May 31 2011

The normal kind of crazy











Everyone else was laughing at how stupid the idea is.



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  1. 1

    I’m a Californian with very religious conservative parents whose church (guess which one) basically told them they HAD to support Prop 8. It was so disturbing to me that their church was stepping into politics and telling people how to vote… and then to have not only the religious right but also the majority of black voters back it was so very disappointing. While I am totally thrilled that we didn’t end up with a McCain/Palin white house, Prop 8 continues to be a humiliating loss for all of us who want equal rights for everyone, especially those of us from “ethnic groups” that have been marginalized in American history.

    Do you buy the argument that Obama was the rallying force that got a lot of the American black voters out that year because they wanted to vote for Obama and just voted anti-gay at the same time? There’s clearly a lot more stigma in the black community on being gay than in other cultures, but what do you think about that argument? I’ve heard it a lot in the aftermath of Prop 8 passing.

  2. 2

    I think the situation of why black voters voted against Prop 8 has a couple of important sociocultural reasons. First, the black community has been far less supportive of the gay community than the general population. Much of this is cultural standards of machismo, which you also see in the Latin population. To be sure, this trend is changing rapidly as pro-gay voices are heard more frequently in cultural institutions like sport and music, but there is definitely a lag.

    Second, the influence of the churches should not be underestimated. Because of the serious lack of both competent social programming and a general distrust of the intentions of government, black communities tend to be more self-organized and insular than white communities. This organization tends to be centred around the church, since it already fulfills the role of providing a social structure, and it has deep historical roots. It is, therefore, no simple matter to stand up and rebel against the church’s doctrine. This too is changing, but it’s not there yet.

    I don’t think much of the hypothesis that Obama was much of a deciding factor, except that his presence may have spurred people to become more politically active. I think trying to give any one factor overarching explanatory power for a large and diverse community is begging to oversimplify. The question will be, I think, how does the black community begin to move forward on civil rights for others?

  3. 3

    Ah yes, I tend to forget about the church because it seems so un-unified. But “the church” seems to have a fluid composition but a pretty standard dogma. I understand how hard it can be to go against the grain, having been raised mormon and finally escaped.

  4. 4


    Would that be a Delusion Dilution then?

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