On the day when his O ness had his first press conference (Damn it O man I heard you were 30 minutes late. White folks won't tell you, so I will: You better cut that "CP" shit out right now. You are POTUS damn it, set an example. At least I know you are black now), and the republicans continue to wonder just what the hell hit them on election day. I am going to try and help out my republican friends a little bit. I hope folks like Kevin Ross, Mhandisa, a2dak, and some of my other right leaning friends are reading this, because I want them to pass it on to some of the folks in the "R" tent.
Right now the rethugs are in some serious trouble. They are now clearly the minority party in this country and things aren't looking like they are going to get better anytime soon. They control just 14 out of the 50 state legislatures, just 21 governors, and they lost even more seats in this past general election. As Domenic Montanaro, writing for msnbc.com said: "The are perceived by many voters as being either incompetent, corrupt, or just not standing for much." Now that's a mouthful, but it's true. George Bush, backward thinking leaders, and the religious right (which, again, is neither) have pretty much assured the republicans that they will be playing second fiddle in A-merry-can politics for awhile to come. And, in a way, that's a shame, not because I agree with much of what they ever have to say, but because I believe that we need a strong two party system in this country. I love a rigorous debate.
It seems like not too long ago the democrats were in this very same position, and republicans and their conservative movement dominated everything politics in this country. Every A-merry-can wanted to be identified as a conservative, and every A-merry-can was running from the "L" word. (How dare you call me a liberal? Those are fighting words, take that back) But what a difference a bad president and poor campaign to become president can make. Now they are the butt of all of our late night jokes, and no one (except the folks at FOX) wants to be associated with these losers. Even the people who worked together to win the presidency are fighting among themselves . Can it get any worse than this?
I hate to tell you this my republican friends, but it can. In fact, it can get much worse. Your base is getting older, whiter, and more dogmatic when it comes to their religion. Meanwhile, the rest of the country is getting younger, more mixed, and more tolerant when it comes to religion.
So here is my suggestion to you: (You can thank me later)
Find a message that is more inclusive and stick to it. "Compassionate Conservative" was a good one, you just had the wrong guy talking about it.
Cut some of those religious fanatics loose. They scare people. No one, not even people who consider themselves religious, wants to hear a bunch of bible thumpers telling them how to live their lives and demanding that their politicians pass some kind of a god test. Trust me on this one, all those Southern white folks in those five thousand congregation mega churches ain't voting for a democrats no matter what you do to them, so just leave them alone.
Start getting more involved with African American professional organizations and groups. And start trying to recruit young African Americans to your fold. Go to HBCU's, go to churches, go to community organizations, and get engaged. Have open frank discussion, sponsor open microphone forums and debates, and put some of your people in there and tell your side of the story, and what it is that you think makes your party better. Go on in the hood, contrary to what you might have heard, black folks don't bite. And don't worry about getting shot or killed, we only do that to each other.
Stop being demagogues with issues like welfare, crime, and taxes. That is old now; most A-merry-cans can see right through that. You can only go to that well but so much. They know that you are trying to say that only black folks get welfare, only black folks commit crimes, and that all of your tax dollars are going to take care of black folks. But they know it's bullshit, because they know that most of the taxes are going to fund the war in Iraq, quite a few white families are having to depend on the government, and crime can happen anywhere. Even on college campuses, and in lily white high schools.
Lose some of your media people who have become the face of your party. Fred Barnes? Charles Krauthammer? Robert Novak? Come on now.
We need to see more of Bobby Jindal, and any other republican of color that you can find to prop up on the National stage. You have got to find your own version of Obama and fast. Maybe you can get Jessie Jackson, Jr. to switch parties.
And while we are on the subject of black folks representing your party; please send a memo to FAKE NEWS right now, and beg them to stop featuring Negroes like Jesse Lee Peterson as your token black republican. The shit is embarrassing to you, and to us black folks. Not one thinking black person in A-merry-ca will take a serious look at your party if they see Jesse on television as being indicative of the type of black folks that you attract . And another thing, tell the black folks that you do put out there to stop bashing their own people. That shit was played out with Cos. Tell them to offer what they think are real solutions to black A-merry-ca's problems. Tell them to talk about things like school choice, minority business empowerment zones, tougher gun laws, tax breaks for businesses who set up sho*[p] and hire from underprivileged neighborhoods. And tell them to talk about private and religious based volunteer programs, as well as community outreach organizations that your party would be glad to get involved with.
I mean there is more, but I a have given you enough free advice for one night. Besides, if you guys aren't smart enough to figure this thing out, you don't deserve our vote or our support.
Now, please keep in mind that this does not apply to the highest office in the land. I am talking about local governments, as well as congressional and statewide races here. The presidency you can pretty much forget until at least 2016. Because these Negroes ain't voting for nobody else but their man, Obama. And unless you can get a new and improved model of his O ness real quick, it's pretty much a wrap.
*Thanks Robert M
The RNC has already started criticizing Obama's initial appointments. You could add this to your suggestions, Sit down, shut the f**k up, and listen and learn for once. We've seen the damage your C- student Bush caused. Now see how an A+ student puts together a government.
ReplyDeletegwpriester:
ReplyDeleteAmen, amen, and amen! Say that again! I don't know who told them that they could advise a new President when they have nearly driven this country down the drain. That's a lot of nerve, but I don't think President Elect Obama is paying them any attention, he is no dummy.
Pls check this post It should have been tax breaks for business who set up shop not shot. Damn that was Freudian cause the keys ain't even next to each other and this ain't Mexico.
ReplyDeleteI don't think the GOP know any other way but fear to sell their product. Fear gets that old adrenaline pumping and causes people to think less clearly, which makes it easier to believe the Republican BS.
ReplyDeletei agree with all of the above comments...an gw you are right on! already the GOP is criticizing, and yes they are used to scaring the daylights out of us to get us to comply with them...but it ain't working anymore. enough is enough. they need to just STFU and sit down cuz it IS a wrap for them.
ReplyDeletefield great advice too! but uh...one question.
what is a demagogue? *goes to google's dictionary* :x
It doesn't matter, GWPREISTER, that the RNC is already complaining. John McCain isn't the president-elect. And SisterSarah isn't the VP-elect. Barack Obama is the the president-elect, so it doesn't matter what these people say (or don't say). The "O" man is running the show. We don't care what those folks are saying, because Barack is going to have the last word. He might allow someone to have the first and/or middle word, but the last one belongs exclusively to him. PLUS, nothing they can say will equal to the almighty screw-up that the Current Occupant -- as Garrison Leillor calls him -- has made in the job. Let them talk. What else can they do? What harm does it do? Barack Obama's got it going on, and I'm more than certain that he's capable of holding his own. So let them run their big phat mouths. Sticks & stone can break my bones... Remember during the campaign when he said that McCain & Co. could say whatever they wanted to -- but the American people couldn't talke four more years of their nonsense? Let 'em talk. What else do they have, or, better yet, what can they do about what he does or not do. He's the man for (at least) the next four years. That's good enough for my black arse. We'll all deal with the remaining four when that time comes.
ReplyDeletecorrection on my above post: "Garrison Keillor" (syndicated columnist)
ReplyDeleteI want to slap the whining repubs, at least Barrack won fairly, no one is accusing the Dems of lying and stealing this election like the last 2 presidential elections.
ReplyDeleteLew, unfortunately fear works too well. Look at all the money and support the National Rifle Ass received when they scared all the old men into thinking that the "liberals" wanted to take their pappy's hunting rifles.
I'm looking foward to a very interesting 4 years.
That's telling them, Field. You almost made me want to change parties.
ReplyDeleteI'll second that emotion: stop the black bashing if you're conservative and black.
It doesn't give us a black eye as much as it gives you one.
You hinted at an initiative that I'm planning.
I won't give it away just yet, but will, in the coming days, put the finishing pieces together.
If we blacks can come together to elect a black man to the highest office in the land, there's no end to our potential to do good in our black communities, and further our collective progress.
We have all seen what can be done if we put our minds to it.
Just think, we not only elected a black president, but we also get the bonus of watching you sprint au naturel down Broadstreet.
"We're a bad motha....I'm talking about the black community!
Good read, Field.
ReplyDeleteHope the GOP pays some attention.
Field, that must have been your longest post ever. I think the right will be in good shape in the near future. I sort of hope I'm wrong though. It would be very nice to an effective President that happens to be half black.
ReplyDeleteszpork
black diaspora, let me know more about that initiative when it is up and running.
ReplyDelete"Lew, unfortunately fear works too well. Look at all the money and support the National Rifle Ass received when they scared all the old men into thinking that the "liberals" wanted to take their pappy's hunting rifles."
Speaking of which, I hear gun sales have gone way way up down South. Is this true?
szpork,that fact that this was such a long post shows you how much I care about my republican friends.:)
".....because they know that most of the taxes are going to fund the war in Iraq, quite a few white families are having to depend on the government, and crime can happen anywhere" FIELD, you forgot to mention the $840 Billion in aide to Wall Street and AIG. Corporate welfare maybe?
ReplyDeleteYour comments, and those posting comments, are on point advising those of color to stop bashing their race. I am attorney in Alabama doing some criminal defense and I will not leave, if I can do so legitimately, a person of color on a jury if I represent a black man/woman. I have, after trial, had black jurors admit they didn't want to argue with the white jurors defending one of their own race. Unacceptable in my mind.
Just an old worn out lawyers 2 cents.
FN very much appreciate your positive focus on unity building with practical ideas & solutions (& not wasting energy on the whining loser's)
ReplyDeleteThanks to Mr. Morton, the beauty queen and the Minutefolks I think the GOP has lost the Black and Latino vote for at least one generation. End of story.
ReplyDeleteThe GOP is a regional party for white voters. They have no one else left to cater to.
"Speaking of which, I hear gun sales have gone way way up down South. Is this true?"
ReplyDeleteI don't have an answer to that, here in southern Delaware County we're all armed and dangerous. I wouldn't be surprised if gun sales have gone up, the game plan on winning the 2012 elections might hinge upon an open season on us liberals.
Yeah, Field.
ReplyDeleteAnd tell those repubs (re-pewbs) to stop treating us like the smelly kid down the block!
anon. 11:07PM, keep fighting the good fight.
ReplyDeleteanon. 11:19PM, we are all about solutions here, now if the GOP would only listen.
"The GOP is a regional party for white voters. They have no one else left to cater to."
r.j., sadly for the "party of Lincoln", that might just be true.
Sorry to change the subject but people seem to be freaking since Oman called himself a "mutt". Does anyone think it was derogatory? I don't. I'm getting worried with people trying to nit pick on every little thing Oman says..
ReplyDeleteThere is so much media interest around this "white house dog". I hope for this poor dog's sake, it comes with a clean background.
BTW Field, I personally don't have a problem with what people choose to do in their private zones, but I get annoyed when gay rights activist who try to ride the coat tales of racism and compare black people being denied of human rights to their argument. That's all.
Sorry I posted the above on the wrong thread. oh man, where is the delete can?
ReplyDeleteField, you going to keep your promise? You know, that one....
ReplyDeleteYou promised!!!
I live in the white end of the Atlanta metro, because nobody in this house wanted to spend half their life in traffic getting home, and I'm here to tell you, these cats don't look good.
ReplyDeleteWednesday was rugged, as if the people I saw were waiting for me to break into the Tracey Morgan routine - "bitch may be the new black, but black is the new president, bitch".
Tonight strange white guys came up to us at the bar of a restaurant we frequent around the corner and smiled. The flat screens above the bar, which always have the news on when there are no games on, were all Obama the whole time we were there.
Cats sitting at the bar were trying their damnedest not to look up.
Then guy next to me, a grey haired corporate exec in a Hawaiian shirt, surprised me as he went from showing me his IPod to waxing rhapsodic about Obama through half of my dinner, which seemed to put a damper on the people around us.
My boy, who lives around the corner, told me the same thing has been happening to him. He said it seemed to him as if these people had never really paid attention to you before, and now they were faced with their worst nightmare - serious, well dressed Obama looking mofo's were everywhere.
McCain might have given a nice speech, but a lot of his supporters down here in the GA are still in shock that "that one" is now their commander-in-chief.
Post racial is bullshit - I might have to do a series on that on my blog.
Keep it coming, man. I figure your run through Philly will be one of the most watched youtube videos EVER!
Field keep your election promise or will you be a natural politician and renege on us.
ReplyDeleteI am so looking forward to seeing you au naturel.
when is the date? :-)
I personally don't have a problem with what people choose to do in their private zones, but I get annoyed when gay rights activist who try to ride the coat tales of racism and compare black people being denied of human rights to their argument.
ReplyDeleteI think that is an important point to highlight. Blacks on average are more socially conservative on certain personal issues because of the strong Christian ethos that propelled the Civil Rights Movement and also because religion has played such a prominent role in our culture. It always amazes me that a lot of people are shocked by many Blacks who have a social conservative streak, yet there is a wide variance in the community on abortion rights and gun ownership, which varies from region to region—because shock of all shocks--Blacks are far more complex then the usual zombie like voting block that blacks are supposed to be in which we are supposed to vote in lock step for gay and other minority rights, when often times, said groups push their own agendas before even helping Blacks with theirs and often using blacks when we do gain any kind of victory. Thus, it is any wonder that gay issues will be subverted in the Black community as is evidenced with the down low phenomena and homophobia—since obtaining basic rights in which we could vote and worry about our livelihood took precedence over what is perceived by many as a choice in lifestyle.
On another note, we have always been self sufficient and the problem with Gay Rights is that is has always been run by powerful and politically connected Whites and many gay whites, can blend in for the most part among other whites—which further diffuses the supposed connection of shared oppression. I support an organization that focuses on minority gay issues because their complaints and ideas were being willfully ignored by the majority White gay organizations. Often times black lesbians have to deal with being gay, being black, and being female--as well as socioeconomic issues. The general platform of the GLBT community usually focuses on white stream needs and neglects those with a triple or quadruple deficit. They had to splinter off and form their own agenda. So whatever they hoped to achieve was lost because they didn’t care to understand the complexity and special challenges within the black community and didn't do the work to translate it.
The GOP is searching for its soul, there is no question about that. It probably will take some years if they are not able to reinvent themselves in the next few election cycles. Palin could come back and be the new face of the party, but it will be difficult for her to come back with such as lost, and it's rare that a running mate can win the White House as you can ask Gore, McCain, and Edwards that question.
ReplyDeleteThe GOP will need to return as the party of the future. Which means, facing the reality that the tradition may have worked 50 years are no longer conducive to the 21st century. They are going to have to talk about issues and leave the culture war behind. If anyone saw McCain concession speech, it look like geriatric day and they were waiting for the early bird special at Denny's. Field as a point, the Republican party is too white, too old, and might I add too anti-intellectual. After all, you had three candidates from that side who believe that the earth 6,000 years old. Can you imagine having a person in the White House who thought that Africa is a country? Oh wait, Bush believed that people from Mexico speak mexican. Let's just say, we do not need another ignorant person in the White House.
So what you're saying, basically, is that they should try to be the Party that Abraham Lincoln belonged to. We had a fine repug Senator in Jersey, Clifford Case, who supported every piece of civil rights legislation whether it had a chance to pass or not from the year he was elected to House of reps in 1945 to when he was defeated in the 1978 senate primary by one of the early wingnuts, who was then crushed by Bill Bradley, & we haven't had a Repug senator since.
ReplyDeleteDid significant numbers of black Jerseyans vote for Case? You bet. Even against more "liberal" Democrats.
Palin is a woman. They won't let her lead the party. Now, there will be a snow day in the Sahara before they would let that happen!
ReplyDeleteThey lose to a black guy and then they have to give the mantlepiece to a woman? my gosh they would just shoot themselves. thats enough now. Don't make the Republicans hurt themselves.
no offense to women but its the republicans we are talking about here.....
I agree with you 100%. I grew up on the east coast and the Republicans I know seem to be in a different party from the Rethugs circa 2008. My friends voted for Obama. They feel completely alienated from the right wing that have taken over the party.
ReplyDeleteThe GOP is stuck in the past and better wake up. The demographics are changing and you have fools like Dick Army (sp) talking about "socialism". They need to buy a freaking clue.
Even Bill O'Reilly said voters are no mood to hear about ideology...they wants answers to our major problems.
The general platform of the GLBT community usually focuses on white stream needs and neglects those with a triple or quadruple deficit. They had to splinter off and form their own agenda. So whatever they hoped to achieve was lost because they didn’t care to understand the complexity and special challenges within the black community and didn't do the work to translate it.
ReplyDeleteThe biggest victims of black homophobia are gay black people. If you want to call gay people "white," go ahead and do it. You be the latest in a long tradition. The Soviets called their gays "decadent capitalists." The right-wingers in the 1950s and 1960s calls our gays "communists." Now you want to call your gays "white."
Frankly, it's all about exclusion. Like I say, go ahead and do it. There'll always be black gays and white gays and Asian gays and Latin gays and Russian gays and on down the line, and there will always be people in their own culture who want to attach them to whatever group they hate the most.
So, when you call your gays "white," the ONLY thing you are telling me is who you hate the most. Seriously. There is no other information conveyed. I've seen it all before.
did the o-man call himself a mutt.. is he ingratiating himself or just being ironic...
ReplyDeletedisappointed already...
the playground is harsh and his daughters have to deal with it...
nice post field by the way... just going away to digest it but just had to get that out...
And don't worry about getting shot or killed, we only do that to each other.
ReplyDeleteMan, FN!!
Did you have to take it all the way THERE???
*lol*
And let me point something else out. If anger is the scab on top of hurt, then hatred is the scab on top of fear. Scabs supposedly help heal the wound, but they also protect against further injury, or so we think.
ReplyDeleteNo one wants to admit to hurt or fear, because to do that is to be weak, and if there is one thing that unites America it's that we despise weakness. So, we all walk around pretending to be stronger than we are, bumping scabs.
It's too bad that we're in this state. It's understandable in each given case, but the accumulation just leaves a bunch of scars.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIn response to a couple of the comments about Obama referring to himself as a mutt? To be quite honest, I thought it was ridiculous for him to say that. It was absolutely derogatory and insensitive the millions of racially-mixed individuals that live in our country. There's no way around that one.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, he should reframe from using language that can later be used on him by folks that hate him.
I still can't believe that someone as smart as Obama would use the term "mutt" at a press conference. I hope he doesn't think that now that he's won, he can relax and start "being himself." He has got to realize that he has to be official, even when discussing the potential dog, and even himself.
Peace,
A
Angie-Nuvision said..."To be quite honest, I thought it was ridiculous for him to say that."
ReplyDeleteI'm not ready to rake him over the coals for this one just yet, but the mutt comment and the Nancy Reagan comment come from way left field.
It's almost like he wanted to break the silence of the last two years, all that self-imposed muzzling that didn't really allow him to be himself.
He has relaxed a bit it seems, and the remarks might have been appropriate in the conference room with those with whom he had just convened, but for his first presser as President-elect, it came across a bit too relaxed.
He's the soon-to-be president of the U.S. For now he's got live up to that image.
Man, the Rush Limbaugh's and the Hannity's are going to use his every word and act as a noose with which to hang him.
And you sure don't want to be the one that brings the rope to your own hanging.
Perhaps we're being too hard on Obama. I don't want to be excessively critical myself, and wish to give him some room to discover his own public persona and to be himself.
If Italy's prime minister can turn a compliment of Obama into a foot in the mouth opportunity by saying he's "tanned," I willing to cut Obama a little slack for this unfortunate faux pas.
That's all good advice Field, but the Republicans are currently completely incapable of not pandering to racists' fear and hatred of Black people.
ReplyDeleteIt will continue to be Palin, Limbaugh, Hannity, NY Post for the downscale bigots while the more upscale haters have Charles Murray, Steve Sailer, the WSJ, National Review, etc to take their cues from.
And while this election was a thumping for the Republicans, many of them are arguing that McCain didn't electrify the base enough and too many conservatives stayed home.
I don't know if this is a valid argument or not. I would tend to doubt it. But in any event I think the Republicans would have to lose more than one presidential election before they considered changing much.
The Republicans really don't want Black votes since for many of their constituents it's a badge of honor that they are in the party which DOESN'T have many Blacks.
Hey Field
ReplyDeleteI have to disagree with you on the conservative, religious base of the Republican party. While the religious right will never vote for Democrats, the Republicans still need their vote, otherwise, they would just stay home on election day.
Also, the Republicans need to bring themselves into the 21st century on many levels, including getting on board with the Internet revolution. Obama's success came mostly from his effective online campaign used to organize and fundraise. McCain saying that he does even know how to read email doesn't help the Republicans, especially if they want to recruit more young people.
Finally, there are reports this morning that Mitt Romney's people are the ones actually spreading the Sarah Palin "African is a country" rumors over the last two days because they want to bump her off before 2012.
The Republican party is a sinking ship if they can only offer Palin and Romney as their leaders.
Field, man I hate to admit it, but if the Rethugs take up even a few of your suggestions, they might be running things again. But then again, if both parties start thinking and governing based on the solutions you've listed, it'll make our country even better.
ReplyDeleteBrown Man....TELL ME ABOUT IT..LOL
ReplyDeleteOK, all of my friends are experiencing the same thing in the workplace.....its like the election never happened to our Caucasian co-workers!! LOL Seriously, they are in smooth denial that there even WAS a campaign or debates or an election on Tuesday night! They were eerily silent on Wed. I guarantee they read our emails that day! And got an ear-FULL in the process! But won't dare say a word! LOL Its the strangest, most hilarious thing. It was already bad enough when two or three of us would go to lunch together (ya know, when we talk amongst ourselves we're really planning the revolution)...but NOW? WHEW! They REALLY eye-balling us.
Its morning in America!! LOL
The Albuquerque Journal ran a headline RUN ON GUNS! Hows that for responsible journalism? The Journal also endorsed McCain. This prompted the following letter to the editor:
ReplyDeleteToday's Journal headline, RUN ON GUNS! And just when we thought we were finished with alarmist fear mongering campaign messages. Shame on you Journal. At a time like this, fearful voters whose heads have been filled with misinformation, and who need factual, calm, reassuring news, are given the implicit message, better go out and get a gun fast, before they are all gone! Yellow journalism is alive and well at the Journal.
Mutt? I thought all Americans were.
ReplyDeleteA better term than "half black." Mutt infers genetic mush, "half black" infers some genetic hierarchy.
What is the purpose of using the term "half black", black was constructed as having one drop of African blood.
Having a white parent means nothing. It doesn't make you inherently better, your values or personality different and racist don't treat you special. I remember the half whites who had to sit at the back of the bus.
My man Barack's first press conference was great. He touched on the driving issue of the 2008 campaign: the economy and he looked and sounded every bit as presidential as one could hope.
ReplyDeleteHe also poked fun at himself vis a vis the dog choice for his daughters (take that you Obama-bashers who say he's too serious) and called himself a "mutt."
Personally, I loved the comment about seances and Witchcraft Nancy but I see the old bitch is still viewed as the Blessed Mother of the GOP, forcing Barack to issue an apology today.
After eight long years of the Motherfucker from Midland in White House, I still have to pinch myself each time I see and hear Barack. He's so poised and he's articulate and informed. At last, I have a president I can respect and look to with pride.
Barack Obama is the anti-Bush!
Good advice, Field. I, too, like a good debate. But is there anyone in the GOP left to hear your advice? The GOP hasn't had an original idea since Newt Gingrich declared the Contract On America. Since then, it's been all about Party Before Country and establishing a permanent revolving door between Capitol Hill and K Street lobbyists for corporate interests. The GOP's real constituency is the Corporatocracy, but corporations don't have an actual vote, so they have to manufacture cultural issues in order to hang onto that crucial "whites over 65" voting bloc. The GOP needs to adapt (dare I say "evolve"?) or die.
ReplyDeleteThe Repubs stopped being conservatives.They were hijacked by the Neo Con wing of they party.Invading countries is not conservative, Spending us into bankruptcy is NOT conservative,violating the Constitution and invading privacy by eavesdropping is not conservative.... and the beat goes on. i wonder if the Repubs wished they had nominated the only real conservative who strangely enough spoke about a sound monetary policy... hmmmm what we have now is more voodoo economics. Good luck President Obama i have often said the next President could be the next Hoover,
ReplyDeleteThis is a great Blog Field Negro
Ex philly Man Jay!!
"Damn it O man I heard you were 30 minutes late. White folks won't tell you, so I will: You better cut that "CP" shit out right now. You are POTUS damn it, set an example. At least I know you are black now."
ReplyDeleteThat CPT thing occurred to me too, but when you're meeting with a dozen or more of the best economic minds in the country maybe you can't cut anybody off. Anyway you're the Man now; the press don't have any appointments that can't wait.
Now you want to call your gays "white."
ReplyDeleteFrankly, it's all about exclusion. Like I say, go ahead and do it. There'll always be black gays and white gays and Asian gays and Latin gays and Russian gays and on down the line, and there will always be people in their own culture who want to attach them to whatever group they hate the most.
So, when you call your gays "white," the ONLY thing you are telling me is who you hate the most. Seriously. There is no other information conveyed. I've seen it all before.
Give me a break. That is not what I am talking about at all. I work with Black gay and women who are ignored within their own community and by the larger GLBT groups that are run by mostly white gay men and women. If the GLBT had bothered to educate the Black and latino communities and worked with other minority gay people who understand and can trasnlate it to their community, it would have not been such a resounding defeat. They made an assumption and it costs them. Again why are Blacks the only ones tasked to understand and accept every groups grievances and support them without qestion, whereas others do not care or understand the problems within the Black community and how those different layers effects what some Blacks perceive and value.
Many of the men are deep in the closet and are dieing due to AIDS, etc. I have to deal with domestic abuse victims who are lesbian, but becuase they are from poorer backgrounds, their needs are being ignored on many levels. Many Black churches condemned their "lifestyle" and are far less affluent then many Gay whites in this area. They have no real supports from the hetero or homosexual community, which is why some of have splintered off and formed their own organizations to attempt to address their population needs. That's a fact where I live.
In addition, some of the Gay black and women I have counseled often identify as Black first, followed by their orientation because often times that is the first thing people see.Thus, I don't see what the problem is for them to identify and acknowledge all the areas that make them who they are. If they are Black and Gay and wish to acknowledge that fact, then that is their right to do so. And many do. Wiith pride.
The general platform of the GLBT community usually focuses on white stream needs and neglects those with a triple or quadruple deficit. They had to splinter off and form their own agenda. So whatever they hoped to achieve was lost because they didn’t care to understand the complexity and special challenges within the black community and didn't do the work to translate it.
ReplyDeleteDark Moon,
Thank you for your comment here, and the rest of it. You are so right. As a white member of the LGBT community, I agree that we as a minority group need to reach out to the black community and understand your issues - and back you up on them. And we have been far too insular and white. It's bigger, and a lot more complex, than that.
Grinder,
I did not at all read what you did into Dark Moon's comment. DM was saying that our lack of connection and support for the black community, and our ignorance of their issues, leaves those who are our compatriots out in the cold. Why should they trust us, when we don't support them or back them up? It's up to us, first, to embrace them into our community and support. I agree, and I'm up for it.
It will be interesting to see how black conservative republicans will re-invent themselves. Will they become independent voices within the party and realize that black and brown votes are important. Blacks voted for democrats not because they believe it was the better party, the republican party didn't give them a better offer. Black conservatives did not protest any outrage about Katrina or make the argument that New Orleans needed a stronger levee structure to prevent or reduce damage in the event another storm should at that area again. Instead, black conservatives a perverted sense of logic blamed the people of New Orleans, but not the government's effectiveness in handling a disaster. Unfortunately, the republican party does not have a message of government responding to needs of the people in times of crisis. The idea of small government is no longer conducive to a ever-changing world and society. Demographics will force the GOP to re-tool itself, or we could see the emergence more than one political party come into competitive play on a national level which people may no longer be loyal one particular party. Is it possible to see nonpartisanship where is no one powerful party back into government for the first time since George Washington? Nonpartisanship was an idea of the founding fathers, but we have not achieve such a goal in this modern society.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteAmen, amen, and amen! Say that again! I don't know who told them that they could advise a new President when they have nearly driven this country down the drain. That's a lot of nerve, but I don't think President Elect Obama is paying them any attention, he is no dummy.
And the thing is, they seem unaware that this country can have one president at a time, not two. (As O pointed out.
There is not much Barack "he better act quick" Obama can actually do until he is inaugurated in January.
Sharon from WI
Speaking of which, I hear gun sales have gone way way up down South. Is this true?
ReplyDeleteOh yes. These folks are scared sh!tless because they believe O is going to take away their guns.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/us/07guns.html?scp=1&sq=gun%20sales&st=cse
I'm just visiting and couldn't help but chime in on the comments by Dark Moon...
ReplyDeleteHe/she is right on the button when addressing the black community's perception regarding the GLBT community and their ignorance of those issues that affect their brothers and sisters in the worldwide struggle for all people affected by race, class or gender discrimination.
Being black, gay...and from SF, I can tell you as progressive as we our here, there is still alot of "segregation by choice" in the gay community.
White gays are naturally predisposed to those peculiar manifestations of racism as they have been participants and benefactors in societal aspects of white supremacy and privilege.
Many have acted and expressed racism in subtle but profound ways toward their minority brethren. There have been some incidents in the Bay Area where white gays have blatantly discriminated against black gays...in business, clubs, and community agendas and issues; in context, the gay "minority" is treated no differently than that of any minority person or group that have suffer acts of racism and/or discrimination in larger society.
I have no illusions about this issue...I realize through my own experiences as a black gay man; being gay has not changed the perception of my white brethren and many still see things through that narrow focus of race.
Angie-Nuvision said...
ReplyDelete"It was absolutely derogatory and insensitive the millions of racially-mixed individuals that live in our country. There's no way around that one."
I understand, but you know what... I've been hearing certain people preach how biracials should be able to identify themselves as they choose blah blah... well if one rightfully chooses "mutt" even if jokingly, you got what you asked for, so those people need to get over it.
Dark Moon, good observations.
Amin brother field fear and doubt are tools of the Devil (CH) and I'm glad the majority of amerikans are tired of these ploys. I'm so happy that the minority is now old, racist, and intolerable, amin!
ReplyDeleteWhile I do not question the realities of racist reactions of some of my queer family.... I do question why any justice loving person would support state sanctioned discrimination against anyone. period.
ReplyDeleteFN, you are kind with your astute analysis of their issues but I doubt they will listen.
ReplyDeleteI hope this collection of professional whiners and hysterics actually read it.
Otherwise, they will promote Sarah Palin to the world as their only hope.
Gay white people have a very ugly king of hatred toward blacks,As a disc jockey i spun a lot of gay events & let me tell you they are as corny as white woman when it comes to being racist. homos want thier cake & eat it too,niggers see thru that shit, being a fudge packer is a choice,beautiful black skin is a gift.
ReplyDeleteI'm gone let y'all in on a little secret and make a true confession. Granny cannot stand Jesse Lee Peterson. I've never wanted to do this to nobody ever in my life, but if I saw him today, I would reach down deep as I could in my salivary and oral mucous glands and spit smack dab in his face.
ReplyDeleteWhew! I feel much better now, confession sho is good for the soul. Like the good book say, "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed."
Now, that I got that out the way. Jesse Lee Peterson always putting down black folks, and then turn around throw dinner parties for white supremacist, and takes pictures with them while showing all 32 teeth as if he done died and went to heaven. I have no respect for him.
@trudat said "Gay white people have a very ugly king of hatred toward blacks"
ReplyDeleteBy Lisa Keen - Keen News Service
Nov 6, 2008 - 10:31:39 PM
Gay vote goes heavily toward Obama, whose victory is called ‘the dawn of a new political era of hope for the LGBT community’
President-elect Barack Obama waves to supporters at his Election Night party at Grant Park in Chicago on Tuesday.
More than any other presidential candidate before, Barack Obama included gays as part of his core speeches to voters, despite decades of conventional wisdom that has held that the mere acknowledgement of gays could imperil a campaign.
Obama acknowledged gays when he announced his run for the presidency. He did so before national television audiences and before church audiences that were considered by some to be reluctant to associate with gays.
He did so in accepting the Democratic nomination in Colorado, and he did so in his final campaign stops in Jacksonville, Fla., Columbus, Ohio, and Raleigh, N.C.
And he still won.
With a message that included gay people both when he needed the votes and when he had cinched victory, Obama won the White House Tuesday night, Nov. 4.
The triumph not only marked a historic moment in American history — with his election as the first African-American as president — but a dramatic improvement in the political climate in Washington, D.C., for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, a point Obama drove home when he again included LGBT people in his Election Night victory speech.
In the third line of his speech before more than 100,000 people gathered in Grant Park in his adopted hometown of Chicago, Obama said his election is testament to the power of democracy “spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white,
Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled.”
With 349 electoral votes to Republican John McCain’s 173, Obama did not require the support of gays to secure his win. However, he appears to have gotten it.
According to national exit polling conducted in 1,300 precincts around the country, including every state, 4 percent of voters identified as lesbian, gay or bisexual in Tuesday’s election. Of those, 70 percent voted for Obama, 27 percent for McCain, and 3 percent for others.
Those numbers are similar to a Harris poll Web survey conducted Oct. 20-27 with 231 self-identified LGBT “likely voters.” The survey predicted that 81 percent of LGBT voters favored Obama while 16 percent favored McCain. A similar poll in August had shown 68 percent favored Obama, 10 percent McCain.
Data available thus far on voting in heavily gay precincts also suggests the gay vote for Obama was at an unprecedented high. In the last several presidential elections, the percentage of LGBT voters nationwide supporting the Democrat has hovered around 70 to 75 percent. But Tuesday’s voting was even stronger for Obama in many heavily gay areas across the country.
• In what Stonewall Democrats of Dallas has identified as the city’s eight most heavily LGBT precincts, Obama captured 67 percent of the vote to McCain’s 32 percent, with 1 percent going to Libertarian Bob Barr or write-in candidates. Countywide, Obama captured 57 percent of the vote to McCain’s 42 percent.
• In heavily gay Provincetown, Mass., 87 percent of voters supported Obama, compared to only 11 percent for McCain, and 2 percent for others or no votes. Massachusetts overall voted 62 percent for Obama, 36 percent for McCain.
• While 61 percent of Californians supported Obama over 37 percent for McCain, 85 percent of heavily gay San Francisco supported Obama versus 13 percent for McCain and 2 percent for others.
• 55 percent of voters in Pennsylvania supported Obama over 45 percent for McCain, but in heavily gay Wards 2 and 5 of Philadelphia, 83 percent of voters supported Obama.
• In heavily gay Dupont Circle Precinct 15 in Washington, D.C., Obama won 89 percent of the vote.
• Chicago’s heavily gay Ward 44 went 86 percent for Obama over 13 percent for McCain.
Gay white people have a very ugly king of hatred toward blacks
ReplyDeleteTrudat,
You really are a stupid motherfucker.
I've had bowel movements smarter than you.
as a gay black woman let me say that i think that passage of Prop 8 & others was a good thing... not because i think the Prop was the 'right' thing to do - because it wasn't. while gay marriage was never at the top of my list of things i was concerned about - even as "professional gay" i found myself as deliriously happy as the next queer in WeHo sipping mojitos at The Abbey on that hot day last Spring.
ReplyDeletebut this cultural moment is 'good' because FINALLY what SO MANY queer people of color have been saying ad nauseum to the 'leaders' of the gay rights movement and in particular, the leaders on gay marriage, not addressing racial barriers w/in the gay community prevents the furthering of equality or social progress in general. you don't show up for a March against police brutality, you don't take a stance on labor rights, or acknowledge that the immigration issue impacts the gay community too, you don't do due diligence in either the Black, Asian, or the Latino, community, you will always loose those communities when it comes to issues directly relevant to the gay community - like Prop 8, even while people are voting in their first Black President.
I was reading an article where Lillie Cage, 108 years old with an active drivers license, and her son 91 years old voted. Lillie was able to walk into the voting place to cast her ballot, but her son had to have assistance and cast his ballot in her car. Lillie Cage is a retired nurse and lives in Oakland.
ReplyDeleteThat's a blessing and it made me think about a grandmother, my aunts, uncles and a few cousins who lived to be over 100 years old, and how the last one of the centenarians on one side of my family died the earlier part of this year in February. We still have six generations on one of side of my family, but they haven't made it to 100 year mark yet, but they're real close. If I showed you their pictures, you would be amazed at how they didn't look as old as they were. We have a inherited tendency in my family not to look our age and in physical appearance we age slow.
Christopher:
ReplyDelete"Personally, I loved the comment about seances and Witchcraft Nancy"
Yup, and the thing is he didn't lie, it was the truth. Nancy loved the fortune tellers and that was no secret, I don't think he should have had to apologize for telling the truth.
Hathor:
Amen my sistah, amen!
Nancy loved the fortune tellers and that was no secret, I don't think he should have had to apologize for telling the truth.
ReplyDeleteGrannyStandingforTruth,
It gets even better.
In Don Reagan's book about his years working for St. Reagan, he described how Witchcraft Nancy hired San Francisco psychic, Joan Quigley, to the tune of $5,000 an hour and billed her services to the U.S. Treasury! That's our tax money!
I don't recall the Constitution saying anything about the voters being obligated to foot the bill for a freaky First Lady to indulge her tastes for Tarot card readers and psychics.
Frankly, I'd like a refund.
Christopher:
ReplyDeleteI'd like a refund too. Yup, I remember all the mess about Nancy and her psychics. Nancy didn't like Barbara Bush or John McCain either. She refused to invite Barbara and Bush Sr. to the dinner parties and events at the White House and didn't, even though Bush was VP. One thing, I can say about Nancy, she kept it real when it came to whether she liked a person or not. She didn't grin in their face if she didn't like them, and she didn't let them get up in hers either. Nancy had some peculiar ways, and I give her credit she was another classy woman.
I remember when she had the governor's mansion renovated, because it wasn't good enough to suit her taste and the expensive china she brought for the White House. Nancy had very expensive taste at the taxpayer's expense.
Dark moon, you make some interesting observations. Personally, I don't think that I am up on GLBT politics and the inner workings of the community enough to be able to comment on it in a truthful manner. But you seem to counsel people of color who happen to be Gay, and there is obviously some issues there. I am glad you were able to relate some of them to us, and start a dialogue with Gay folks in the majority population.
ReplyDeleteStill, I think it's wrong for a church or a state to take it on themselves to tell people who they can or cannot marry. On a lot of levels that's just pure bullshit.
Well Field, I think the Palin/Joe The Plumber ticket just might work in the future. They're both young, dynamic, and able to pull crowds. Hell, Joe is staunch non supporter of socialism even though he was once on welfare. I'm guessing that this is the prototype for the future of the republican party. You gotta admit, they'll keep the hypocrisy thing consistent.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, I laughing my ass off at the Dick Morris picture association thing on the sidebar.
ReplyDeleteAnd, thanks for given the republicans and Fox a heads up on Jesse Lee Peterson. They need to do better than that guy.
We all "mutts" there's not a "pure/pedigree" race on this earth - Hallelu Jah!
ReplyDeleteThings gonna be mighty different after the "world" meets on the 15th - AND President Obama should fully participate - no law prevents him from being inaugarated immediately.
Positive practical action I'd like to see in this administration:
Turn off the "Credit" and:
End all exploitative "Drug & Mineral Resource Wars" starting in the US, Colombia (Cuba), Afghanistan, Africa, Asia, Mid-East, etc...
Channel prison/security industry funds to education & renewable energy industry
Channel Agro-Industrial subsidies to sustainable agriculture & preventive health CARE programs
The conservative base(?) of the Republican party is now advocating a reactionary approach to fixing their party.
ReplyDeleteThey want to embrace real conservative values: to allow free market forces to have free rein, and a government that advocates small government, and a citizenry that worships self-reliance.
According to my research it was this laissez faire approach to the market that got us into this economic mess in the first place--allowing derivatives and credit default swaps to go unchecked with congress' blessing.
Now, if we adhere to strict conservative values, we should allow the economy to tank and then resurrect itself, by itself--the banking, credit system, the automobile industry and all attendant industries dependent on it, the housing market, including new housing starts, and all those industries dependent on it, the ensuing massive layoffs, long unemployment lines, and a host of other nasty economic outcomes.
If the market is allowed to correct itself without governmental interference, the subsequent depression could possibly last for thirty or forty years, if not longer.
Because the government neglected to check and rein in rampant greed with regulatory bridles, we have the economic meltdown we're currently experiencing, and no one is asking conservative pundits if this is what they want--more free market insanity that we've seen during this last decade, with the strong likelihood that the current recession could become a depression, having more serious repercussions.
If anything the next 4-8 are gonna be really interesting. Soon we'll forget that Obama is Black and just see him as President and how our problems need to be addressed.
ReplyDeleteThose Rethugs deserve to stay irrelevant for the next 16 years. Let the Green Party get it together and emerge to get one seat in Congress and we'll see some REAL change.
I listened to Kevin's post election show and I was just bored to tears I tell ya. He had on some white woman from CA that reps for McCain and she was still echoing the same TIRED talking points. She even had the nerve to say that it was unpatriotic for us to question the military that we should just support the troops - whatever that means. She was typically combative and loud and wanted to talk over everyone else. He had the former host of Radio Scope and the man was being very polite but disagreed with her and she just wanted to hurl a racial slur I could feel it on the tip on her tongue. She finally spit out something about him having a very deep voice and I wrote how she was mad at the 'scary Black man' for not accommodating her white woman privilege. That was it for me. The Republicans had their chance for relevance with Colin Powell. Imagine if he had run in 1996. I think he would've beat Bill Clinton and we could've avoided ALL of this mess. Maybe. The only Black people I know who speak for the Rethugs nationally are Black men who are self hating opportunists and excusers of Black male pathologies. And I say not to worry because we need to root them out with the white racists and Blue Dog Dems from the Democratic party as well. The white Gay Rights Industrial Complex needs a complete overhaul as well. I knew No on 8 was gonna fail in CA. They did zero outreach, didn't involve Black LGBTs and now have the nerve to try to blame Black people instead of pointing the finger at themselves or picketing the wealthy white neighborhoods that voted against them. They even turned down help from Gay Republicans (what an oxymoron) on how to canvass them.
Jody, you justice loving person, I so appreciate it when you or anyone else drags out the facts and the stats, instead of just words and stuff. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteThanks also to Granny Standing For Truth for agreeing with me. We need all of the people of good faith that are agreeable to even a part of what we are working for. "Push where it gives, summon the future." ST1
11 08 08
ReplyDeleteGoddamnit FN! You have lumped me in the same category as Black GOPers and I have said time and time again that I am an Independent. I come here because we are still all Black Americans who care about our people. Some issues we can agree upon and other issues we disagree upon. But I resent being lumped into the GOP category big time. This is because party affiliation reeks of groupthink and I don't like the tyranny of the masses.
Also when John McCain chose Sarah Palin as his running mate, I got pissed and decided NOT to vote for him. He fanned the flames of bigotry and ignorance which is unacceptable imho. Apparently you haven't been reading my blog lately, or else you would see the response I had to our current Presidential elect. Furthermore, a lot of Black GOPers talked mess about Obama. I have never done this. I can only say that we don't agree ideologically but I respect the hell outta that guy. In fact, I went to Cobb's site and got on his ass everytime he levelled empty suit claims against the O man.
In any event, I guess no matter where I go I am not understood. I am too mathy for the physicists and too physiciscy for the mathematicians. I am too liberal for the GOP and too conservative for the Dems. Ultimately this is why I am an Independent.
My advice to the right is to make like lemmings and start looking for a cliff.
ReplyDelete"I am too liberal for the GOP and too conservative for the Dems. Ultimately this is why I am an Independent."
ReplyDeleteDid you ever consider that it might be the other way around?
:)
Faith: I knew NO on 8 was gonna fail in CA. They did zero outreach, didn't involve Black LGBTs and now have the nerve to try to blame Black people instead of pointing the finger at themselves or picketing the wealthy white neighborhoods that voted against them. They even turned down help from Gay Republicans (what an oxymoron) on how to canvass them.
ReplyDelete,
They knew what was at stake. They did not organize while the churches and religious fanatics certainly did. No outreach to ALL folks in their community? Turning away help from the Log Cabin folks who have experience in canvassing and getting one's message out to voters? Ridiculous.
I was watching The View and the panel commented on the proposition. It was said that clergy men and women could be jailed if they refused to marry a gay couple and could be arrested for preaching against homosexuality. If people were being told this, the religious nuts were just using scare tactics.
There are many instances in which clergy will decline to marry a couple--and they are not faced with legal sanctions.
Catholic priests, as a matter of course, won't marry a divorced couple.
There are many rabbis who won't officiate the marriage between a Jew and a non-Jew. And no priest or rabbi has gone to jail for doing so, so it boggles the mind that voters would fall for that.
And now they are crying over Proposition 8?
Instead, they should have gathered supporters and created the momentum to state their case to voters instead of allowing the religious nuts to have only their voice heard.
Sharon from WI
Anonymous: Things gonna be mighty different after the "world" meets on the 15th - AND President Obama should fully participate - no law prevents him from being inaugarated immediately.
ReplyDeleteAs much as many of us would like Barack to start early, The 20th Amendment mandates that he will have to wait until January 20th to be sworn in as president.
http://www.ktvu.com/president-obama/17886503/detail.html
black diaspora, you make a great point. I have been listening to all of the republican post-mortems, and to a man [and woman], they have all been saying that they should go back to their original values. That clown, Any Holmes, was repeating the same talking point on CNN. Huh? This is why they are in the mess they are in now. It's their small government "laissez faire approach" to the markets which got us into this mess.
ReplyDeleteAnd mahndisa, I apologize for mischaracterizing your political stripes. You are right; maybe I do need to come over to your blog more often. Hell, if you laid a smackdown on cobb, you deserve FN status for life. :)
Irony Field, you have way better insight than the talking heads on the networks however you gotta remember, the GOP an't the party of pandering. I mean they lure me in with a bucket of fried chicken but it was a Sunday and Chk-fil-a was closed. I think us Republicans will be steady rebuilding ourselfs and testing out our gangster in 2010
ReplyDeletethis cultural moment is 'good' because FINALLY what SO MANY queer people of color have been saying ad nauseum to the 'leaders' of the gay rights movement and in particular, the leaders on gay marriage, not addressing racial barriers w/in the gay community prevents the furthering of equality or social progress in general. you don't show up for a March against police brutality, you don't take a stance on labor rights, or acknowledge that the immigration issue impacts the gay community too, you don't do due diligence in either the Black, Asian, or the Latino, community, you will always loose those communities when it comes to issues directly relevant to the gay community
ReplyDeleteI have very mixed feelings about this. Elsewhere, I've seen similar sentiments raised about the alleged lack of gay concern about the deep economic issues facing large segments of black people.
On the one hand, I can understand it, but another part of me can help but ask: Given that black Californians voted 70%-30% for Prop 8, and that support on other issues is necessary to win black voters, could you please tell me when the white Mormons, evangelical megachurches, and Orange County zillionaires last marched against police brutality or for labor or immigrant rights?
If the price of black support is involvement in those and other issues, then show me the evidence that the Yes on 8 forces walked that walk, or even talked that talk.
Why should they trust us, when we don't support them or back them up? It's up to us, first, to embrace them into our community and support. I agree, and I'm up for it.
ReplyDeleteThanks seda. When I worked with the organization, there were a lot of gay black men and women who would have loved to hear that. As you know the feminist movement has had a similar backlash of women of color leaving the movement because it only focused on basically privileged white women’s needs as well and ignored their unique challeneges. Some Black women created a womanist philosophy or a black feminist movement. Chicanas, Latinas and native american women also followed suite.
Anonymous 12:51.your experiences also mirror the complaints I have heard from some gay men to some extent that live in a very racially diverse area. The problem is compounded by the fact that gay white men can easily discriminate against these men because they are often poorer and without supports.
Dark Moon, good observations.
Thanks la icognita.
Dark moon, you make some interesting observations. Personally, I don't think that I am up on GLBT politics and the inner workings of the community enough to be able to comment on it in a truthful manner. But you seem to counsel people of color who happen to be Gay, and there is obviously some issues there. I am glad you were able to relate some of them to us, and start a dialogue with Gay folks in the majority population.
Still, I think it's wrong for a church or a state to take it on themselves to tell people who they can or cannot marry. On a lot of levels that's just pure bullshit.
The problem field is that many minority gay men and women are considered Untouchables, invisible people, in both the hetero and homosexual community. There is no meaningful dialogue and thus they end up being subjected to abuse from both sides of the aisle. I can recount stories of gay black men who had to deal with the same kind of outright prejudices and racist assumptions from gay white males who are supposed to be oppressed for being gay, as a straight Black male in the hetero world.
Of course, I agree that gays should be allowed to have the same privileges of heterosexuals, but I will repeat again, what makes people think that Blacks are going to automatically vote on a divisive cultural meme, when many Blacks have been bound culturally to a conservative religious doctrine. Homophobia has been rampant and ugly in the Black community since slavery. You know the utter contempt that Jamaican men feel about gay men. Black American gay men and women did not have a Castro or a renaissance of Gay culture even though some of our best artists like Langston Hughes and James Baldwin were gay. Our energy has been on fighting for our human rights and sexual politics predictably took a back seat. Like most racial biases, there is a fundamental lack of education and dialogue from the GLBT community and thus their assumption that Blacks will automatically, as if on cue be magnanimous and vote along each groups party line was presumptuous. It would have cost them nothing to have done an outreach effort with savvy Black gay activists to help facilitate a dialogue. It would have galvanized those men and women who may be in the closet or on the down low about their orientation and may have influenced the 18-35 segment to vote differently.
Again, I don’t disagree that the decision was wrong, but homosexuality is one of the last cultural taboos and many Americans outside liberal enclaves like Provincetown and San Francisco, are either ambivalent or downright resistant to accepting homosexuality as normal. Thus, what makes people think that Black Americans are not going to be equally ambivalent and resistant to gay marriage just because we happen to be saddled with the worst negative stereotypes of any group? As you are aware coalition building of other groups helped to get things done. Some jewish leaders realized that helping Blacks during the Civil Rights Movement would benefit them in the long run--championing for rights, therefore I don't see how this philosophy could not have been utilized in a produtive manner instead of just assuming this block of monolithic Blacks would be the silent dumb lynch pin.
mutt was a cool thing to say
ReplyDelete--at least this spotted American thinks so!
two words: hybrid vigor. ;-)
Field, you're wrong on this one. The US citizens are still conservative on the issues, but are sick of a Republican party that screwed up with wars of foreign adventure, growth of the Federal government, and spending like sober Democrats. Republicans were the party in power when the chickens of the economic ponzi scheme (Federal Reserve System, Fractional reserve banking, and traitorous free trade policies) came home to roost.
ReplyDeleteThey had the choice between an angry old crank that represented the worst of both parties and a slick and articulate speaker that "connected" with more voters. It wasn't much of a decision for most folks that were not hard-line constitutionalists or anti-black. Neither candidate impressed me enough on their policies or character to earn my vote.
The US has experienced almost 70 years of overt small "s" socialism and nearly 100 years of covert Frankfurt School Marxist institutional takeover indoctrination, so the "S" word doesn't carry much weight any more.
Conservatives need to become the Party of Goldwater if they choose to remain viable. Neo-Conservatism and their Corporatism (Fascism) is the virus that got Obama in office. Let's see how if he really is a populist for main street or just another Globalist World Order huckster (Clinton/Carter) for the Left.
Whoa, lighten up. I didn't vote for Obama, being a Cynthia McKinney fan, but the guy does have a good sense of humor.
ReplyDeleteI've heard numerous people refer to themselves as "mutts" or Heinz 57s. It's not an insult at all.
It's as risingtide says, everyone knows that mutts are better than purebred dogs. Good for Obama for rescuing a dog from the shelter, rather than going for an inbred dog from a puppy mill.