Leonard Pitts on Blacks and Prop 8.
[S]urely there is nothing in politics easier than to rouse a majority of voters against the "threat" of gay people being treated like people.
...
Moreover, it leaves me wondering for the umpteenth time how people who have known so
much of oppression can turn around and oppress.
Yes, I know. I can hear some black folk yelling at me from here, wanting me to know it's not the same, what gays have gone through and what black people did, wanting me to know they acted from sound principles and strong values. It is justification and rationalization, and I've heard it all before. I wish they would explain to me how they can, with a straight face, use arguments against gay people that were first tested and perfected against us.
When, for instance, they use an obscure passage from the Bible to claim God has ordained the mistreatment of gays, don't they hear an echo of white people using that Bible to claim God ordained the mistreatment of blacks?
When they rail against homosexuality as unnatural, don't they remember when that same word was used to describe abolition, interracial marriage and school integration?
When they say they'd have no trouble with gay people if they would just stop "flaunting" their sexuality, doesn't it bring to mind all those good ol' boys who said they had no problem with "Nigras" so long as they stayed in their place?
No, the black experience and the gay experience are not equivalent. Gay people were not the victims of mass kidnap or mass enslavement. No war was required to strike the shackles from their limbs. But that's not the same as saying blacks and gays have nothing in common.
On the contrary, gay people, like black people, know what it's like to be left out, lied about, scapegoated, discriminated against, held up, beat down, denied a job, a loan or a life. And they, too, know how it feels to sit there and watch other people vote upon their very humanity, just as if those other people had a right.
So beg pardon, but black people should know better. I feel the same when Jews are racist, or gays anti-Semitic. Those who bear scars from intolerance should be the last to practice it.
Leonard Pitts Jr.
Like MLK Jr. said, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
...
Moreover, it leaves me wondering for the umpteenth time how people who have known so
much of oppression can turn around and oppress.
Yes, I know. I can hear some black folk yelling at me from here, wanting me to know it's not the same, what gays have gone through and what black people did, wanting me to know they acted from sound principles and strong values. It is justification and rationalization, and I've heard it all before. I wish they would explain to me how they can, with a straight face, use arguments against gay people that were first tested and perfected against us.
When, for instance, they use an obscure passage from the Bible to claim God has ordained the mistreatment of gays, don't they hear an echo of white people using that Bible to claim God ordained the mistreatment of blacks?
When they rail against homosexuality as unnatural, don't they remember when that same word was used to describe abolition, interracial marriage and school integration?
When they say they'd have no trouble with gay people if they would just stop "flaunting" their sexuality, doesn't it bring to mind all those good ol' boys who said they had no problem with "Nigras" so long as they stayed in their place?
No, the black experience and the gay experience are not equivalent. Gay people were not the victims of mass kidnap or mass enslavement. No war was required to strike the shackles from their limbs. But that's not the same as saying blacks and gays have nothing in common.
On the contrary, gay people, like black people, know what it's like to be left out, lied about, scapegoated, discriminated against, held up, beat down, denied a job, a loan or a life. And they, too, know how it feels to sit there and watch other people vote upon their very humanity, just as if those other people had a right.
So beg pardon, but black people should know better. I feel the same when Jews are racist, or gays anti-Semitic. Those who bear scars from intolerance should be the last to practice it.
Leonard Pitts Jr.
Like MLK Jr. said, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."