...to bring you an important message from Robb Leigh Davis. Because I believe in his spirit and his passion and his opinion and intellect. I publish his Op-Ed piece in full because I hear his soul in this and I yearn for him to feel the big, giant grown up steps he deserves to feel. I am a white woman, a woman who can choose to marry and divorce anyone with a penis- despite their worthiness, a woman who voted Obama, a woman who comes from a place with very narrow beliefs and his words speak to me, they educate me, they make me want to appeal to my higher angels in my choices. They make me want to be a better human. I hope they do the same to you! love, jenn
SILLY NIGGERS, VOTIN’S FOR WHITE PEOPLE
We the people. To this very day I remain perplexed as to whom the founding fathers believed they were fooling. Elementary-aged children still learn of them as freedom-loving rebels, escaping the tyranny of British rule to establish a free society, which guaranteed liberty & equality as God-given birthrights of every human being.
Of course, we’ve known for some time that the freedoms they so valiantly championed belonged solely to their mirror image. Not the slaughtered natives, enslaved Africans, or women in their midst. Simply white men. And, had they possessed knowledge of the income to be generated by the Industrial Revolution, membership to their club would have another caveat: Wealthy White Men Only Need Apply.
My pre-collegiate years were spent expressing vocal disapproval at having to exalt a group of misogynistic, ethnic-cleansing slave-traders in a paternal way: though their blood and semen is, undoubtedly, deeply embedded in my family tree. Yet, as I took issue with their hypocrisy, I was consistently drawn to the key words of their principled stand: We the people. A statement selectively strung through the polemics of pundits, preachers and politicos professing to abhor discrimination and bias.
However, bigotry is alive and well in America. Not just of the noose variety, or the kind that demonizes present-day immigrants while ignoring the reality that – save for the enslaved Africans brought here against their will – nearly every citizen of this country is descended from an immigrant in search of the American dream. The bigotry that exasperates me is the double-speak of candidates and President-elects as they show their true colors in the most politically correct of ways.
Q: Do you support equal marriage rights for gay and lesbian citizens?
A: I support civil unions.
Q: But do you support the right for gay and lesbian citizens to be married just as heterosexual couples are?
A: I believe, and my religion tells me, that marriage is an institution for men and women, but I support full equality in the form of civil unions blah blah blah…
Excuse me, but…what the fuck? This is a joke, right? No matter the beauty of your rhetoric, or the stylizing of its overwrought delivery, what you’re saying is, “While we’re both citizens of the country, I’m entitled to certain rights and privileges that you are not.” Reprehensible.
Is there not one moderator or journalist with the acumen to reference the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution? Have we, as a culture, pleaded amnesia in regards to Brown vs. The Board of Education? Or, does the silence of the allegedly liberal mainstream media imply that overturning Plessy vs. Ferguson was an error?
By lineage, I’m a descendant of the fields and farms of Alabama and North Carolina, passionately connected to the American South and the myriad Black aspect of the nation’s culture. I know of midnight conversations where grown folks discussed the way it was: police dogs and full-throttle fire hoses as an acceptable means of democratic order.
History has taught me that it was the judicial system and the tenacity of activist judges that led to the eradication of these practices, acknowledging the disparity of American life. Without them I very well could still be legally banished to the back of the bus, drinking from a separate fountain and urinating in facilities deemed appropriate for my use.
Yet today, a few weeks away from the year 2009, separate but equal is being resurrected, damn near championed, as the norm. Politicians feel utterly at ease expressing the notion that Americans who are gay are deserving of equality, so long as it’s couched in acceptable terminology. And if that’s the case, I’m left to believe my ancestors were granted equality as the result of a clerical error.
Perhaps the judicial system should have adopted a second-class jargon. Perhaps white Americans should have retained the right to “vote,” but Blacks granted “Negroes-go-a-pollin’ day.” This way the majority class could retain a superior terminology. Surely God wouldn’t have approved of Coloreds being accorded respect, since everyone knows that treating them as equals would lead to the collapse of civilization. “Silly niggers, votin’s for white people.”
As a gay Black man alive in contemporary America, I recognize myself as a warrior against discrimination just as my elders and ancestors railed against in the past. And, as I move through the streets of L.A., witnessing the fallout over Prop 8 and similar state-wide measures attempting to adjust their constitutions, I veer between disdain and rage that our President-elect – an individual whose identity was historically dismissed as second-class and unworthy of the right to cast a vote, let alone ascend to the highest political office in the land – can run on a platform that advocates discriminatory practices no matter how politically correct the terminology or eloquently presented speeches he crouches behind.
This isn’t about same-sex marriage leading to marriage rights for zoophiles, and I’d like to propose a national bitch slap day for the next foolhardy politician or clergyperson daft enough to continue making such asinine and offensive comparisons. This isn’t about churches or the personal beliefs of the candidates and their religious advisors. This is about holding certain truths to be self-evident: that equality under the law is guaranteed to me by birthright as a member of “We the people.” And while I understand politics and the doublespeak built into it, in 2008 I also comprehend human decency. Fair is fair. Period. At 35 years old, my interest in baby steps died three decades ago.
So to the President- elect and his visionary administration my question remains as it’s been since the announcement of your candidacy. “Do you stand for equal rights, or not?”
Because I know change. And, if you don’t champion my equality, then from where I stand you, sir, are no agent of change. Simply more of the same.
* Robb Leigh Davis is a writer living in Los Angeles.
We the people. To this very day I remain perplexed as to whom the founding fathers believed they were fooling. Elementary-aged children still learn of them as freedom-loving rebels, escaping the tyranny of British rule to establish a free society, which guaranteed liberty & equality as God-given birthrights of every human being.
Of course, we’ve known for some time that the freedoms they so valiantly championed belonged solely to their mirror image. Not the slaughtered natives, enslaved Africans, or women in their midst. Simply white men. And, had they possessed knowledge of the income to be generated by the Industrial Revolution, membership to their club would have another caveat: Wealthy White Men Only Need Apply.
My pre-collegiate years were spent expressing vocal disapproval at having to exalt a group of misogynistic, ethnic-cleansing slave-traders in a paternal way: though their blood and semen is, undoubtedly, deeply embedded in my family tree. Yet, as I took issue with their hypocrisy, I was consistently drawn to the key words of their principled stand: We the people. A statement selectively strung through the polemics of pundits, preachers and politicos professing to abhor discrimination and bias.
However, bigotry is alive and well in America. Not just of the noose variety, or the kind that demonizes present-day immigrants while ignoring the reality that – save for the enslaved Africans brought here against their will – nearly every citizen of this country is descended from an immigrant in search of the American dream. The bigotry that exasperates me is the double-speak of candidates and President-elects as they show their true colors in the most politically correct of ways.
Q: Do you support equal marriage rights for gay and lesbian citizens?
A: I support civil unions.
Q: But do you support the right for gay and lesbian citizens to be married just as heterosexual couples are?
A: I believe, and my religion tells me, that marriage is an institution for men and women, but I support full equality in the form of civil unions blah blah blah…
Excuse me, but…what the fuck? This is a joke, right? No matter the beauty of your rhetoric, or the stylizing of its overwrought delivery, what you’re saying is, “While we’re both citizens of the country, I’m entitled to certain rights and privileges that you are not.” Reprehensible.
Is there not one moderator or journalist with the acumen to reference the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution? Have we, as a culture, pleaded amnesia in regards to Brown vs. The Board of Education? Or, does the silence of the allegedly liberal mainstream media imply that overturning Plessy vs. Ferguson was an error?
By lineage, I’m a descendant of the fields and farms of Alabama and North Carolina, passionately connected to the American South and the myriad Black aspect of the nation’s culture. I know of midnight conversations where grown folks discussed the way it was: police dogs and full-throttle fire hoses as an acceptable means of democratic order.
History has taught me that it was the judicial system and the tenacity of activist judges that led to the eradication of these practices, acknowledging the disparity of American life. Without them I very well could still be legally banished to the back of the bus, drinking from a separate fountain and urinating in facilities deemed appropriate for my use.
Yet today, a few weeks away from the year 2009, separate but equal is being resurrected, damn near championed, as the norm. Politicians feel utterly at ease expressing the notion that Americans who are gay are deserving of equality, so long as it’s couched in acceptable terminology. And if that’s the case, I’m left to believe my ancestors were granted equality as the result of a clerical error.
Perhaps the judicial system should have adopted a second-class jargon. Perhaps white Americans should have retained the right to “vote,” but Blacks granted “Negroes-go-a-pollin’ day.” This way the majority class could retain a superior terminology. Surely God wouldn’t have approved of Coloreds being accorded respect, since everyone knows that treating them as equals would lead to the collapse of civilization. “Silly niggers, votin’s for white people.”
As a gay Black man alive in contemporary America, I recognize myself as a warrior against discrimination just as my elders and ancestors railed against in the past. And, as I move through the streets of L.A., witnessing the fallout over Prop 8 and similar state-wide measures attempting to adjust their constitutions, I veer between disdain and rage that our President-elect – an individual whose identity was historically dismissed as second-class and unworthy of the right to cast a vote, let alone ascend to the highest political office in the land – can run on a platform that advocates discriminatory practices no matter how politically correct the terminology or eloquently presented speeches he crouches behind.
This isn’t about same-sex marriage leading to marriage rights for zoophiles, and I’d like to propose a national bitch slap day for the next foolhardy politician or clergyperson daft enough to continue making such asinine and offensive comparisons. This isn’t about churches or the personal beliefs of the candidates and their religious advisors. This is about holding certain truths to be self-evident: that equality under the law is guaranteed to me by birthright as a member of “We the people.” And while I understand politics and the doublespeak built into it, in 2008 I also comprehend human decency. Fair is fair. Period. At 35 years old, my interest in baby steps died three decades ago.
So to the President- elect and his visionary administration my question remains as it’s been since the announcement of your candidacy. “Do you stand for equal rights, or not?”
Because I know change. And, if you don’t champion my equality, then from where I stand you, sir, are no agent of change. Simply more of the same.
* Robb Leigh Davis is a writer living in Los Angeles.
PS... any and all comments will be passed on to Robb so please, please add your thoughts...
7 comments:
word.
Oh Robb. I'm so glad you wrote that and so sorry you had to. It fking sucks and everything you wrote is true.
Good Lord Rob...I hope you sent this to Obama...well said my friend. I too am outraged by the outcome of prop 8. However on a global scale, I am truly saddened and dumbfounded that here we are in 2008, with everything that was created regarding the civil rights act of 1964, and ammended in 1991 and now state laws that offer even more protection regarding protected classes...*sigh* with all of this, we, as an American culture still do not have the capacity within our hearts to embrace the human race as we are...as we all are- diverse and beautiful. I will continue to support any way I can those who are still sadly fighting for their voice and what should be their given rights in this country.
Lori Beth
Well said. I have yet to comprehend the semantic argument of civil union vs. marriage. Last time I checked a civil union is awarded at city hall, as is a marriage license and yet they afford the same rights in the "legal" world. If it's the word marriage that's getting in the way, then by all means, all those with marriage licenses need to report to city hall and apply for civil unions. Then marriage, being that it is a religious institution and being that we in this fine country separate church and state, can only be obtained by your church. However, a "marriage" is not legal, only a condition you've asked to be recognized by your faith....hhmmm, how about them apples?! I am sick about Prop 8 and the retards that support it. The only arguement I saw time and again was "In the bible...." bitch- that's religion and this is state. Fuck that!
Amen, Robb.
fwiw, as an Am Lit professor, I help students learn how to recognize and bust up their own recapitulation of the Founding Fathers mythology. Unfortunately, I'm stuck in the colonial period through 1900. But we need to start reexamining somewhere...I can only hope that they carry this to their other courses and indeed internalize it for their future work.
Robb,
I know you only through this post, and thru what Jenn has said about you. And i say Bravo! you hit the nail on the head. I think the whole association of "well, if we give those damn gays rights to marriage, we'll have to give all the "wackos" rights too. BULLSH*T...and throwing around the Bible...yes..lets have a nice institution that condemns homosexuality outside the church...but if a male priest molests a little boy, well..just move him to another parish its as if Jesus died all over again for him and he is clean of all sin. I am a closeted bi-curious man married to a bisexual woman who's own parents would readily disown her because they were taught to believe that homosexuality is a sin. So their own child is denied the right to reveal her full self..absolute tragedy. She's also a Wiccan..partially i think because of the BS brought on by the singling out of many "radical" groups that the church doesn't support. You are taking a huge step by not only saying your a gay man but a gay black man in this society and to boot voicing your opinion against the "right"-minded society in which we live in...for that i give you kudos and revel in your guts. Here's to hoping that one day...that one singular part of the speech of Martin Luther King carries on for everyone who is persecuted for their beliefs, sexual orientations, and any other ideals that go against the "religious right"...."Free At Last! Free At Last! Thank God Almighty! Free At Last!
Well done, Robb---insightful and true.
What about those that say Obama is still our best chance, that if he spoke of gay marriage rights he couldn't have been nominated and we'd be stuck with someone who would never be our ally? Or is that the "lesser of evils" voting that never seems to work in our favor?
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