By Carolyn Zellander
Recently, I had an interesting conversation with an acquaintance; she asked me if I would join a group called “Black Women for Obama“. I said “Why black women, why not ‘Women for Obama?’ What is the distinction?”
She said “Obama lost black women with that gay marriage endorsement, and they will not be voting for him in this election.”
About this time, I am really becoming intrigued with that statement, as I personally thought it was about time he stepped up to the plate and acknowledged that constitutional rights are not just for the heterosexual. Nevertheless, she felt it was a slip-up on his part. I said that was no slip-up on the part of the President. You see Mr. Obama knows on which side to butter his political bread. The LBGT community is a growing and important constituency and besides it was just the right thing to do.
She continued, “You know homosexuality is a sin don’t you? It is in the Bible.”
There is a lot of information in the Bible, I am told there are references in the Bible that support slavery …it still amazes me how folk take certain bits and pieces of text from the Bible to support certain arguments, but totally ignore some good sense ones like “Love thy Neighbor as Thy Self” or “Thy Shall Not Commit Adultery”.
I told her I don’t debate the Bible because I don’t necessarily subscribe to its’ authenticity. But even if I granted that everything she said about the Bible was true and that Homosexual people will be condemned to burn forever in hell, how was she and these “other” black women affected by the President’s statement? He was only expressing his personal opinion (which he had previously withheld). He was not signing a new law requiring same sex marriage. She still has a choice to marry a man, provided a man makes that proposal. And if another woman proposes, she still has the right to refuse. So what is the personal impact?
Why is it the most oppressed becomes the greatest oppressors? I am a black woman and have many friends of different cultures, races and religions …I might add I enjoy the diversity these friends bring and most, if not all of them, believe as I do …every person should be free to marry the person they love … independent of gender or anything else for that matter.
Black women you are free to cast your vote for someone other than Obama, but please use a more substantive reason than his statement of support for gay marriage.
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“Black women you are free to cast your vote for someone other than Obama”
Who were you talking to, Condoleezza Rice? The next logical question would have been; “Which other presidential candidate would a logical black (or any other color) woman vote for this election?… and why?”
Did the Romney/Ryan say they were going to repeal Obama’s opinion about gay rights or gays in the military or any other ‘gay’ anything?
All the black women I know will use common sense and logic on election day, not religious opinion or discrimination of one single issue, that doesn’t even effect them.
I suggest you read the entire story again. There’s plenty of context that you apparently have (deliberately?) ignored.
The original premise was that plenty of black women have abandoned Obama because of his stance on gay marriage. Whether true or not is not the issue. And the most poignant statement is “Why is it the most oppressed become the greatest oppressors?” That, to me, says it all.
Thanks for your assistance Andy Cohen …
I retract this comment in it’s entirety. I misread it. My bad! (*grin*)
A conundrum that would test Solomon, even on one of his really exceptional days…an imponderable that across history continues to appear with no regard whatever to matters of income, social class, ethnicity or gender.
And, of all aspects of the human condition, by far the most private…
The lady in question seems unable to reconcile her assertions with the universal truth that God created all of us in His image. All.
While the rest of us can only advise, it seems she perhaps ought to look deeper within herself and then take the matter up with Him.
Rereading the article, your correct, I retract my statement in it’s entirety. I misread (before coffee) it. My bad! (*grin*)
It might be true that many black women are disappointed that Barack has given his support to gay people but I doubt very very very very very seriously that this means they won’t vote for him.
Given that their choice is either a liberal black guy who happens to be pro same sex marriage or a conserviative white wealthy Mormon who though may be against same sex marriage, is in favor of cutting many social programs to help the less forutnate to ever get ahead in life this would probably be a no brainer to them. What really kills me is the fact that while he just recently became vocal about his views on same sex marriage, he never said otherwise. The simply assumed.
“Why is it the most oppressed becomes the greatest oppressors?”
I think the simple answer to that is, just because someone is a victim of some type of prejudice does not mean that very same person doesn’t have prejudices of their own. Most people with some type of bigotry deny having such bigotry because they feel that they’re animosity towards another group is justified. A perfect example. I’ve lived in Hillcrest for almost 8 years now. By and large it’s a very liberal and open minded neighborhood, yet you’d be surprised at some of the more closed minded neighbors and just people I’ve run into out and around. I’ve known people who talked about being denied housing, denied employment, denied promotions, physically beaten, all just for being gay, yet that didn’t stop them from having prejudices of their own. Some of these very same people expressed complete intolerance for undocumented immigrants, people of less financial means, people of less education, people who are too fat, too skinny, people of different ethnicities than their own. One I knew hated all environmentalists and considered them Marxist. Go figure.