Civil Rights Are Civil Rights -- Aren't They

I got some flack last November for an admittedly angry post about the polls that showed 70% of African American voters voted in favor of Prop 8. Granted, the post was somewhat intemperate, and my more measured comment later pointed out that a massive outreach and education program is necessary to counter the entrenched homophobia in the black community. This interview with Benjamin Todd Jealous of the NAACP only points it up:



Contra Aravosis, I think that Jealous is being quite honest and reasonable in his response. NAACP can't exercise leadership in the area of gay rights until its membership has reached a consensus. I question whether it should be leading in that particular fight at all -- we have oiur own rights orgainzations that need to show some leadership.

The one thing that bothers me is his comment that the civil rights struggles are not the same, and I wish the interviewer had followed up on that one. Yes, they differ in detail -- blacks haven't had to fight for the right to have their families recognized by the State, at least not since Emancipation -- but they come from the same basis: a pattern of legal discrimination that has no rational basis. I'd like to know more of what his thinking is that led to that statement.

It's quite obvious to me, at least, that there is still a lot of learning to be done in the black community, and an automatic charge of racism against white gays isn't going to convince me of much: that seems to be as much a reaction from the autonomic nervous system in some quarters as anything else, and I've not seen any solid evidence that such is the case. In my own experience, just let me note that for years my favorite hangout was a small, "neighborhood" type bar on the North Side that was very diverse -- white, black, latino, the occasional asian, transgender, female impersonators, even the occasional straight Cubs fans who wandered in after a game. I've also heard the charges against other gay bars on the North Side, but never witnessed anything that would cause me to give them credence. I really need to see some evidence: yelling "racist" as a first response just doesn't cut it. (I might add that my remarks in the post I mentioned above were characterized that way, and I am probably one of the least prejudiced people you are going to find. That's the way my parents raised me, and it stuck. Skin color is simply not a criterion by which I evaluate people.)