Prop 8 and the Black Vote

Ta-Nehisi Coates posts on a report about Proposition 8 and the black vote (hat tip: Andrew Sullivan).  He’s rightly angry about a report (linked in the quoted post below) that came out on the actual voting numbers on Proposition 8.  I certainly quoted CNN’s exit poll numbers on Prop 8 to friends.  I remember being surprised that the number was so high. 

Coates is quite angry in his post (which I’ll post in its entirety) but he’s right about something.  No one owes gays anything, except a fair shake, a chance.  If we want to have marriage rights — and there’s no question that we do — we have to go fight for it and forge alliances with groups of people who will help us win those rights.  Marriage rights for same-sex couples do not exist in most states.  Even though it’s a fundamental human right, gays are not yet afforded this right.  So we have to fight for it like it’s not owed us.  It’s like Edison (I think it was him) said, “Success looks a lot like hard work.”  We have to work for this.  It will mean much less if it’s handed to us.

Coates’ post:

*****

I’m sorry, but this really pisses me off. The problem with getting good numbers is that they invariably take time to come in. In the meantime, people are happy to run off and trumpet their half-cocked theories–unchallenged–to anyone who’s listening. I’ve tried to be measured and sensitive on this. But frankly, the scapegoating of black people for the failure passage of Prop 8 has been a travesty. Anyone who doubts that needs to read this report. A few of the conclusions are as follows.

1.) The 70 percent figure for black support of Prop 8 is wildly overblown, and in conflict with all the other polling done. The study concludes that 58 percent is a more likely number. To put that in context, the study also concludes that 59 percent of Latinos supported prop 8. That isn’t one-up-manship–it just means we were about the same.

2.) Black people almost certainly did not account for 10 percent of the voters on Prop 8, they accounted for seven percent

3.) 58 percent is still higher than the 52 percent for the state, as a whole, but that difference is almost entirely accounted for by the fact that no ethnic group in California is as religiously devout as (as measured by church attendance) African-Americans.

4.) Among those who attended church weekly, African-Americans were support for Prop 8 was lower than amongst any other ethnic group.

The faultiness of exit polling is well known. But when it comes to blacks, we believe the worse and ask questions, uhm, like never.

Look, my fight is clear. Homophobia is bad for my community. I support gay marriage because I believe it is a moral imperative, and the marker of a just society. I support it because, as a black man, I have seen first-hand the value of all kinds of family. In other words, it’s in my interest. It’s in my son’s interest. It’s a part of a world that I hope to live in. But frankly, I have no use for people–gay, straight, white, red, rich, poor–who feel like black people “owe them.” I have no use for people who like to trot out their history of supporting “black causes.” I have no use for people who want to compare gay racism with black homophobia. With friends like those…

There are people in my business who took to the highest hills to decry the betrayal of black Californians, and to this day, are giddily noting that blacks sunk marriage equality in California, who foist the failure of marriage equality on seven percent of the electorate. I will not speculate on their motives. But let’s see how loudly they address this study. Let’s see how much ink we see spilled revisiting those assumptions. Or will it be on to the next calamity, where the blacks–or the Arabs, or the Latinos–can be trotted out and blamed for the failings of others. For the failings of us all.