I'm SICK of this

I am having a bad time with the post election news coverage. I am overjoyed that America's new president will be Barack Obama. I am saddened by the emergence of two nostrums that seem to dominate post-election writings. The first is that Mr. Obama's election "changes everything" and associated "anyone can be anything" comments. The second is that African American votes are responsible for sinking Prop 8 in California.

Disclaimer 1. I have personal investments in both communities. I don't want to have to look at my world and say, as one friend put it so beautifully, "my people hate my people."

Disclaimer 2. To the question of "what if it is true?" See below.

Every time I pick up a piece of news media, turn on the radio, look at stuff online, I see the following template for reporting (even in an interview with a black musician).

Journalist to black person: How do you feel about this?

Black person (knowing exactly which platitudes are required): Something emotional about this changes everything, anyone can be anything they want, all we have to do is step up now, we are responsible for ourselves....

Journalist: Something trite about new era, end of racism, the wonder of it all.

The problem is that there are some truths in here, in this interview template, and that the truths are not simple; they resonate differently across a variety of contexts. But first to journalistic laziness. African American communities existed before the election; you can't just raid and plunder news because there's a black president. African American communities were complicated before the election -- don't replace your one-sided stories of pathology, hardship, deprivation, and inspiration with one-sided stories of inspiration and change. African American communities hold more than one truth. Don't be univocal about the world. Create and nurture sustained contacts with people whose stories you interpret as "news."

And get a clue. You haven't been here, in the community, with the people. So, don't take those answers as real. As true as they might be, they are the expected platitude, fed back to you. Fed to you because you don't dig (for whatever reason) for deeper truths. Fed to you, because you want to be able to declare a new era, a new vision, a new end to racism (I make no speculation as to why). Fed to you because while people are touched to their very core about the beauty of Mr. Obama's result, people are smart, savvy consumers who know that the news media cycle will be over soon and that the real journey will begun away from the bright lights of the camera.

See, the problem is that, while Mr. Obama's election is historic, the fact of it does not per se change some of the most difficult problems our communities have faced. Blaring about the beautiful, joyous success of one man doesn't make it any easier for the next kid. We are not one nation. We are not all united. In fact, the very insistence on this rhetoric has begun to smell to me like an exercise of the power of exoticism. Look. Black people! One of them has made it. How strange. How peculiar. But look. This is America, land of the free, home of the brave. It couldn't happen in any other country of the world.

It might not have the same meaning in any other country of the world because no other country has America's history. Those of us who must live consciously around the monoliths of that history know and experience that past very differently from those who see the statues of the past as sculpted objects with which their daily lives have no apparent connection.

Just take the other day. I was exiting a building in a stream of white people who had been able to afford the ticket to the show we had just seen. I was pushed off the path by two couples and a what looked like a father with his arm around his daughter. Wizard righted me. No one else came to help. They were too busy talking about the awesome Obama victory. Then, father ran down, literally, a poor black homeless woman who was trying to walk upstream. She kept saying "excuse me, excuse me." Father pushed her aside; the white people on either side flooded around her. She was entirely invisible. I looked her in the eye and exchanged words with her. No one else seemed to see her. The Obama victory, you know.

Until encounters like these are gone from our lives, we cannot claim the dawning of a new era.

And speaking of prejudice: Proposition 8. I find myself almost unable to write coherently about this. I just can't get a handle on it. I am snugly married to the Wizard, but probably only because he came along at the right time. I could just as easily have been in a longterm relationship with a Witch. I can't forget that. It's a principle, yes. But it is also deeply personal.

I've already heard from white gay friends in an accusatory tone that "Obama failed us." Well, yes. He did not speak out strongly in support of equality. And there it is. What to say? It doesn't seem fair to say, "civil rights weren't won in a day." How many more days must it be? I've spent the time inbetween then and now, reading and trying to understand how an issue phrased dynamically as one of equality and civil rights can be torpedoed by a moralizing interpretation. Sorry. This isn't terribly sophisticated of me. It's just that I find myself frozen. I had dared to expect Prop 8 to pass. I didn't believe it wouldn't. I know money has poured in from outside the state; I know rallies took place, today, against the narrow passage of this hate. The news of the protests and lawsuits is substantial.

And then, on top of this, comes the blaming of those African Americans who came out to support Mr. Obama. I think the whole thing got started with the LA Times blog post about the exit polls that suggested 7/10 black voters supported Prop 8. I dunno. But I do know that there is now a more noticeable division between black and gay than I would desire AND I know that somehow this division is becoming an accepted public conventional truth: African Americans are so homophobic that they sunk that Proposition 8. Why this explanation instead of, say, blaming the LDS which apparently sunk over 20 million into the campaign. Why this explanation instead of, say, a set of arguments that explain the weaknesses of the campaign (not saying the campaign was weak. Just that it is possible to come up with a narrative that explores how the campaign could have done better).

No, it is always easier, somehow, to blame the brown people -- so necessary to electing Mr. Obama, but somehow so easy to paint as figures of repulsion.

So, here are my truths. Homophobia exists in all communities; it can be hard to be gay in the black community, I know. My family roots are partly in Jamaica, a country with some of the worst human rights records on issues of gay rights. I know what people say about being black and gay. I know what people do. And that's just in my little corner of the world. Other parts of the African American experience handle gayness differently. But the kind of fear and hatred that motivate homophobia are not properties of blackness. They run rampant in many pockets of society.

I cannot agree with anyone, African American or no, who supported Prop 8, who believed that their faith required them to support Prop 8. It is exquisitely painful that those who have seen so much discrimination in their lives pass it on to others. But that it how it is with disability, too. It is exquisitely painful that each person has to argue for their rights in the face of such dehumanizing arguments -- ironically, the same things, ideas, statements seem to pop up no matter what the difference.

It is important those of us with interests in democracy, equality, justice, and civil rights for all speak up. It doesn't matter whether you are gay or not. It doesn't matter whether you even think being gay is wrong or not. Veralidaine on why disablism is a problem for the non-disabled (THANK YOU, Mr. Obama.... YAYYYY)

The reason an able-bodied or able-looking person needs a reason to be a disability advocate is simple: So everybody else has a reason not to be. It's "not their dog." (caution: link may be mildly NSFW)

They aren't related to anyone with a disability, they aren't disabled, their friends aren't disabled, so it's only natural that only the one person in the group who is any of those things speaks up for disability acceptance and disability rights. By extension, it's okay to disagree, to argue, and expect that a defense of personal connection to disability be offered.

What people who are unfamiliar with disability identity and culture aren't expecting in this situation is a refusal to offer an excuse for standing up against disabilist speech or in favor of disability rights. The pressure to give everyone else an easy way out is significant, but I've made a conscious effort lately to stand my ground. I don't hand over a self-disclosure and an excuse when that familiar, waiting stare descends on me. It's been a little strange, but it's productive, too.

I could cite other sources. We all, as humans, have deep and abiding interests in the rights of other beings. Let us live as humans. With love and respect for each other.