Racism isn't just "a card" some people "play"

[bcholmes]

Blaming people of color for Prop. 8 passing in California is racist. So cut it the fuck out. Ditto for veiling your racism with "this is because of turnout for Obama" or "you know how conservative those immigrants can be."

sparkymonster states one of those things that I wanted to believe was obvious, but which apparently is not.

Edit: Here's another good response to the "let's blame the brown people" phenomenon.

Edit the second: Here's a statistical analysis of a white election.

Edit the third: Daily Kos has a good analysis, too!

Comments

[cigfran-lwyd.livejournal.com]

disagree a bit with the tone/trend.

one of the points regularly brought up in relevant training sessions here in DC is that the black community is culturally pretty damn difficult to crack when it comes to queer rights, and that is borne out by the exit polling. while the fact that the actual percentage of black people in CA is 6.5% does mean that it is not to "blame" them for the failure, they are clearly a contributing factor in what was lost by a very close margin. recognizing the effects of racial demographics on actual outcomes is not "racist."

[cigfran-lwyd.livejournal.com]

put another way:

the black vote for obama nationwide was what, something like 95%? how much closer would the prop 8 vote have been had that same proportion seen "civil rights" in slightly wider terms? perhaps significantly?

the "voted for bush" filter is irrelevant in this regard. the question is: who voted for obama and also for prop 8? that's a set i'd like to see a demographic breakdown of.

[lisaquestions.livejournal.com]

I think it's pretty important to distinguish between noting the way voting played out along racial lines and blaming the black vote for passing Proposition 8.

Also, don't I know you? ;)

[lisaquestions.livejournal.com]

the black voters I mean.

[cigfran-lwyd.livejournal.com]

completely agreed.

and yes, you do ;-)

[bcholmes.livejournal.com]

See my response to xthlcm, below. For context, I've been seeing a lot of pretty crass blog entries that pretty much sound like people regret voting for Obama because of the statistics of the African-American vote on Prop 8. And that Obama is now responsible for somehow making amends.

Which, well, is far from a nuanced view of the relations between African-American communities and LGBT communities.

[cigfran-lwyd.livejournal.com]

agreed. there is no warrant for crass remarks on this question... it's all far too raw and hurtful on too many edges.

but i also found sparkymonster's approach to be reductive, simplistic, and no more useful than the kinds of things being reacted to.

by the same token, however, i'm not entirely sure why out-of-state mormons are being "blamed" for this, either. they didn't cast the votes, and are the consciences of californians so weak that a more effective ad campaign is really supposed to have been the "cause" of the loss?