference, and lack of desire to seek common ground through personal relationships ultimately leads to what we are seeing here.

More below the fold.

On the matter of the blame game, Alex Blaze has an excellent post over at Bilerico that tries to poke at the anger directed at the black community (as you read above, it didn't matter if you were black and gay -- it was hurled at him because he represented The Other regardless of his allegiance to the gay community).

But I'm wondering why these folks are so caught up in the black voters, who obviously can't ever be persuaded on this issue because... well, because. There are so many other groups in the exit polling that voted for Prop 8 overwhelmingly (as in, more than 60%):

* The elderly (65+)
* Republicans
* Conservatives
* People who decided for whom to vote in October (but not within the week before the election)
* People who were contacted by the McCain campaign
* Protestants
* Catholics
* White Protestants
* Those who attend church weekly
* Married people
* People with children under 18
* Gun owners
* Bush voters
* Offshore drilling supporters
* People who are afraid of a terrorist attack
* People who thought their family finances were better now than 4 years ago
* Supporters of the war against Iraq
* People who didn't care about the age of the candidates
* Anti-choicers
* People who are from the "Inland/Valley" region of California
* McCain voters

Some of these groups supported Prop 8 far more than African Americans did, which makes me wonder why we're focused so much on race instead of any of these factors. In terms of predictive value, religion, political ideology, and being married with children tell us much more about how someone voted on Prop 8 than race does.

From which we can infer three things. First, breaking the statistics just along racial lines is an overly simplistic way to look at the results. Black people, like white people, are not a monolithic group, and LGBT people can make inroads by reaching out to African Americans if we try. Flapping our mouths about how we're not PC, how all blacks are homophobic, and how there's no use in reaching out to African Americans doesn't endear people to us, and there is work to be done here that hasn't been done.

Second, religion is the overwhelming factor in Prop 8's win, in terms of organizing, funding, and voting. Since it's not going anywhere, we have to take a more serious approach to religious voters. And, yes, their leaders make bank off homophobia, but we're going to have to be more creative. No writing off fundies as idiots allowed - they get votes too.

It saddens me that there is so much work to do to heal these wounds on both sides. As I've said, being a triple minority is a challenge because we are often rendered invisible by each tribe we belong to when our existence becomes inconvenient or challenges their biases.

You cannot continue to ignore this elephant in the room. What is painful is seeing the how easily I am marginalized in any of the identities I inhabit. There is nothing to gain in slicing our movement up in this manner because we're all hurting. Reading through the comments of my posts (here and here) about the outcome of Prop 8, it's pretty clear some of you either conveniently forgot my commitment to LGBT rights as a matter of self-interest or have never read my vast archive of criticism of homophobia in the black community. The knee-jerk response in the wake of the painful passage of the initiative was that fast and that irrational.

You know what? This reminds me of the Freeper reaction to Condi Rice making mildly positive comments about Barack Obama's speech on race -- all of a sudden she became a wild-eyed Trojan Horse Black Radical in their eyes, when nothing of the sort occurred. Apparently she needed to completely divorce herself of her blackness for the comfort of the denizens of the swamp, even though nothing had changed about her views on policy.

Discussing the whys and hows of human nature when it comes to these biases shouldn't be such a difficult matter, but it is. I don't have a problem opening the door, but I can't walk through it alone. We all need to play a part, and share in the responsibility to achieve equality for all. Civil rights is not a zero-sum game; there is enough shared blame for the debacle that is Prop 8, and it cannot be undone. We have the choice to educate or alienate going forward.

My friend Wayne Besen of Truth Wins Out shares the view that this toxic blame game needs to stop and we need move on. So far TWO is the only advocacy organization to step up to the plate.

Truth Wins Out today expressed its grave disappointment in those in the LGBT community who have emulated our bigoted opponents by scapegoating minorities. It has been reported that African Americans have been verbally abused and have had racial epithets hurled at them during Anti-Proposition 8 rallies.

"It is reprehensible to look for scapegoats and target innocent people with vile racial epithets," said TWO Executive Director, Wayne Besen. "We call on all GLBT people behave intelligently and act responsibly, so we can figure out - together - the best way for our movement to proceed and achieve equality."

People For the American Way's president, Kathryn Kolbert, has released a statement about the situation. It's lengthy and worth the read, as it is both informative and personal as she calls for a broad debate around race, civil rights and the LGBT movement.

The past 72 hours have brought an extraordinary range of emotions -- great joy at the election of Barack Obama and defeat of John McCain, and sadness and anger at the passage of anti-gay initiatives in Florida, Arizona, Arkansas, and California. That sadness has turned to outrage at the speed with which some white gay activists began blaming African Americans -- sometimes in appallingly racist ways -- for the defeat of Proposition 8. This is inexcusable.

As a mother who has raised two children in a 30-year relationship with another woman, I fully understand the depth of hurt and anger at voters' rejection of our families' equality. But responding to that hurt by lashing out at African Americans is deeply wrong and offensive -- not to mention destructive to the goal of advancing equality.

Before we give Religious Right leaders more reasons to rejoice by deepening the divisions they have worked so hard to create between African Americans and the broader progressive community, let's be clear about who is responsible for gay couples in California losing the right to get married, and let's think strategically about a way forward that broadens and strengthens support for equality.

I particularly appreciate the time Kathryn spends putting the focus on the real enemy -- the religious right, the professional "Christian industrial complex" and its quite blatant courting and cultivation of the existing homophobia in the black church.

The Religious Right has invested in systematic outreach to the most conservative elements of the Black Church, creating and promoting national spokespeople like Bishop Harry Jackson, and spreading the big lie that gays are out to destroy religious freedom and prevent pastors from preaching about homosexuality from the pulpit.

In addition, Religious Right leaders have exploited the discomfort among many African Americans with white gays who seem more ready to embrace the language and symbols of the civil rights movement than to be strong allies in the continuing battle for equal opportunity. At a series of Religious Right events, demagogic African American pastors have accused the gay rights movement of "hijacking" and "raping" the civil rights movement.

The effort to stir anti-gay emotions among African Americans by suggesting that gays are trying to "hijack" the civil rights movement is not new. During a Cincinnati referendum in 1993, anti-gay groups produced a videotape targeted to African American audiences; the tape featured Trent Lott, Ed Meese and other right-wing luminaries warning that protecting the civil rights of lesbians and gay men would come at the expense of civil rights gains made by the African American community. It was an astonishing act of hypocrisy for Lott and Meese to show concern for those civil rights gains, given their career-long hostility to civil rights principles and enforcement, but the strategy worked that year. Eleven years later, however, African American religious leaders and voters helped pass an initiative striking the anti-gay provision from the city charter. (The story of that successful fairness campaign is told in an award-winning mini-documentary -- A Blinding Flash of the Obvious -- that is part of a Focus on Fairness toolkit produced by People For the American Way Foundation.)

In California this year, national and local white anti-gay religious leaders worked hard to create alliances with African American clergy; Harry Jackson was busy in both California and Florida stirring opposition to marriage equality. None of the Right's outreach to African Americans on gay rights issues in recent years has been a secret. Neither has polling that showed some deterioration in African American support for full equality. But there hasn't been the same investment in systematic outreach from the gay rights community.

I welcome this frankness. We have to move beyond fear and blame. Please read the rest.

Anyone looking to address those exit polls everyone is citing, this diary puts it in perspective with actual statistics: Facts Belie the Scapegoating of Black People for Proposition 8.

Related:
* Ballot initiatives provide a wake up call to the LGBT community about race
* The religious right promises more amendments, do we have a plan?

Follow Pam Spaulding on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Pam_Spaulding

Comments

[benne]

The reasons why people are focusing on the black vote (and this isn't all they're doing) is because blacks came out in larger numbers because of Barack Obama. The question is, then, whether the increase in that vote may have tipped the scales for Prop. 8. Perhaps the answer is to criticize institutions that came out against it and encouraged their members to, whether that is the Mormon church or black churches. However, I don't think it helps to deny that the increase in the black vote may have been the difference between passing this anti-civil rights proposition and voting it down. Naturally, this has nothing to do with the kind of hate you describe.

[treynyc]

All this finger-pointing needs to stop already; all it's doing is making us look like sore losers, and all that's gonna do is give another reason to our opponents to use against us. Yes, let's get together and have our voices be heard as ONE cause. What's the point in yelling across a fence at a Mormon temple? When you really take the number of Mormons in California (somewhere I read the population of Mormons was as low as a little over 77,500), you'll see it wasn't entirely their fault that the proposition passed. The same thing goes for African-Americans and Latinos. We also have to take responsibility for our own losses.

What the supporters of marriage equality need to do is re-organize and come back stronger and more funded than before. We have to expose the lies that fueled the Yes on 8 campaign and reclaim California. We can't just sit on our as* and bitch all day about it, we have to actually DO somehing about it.

[Dan4Equality]

There are some racists among our midst (in the gay community and outside of the gay community) and it is shameful. However, I can say with confidence that the gay community as a whole is not looking to oppress or denigrate the black community. I was at the rally today to oppose Prop 8 in downtown LA, and the audience there was very receptive to a message of solidarity with black communities, and an acknowledgment that black people are a part of our community - and worked alongside us to oppose Prop 8. I think a lot of this is being stoked by the right wing to keep us all down and fighting with each other. Keep paying attention to the developments around this issue and you will see a lot of effort on both sides to come together. In the meantime, let's try to think of ways to be part of the solution and not the problem.

[jackson1015]

I listened to Air America last week and one of the male radio hosts (not Ron Reagan) said that in the wake of Prop 8 "blacks and Hispanics need to be introduced to the 21st century." Nice. It's insults like that that work everytime in winning people over to your point of view. Believe it or not, there are fair-minded people in the AA community, but you'll never reach them with name-calling and belittling comments. And don't blame the AA community because the Prop 8 ad campaigns were so poorly conceived. Did they have any black input at all in formulating any of them???

[Ale4]

Seeing blacks and hispanics vote for prop 8 is like watching the monster eating frankenstein.

[WestCoastBuckeye]

I see the "minority voting against the rights of another minority" irony. But how is a vote against equality by a black or Hispanic worse than the vote against equality by a white person?

Blacks, Hispanics, whites, Asians, Christians, women, old people, parents, none are responsible for creating this injustice. Lies, fear-mongering and ignorance are responsible.

Attacking any segment of the California population is the wrong way to approach this issue. Instead, use your energies to attack the fundamentally wrong ideals behind the injustice: separate but equal, religion as a basis for law, and using "tradition" as a basis for public policy.

[readnews]

westcoastbuckeye

Your "rights" are completely intact. You currently have the right to marry a woman, if you're a man and a man if you're a woman. However, what you don't have is the right to marry any person you choose. Oh, I understand. You would like "special different rights". Too bad. Live within the laws that we all must live within. If I can't marry my neighbor's FINE ass wife, then you can't marry someone of the same sex. What you can do, however, is ensure that you have a power of attorney and can visit your loved one in the hospital, make funeral arrangements, collect on life insurance, settle estate plans and then go out and do it all over again, after you meet someone else. Why don't you check into it? Your "right" to marry is there (actually, I would like to see where that right is spelled out - no such right exist but you're welcome to read the constitution and bill of rights and try to find it). Just stop asking for new rights.

[LangstonA]

Hey, guess what?

On public radio station KPCC on a show called AirTalk hosted by Larry Mantle they are talking right now about how the initial results showing that 70% of African- American CA voters voted for Prop 8 ARE INACCURATE.

The actual percentage was considerably lower. Make no mistake, within the African-American CA voting population Proposition 8 was a winner, but NOT by margins way outside the overall CA voting population. Airtalk is available via podcast and streaming the day after the show airs. The show with this subject aired today Tuesday 11/11/2008. To download or stream this episode of the show please visit the URL below no earlier than 11/12/2008.

http://www.scpr.org/programs/airtalk/

This sure flips the script, doesn't it?

[NeoStar9]

While all this finger point is going on one should ask why where people so quickly to attack and demonize blacks. It seemed to be an automatic reaction and that by itself is very scary. No "why would they vote this way" but more of a "How could they betray us". There were a LOT of assumptions in this situation going into it but a lot of "whys'. For the longest time from my vantage point it's been pointed out that blacks don't see gay marriage as a civil rights issue. With the insistence from the gay community that it is have they ever asked why some or many blacks don't see it the same way? Had they done so then they would have known what to expect.

However this is all based on the idea that the gay community and it's "leadership" even care in any fashion and just assumed a lot of things with no additional thought.

[NeoStar9]

Hmm. Does anyone else remember when the mayor of San Francisco was on TV and said (this is as close as I remember) "Gay marriage is here whether you like it or not" with that stupid smile. He came off like a complete a-hole I felt when I saw that. It's things like that that will and do turn open minded people all the time. Then there was the issue of saying gay marriage would not be taught in schools only for a school teacher to have her 2nd grade class at her wedding during school hours and had it described a field trip. Field trips are always looked at as a learning trip unless it's an end of the year trip for fun and even then it's older students. Any talk about how nothing would be taught in schools didn't matter after that stunt.

Antagonizing people will not help your cause. When you have crap like that happen why do people act surprised when more and more people become resistant? Not only that if the issue was so important why was the gay community turn out on Nov 4 low compared to previous years, especially in cities that have a high gay population in Cali?

Why are so many people protesting now after the fact? Where were these people before the election was held? Why now when it seems they couldn't be bothered before to put a real face to their issue?

Are these questions even being asked?

[Smith808]

The antagonizing does have to stop...i am saddened that there were some within the LGBT community that didn't abandon their misplaced anger the moment they saw their gay black allies protesting with them. I was disappointed, too, by the statistics, but I had to work out these feelings on my own. You may think instances like this reveal a sharp divide between the community, but, when the anger settles, you will see that many of us have been aligned in our efforts to build bridges of understanding, support, and outreach.
Just as blacks are not homogenous in their beliefs, neither is the LGBT community. For many of us, it has been this very community that took us in when no other would, and this includes our own families. For a unique community that includes all races...it is doing as good a job as it can to incorporate such diverse perspectives. Our multi-racal identities make racism an offense to EVERYBODY and we are quick to call it out. This antagonizing in the protest lines is in no way representative of how most of us feel about the need to stay together.
Secondly, when it comes to being gay, I am not an apologist. The LAST thing I want from my elected officials is for them to act one way and behave another because being an advocate "hurts" their image or their chances to appear "partisan" when they win.

[readnews]

Smith8o8

Do any of you all ever consider, whether your desire to marry a member of the same sex is good for society and/or the country? Do you care? Or, is what you want the only thing that matters?

Can anyone explain how this is an issue of "civil rights"?

[Smith808]

Mayor Newsom has been a major proponent (if not the engine) of the marriage equality movement. Not only is he unashamed in his support, he has helped to create the circumstances by which we can fight this in the courts. His "smile" is just fine with me.

[Social Construct]

There is a long history behind the reasoning for the separation between the church and the state; just add this to the list.

[Leper]

Just a question: where does accountability end and blame begin?

[readnews]

Apparently at the ballot box.

[WestCoastBuckeye]

This is sad news indeed, and I feel awful that Geoffrey, A. Ronald and others are taking undo heat and hate from the Prop. 8 protesters. Misdirected anger, energy wasted. They should know better!!!

To our homosexual friends: your cause is righteous, but PLEASE keep your fellow protesters in check. Attacking any segment of our population seriously undermines the basic reasons your protest is a valid one. Protest in front of churches that helped support Prop. 8's passage, but don't attack the individual Mormons, Catholics and Christians walking in and out of the church (I guarantee many voted against Prop. 8). Attack the ignorance that caused Prop. 8's passage, but aim to do it with rational discussions with the ignorant, not slurs and threats (you'd be surprised what calm Q&A can accomplish).

And lastly, and maybe most importantly, don't be so stupid as to take your anger out on individuals of another minority, who had nothing to do with the set-back in your struggle. It does nothing but hurt your cause.

[itmaybetoolate]

This is not an excuse - it is an explanation: anger, fear, and grief can push people to think and act in childish ways, and make it almost impossible to think rationally. When you are badly hurt, you want to lash out and hurt someone. This is so sad and, somewhere, evangelical christian republicans are smiling.

Change the language folks - talk about civil marriage with emphasis on "civil." Talk about the non-religious marital contracts offered by the state as it relates to equality under the law. Join the ACLU and send them monetary support.

Remind everyone that heterosexuals have no inherent right to civil marriage but they do have an inherent right to a religious marriage as part of their inherent right to practice their religion. And, if they argue, make them prove an inherent right without resorting to religion (remember separation of church and state).

And, try to find forgiveness in your hearts for fellow minorities - there is more than enough pain to go around.

[D-Truth]

I didn't vote for Prop 8. I realize that I'm in the minority. But, I am not only in the minority of my own ethnic community, but of the larger heterosexual community as a whole. If you look at the statistics, it seems that straight people of every group voted for the proposition. Think about it. Even if only 49% of a group voted for it, you have to consider that about 10% of that group is gay, and likely voted against the proposition. So, the straight population of every ethnic group voted for the ban. I'm not saying that it's right. I'm just pointing out that it's ridiculous to blame the ban on any one group ... especially the smallest of the major ethnic groups in the state.

[Logical247]

To blame the outcome of Proposition 8 solely on African-Americans is just ridiculous. More importantly, to break it down so simplistically will cause those who lead the fight against proposition 8 to fail to see where they went wrong. The fact of the matter is, over 52% of Californian votes yes to Prop 8 which indicates to me that the message and outreach just wasn't there. Here are some rough number that show that this "blame black folk" mantra is baseless.
based on 2005 Census Whites are 52% of california's population: Blacks are 5%, Asians are 10% and Hispanics 33%. If you extend these percentages to the outcome of the election, Blacks played a very small role in the "yes" to proposition 8. These numbers assumes no other race/nationality participated in the election and the voter turnout was in proportion to their census numbers.
Whites who voted yes 2,946,000
Blacks 381,000
Asians 258,000
Hispanics 2, 287,000

The measure passed by a slim 497,000 votes. If every african american voted yes to this measure, given that they only make up 5% of the population that would mean approximately 285,000 voted yes. As you can see Blacks are not the reason for the vote for Prop 8.

We just need to go back and figure out where we went wrong, what could we have done better.

[oafishcad]

Yes there were many bigoted groups that voted for prop 8. The black community was one of those bigoted groups. You can try pointing the finger of racism back at the gay community-that voted by 70% for President elect Obama. It won't change the fact that the black community chose to crush the civil rights of gays under their bootheel. Gays and blacks should not be fighting, but blacks were overwhelming homophobic, bigoted and religiously intolerant in their voting. It isn't the "job" of the gay community to try and turn blacks from bigots to welcoming Christians any more than it was the black community's "job" to turn the white community away from their racist ways. That is the "job" of each human being-to be more human.

[MoeB]

Well, actually, many blacks in fact DID make concentrated and repeated efforts to "turn the white community away from their racist ways". Do your research. Blacks did not achieve equality in this country alone. We had help...and we got that help from outreach.

A question: would you consider black gays a part of the gay community, or the black community?

And even if 100% of blacks voted for Prop 8, it could NOT HAVE passed without the help of everyone else who voted for it. So to say that it was the blacks who crushed gay civil rights is ridiculous, divisive and counterproductive. How do those comments help???

The blame for the passing of prop 8 lies with EVERYONE who voted for it. Singling out one specific segment of the population and saying 'HA! It's all YOUR fault' is NOT helping the cause.