Prop 8 And The African American Vote

I took a lot of heat yesterday from a regular commenter/troll for mentioning my frustration with the disproportionate support for Prop 8 in California's African American population, so I decided to back off the issue until I'd had more time to consider it.

Now I have and I stand by my original thoughts.

I think it's tragic that a group that has suffered as much as African Americans have in this country don't express more as opposed to less sympathy for other persecuted minorities. And it annoys me that African American civil rights leaders don't spend more time focusing on this issue.

Though I greatly appreciated hearing Obama address this problem on the campaign trail, I wish he'd put more effort into delivering this message in California to help defeat Prop 8. I'm not saying that Obama should have only targeted African Americans with this message, but I do think that he has the standing, particularly in African American churches, to help people see gay rights as part of the wider civil rights movement rather than as something immoral and to be fought against.

Ultimately, it's impossible to know for sure whether overwhelming African American support for Prop 8 put the measure over the top. But exit polls can give us an idea. And they indicate that it might have.

Obsidian Wings' Sebastian writes:

It appears that black people in CA may have voted in a greater share than that of their representation of the population. Right around 10% of the vote.

That would mean that given each 1000 voters black people in CA represent 100 of them.

At 69% Yes on 8 that would be 69 Yes and 31 No for each 1000. If they had voted like White voters they would have voted 45 Yes and 55 No. That would make the final vote equal 496 Yes and 504 No (proposition loses 49.6% to 50.4%).

Interestingly, at the 10% vote share level, if a small majority of black people voted against the measure it would have lost (49% Yes, 51% No gives the measure a loss at 49.9%).

Basically, if the black voter share is 10% or higher, the black vote difference from the white vote made the difference so long as the final total is at or below 52%. And if the black voter share is any higher than 10%, it made the difference even if black voters had only split 50-50 instead of the 45-55 shown in white voters.

Commenting on all of this, Dan Savage writes:

African American voters in California voted overwhelmingly for Prop 8, writing anti-gay discrimination into California’s constitution and banning same-sex marriage in that state. Seventy percent of African American voters approved Prop 8, according to exit polls, compared to 53% of Latino voters, 49% of white voters, 49% of Asian voters.

I’m not sure what to do with this. I’m thrilled that we’ve just elected our first African-American president. I wept last night. I wept reading the papers this morning. But I can’t help but feeling hurt that the love and support aren’t mutual.

I do know this, though: I’m done pretending that the handful of racist gay white men out there—and they’re out there, and I think they’re scum—are a bigger problem for African Americans, gay and straight, than the huge numbers of homophobic African Americans are for gay Americans, whatever their color.

I'm with Savage 100 percent.

Clearly, this isn't really about race. Race is purely a social construct anyway. This is about culture. And, for whatever reason, the African American community has a bigger problem accepting gay rights than many other groups in this country.

My goal in pointing this out is to encourage African Americans who support gay rights to speak out more forcefully to their friends and relatives.

I have on several occasions strongly criticized several of my aunts and uncles for making racist remarks. All I ask is that more African Americans make a special effort to do the same when they hear homophobic comments. That sort of pressure from within one's community is one of the best ways to facilitate change.

Finally, the greatest blame for Prop 8's passage obviously falls at the feet of the Mormons and other far-right religious extremists who largely funded and staffed the despicably dishonest campaign against gay marriage in California. And while I hope to see African American voters gradually become more accepting of gay rights over time, I would prefer to see groups such as the Mormons go extinct. Of course this is unlikely to happen, so I'd settle for them giving up their attempts to use the democratic process to force their sectarian religious beliefs on our society as a whole. But that won't stop me from dreaming of a substantially more secular future.