Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2008 1:29 am
You know I'm right there with you when it comes to oppression in general. And religion plays a stupidly large role in this. Yes its definitely sad that it didn't go through. And yes, its sad that a substantial portion of the black population in Cali voted against gay marriage. I voted for it here in FL and was grossly outnumbered. At least I tried, y'know?sapphic_beats wrote:Well the saddest thing about this whole mess (meaning the latent racism that has reared its head in the midst of the Prop 8 BS), is that I think it has allowed so-called progressives an avenue to express what I think may have been laying just underneath the surface regarding race.
For those "progressives", it would have been bad strategy to talk about Obama in a negative light, but this cracked open those barely sealed feelings and allowed them to fester and get thrown on people with less power and less visibility.
However, to play Devil's Advocate, even though I think the numbers that have been bandied about regarding the black vote's role in Prop 8 are misleading (the percentage of black voters in their own demographic who voted yes were high, but they were NOT the lion's share of the vote, no matter how many ways you slice it), I think there is some very visceral anger on the part of the gay community (which, it has to be pointed out again and again, also includes people of color. i know you know this, belly; just pointing it out for those who seem to forget) because of the inability to understand how anyone who has been oppressed can then support oppression. It is confusing, on an emotional level, and it is not being dealt with well.
It's complex, and it's messy, and there are too many intersections to regard any of the players as a simple, monolithic representation of ONE group only. And even with the protests against churches, there is too much anger and too little dissection and discussion of the role that the church plays in society, in community and in politics. And that, I think, is a stone that cannot be left unturned.
I hope we can get through this with some deep, from the heart dialogue, but right now the feelings are at a high pitch, and that makes logical thought and listening tougher to accomplish.
What peeves me about this is that there are myriad reasons for the way white voters vote but there is only one for blacks. So while there are white voters who did not vote for Obama for a whole host of reasons (Republican history, worries about fiscal responsibility, religious ideology, and for some even race *gasp* etc.), there doesn't seem to be this same spectrum afforded to how black people vote. Instead its just simplified as black people wanting the right to oppress another group, when the truth of the matter is that for the majority of black americans, religion plays a HUGE role when interpreting homosexuality.....a lot more than is given credit, especially when combined with the less than favorable depiction of black people in the media as being these promiscuous, unlawful, lazy, illiterate renegades. Something has to change because Obama was elected and is solid proof that skin color/race is not a real deterrent or explanation of behavior---and whats changed is the strategy to prove that he's an anomaly and not the standard.
In the South, black votes would have greatly been outnumbered by the amount of white conservatives running to the polls to guarantee that gay people didn't have the right to marry, adopt, share equally. However, it would be ludicrous to say that those white people who did were doing so just to oppress another group. For the white voters in the South, they would at least be afforded the shield of religion or traditional concepts, before they were dismissed. For the black voters, though, it was only one reason: ignorance.
Again, this brings me back to the idea that all of the parties were racist--they just handled it differently. Whereas the Republicans are traditionally depicted as being the ones with Rebel Flags and burning crosses, the Democrats were the ones who couldn't be racist because they had black friends. Its all bullshit to me.
Oppression is oppression. Whether it be homophobia, racism, sexism (which was HUGE and largely unacknowledged), ageism, whatever. And what I don't get is how progressives feel they have the balls to point the finger while not realizing that by pointing the finger and oversimplifying the causes, merely reducing it to race, they are picking up a cross of a different kind and lighting a match. I guess it just means they're progressively choosing to demonize in a new way. Well isn't that special? Then again....the fact that this is one of the first times I've ever seen where the drop rule was applied in reverse and so many people are willing to point to Obama's white half lest it be forgotten, shows me just how far the US is willing to come for harmony in all levels (not to say that this isn't true--we all understand that he is mixed....however, the need to justify this by raising his status because he's half white is strangely hilarious, since back from the days of slavery, having a black great-grandparent was enough to put you in the colored bathroom).
I mean....gay marriage was struck down in Cali and progressives are pointing fingers at the black vote. Affirmative Action was repealed in Nebraska.....where are the progressives to lambast the rural white voters over that?
FAIL FAIL FAIL!!!
