VOICES | Civil rights for all—or just some?
Tears of joy streamed down my cheeks on election night when I heard Katie Couric call Barack Obama our next president. When I was a little girl growing up in St. Paul’s Frogtown neighborhood, I never dreamt a man of color would be the leader of the free world. I felt that our nation was voting for hope, love and change.
My tears of joy turned into sadness when I learned that Proposition 8, the ballot measure to overturn the California Supreme Court’s decision allowing same-sex marriage, overwhelmingly passed.
I felt disbelief when exit polls showed that African Americans and Latinos backed Proposition 8 in high numbers. Seven in 10 black voters supported Proposition 8 while more than half of Latino voters supported the measure.
I cannot understand why people, especially those who have been treated unfairly, such as African Americans whose ancestors were slaves in this country or Latinos who are often discriminated against, could support a measure based on hate and inequality. In fact, anyone who has ever been discriminated against because of race, ethnicity, religion, national origin, gender and first language should not have supported Proposition 8, which denies gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) community members their human right to legally marry.
There are those who think the oppression of people of color and gays are two different things. Those African Americans who voted yes on Proposition 8 have never accepted the claims of the GLBT rights movement that the gay rights struggle was equivalent to their struggle, or heir to the black civil rights movement. They argue that the history of the two movements is far too different.
For me the two struggles are the same. I would like us to remember the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., who said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” King got it, so why can’t we? Proposition 8 is about the dominant-in-power group deciding the rights of an oppressed group based upon hate. It is about allowing hate to dictate the decisions we make as a nation. I see the same blood, sweat and tears, and desire for equality in both the black civil rights and gay rights movements.
During the spring I dated a Jewish man. He saw himself as a person of color because with his olive skin, dark hair and dark eyes he did not look like your typical Minnesotan. We bonded during late-night discussions about the persecuting of our people: the Hmong in China and Laos, and Jews in Germany and Russia. Everything was great until one day he told me he hated gays. He told me this as though he was telling me what he ate for breakfast. He said something like, “I had eggs over easy and I hate gays.” When I told him that his hatred of gays seriously jeopardized our romance, he flatly told me he didn’t care because it was unnatural for a man to be with a man. I reminded him that I worked for a higher education system as a diversity director. He countered and said he thought that was my day job and after work I had a different attitude about gays. I also reminded him that I had gay friends. When he called me a homo-lover, I hung up the phone. I couldn’t believe somebody who understood the history of Hmong persecution and wanted to rid the world of all Jewish stereotypes could have such venom for GLBT community members.
Just last week I met a colleague who worked at a local college as the disability director. He was passionate about the disability cause and was willing to accommodate students with disabilities to foster their success, but he believes that students whose first language is not English don’t deserve the same chance for success as students with disability. He believes a person whose first language is not English had a choice to learn English and learn it well, without an accent, while a person with disability had no choice but to live with her or his disability.
As a person whose first language is not English, I was greatly insulted. First of all, there is nothing wrong with having an accent. Second, I would never want to lose my first language. I take great pride in speaking Hmong.
I want us to remember what it felt like to be picked on or laughed at, what it felt like to be an outsider at a family gathering, church, school or work. None of us has felt comfortable all the time. I hope we can all remember that feeling of being hurt and try to love our community members-all of them.
Ka Vang was born in Laos and raised in St. Paul. She is a poet, playwright and community activist.
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Comments
Couldn't have said it better myself
Bravo, Ka
I am proud to know you and can only echo your thoughts on this issue.
I would only add that the prejudice and injustice we see in all communities including within communities of color is a reflection of how insidious and damaging racism, sexism, and anti-working class thought permeates our society. People of color are so obviously human that we should not be surprised that, as human beings in this capitalist society, we can make very human mistakes. The fiasco of Proposition 8 only underscores the need for vigilance in your/my/our struggle for equality and justice. It shows that just because we have a person of color in the “White” House does not mean we can assume that our “trials are over”. I, for one, am glad to know some of us are seeing this hard truth.
It should be noted, however, that a recent poll in California showed that many people who voted for Prop 8 had a change of heart owing to the recent demonstrations and outcry by Gays and other allies of democratic rights. It showed that many may have voted against it had there been a more pronounced opposition and education around the issue. It bodes well that education like your article here can and does have a positive effect.
Somos Uno Porque America es Uno
Venceremos,
Manuel Barrera, PhD
Absolutely on the money
I do have one wrinkle to add to your commentary, and that plays well into your surprise in finding that progressives in one area are not progressive across the board. I am speaking as another hated minority: atheists.
I hate and oppose all forms of discrimination, including against the GLBT community, and I can’t help but suspect that part of my attitude is founded on the fact that I have no artificial antique notions about humanity’s place in the universe and arbitrary rules that govern us. However I can not often express my views in public without having even the most liberal progressive people in the room come down on me as a bad person with a bad life view. I belief that in the time to come, freedom to marry will be extended to the GLBT community, but only if we continue to debate and confront those like your ex-boyfriend.
Also remember atheists and agnostics, especially in this holiday season where we get to have other people’s beliefs shoved down our throats.
*GROAN* quit blaming the black folks!
Dear Ka, Dr. B:
Um, mmm, mmm.
What a load?!
This is why I couldn’t bask in the Obama victory after-glow.
I was angered when I saw that prop 8 passed.
But it’s the calling out of one (or two) races as the cause, I find being most offensive!
My visceral reply – my gut says this OP-ED is just sloppy, under-informed, race-baited finger pointing. And I’m sorry to read that it’s how you chose to share it.
How many blacks…raw data, how many African Americans voted yes? OK. How many Latino/as voted yes? ALRIGHT.
When you put the voting population, raw numbers together of these 2 ethnic minorities often discriminated against, they don’t make up the FINAL STRAW nor the MAJORITY.
check it out:
Do you know how many disenfranchised voters there are in CA? C’mon! You’re an activist. So am I. So would it surprise you to know that over 13% of AA males in CA were ineligible to vote that historic night? more can be found here – http://www.sentencingproject.org/StatsByState.aspx
Did you know that traditionally and on that historic night, communities of color have turned out to lesser degrees than their white counterparts? Another example, eligible Minnesotans vote
90% or greater, almost always. Yet, communities of color in MPLS show70% turn out. In CA, it was 60%, besting their normal turn out rate of 53%.I’m so glad that I heard that person on Air America a few days after the 4th. He was an activist (in race, peace and gay issues) and former elected official from the GLBT community in CA speaking out against this type of generalization. He schooled listeners on these facts. And others. Por ejemplo, it was the age/generational divide that No on 8 folks flatlined on. These message brokers didn’t connect with those above the age of 55. Oops! Equally unfortunate is that they were not as well funded early on, like EMILY’s list folks know.
After reading your piece, I googled ‘prop 8 results, black’ to see what I could find to oppose your POV. And I thank goodness, I found this: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/raymond-leon-roker/stop-blaming-california...
AND, I hope you follow his ‘updated’ response to POVs like yours…it’s at the bottom of this link’s blog, on the DailyKOS. But I’ll paste, again with BP on the rise, what he more factually portrays – that it AIN’T our fault:
“In California, virtually all of this state’s Black folks live in just 9 of the state’s 58 counties:
Alameda County (13.7% Black)
Sacramento County (10.5% Black)
Los Angeles County (9.6% Black)
Contra Costa County (9.5% Black)
San Joaquin County (8.0% Black)
San Francisco County (7.2% Black – although this number has plummeted and will plummet more after redevelopment of the last “Black neighborhood”, Hunters’ Point)
Riverside County (6.6% Black)
Kern County (6.3% Black)
and
San Diego County (5.5% Black).
The vast majority of the counties in this state have a percentage of Black residents of between 1 and 2% (and several have far have less than 1%).”
I got tangled in a facebook exchange defending my race while trying to illustrate that there’s more ‘ethnic groups’, more folks outside of MY ethnic group that also voted YES on 8. That our combined outrage should be voiced in unity, not shaming. That’s offensive to me. And when we’re calling out others on the misfortune and surely bigoted proposition in a bigoted way – that’s jus’ IG’NANT!
30Standing up for our rights – we’re all in the same boat; I’ll fight for your rights because they are the same as mine.
Excellent response from a Sister in Struggle
I appreciate your response, but please be sure not to read race-baiting into this commentary. I believe Ka tried to show how “uneven” people (all people) may be when it comes to areas of threat and many people (of all kinds) had to have opposed Prop 8 even as the vast majority of those probably voted for the President-Elect. I tried to point out that just because people are oppressed does not mean that “we” are immune from prejudice.
Far from ignorant such points coincide with yours. More to the point, you are right, it would be a mistake to believe that people of color are more at fault for the failure to oppose Prop 8 just because they were likely voting for the President-Elect.It took a majority to support Prop 8 and, as you correctly noted, the “majority” in California is primarily a lighter “shade of pale”, However, it should also hold true that just because people are progressive in one area would not mean that we are not blinded by our very human prejudices—this is after all a capitalist world founded on racism, sexism, and anti-working class bias.
I agree that we need to fight injustice in any form. I prefer Che Guevara’s saying that amplifies on brother King’s “if you fight against any injustice, then you are a comrade of mine”(sic, it’s paraphrase). I look forward someday to meeting you and perhaps reconciling what I believe are our very similar perspectives.
sinceramente,
Manuel Barrera,PhD
Somos Uno Porque America es Uno
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