Reply #9: a little conflation going on? [View All]

[iverglas]

Two separate things:

(a) blaming black voters for the fact that Proposition 8 passed
- I assume that even if all black voters had voted against it, or if they had voted in proportions similar to the population as a whole or other groups, it would still have passed. So that's out.

(b) blaming the 70% of black voters who voted for Proposition 8 for their vote
- I don't see much wrong with that. I'd be blaming everybody who voted for the thing. But surely it can't just pass unmentioned that a rather large majority of this particular group voted for it, and that the group in question is one that has been actively and vocally fighting discrimination against themselves for some time.

Myself, I don't give a crap about anybody who acts and speaks only in his/her own interest. Up here, for instance: if you're a Chinese Christian and think the government should apologize for the head tax on Chinese immigrants, and then you worked against the formal legalization of gay marriage (as a large segment of the Chinese Christian community actively did): fuck you. I'll still support the giving of the apology, but fuck you. If you personally suffer discrimination, you won't be hearing much from me.

Obviously one can't separate the individual from the group. The individual is entitled to protection as a member of the group regardless of how despicable s/he is. I just don't have to get real weepy about the despicable ones. Of course I would never support or even stand by in the face of such discrimination. I just wouldn't get weepy.

Why can't the same be expected from them? Why should I judge someone by standards lower than I apply to myself? I wouldn't stand by if some despicable right-wing homophobic misogynist Chinese Christian were denied a job or a service on the basis of his/her ethnicity. Why should I not expect him/her to stand up when a woman or a gay or lesbian person experiences similar discrimination?

Why should women and the GLBT community, for instance, not be able to expect the same solidarity from African-Americans? Why should they stay quiet when they not only receive no solidarity, but are the targets of active efforts to oppress?


Gotta quote that old poster on the kitchen wall of a US draft resister I knew in Toronto many years ago, one more time:

Class consciousness is knowing which side of the fence you're on.
Class analysis is knowing who's there with you.

If nobody says it, nobody's ever going to get it.

Mind you, it's a two-way street, eh?