this prop 8 stuff is making me sick. people should be building coalitions and solidarity, not protesting. simply, the yes on prop 8 camp out-organized the no on prop 8 camp.
and the resulting uproar has done more to divide communities than the vote itself - a well laid trap that another pundit saw coming more than 6 months ago.
to say blaming people of color for this is disheartening would be the understatement of all time.
and no one really listens to their church...we all know that.
this map is all you need to see to know what happened.
Great points r.e. organizing on Prop 8, Karlos. I also read an analysis that places some blame with older voters as well.
Will be interesting to see the activity around the country tomorrow on this nonetheless... we were thinking of checking out Dallas' offering.
a haiku i wrote the day after...
on Prop 8...
a strange type of change
race wedge used to perfection
in "post race" race
peep the real deal from my co-worker...
I've been reading some of the blogs about the blame being laid at the feet of African Americans, which is ridiculous.
Interestingly though, among Mormon circles (such as the one I'm part of) there's plenty of talk about how Mormon's are being attacked because of their activism on the issue (in this case, people did listen to their church). I've actually read a lot more analysis that lays it at the feet of that church.
your co-workers blog is great. i hope folks will check it out. here it is again: http://thetransplant.wordpress.c...reams-may-come/
blaming mormons is coming from the no side - and it's weak and divisive, too. they seem to think the mormons are the easiest to attack. (religious institutions are hypocritical...tell me something i don't know.)
but here's what happened...as I saw it.
early on, the polling was as would be expected in the "left" coast. no on 8 was winning close to margin of error...
first fight was the prop language, which the no side won. "Eliminating the right of same-sex marriage from the California Constitution," or something to that effect. this was instead of some version of "defining marriage" language that the Yes side wanted.
(The poll numbers were the exact opposite depending on how you asked the question. If the question was do you want eliminate rights no was up like 52 - 48, and if you asked is marriage between a man and a woman yes would go up like 52 - 48...)
the first ad bomb came from the yes side. if you didn't see it, you gotta search for it. but basically it had Newsom on the steps of SF city hall yelling at the top of his lungs that same sex marriage was here to stay "Whether THEY LIKE IT OR NOT!!!!"
this set the tone for the battle.
while the no on 8 side was reeling from that punch, the yes side got to organizing and focused the majority of their strategic efforts on mobilizing the faith community, no doubt.
then another ad...prop 8 will mandate the teaching of same sex marriage in school blah, blah, blah. this wasn't just an ad, this was a meme that was running through the churches and organizing networks of the yes side.
so while the no side starts to realize that the polls are turning they start to run ads that respond to the charges and do absolutely zero organizing.
yes side keeps on the offense. robo calls, direct mail with obama's picture w/ "i don't support gay marrage" quote, door knocking in communities of color, telling pastors they'd be forced to perform gay marriages, etc., etc.
(watching this happen, i'm like wow this is strategic and organized as hell, right.)
so think about it. no on 8 has basically no outreach or action following winning the initial ballot prop language and yes side baits the no side into straight up culture wars in the streets, cause the yes side's already done their organizing and have an army.
i'm talking sending young people of color into the streets...strategically placed in the overlapping demos of religion, race and orientation. this led to daily coverage of these shouting matches in the streets leading up to a rally at the state capitol where the yes side really placed the wedge by repeating and repeating and repeating that they're counting on a high obama turnout to pass prop 8.
what can the no side do from there? they don't have any real ground game besides the spontaneous stopping on the side of the road to tell the young people with yes signs how wrong and dumb they were. they only rally in the Castro and west Hollywood. their ad strategy consists of responding to the yes ads and the occasional hey people don't you know this is a civil rights issue cause we put MLK in our ad...ad. (am i starting to sound real bitter like i'm desperately clinging to my copy of the universal declaration of human rights)
they finally get obama to say no on 8, but by then it's too late. the cards were already played, the traps already set and the game already over. like when you realize someone's like 8 moves ahead of you in a game of chess.
Karloe. That map, and the numbers, is a huge point. This was not the entirety of the state voting against gay rights.
But, it reminds me of how activists in CO. fought the image of their entire for YEARS following the narrow referendum win to not recognize MLK's birthday. It won by, what, two points? The bounce, however, was tragic. Talk about wide brush.
Regarding the AA vote and blame, this is very choppy water. I swear as the truth I was scoping out the situation in FL., where 70% of AA voted in favor of the ban. 70%!!
The blogs do not necessarily have this wrong Marjorie. This has been a huge issue bubbling under the nose of progressives for years without challenge.
It amazes me to no end that peeps who figure themselves down with the cause have literally zero idea how culturally conservative the older AA is. I've seen many a social moment come to a screeching...and I mean screeching in voice level and tone...halt when someone gay/for gay rights tells someone AA over 50 that, 'gay discrimination is just like black civil rights discrimination.' Oh dear.
I'm talking throw down, leaving the gay rights advocate bewildered and angry.
Karlos has it right in my view on the need for coalition building as the answer. i'm having a big pause at the all too predictable scorched earth frenzy that has followed the CA. vote, including the planned boycotts of local ABQ businesses. It's too easy. Too obvious. But in the end, too much collateral damage to a big swath of the working population. People are frustrated and angry, but thoughtfulness is being swamped by habit and history.
Here's an article from the Miami new Times (their alt weekly) that goes straight at this idea that the lack of gay rights coalition building with the AA community contributed mightily to the amendment in FL. passing.
The inability of white progressives to look AA's dead in the eye sand flat out say, 'you're wrong and here's why,' is a big part of the problem. This has been left to fester in AA circles for much too long.
This is a very good read becauswe you could literally layer it over anyplace in the country with a strong AA, religious component:
http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/...o-oppress-gays/
This is going to be a long haul, but it has to start somewhere. See ya'll at Civic Plaza.
Merv (the.transplant) is very cool.
And by the way, the article points out just in fact who IS listening to their church on this...
i feel you guys on the who listens to their church thing...i'm just saying it's more complicated than that as gene points out. we seem to selectively listen in church is my point.
Verdad.
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