DIALOGUE: Will Blacks Cause "Civil War" if Gays Have Equality Under the Law?
“All hell is going to break lose. We may have a civil war. The black community is just adamant against this.” — former DC Mayor Marion Barry, the sole member of the DC City Council to vote against DC recognition of all marriages performed out of state, including marriages of gay couples.
The other 12 members of the DC City Council (6 Black and 6 White) and DC’s African-American Mayor Adrian Fenty supported the legislation, as did Marion Barry before he revoked his initial support in a surprise move. Barry was accompanied by Bishop Harry Jackson, a pro-Bush, anti-Obama Black minister of a Maryland congregation who often serves as a front man for white evangelical organizations.
Are Bishop Harry Jackson and former Mayor Barry right that blacks are more homophobic than whites?
That it’s the African-American community that stands uniquely in the way of gay civil rights and marriage equality?
I find these implications to be insulting, wrong, and borderline racist.
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Jeff May 18, 2009 12:22 am
I really hate this topic, mainly because the main people I’ve ever seen on TV or in protests or at work or on the campaign trail, railing against gays have been conservative white people, yet blacks have this stereotype as being monolithically against homosexual rights.
I don’t think whites have a greater propensity to be homophobic because I don’t think homophobia is a genetic trait. I think it’s a political decision. I thank you for pointing out in your Pope episode that this stereotype is going on.
This happens because every time someone wants to get “the black feel” on a topic, they lazily to “the hood” and get a few anecdotal quotes instead of calling Gallup and commissioning a widespread poll. The problem is, most blacks don’t live in the hood. Most blacks are middle class and don’t hang out in storefront churches.
And if you go to a black church and get a few anecdotal quotes, it will line up with what you’d hear in most any church. Again, political. So why does the media lose its mind and keep polling black churches and interviewing black pastors and then find itself surprised that blacks seem to be more conservative.
This is the same as polling Muslims in discos and then saying Muslims are very liberal and believe in showing skin.
Caroline May 13, 2009 3:55 pm
Oh, for fuck’s sake. Who paid Marion Barry off? Trust him to turn traitor at the last minute and dissent on a subject he probably doesn’t even care about. If he disagreed with recognizing gay marriage in the District, why wasn’t he squawking about it long before the vote? Does he really think black District residents will riot if gay marriage is recognized? Seriously? ‘Cause they didn’t in L.A. or Sacramento when it was legal for all of five minutes to wed the same sex. They also didn’t riot in Boston or Hartford.
Hope the crack was worth the bribe, because he’s obviously still smoking it.