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Proposition 8 Protests - Dan Savage

Tags: Dan Savage, Stephen Colbert

Posted by Norm on November 12, 2008 9:12 AM | Permalink

Comments

Andyo | November 12, 2008 9:40 AM | Reply

This sad fact that most black people voted for Prop 8 has got to be the conservatives' wet dream come true after their defeat in the elections. I was thinking they were gonna do exactly this, try to pit gays against black people.

RedSeven | November 12, 2008 10:03 AM | Reply

Yeah, Colbert does a good job of pointing out the absurdity of the story.

What % of Californian voters are black and did they really have some incredible influence on the outcome?

Probably not.

Is it the only Dem vs Dem story they could find in the entire country so might as well run with it.

Tim replied to RedSeven | November 12, 2008 12:51 PM | Reply

What % of Californian voters are black and did they really have some incredible influence on the outcome?

Probably not.

Unfortunately, the margin provided by blacks on Prop 8 in California was a significant fraction of the total margin. If African Americans went 70% for Prop 8 and they voted in proportion to their fraction of the total population (6.2%), they they provided about 60% of the margin of victory (which was 4%).

bugjah replied to Tim | November 12, 2008 10:30 PM | Reply

My math is a bit different. The Prop 8 wiki says that African-Americans were 10% of CA voters. So if the total Yes vote was 52.4%, then 524 of every 1000 voters voted Yes. 100 of 1000 voters were African-American, and 70 of them voted Yes. 524-70 = 454. So that means that 454 of every 900 non-black voters voted yes. In other words, Prop 8 PASSED among non-blacks also (454/900=50.4%)! So..to defeat Prop 8, African Americans, at 10% of the total voters, would have had to have voted 55-45 against.

Conclusion: this is really a non-story. According to the wiki, the proportion of church-goers voting for prop 8 was more than 80%. If the majority of black voters in CA were also church goers, then which demographic is the more meaningful one?

I think Savage did a great job, by the way, and the old people line was funny. But I think he may have purposefully neglected to point the finger at the main culprit here: christianity.

Hanna replied to bugjah | November 13, 2008 11:56 AM | Reply

The real story here is the almost Kramer-esque minitruing of Savage's previous (six-day-old) stance on the matter.

http://www.racialicious.com/2008/11/06/quoted-dan-savage-on-black-homophobia/

Nobody seems to want to talk about this sudden reversal on his part. About the idiotic things he said previously. Now he's some kind of expert on race relations and how it's a non-issue when six days ago he was a big fat expert on how race relations were the big issue.

For shame, Savage. For shame, Colbert.

bugjah replied to Hanna | November 14, 2008 12:26 AM | Reply

Savage supported the Iraq war too. Not the first time he's reversed position.

Nevertheless: look at comment #2 at the link you gave, Hanna.

RedSeven | November 12, 2008 1:12 PM | Reply

the margin provided by blacks on Prop 8 in California was a significant fraction of the total margin.

So AA's made up 60% of the 4% of the vote or a little shy of something like 2.5% of the overall vote. If they had voted for it at say 45% they would have been just over 1.5% of the total vote.

Maybe a significant part of the margin but a significant part of the overall vote?

Andyo | November 12, 2008 2:30 PM | Reply

I think some people might get too emotional and start making this about race, which is what the conservatives really want. Like Maher said, the elephant in the room is religion. There are only two reasons why someone would think homosexuality is "wrong", ignorance and religion, which is just glorified ignorance anyway.

kiteless | November 12, 2008 7:19 PM | Reply

Good point about polygamy. Mormons dropped it for statehood, not revelation. If the government says they can't have multiple wives, lesbians can't even have one? Thems some sour grapes!