This is getting ugly

Further to this, this:

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.

<SNIP>

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. 

The lady has a point. What's more, as another blogger points out:

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

I'd link to him but he uses language that some Star readers -- and my overlords here -- might find offensive. But, if you follow the yellow brick links from the first blog, you'll get all the dirt.

UPPITY DATE (8/11/08): Two important comments I would like to post here.

The first was added to my original column on the Star's website:

feeling uneasy after reading this...

As a gay man, I was unhappy to see Proposition 8 pass in California last week. However, to suggest that "Proposition 8... passed because of the large turnout of African-Americans....who supported it" is more than problematic. Heteronormativity, not unlike patriarchy, is a transcultural phenomenon that manifests itself in culturally specific forms. It is alive and well across the cultural spectrum in North America and beyond. To essentialize one culture as more homophobic than others is borderline racist.

Posted By soaringcrane at 2:32 AM Saturday, November 08 2008

The other was posted here by blogger mattb. who has a pretty good post on the subject of bigotry himself.

Glenn Greenwald has the right idea:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/11/06/doma/

Comments

[sooey]

And don't forget the "gays who don't believe in same sex marriage rights for gays" demographic.

[matttb.]

Glenn Greenwald has the right idea:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/11/06/doma/

[matttb.]

Great round up of Prop H8 stories compiled by Autumn Sandeen @ Pam's House Blend:

http://www.pamshouseblend.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=8092

[Adam]

Aye. While I'm sure some black residents of California voted for Prop 8, there really aren't a lot of black people in California(something like 6.2% or 6.3%), and I'd say 1/3 or more of that number can't/didn't vote due to age/legal restrictions or simply by choice.

It's a lot more realistic to blame, I don't know, the Yes on 8 campaign for blatantly lying to the American populace to steal the win.

[Kathleen M.]

Thank you for this post! As soon as Prop 8 was passed, news media began talking about the "why" and mentioned the black and latino people's votes largely helped the proposition pass...which, to me, seems to suggest that the blame lies there. Immediately after viewing such news reports, something felt weird, and wrong, about this, and I'm glad that this issue is being talked about.

[Chimera]

I don't care who. I don't care why. And I don't care about blaming someone based on religion, skin color, language group, or affluence. We cannot work on going forward if we're constantly looking over our collective shoulders, trying to figure out who to blame! We need to look ahead, not back!

Laws that allow the subjugation of one group of citizens by another have to be trampled into the dust. So let's get busy!