While I agree with you that Prop. 8 wrote hate into the California State Constitution, I have a bone to pick with you over your comment that black voters voted 70% against gay rights. While you are right to lay blame on Mormons, who contributed most of the money that bought deceptive ads, why are you singling out “black voters”?

For one thing, blacks who voted yes were probably no more than 4% of the total.

But that’s not the real problem. The real problem is you’ve got something badly wrong. The adjective “black” in front of “voters” suggests there is something about these particular voters being black that made them vote a certain way. There is little doubt the black voters who did vote for Prop. 8 voted not because they were black but because they were adherents of a religious ideology that says there is something wrong with gay people. (And the corollary, of course, is true also - black who were not adherents of this ideology, but were among those with no church affiliation, are likely to have voted with the 90% who voted no.)

It was the “Baptist” or the “Pentecostalist” or some other homophobic religious ideology in these people, and not their race, that prompted them to vote yes on 8. And they deserve no more blame (or credit, if that is the way you look at it) for this than any white or Asian person who voted yes. Stop blaming the race and put the blame where it belongs. To blame the race is not only racist by definition; it is also bad science. Bad construction of categories. Bad cause and effect reasoning. Later we can talk about how it wasn’t even the “Baptist” or whatever in them, but the particular (dominant but still not universal) school of thought within this religious domination, and go for the real culprit – closed-minded religion. But for now, since nobody is having at the Baptists but they are having at the blacks, let’s deal with that conceptual error first. Stop with this “70% of blacks” business.

To the poster above: You're missing a key difference between white voters who voted in favor of Prop. 8 for religious reasons and black voters who did the same thing.

Historically, blacks have suffered from racial discrimination in this country, not whites.

To remedy this, we as a society have not only outlawed discrimination, but we have instituted a system of racial preferences for non-whites in college admissions, hiring for jobs, government contracting and job promotion.

This system of preferences is ad hoc in some cases, and government policy in others. But whatever form it takes, it is there, and it is strong evidence of our society's desire to try to make up for past discrimination.

Gays, on the other hand, still are not even protected from outright anti-gay discrimination in many places and situations. And there are few if any places where there are preferences given to gays over straights in school admissions, corporate hiring, etc.

The gay community has aligned itself with the Democratic Party and liberal causes and strongly supported the black community's fight for civil rights, affirmative action and racial preferences over whites.

So a lot of us find it remarkable that a black community so wounded by discrimination would not support us in our fight against discrimination.

It is not racist to take note of this. Calling those of us who do point it out "racist" is merely blaming the victim.

I am fine with helping other people fight their battles against injustice. But I expect them to return the favor.

"We've got ours, now to hell with you" is not acceptable.

Every major news source provides statistics about how certain groups vote. Look at CNN during the election: college students, blacks, whites, seniors, men, women... the list goes on. It is totally acceptable and standard news practice.

No one is trying to demonize blacks. If 70 percent of women voted for Prop. 8, that would have been the headline.

Sorry Alan J. McCornick, but the fact that 70% of blacks voted for prop 8 is just that, a fact! Numbers don't lie. No other ethnic group supported prop 8 by 70%. No one is going to go back and alter the exit polls because you don't like the result. Stop whining and face reality.

Mr. McCornick's comments IMHO speak right to the dangers of simplistic racial scapegoating. Much of the past 50 years of pushing ahead progress on Civil Rights has been accomplished by educating, not blaming, the opposition. It was very clear when we No on 8 volunteers challenged Prop 8 signature gathering in an African-American neighborhood last Spring, that we had a lot of organizing work to do in that community. We still do. I must confess that my own immediate reaction to the statistics on the vote was a burst of anger, but then I recalled how much of the movement has entailed organizing, education, discussion. Reciprocity in political support is not automatic, it must be accomplished by hard work. As labor organizer and songwriter Joe Hill reminded us just before he was lynched: don't mourn, organize!

Sorry, Matt, but I totally agree with Alan J. McCormick, and I think it's you who needs to face reality. Considering that race and ethnicity are but mere constructs that were designed to keep us divided, it's easy to see that this is not a race/ethnicity issue, but a class issue. On top of that, statements such as "70% of x group voted against y group" are nothing but generalizations - saying this about "black voters" makes it seem like "black voters" across the country would vote the same way. These same exit polls, btw, say that over half of white and hispanic voters voted against 8.

What can be said at best is that people who have had their civil rights violated are now violating those people. Saying group x voted against us just creates another us v. them situation, and I for one am tired of that mentality.

Eric:

Who told you that race and ethnicity are mer constructs designed to keep us divided? Your left wing Intro to Sociology professor? Not all of us by into such fashionable academic hype.

"70% of X group voted against Y group" is not a generalization but a specific and verifiable fact.

No one said anything about black voters outside of California.

You might be tired of "us vs. them" mentalities.

You should be even more tired of being discriminated against -- especially by those who have also been discriminated against and should know better.