I must say that I am getting a kick out of reading and watching those on the right, particularly the religious right, predict how African-Americans will desert President Obama come election day due to his support of marriage equality.
It's hilarious to me to read the right-wing publications and blogs give room to a supposed angry black pastor/pastors who whines about how Obama has betrayed the black community, of course omitting the fact that said pastor/pastors never really supported Obama in the first place and that these individuals live off of the attention given to them by the religious right.
I get a kick out of the pundits who are predicting the same in their all-white panels (yes I said it) or panels with just one African-American pundit who can't seem to get a word in edgewise. Of course why should the black pundit get a word in edgewise? His words don't matter. Only the fact that he is seen on television as a token so that the news program can claim that they weren't being racist or omitting black folks.
And don't even get me started on the absence of lgbtq of color pundits.
I find it funny because when push comes to shove, these so-called concerned individuals don't give a flip about the black community. They look at us as monolithic Borg type creatures who are motivated by solely by pastors with big titles and even bigger mouths.
God forbid that they actually sit down with a group of us to have a real discussion on the matter. Some are only interested in driving a narrative. And when how we act doesn't suit their narrative, they show their true colors, such as Media Research Center director of media analysis Tim Graham. This is what he said on twitter recently:
So according to Jackson, black people who vote for Obama is akin to having a sexual relationship to one who is not your spouse.
All Jackson's and Graham's comments come down to are the real reasons why African-Americans will probably still support Obama in massive numbers. We are not a monolithic community and our actions are not dictated by whomever is the pastor of what church we attend.
We are people who will vote for the person who we feel will do right by our community and country, just like any other voter. And as such, we should be treated like any other voter. Not like people who are dominated by father figures, and not like folks who are willing to cut off our noses to spite our faces in pursuit of a single issue.
Perhaps if we were treated like such by folks like Graham and Jackson, more of us would be inclined to vote their way.
But we all know that's not going to happen. Because they, like so many other conservatives and pundits in general, seem to think that they know us better than we know ourselves.
It's hilarious to me to read the right-wing publications and blogs give room to a supposed angry black pastor/pastors who whines about how Obama has betrayed the black community, of course omitting the fact that said pastor/pastors never really supported Obama in the first place and that these individuals live off of the attention given to them by the religious right.
I get a kick out of the pundits who are predicting the same in their all-white panels (yes I said it) or panels with just one African-American pundit who can't seem to get a word in edgewise. Of course why should the black pundit get a word in edgewise? His words don't matter. Only the fact that he is seen on television as a token so that the news program can claim that they weren't being racist or omitting black folks.
And don't even get me started on the absence of lgbtq of color pundits.
I find it funny because when push comes to shove, these so-called concerned individuals don't give a flip about the black community. They look at us as monolithic Borg type creatures who are motivated by solely by pastors with big titles and even bigger mouths.
God forbid that they actually sit down with a group of us to have a real discussion on the matter. Some are only interested in driving a narrative. And when how we act doesn't suit their narrative, they show their true colors, such as Media Research Center director of media analysis Tim Graham. This is what he said on twitter recently:
So apparently if African-Americans vote for Obama, we are not Christians anymore because Graham sits on the right hand of God. Who would have thought?
And it gets even funnier when one takes into account the words of Harry Jackson, a black pastor who has done really nothing for the black community (consistently sucking at the teat of the religious right doesn't count as something which moves the black community forward,):
"The black community is in an adulterous relationship with President Obama," Jackson said. "He is asking us to stray from the most basic tenets of Scripture – that marriage is an institution made by God for man and woman to become one and procreate. He's telling us it's fine to hold onto our beliefs but that it's also okay to accept his stance on a position that goes against that core belief."
"This is no different than a married person having a relationship with someone other than their spouse," said Jackson.
So according to Jackson, black people who vote for Obama is akin to having a sexual relationship to one who is not your spouse.
All Jackson's and Graham's comments come down to are the real reasons why African-Americans will probably still support Obama in massive numbers. We are not a monolithic community and our actions are not dictated by whomever is the pastor of what church we attend.
We are people who will vote for the person who we feel will do right by our community and country, just like any other voter. And as such, we should be treated like any other voter. Not like people who are dominated by father figures, and not like folks who are willing to cut off our noses to spite our faces in pursuit of a single issue.
Perhaps if we were treated like such by folks like Graham and Jackson, more of us would be inclined to vote their way.
But we all know that's not going to happen. Because they, like so many other conservatives and pundits in general, seem to think that they know us better than we know ourselves.
3 comments:
I wish I could say that no one will buy this.
I'm straight. I'm white. I voted for Obama.
But I will always remember the black ladies who stood in line with me outside the polling place on Election Day in 2008. We were all excited to be voting for Obama, and we struck up a friendly conversation.
At some point one lady asked, "How are you voting on Proposition 8?" (Mormon-funded proposition to overthrow California's Gay Marriage law).
I said I was voting against it, of course. The nice ladies all started wringing their hands, one even began to cry. Some of them said they *wished* they could vote against it. The Crying One said she had someone in her family who was gay.
But they were all, all eight of them, voting FOR it because Pastor *told* them to, using logic similar to that in this article.
So - I agree that these crooked ignorant RW pastors DO hold a rather creepy sway over this population. It's really too bad.
Periodically some troll will come to my Being Liberal Facebook page, point out that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican, and conclude that, therefore, African Americans should all vote Republican. I point out in response that Lyndon Johnson signed two major civil rights laws after shepherding them through Congress, causing white southerners to abandon the Democratic Party in droves for the Republican Party, and that the whole argument rests implicitly on the fantastically patronizing claim that those wacky black people just don't know what's good for them, and really should do what the good, white, conservatives tell them to do. Um, no.
Anonymous: I can see why a pastor might sway his flock when it comes to something like Proposition 8. That truly is a single-issue vote. But an entire candidate? I'm not so sure.
When you vote for a candidate -- be it for President, Congressman, or county comptroller -- you're not voting for a single issue. That candidate, if elected -- will get a say in all kinds of policies and issues.
What gets me is that the Religious Right really thinks that all African Americans are going to ignore Obama's concern (and the Republican lack of concern) about issues like unemployment, health care, and poverty -- things that I understand to be quite near and dear to many African Americans in a way that I do not fully appreciate as a white man who lives comfortably in the (quite likely upper) middle class -- in order to Stand Against Gay Marriage(tm) boggles my mind.
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