No-on-8's white bias

By Jasmyne A. Cannick
November 8, 2008


Iam a perfect example of why the fight against Proposition 8, which amends the state Constitution to ban same-sex marriage, failed to win black support.

I am black. I am a political activist who cares deeply about social justice issues. I am a lesbian. This year, I canvassed the streets of South Los Angeles and Compton, knocking on doors, talking politics to passers-by and working as I never had before to ensure a large voter turnout among African Americans. But even I wasn't inspired to encourage black people to vote against the proposition.

Why? Because I don't see why the right to marry should be a priority for me or other black people. Gay marriage? Please. At a time when blacks are still more likely than whites to be pulled over for no reason, more likely to be unemployed than whites, more likely to live at or below the poverty line, I was too busy trying to get black people registered to vote, period; I wasn't about to focus my attention on what couldn't help but feel like a secondary issue.

The first problem with Proposition 8 was the issue of marriage itself. The white gay community never successfully communicated to blacks why it should matter to us above everything else -- not just to me as a lesbian but to blacks generally. The way I see it, the white gay community is banging its head against the glass ceiling of a room called equality, believing that a breakthrough on marriage will bestow on it parity with heterosexuals. But the right to marry does nothing to address the problems faced by both black gays and black straights. Does someone who is homeless or suffering from HIV but has no healthcare, or newly out of prison and unemployed, really benefit from the right to marry someone of the same sex?

Maybe white gays could afford to be singularly focused, raising millions of dollars to fight for the luxury of same-sex marriage. But blacks were walking the streets of the projects and reaching out to small businesses, gang members, convicted felons and the spectrum of an entire community to ensure that we all were able to vote.

Second is the issue of civil rights. White gays often wonder aloud why blacks, of all people, won't support their civil rights. There is a real misunderstanding by the white gay community about the term. Proponents of gay marriage fling it around as if it is a one-size-fits-all catchphrase for issues of fairness.

<snip>

And in the end, black voters in California voted against gay marriage by more than 2 to 1.

Maybe next time around -- because we all know this isn't over -- the gay community can demonstrate the capacity and willingness to change that America demonstrated when it went to the polls on Nov. 4. Black gays are depending on their white counterparts to finally "get it."

Until then, don't expect to make any inroads any time soon in the black community on this issue -- including with this black lesbian.

:wow:

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-cannick8-2008nov08,0,5044196.story

published, even in the LA Times.

This is letter is ridiculous. It seems to assume that there is only so much freedom to go around. That if blacks vote to allow gay marriage, it somehow takes energy away from their ability to fight for their own rights. There is enough freedom for EVERYBODY, as long as we allow them to get to it.

AA's looks trollish.

In my area it was the RCC, Mormons and the fundie churches -- including African-American churches. This was covered ad nauseum around here and there were SEVERAL stories featuring some of our local African-American ministers actively courting the "yes on 8" vote. I know I'm supposed to close my eyes and not speak such blasphemy but I never did take orders well.

Meaning, do not be distracted from the source of the money. The money wants to hide.

I feel a little slimy for having read that.

"There's nothing a white gay person can tell me when it comes to how I as a black lesbian should talk to my community about this issue"

Well, lady, I'm a (more or less) white straight person, and I'll tell you why. Because you're next on the hit list. Is that easy enough to understand, Ms. Cannick (It is Ms., right?)? Forget your blackness for just a second, Ms. Cannick. What, do you think they're going to stop with Proposition 8? Really? because that's really foolish if you do think that. In your head, do you beleive that they're going to stop with Proposition 8? How does that work?

"Oh, we'll let the married gays stay married, and we'll leave the single gays alone, it's those gays who are together and want to get married we can't abide!"

Really, is that what you think, Ms. Cannick? If so, you're a very stupid person. That's never how it goes down. They're drawing a bead on you and your girlfriend, Ms. Cannick, right between your eyes - with as crosseyed as you apparently are, maybe you'll even see the little red dot!

And then what? When "the gay" has been sufficiently beaten down, who's next? Oh, hell, don't tell me you think the people behind and voting for Proposition 8 and similar laws in other states are going to be satisfied with stripping just the rights of gays, too?! Lady, you're living in a state that herded Japanese families into internment camps, ruled it was illegal for Chinese students to go to the same school as white students, that violently purged its many "Mission Indians" and to this day has a large contengent of people who think Mexicans are either slave labor or target practice. Yeah. They'll be happy with sticking it to the gay people and will ooze no further than that, I'm sure.

And your solution is not only to throw gay people under the train (we've passed the "bus" stage, with this op-ed, I think) but also to try to divide the GLBT community by pointing at the white gay folks and going "It was them! They did this to you!" - after yourself admitting to having a complete "fuck the gays" attitude while out canvassing.

Ms. Jasmyne Cannick, you win this week's stupid bitch award. Please fly to Anchorage to claim your brand new bridge to Ketchikan. And stay there.

It doesn't HAVE to be one or the other. It's not like anyone was forced to choose between voting for Obama and voting for marriage equality. Voting for both was certainly an option, and a lot of people did precisely that. And it's not like 70% of gay people voted for the white guy because WE'RE too worried about our own rights to care about black rights. In fact, I don't know a single gay person who DIDN'T vote for Barack Obama. We certainly didn't have any expectation that Obama was going to be a savior for gay people--quite the opposite, in fact. We voted because Obama was better for ALL people.

This person implies that gay people are some massive, stereotyped cartoon that just doesn't give a damn about anyone but themselves. Well that's fucking bullshit, and insulting as hell to boot. Freedom is like love--more for you doesn't mean less for me. And if the people this LTTE-writer is talking about are truly too concerned with their own rights to worry about what they perceive as "white" rights, then why the hell would they join hands with the two of the biggest white-run churches in the world--one of which banned black people as a matter of course only thirty short years ago--in order to deny gay people of ALL colors equality under the law?

Anybody who refers to gay rights as "white rights" is either stupid or willfully blind. Sure, there are more white gay people than black gay people in America. There are also more white women than black women, more white disabled people than black disabled people, and more white poor people than black poor people--if you look solely at head counts, which is the ONLY way that "gay rights = white rights" makes sense. Does that make women's rights, disabled rights, and poverty relief "white" rights and issues? Once again, black GLBT people are ignored and brushed aside as irrelevant, and this time BY a black GLBT person.

Face it--the problem is NOT black and white rights. The problem is religious narrow-mindedness, and people of ALL colors allowing their religious leaders to remove their common sense and replace it with bigoted doctrine. Trying to paint this as black vs. gay is insulting and unfair to black people, gay people, and most of all, black gay people.

>>Why? Because I don't see why the right to marry should be a priority for me or other black people<<

The GLBT community wasn't asking to "make it a priority." That's a lie.

We didn't ask to give money for "gay marriage" i.e. equal rights to marriage, instaed of giving money to Obama, or for food, of gas for the car.

We didn't ask them to march with us down the streets in solidarity.

We simply asked, "Be fair. Consider that we too are people, have lives, families, children."

We simply asked: Push a f*cking button and say no to taking away another persons rights.

This is revealing:

I am black. I am a political activist who cares deeply about social justice issues. I am a lesbian. This year, I canvassed the streets of South Los Angeles and Compton, knocking on doors, talking politics to passers-by and working as I never had before to ensure a large voter turnout among African Americans. But even I wasn't inspired to encourage black people to vote against the proposition.

Here come the code words differences:

>>Maybe white gays could afford to be singularly focused, raising millions of dollars to fight for the luxury of same-sex marriage.<<

So, the author of the letter sees this as a wealthy, white, luxury.
Nice.

And of course the hierarchy of civil rights argument I have heard on DU is echoed here:

>>Second is the issue of civil rights.Proponents of gay marriage fling it around as if it is a one-size-fits-all catchphrase for issues of fairness.<<

This is the worst of all, the notion that the gay fight for civil rights is frivolous.

>>The white gay community never successfully communicated to blacks why it should matter to us above everything else -- <<

Because the gay community never said it should matter to us above everything else, they were mobilized, they were in the voting booth, all they had to do was push a damned button!

They found the time and the energy in the voting booth, to ally themselves with white conservapig churches.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hZmLBrL36NObNyMR0ghXN7vB5hYwD94ADAB80

>>Religious institutions also gave Proposition 8's sponsors an avenue to a range of ethnic voters, including many Democrats, said Mat Staver, who heads the Florida-based Christian legal group Liberty Counsel.

Catholic and evangelical Hispanics and African-American Baptists stood alongside conservative white evangelicals in arguing for traditional marriage. Exit polls showed 70 percent of blacks supported the ban, a far higher percentage than any other race.<<

It's a luxury relegated to wealthy, white, male gays, right?

Apparently this is just IMPOSSIBLE. Everyone knows black women and white gays don't get along. Let alone GET MARRIED.

about hate crimes against gays.

I hope you can post it as a thread of it's own. far too many people get away with minimizing the GLBT civil rights fights as being merely frivolous, a luxury, this is another example splattered all over the LA Times.

This woman, if she is gay, who knows--is going out of her way to marginalize gay civil rights.

For ex: here's what else the letter said:

>>Some people seem to think that homophobia trumps racism, and that winning the battle for gay marriage will symbolically bring about equality for everyone. That may seem true to white gays, but as a black lesbian, let me tell you: There are still too many inequalities that exist as it relates to my race for that to ever be the case. Ever heard of "driving while black"? Ever looked at the difference between the dropout rates for blacks and for whites? Or test scores? Or wages? Or rates of incarceration? <<


I think in light of this letter your powerful thread with those tragic photo's would help dispell this myth.

They look really cool.

how much thought does one need to put into checking a box on a ballot that will maintain social equality for an oft victimized segment of our society, or take it away ? One more common sense required question, how much thought does it take to know that if one segment of our society has fewer rights, how long before my rights are at risk? This is all so reasonably human, as to be intrinsic to us. Reading this silly defense of her willful ignorance was quite shocking.

http://calvoter.org/archive/94general/easy/meas/187.html

I voted against it on principle, not on personal feelings or misunderstanding. I am sorry that Jasmyne A. Cannick cannot vote on principle.

I meant our victory. After you get done using it on me, you can use it on yourself!