Jeffrey King, a gay man prominent in the African-American community, says the campaign ignored advice from black gay and lesbian activists about counteracting cultural opposition to gay marriage.
“We told them what should be done,” says King, executive director of In The Meantime Men’s Group, a South Los Angeles outreach organization for gay black men, “we told them what they shouldn’t do—and they did what they wanted to do.”
“This clearly is not the time to call black folks out and say we were to blame,” King says. “There was not enough outreach. Period.”
And at least one gay black leader—Latrice Johnson of United Lesbians of African Heritage—who reached out to the “No on 8” campaign was rebuffed:
How did the No on 8 bring your organization into the larger campaign? Were you approached?
We weren’t approached, however I did make attempts, as did many of our staff and volunteers made attempts to reach out and let them know we were certainly willing to come to the table and help out. Unfortunately we were not approached. It was almost a dismissive response.
Did you go to the Gay and Lesbian Center, did you go to California Equality…
All of the above. And Let Freedom Ring. We were approached basically to kind of showcase some of the couples especially when the courts permitted same-sex marriage. We were immediately approached, “do you have any couples who are going to get married?” However, they were looking for mixed couples, they weren’t looking for African-American couples, from the message that was provided to me. So it wasn’t a real attempt to get us involved in the marketing process, or also kind of going into our communities and canvassing and trying to educate our community on the issues of Prop 8.
Did anyone come and say, “Hey, we need to do outreach in the African-American community together?”
Absolutely not, in fact the message I got from a key person in the No on 8 campaign was that the black vote was really going to be insignificant. It’s not enough, that it wasn’t going to be an issue because we are not a majority of the vote, even though they knew that a large number was going to come out to vote for Obama. It wasn’t a fear because they didn’t feel like the numbers were going to affect (Prop 8 ) either way.
The black vote, as it happens, was far from insignificant—it made up 10% of the vote in California.
In fact, according to exit polls, 70% of blacks voted for Prop 8, 51% of whites voted against, 53% of Latinos voted for, and 51% of Asians voted against. 10% of voters were black. Had the black pro-Prop-8 vote been closer to 50% – or 20% less than it was – that would have meant a 2% overall change in the vote (20% of 10% is 2%). How much did we lose by? A little over 2% (there was a 4 point spread, so that means if we gain 2%, the bad guys lose 2%).
Which brings us back to the analysis of Melissa Harris-Lacewell, associate professor of politics and African-American studies at Princeton University, which we posted here on Slog on November 9:
“They didn’t do enough work in the communities of color. On the other hand, communities of color demonstrated an awfully bigoted vote.”
The more we learn about the “No on Prop 8” campaign the clearer the picture gets: The people running “No on 8” were almost criminally negligent—utterly clueless, thoroughly useless, and a full purge is in order. We need to hold them responsible for what they did and did not do; at the very least none of these people should never work in positions of authority in queer politics ever again—they’re barely fit to work phone banks.
We’ll never know if the outcome would have been different if campaign had bothered to do real outreach to the African American community—to both gay and straight African Americans—but this vote was ours to lose going in, according to polls, and we lost it in part because, as Harris-Lacewell called it just days after the vote, the “No on 8” campaign “didn’t do enough work in the communities of color.” But as Harris-Lacewell also said, communities of color—and other communities—demonstrated an awfully bigoted vote. Yes, the “No on 8” campaign blew goats. But voters who stripped same-sex couples of their right to wed were motivated by bigotry, plain and simple, and there has to be some responsibility there too. African American voters were ignored by the leadership of the “No on 8” campaign; gays and lesbians of all colors were failed by a criminally inept “No on 8” campaign. But it has to be said that it’s gays and lesbians who were victimized in California—by the voters, not by the “No on 8” campaign.
When a minority group is targeted for discrimination, when their rights are under assault at the ballot box, the ineptness of the political campaign waged to defend that minority does not excuse the actions of voters who back discrimination. White people ultimately have a responsibility not to be racist; men have a responsibility not to be sexist; Gentiles have a responsibility not to be anti-Semitic.
And straight people—of whatever race, or whatever religion—have a responsibility not to be homophobic.
@50
EXACTLY
How dare you criticize black people of color for ANYTHING!!! Have you forgotten about SLAVERY? How dare you!
Dan isn’t ever going to apologize for his race mongoring, because he is just like most gay white men…Only thing is he isn’t a closet racist queen. He has a forum and platform for it.
Go DAN! You are just what the KKK needs to energize the party!
Dan Savage, is the biggest hypocrite there is. Were do you get off telling folks about reverse discrimination when white gay men like you benefit from white male privilege. I use to be a fan of yours. But not anymore. Not after your earlier comments. Stick with talking about blowjobs and fetishes and stay off the soapbox.
Even if blacks rape and murder, they were driven to do it by white racists like Dan Savage! Whites are not allowed to criticize black people of color for ANYTHING they do! Racist!
I don’t know. I see a lot of people trying to blame the black community for Prop 8 passing, and I see the black community making a lot of excuses for some ugly behavior. I think both positions are total bullshit, and unlike ordinary matter bullshit can exist in two places at once.
Here’s what I want to know: if outreach can change minds, IS IT WORTH IT? In other words, if the AA vote was too small to pass Prop 8, will it be too small to overturn it? Would outreach have made a difference?
The relevance of the AA vote is critical to establish, because even gay racists are much more likely to perform outreach if they think it’s in their own interests to do so. My guess is that “winning” is a better motivator than “enlightening,” but we’ll see.
African Amwericans need to be freed of their reliance on religion which has kept them in a poor position despite the progress made.
To everyone that has posted here so far…
Only when we stop putting people in boxes like “white/black/gay/straight” will we be able to have an honest dialogue about human fears and insecurities.
Those fears and insecurities lie at the heart of this and almost every other issue that fragments our society and creates divisions between us. Those fears and insecurities keep us from treating each other with respect.
As long as we keep thinking in terms of “us” and “them”, we will always find someone else to blame, so can feel better about ourselves and our own shortcomings. When we finally stop the “blame game”, then we might be able to see a change in the status quo.
What’s it gonna be?
Exuse me but I don’t feel I need the permission of the black community to have civil rights. Maybe someone needs to give them a copy of the constitution and a polysci class. Constitutional right should not be up for popular vote. That why ther’re called “rights”.
Thank you so much! You’ve said what I’ve been trying to say as Bi-Sexual, Bi-Racial Person who lives in Northern California for (literally) months! Thank you thank you thank you!
ditto!
all of “-isms” are related and they are all wrong!!!
see more on gay racism and black gaybashers
at
OUTLOOK
http://aliciabanks.blogspot.com/
peace
ab
@22 Unfortunately being right doesn’t count for much in these struggles and Savage is the wrong person to lead us, even if he’s willing and even if he’s right. But in the absence of anyone else willing and able, we’re stuck with him. And that is unfortunate.
Savage keeps beating this dead black horse because he’s mortified. He started off with a racist tantrum and can’t quite figure out how to work his way back from it without losing face as it turns out that black’s did not vote in significantly greater numbers for prop 8 than other groups and as more meaningful assessments of the yes on 8 vote in the Black community becomes available.
Journalism (or blogging) is the first draft of history and Dan turned in a really shitty piece of homework.
The no on 8 campaign reflected the smug self satisfaction of the people running it. It wasn’t just black glbt leadership that was ignored, they ignored the fucking Democratic Party hierarchy in the state of California.
Yes indeedy, I thought Feinstein got into the race at the last minute because she was doing her usual which way is the wind blowing number. But apparently she, liberal congresswoman Barbara Lee (black) Boxer and a bunch of others were chomping at the bit to get involved and cut commercials, but no one asked for their help until the campaign was circling the drain!
@45 “I’m beginning to think that the real issue for gay white males is that you are ticked off your white privilege has been taken away because you are gay, not that you really care about equality or civil rights for all exploited groups like women, minorities and the disabled. I bet you hate immigrants also.”
A might over the top, but yes, generally speaking that is the suspicion among many (not all) black people including gay black people. Which is not to excuse — drum roll, parting clouds– “BLACK HOMOPHOBIA”
In Response to Amy –
“…Johnson is a bit off on her statements about the ad campaign. First off, it’s “Let California Ring,” not Let Freedom Ring. And the print ads they put together were not about mixed race couples. They were about Asian couples, Latino couples, African American couples, and their families–and pastors, and community leaders–rallying around the unions….”
The journalist who quoted her got it wrong. I personally noted several mispellings throught the entire interview. In addition, United Lesbians of African Heritage (ULOAH) was approached and requested to provide photos and stories of loving BLACK same-sex couples. Once produced, the request changed to only desiring (and ONLY using) mixed-race (white/black) couples. It’s unforunate, but throughtout the ENTIRE campaign, white LGBT images were used 95% of time — this reality coming from a community that claims to be diverse and sensitive to POC.
I find it concerning that the only 2 organizations in Los Angeles that provide services for Black gays and lesbians have had somewhat of the same experiences with the No of Prop 8 Campaign.
Even more concerning is that neither one of these organizations where used to address the boarder black communities in the fashion that they knew would work! And heres one for you: There were NO black LGBT organization used to go directly into the black communities in Los Angeles to educate black people on Prop 8. Not one was used by the campaign.
Do the math and tell me why the campaign failed in the black community