Colbert, Dan Savage, Olberman, and me on Prop 8

I think it’s a good thing that media types are talking about it now, I just wish they’d talked about it before the election instead of being too busy talking about Obama and McCain; and not allowed the bastards who passed it to go unchallenged spreading lies about schoolchildren being indoctrinated and other nonsense.  This ties directly into the article i posted right before the election about how the puppet show of “representative” democracy distracts people from the real issues that they can actually do something about.

The first vid is a great segment on the Colbert Report on the passage of Prop 8 and all the media spin about it – and especially the media spin re: the 70% of black folks who overwhelmingly voted for Obama and had no problem voting for “Seperate but Equal” for gay folks (proof positive that being subjected to bigotry and oppression doesn’t prevent people from inflicting it on others).   I think Dan Savage sums it up well in the vid when he says that the people who are hardest hit by that statistic are LGBT people of color.  That’s a good point and a huge point that needs to be made.

I know black folks aren’t a homogeneous group and any statement made about Black people as a whole is going to be inaccurate – just as any statement about white people would be.   But I would like to see athiests, agnostics, secularists, and religious people  who are pro-gay rights stand up more to the negative influences of the black church on issues like this.  yes, religion can have positive effects in poor and impoverished communities because of the way it encourages social cohesion – just look at how closely Irish folks have clung to the catholic church over the centuries, despite how little the church has ever done for us in return!  But the fact is that doing good with one hand doesn’t excuse doing evil with the other, and the influence of christianity in 2008 is overwhelmingly negative.    Like Sickle-cell anemia that provided black americans’ african ancestors resistance to maleria, the black church has provided some tangible benefits to an oppressed community.  But that doesn’t change the fact that religious bigotry is a disease, and the sooner we get over that disease the better.

I’d also appreciate it if folks on the left stopped giving people – and especially performers who market themselves as leaders in social movements – a free pass on being anti-gay just because they’ve got dark skin.  Why does eminem get shit for calling someone a fag but mos def and immortal technique don’t?  If anything, mos and tech should be held to a HIGHER standard because they represent themselves as revolutionaries while Em is just another corporate pop star.

And, of course, I know I’m a white guy writing on this issue.  I’ll probably get criticized for sticking my neck out at all.  but bigotry is bigotry and it’s always wrong and I’ll always speak out against it, no matter who the perpetrator is.  I think i’ve spent enough years working on these issues that ya’ll should know where I stand when it comes to the ongoing systematic racism perpetrated against communities of color.

I should also point out that black folks weren’t the only ones who voted for Prop 8, there’s plenty of work to do in white communities too.  Last week I told my mother that I think she’s a bigot for supporting this bill and that she and my father have deeply dissapointed me by going along with all the propaganda from their church.  She didn’t appreciate that but I had to say it and she needed to hear it whether she wanted to or not.  So I’m not asking anyone to do something I’m not doing myself.  Talk to your family members, neighbors, (hell even your pastors/preists/ministers if you’re religious)  who’ve let their religions blind them to what’s wrong.  Stand up to them.  Don’t let them claim that they have the right to their beliefs and that critizing those beliefs is off-limits!  The right to belief ends at the point where that belief compels them to infringe on other peoples rights.

This is one of a very few issues where there is absolutely no gray area, no moral ambiguity.  Denying a minority due process before the law because of the dictates of someone elses religion is just plain wrong.  It’s the kind of thing that typifies Islamist societies like Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan (both under the taliban and under the new american-backed puppet regime).  It has no place in California.  None.

I’m gonna leave ya’ll with another video, this one by Keith Olbermann who gets in touch with his inner hippy and makes an impassioned plea for people to embrace Love.  And ya know, dude is right.  Sometimes it really is just that simple.

Posted: November 12th, 2008 under gods & religion, race & racism.
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