Oh for Christ's Sake
I am heartbroken about Prop 8. I am full of rage.
But I am not blaming black voters for the passage of the proposition and neither should anyone else.
I am seeing this nonsense on some blogs, primarily in the comments sections rather than the posts themselves - thank god - but it is still inexcusable.
I don't know if anyone noticed, but when everyone was buying houses and getting loans for them and totally rocking out with living the American Dream? When there were all those shows on TV, telling us to "Flip Your House!" with mostly white folks grinning in front of the porch of the place they'd just bought and resold to make a bunch of money? The national narrative on home buying was not in any way connected with minorities.
Until, of course, the crisis. Then suddenly everyone was enraged because apparently those sneaky brown people had been buying homes they couldn’t afford! Lying, betraying our poor, naïve banks! Oh, if only our loan officers were not so innocently trusting!
Yes, African-American voters voted in favor of Prop 8. Yes, they did so at greater percentages than other groups.
Do you know what percentage of voters in the California polls were black?1
10%2
What percentage of people who voted on 8 were "Yes" voters? 52.4%
I ran some quick calculations to figure out what the racial breakdown of "yes" voters was:
Hm. Well, well, well. Looks like if we want to blame the group who's really behind this travesty, it's white voters, isn't it?
People like to play 'what if' games in their heads - what if black voter turnout had been lower? It's just as easy to ask, however, what if republican turnout had been lower? What if central California turnout had been lower? What if youth turnout had been higher? Any one of these things and many others would have led to a different outcome. They didn't happen. The way forward is not to start attacking people, but to start figuring out who we can reach out to.
I am enraged at the people saying "they" took it from "us" - as if "they" and "us" were mutually exclusive (why, yes, it's a fantastic idea to kick the black gays and lesbians, and give them this bullshit to deal with on top of having the state of California tell them they can no longer get married, while the bigots who voted "yes" celebrate).
Fucking quit it.
This is not a race thing. This is a bigotry thing. This is a hate thing. It crosses racial boundaries. It crosses religious boundaries. It crosses class boundaries.
And so does love.
So let's get our shit together and start doing what needs to be done: fight 8 in the courts; fight it on the 2010 ballot; fight for equality in this country; fight against the bigots and the church leadership that are going to try to expand these anti-family, anti-marriage laws into every state they can.3
1. All of these numbers are from CNN's exit poll numbers, which they've made available on their site.
2. Shanikka, a Dailykos diarist, argues that 10% cannot possibly be an accurate number, and that the actual percentage is likely smaller. (I don't usually read Dailykos, but the reasoning seems sound.)
3. The campaigns seem to be sorting themselves out and figuring out what to do next. As soon as I have a clear idea what's going on, I will post more. In the meantime, if you are in California, there are protests.