Proposition 8 - Racism and Civil Rights

Commentaries:

Fernando Espuelas - on Latinos and Proposition 8

The Daily Beast - on African-Americans and Proposition 8

Divisive, divisive, divisive.

Why must we always seek to marginalize, to blame, to cast aspersions on a particular group based on nothing other than who they are?

It's so easy to say that African-Americans should "know better" or that Latinos should "know better". Or, heck, weren't those old folks around for enough civil rights movements that they should "know better" by now?

We, as Californians, as a society, as a whole should know better.

It's frustrating when you see people that you feel should understand where you're coming from act in ways that are opposite of what you might expect.

The problem comes in when you assume that these same people will see your civil rights issues as the same as the civil rights issues that they have fought. When you assume that they will be able to put aside their religious convictions in favor of supporting a group that they don't, necessarily, agree with on moral or religious grounds.

I think one of the biggest things that needs to be learned from this is that the No on Prop 8 campaign did not do a good enough job of reaching out to minority voters. Given Mr. Obama's candidacy, they should have understood the affect that would have on voter turnout and they should have taken appropriate steps to reach out to these voters and get them the information they would need to make an informed decision when they cast their ballots on November 4th.

Regardless of who voted how, it was a very narrow defeat. So narrow, in fact, that there is still the possibility that absentee ballots could turn the tide.

Momentum is on our side.

The road may be longer than some of us were hoping it would be.

We cannot, must not burn bridges along the way by casting blame against any group of people based solely on their ethnicity, age or socioeconomic class.

We must remember that we cannot travel this road alone.

Every journey has a destination.

Every destination has a gift shop.

I'll be the one in the shot glasses aisle, giggling maniacally.