Post by Rev. Jim Cunningham on Nov 19, 2008 2:02:11 GMT -5
From: Manager Rev. Jim (Original Message) Sent: 3/12/2004 10:05 AM
I wanted to share this wonderful article with you from the MIAMI HERALD. To fully appreciate the message I should mention that the article's author is African American.
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BLACK FOLKS ARE ON THE WRONG SIDE OF GAY DEBATE
(C) Leonard Pitts Jr, Miami Herald 12 March 2004
(Write to the author at Lpitts@Herald.com to express your appreciation)
Call it an object lesson in the quality of equality. I refer to last week's U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing on the proposed constitutional amendment to outlaw same-sex marriage. And specifically, to an exchnage between two leaders of the African American community.
The first, Hilary Shelton, director of the Washington bureau of the NAACP, argued that the amendment "would use the Constitution to discriminate." This brought a sharp retort from the Rev. Richard Richardson, chairman of political affairs for the Black Ministerial Alliance of Greater Boston. Defining marriage as the union of a woman and a man, he said, "is not discrimination; and I find it offensive to call it that."
If you polled black folk, Richardson's views would doubtless prove to be typical. Though it's not generally appreciated by the wider world, African AMericans are amongst the most socially conservative Americans there are. Particularly on gay issues. Indeed, if you want to start a fight, suggest to a group of black folk that there are parallels between the Civil Rights Movement and the gay community's struggle for equality.
WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE...
Even African Americans who are sympathetic to the gay cause often bristle at the comparison. As the Rev. Jesse Jackson recently put it, "Gays were never called three-fifths human in the Constitution." [Rev. Jim's note: Neither were blacks].
Those who are not sympathetic are even harsher. Gene Rivers, a Boston minister, accuses gays of "pimping the Civil Rights Movement."
Granted, the comparison between the black struggle and the gay one is inexact. But here's the thing: Every freedom movement - from Poland's labor uprising to America's feminism to China's Tiananmen Square protests - has been compared to the Civil Rights Movement. When Czechoslovakians threw off Communist rule in 1989, the sang WE SHALL OVERCOME. Yet no one pointed out that the Czechs were never slighted in the U.S. Constitution, much less accused the Poles of "pimping the Civil Rights Movement". What does that tell you?
It tells me [that] this stinginess about the movement arises only when gays seek to emrace it. And that black people- some of us, at least - ought to be ashamed.
How can we, of all people, we who know the weight of American oppression better than almost anyone, stand in the path of those who seek simple equality? How can we support writing anyone out of the Constitution when it took us so long to be written in [to it]?
EMBRACING CONSERVATISM...
And how can we stand with the very people - social conservatives - who, not so long ago, didn't want us in their churches, their schools, their parks or restaurants? Yet more and more, we act and sound just like them.
We use our Bibles to justify our bigotry, just as they did.
We describe equality as unnatural, just as they did.
We invoke the sanctity of tradition, just as they did.
And we are wrong, just as they were.
Worse, we have wrapped our community in a conspiracy of silence, made being homosexual something [that] one simply does not discuss. If you are black & gay or black & lesbian, there is often no sane thought of "coming out," no safe place to be who you are. The black community has no resources for you, no tolerance of you, no compassion for you. Yes, there are exceptions, but not enough. Not nearly.
Is it any surprise, then, that blacks lead the nation in new cases of HIV and AIDS?
Too many of us fail - or refuse - to see the great generality that overarches the specificity of our struggles. Meaning that it doesn't matter whether you are gay or black or woman or Jew or even Czech: people have a right to be free.
This is the principle gay people are fighting to vindicate. And no, it isn't the Civil Rights Movement, but make no mistake: it's definitely A civil rights movement. Except that this time, black people are on the other side.
I wanted to share this wonderful article with you from the MIAMI HERALD. To fully appreciate the message I should mention that the article's author is African American.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BLACK FOLKS ARE ON THE WRONG SIDE OF GAY DEBATE
(C) Leonard Pitts Jr, Miami Herald 12 March 2004
(Write to the author at Lpitts@Herald.com to express your appreciation)
Call it an object lesson in the quality of equality. I refer to last week's U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing on the proposed constitutional amendment to outlaw same-sex marriage. And specifically, to an exchnage between two leaders of the African American community.
The first, Hilary Shelton, director of the Washington bureau of the NAACP, argued that the amendment "would use the Constitution to discriminate." This brought a sharp retort from the Rev. Richard Richardson, chairman of political affairs for the Black Ministerial Alliance of Greater Boston. Defining marriage as the union of a woman and a man, he said, "is not discrimination; and I find it offensive to call it that."
If you polled black folk, Richardson's views would doubtless prove to be typical. Though it's not generally appreciated by the wider world, African AMericans are amongst the most socially conservative Americans there are. Particularly on gay issues. Indeed, if you want to start a fight, suggest to a group of black folk that there are parallels between the Civil Rights Movement and the gay community's struggle for equality.
WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE...
Even African Americans who are sympathetic to the gay cause often bristle at the comparison. As the Rev. Jesse Jackson recently put it, "Gays were never called three-fifths human in the Constitution." [Rev. Jim's note: Neither were blacks].
Those who are not sympathetic are even harsher. Gene Rivers, a Boston minister, accuses gays of "pimping the Civil Rights Movement."
Granted, the comparison between the black struggle and the gay one is inexact. But here's the thing: Every freedom movement - from Poland's labor uprising to America's feminism to China's Tiananmen Square protests - has been compared to the Civil Rights Movement. When Czechoslovakians threw off Communist rule in 1989, the sang WE SHALL OVERCOME. Yet no one pointed out that the Czechs were never slighted in the U.S. Constitution, much less accused the Poles of "pimping the Civil Rights Movement". What does that tell you?
It tells me [that] this stinginess about the movement arises only when gays seek to emrace it. And that black people- some of us, at least - ought to be ashamed.
How can we, of all people, we who know the weight of American oppression better than almost anyone, stand in the path of those who seek simple equality? How can we support writing anyone out of the Constitution when it took us so long to be written in [to it]?
EMBRACING CONSERVATISM...
And how can we stand with the very people - social conservatives - who, not so long ago, didn't want us in their churches, their schools, their parks or restaurants? Yet more and more, we act and sound just like them.
We use our Bibles to justify our bigotry, just as they did.
We describe equality as unnatural, just as they did.
We invoke the sanctity of tradition, just as they did.
And we are wrong, just as they were.
Worse, we have wrapped our community in a conspiracy of silence, made being homosexual something [that] one simply does not discuss. If you are black & gay or black & lesbian, there is often no sane thought of "coming out," no safe place to be who you are. The black community has no resources for you, no tolerance of you, no compassion for you. Yes, there are exceptions, but not enough. Not nearly.
Is it any surprise, then, that blacks lead the nation in new cases of HIV and AIDS?
Too many of us fail - or refuse - to see the great generality that overarches the specificity of our struggles. Meaning that it doesn't matter whether you are gay or black or woman or Jew or even Czech: people have a right to be free.
This is the principle gay people are fighting to vindicate. And no, it isn't the Civil Rights Movement, but make no mistake: it's definitely A civil rights movement. Except that this time, black people are on the other side.