Pointing fingers
at California's African-Americans over the passage of
Proposition 8 is rushing to judgment, writes The
Advocate's Teresa Morrison. Race-baiting is simply a
repeat of the terrible injustice of Prop. 8.
I’ve had
countless conversations about Proposition 8 in the aftermath
of the election, and an overwhelming number of them
have, disturbingly, circled around to the role that
racial voting patterns may have played in its passage.
Disturbing, but not surprising, given the attention media
has paid to exit poll racial demographics -- especially the
statewide statistic that 70% of black voters polled
favored the measure -- and given the
initiative’s surprising win in Los Angeles County,
boasting the state's third-highest concentration
of African-Americans among its 58 counties.
It was
heartbreaking to lose the vote in Los Angeles (by the narrow
margin of 1% as of this writing), where a defeat of the
proposition was not only expected but crucial to
maintain our rights. Elsewhere in the state the voting
went more or less as expected, with majorities of voters
along the central and northern coastal counties rejecting
the ban and majorities of voters along the central
valley and northernmost and southernmost counties
supporting the ban.
But how could we
have lost in Los Angeles?
Sadness, anger,
and disbelief over a "liberal" county voting to
constitutionally imprison gay rights -- even as it more
predictably broke 67% in favor of an initiative
to increase the size of cages for egg-laying hens --
has many in the LGBT community casting about for
explanations that are more easily digested than the
sprawling homophobia indicated by the vote. And exit
polling cited by the Associated Press provided a ready
scapegoat: that astounding 70% African-American vote,
which the news agency said was particularly decisive in this
election cycle, since turnout among blacks
reportedly swelled from 6% of the state
electorate in 2004 to 10% in 2008.
Those are
compelling statistics, until you consider the exit poll
they’re based on: a random sample of 2,240
voters polled at 30 locations -- which were randomly
drawn from among California’s more than 25,000
precincts. With African-Americans accounting for just
6% of the state population, and with that 6%
concentrated overwhelmingly among only nine of its 58
counties, it’s positively eyebrow-raising that AP
exit polling at untargeted precincts captured black
representation at a rate of 10%. But even going by
those numbers, is it reasonable to concur that the views of
224 people are representative of the approximately 1 million
registered African-American voters in California?
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Morrison is a
copy editor at The Advocate. Read more of her
writing at Neurotranscendence.com.