There are a couple of things that need to be mentioned in light of the historic election of Barack Obama. One I've briefly raised in a few questions I posed here yesterday: What will become of racial unity in the United States if Barack Obama is a terrible president? What if his cabinet is composed of white men and women? What if he governs too conservatively, or too liberally?
Last night, African-American journalist Juan Williams of NPR said the following on Fox News about the appointment of Rahm Emanuel (from Chicago and former Clinton aide) as Obama's chief-of-staff:
In other news about race, I am sure you've heard that measures to ban gay marriage in several states passed on Tuesday. But what a civil rights conundrum they represent! Here we have a historic election of a black man to the White House; my guess is that the majority of gay rights advocates voted for Barack Obama. Surely the voter breakdowns show that African-Americans overwhelmingly voted for Barack Obama; I think I heard that over 95% of blacks voted for him.
Alas, alack, what is this? The vast majority of black voters voted against gay marriage. That's right: African-Americans overwhelmingly oppose gay marriage. Even whites were evenly split (relatively) on this; but minorities (Hispanics also opposed gay marriage) apparently believe in the traditional view, that marriage is between a man and a woman.
So, here we have on the one hand a black minority with a history of being profoundly oppressed voting for an African-American liberal who has stated he opposes gay marriage; while on the other, we have gays and lesbians, who have compared their struggles to that of black slaves, finding themselves shut out of marriage by the descendants and relatives of those very slaves; the very people who agreed with them about the transcendent and post-racial candidacy of Barack Obama.
Unity? I guess. But it's a strange unity, to say the least.
©2008. All Rights Reserved.
Last night, African-American journalist Juan Williams of NPR said the following on Fox News about the appointment of Rahm Emanuel (from Chicago and former Clinton aide) as Obama's chief-of-staff:
Let me just say that there's also two other lines of criticism I heard today. One is Chicago is now running the world because Emanuel, as you know, is another Chicago man and close to Richard Daley. And so all of a sudden it looks like that.Trouble already? Just the sort of change people have been hoping for, I guess.
And the other one is the black caucus thing — 'well, gee, we thought that was the kind of job that might have gone to a prominent black politician.' [italics added for emphasis]
In other news about race, I am sure you've heard that measures to ban gay marriage in several states passed on Tuesday. But what a civil rights conundrum they represent! Here we have a historic election of a black man to the White House; my guess is that the majority of gay rights advocates voted for Barack Obama. Surely the voter breakdowns show that African-Americans overwhelmingly voted for Barack Obama; I think I heard that over 95% of blacks voted for him.
Alas, alack, what is this? The vast majority of black voters voted against gay marriage. That's right: African-Americans overwhelmingly oppose gay marriage. Even whites were evenly split (relatively) on this; but minorities (Hispanics also opposed gay marriage) apparently believe in the traditional view, that marriage is between a man and a woman.
So, here we have on the one hand a black minority with a history of being profoundly oppressed voting for an African-American liberal who has stated he opposes gay marriage; while on the other, we have gays and lesbians, who have compared their struggles to that of black slaves, finding themselves shut out of marriage by the descendants and relatives of those very slaves; the very people who agreed with them about the transcendent and post-racial candidacy of Barack Obama.
Unity? I guess. But it's a strange unity, to say the least.
©2008. All Rights Reserved.
