How much more offensive?

[tzikeh]

None. None more offensive.

In a New York Times Op-Ed on Proposition 8 and the black vote, columnist Charles M. Blow (go ahead, be ten years old, I'll wait. ... Done? 'kay.) writes:

Marriage can be a sore subject for black women in general. According to 2007 Census Bureau data, black women are the least likely of all women to be married and the most likely to be divorced. Women who can’t find a man to marry might not be thrilled about the idea of men marrying each other.

I... I call bullshit all over the damn place.

Comments

[gweneiriol.livejournal.com]

he actually had the balls to write that? What a fuckhead!

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

You should read the REST of it.

[kadymae.livejournal.com]

I'm going to hold off on that -- I prefer not to drink before noon. And I think it might take the whole bottle box to get through.

[gweneiriol.livejournal.com]

I did and....

yeah. asshole.

[kadymae.livejournal.com]

And by Blow's "logic", a black men who voted against it was angry about the women out there who wanted to marry other women instead of being his baby momma.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

"Logic"? Read the rest of the article. Seriously, it's amazing how he wanders about trying to find truth *anywhere*.

[12-12-12.livejournal.com]

I wish that surprised me more than it does.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

And I had the opposite reaction - I keep thinking nothing can surprise me anymore. And then someone comes along and writes a column like this.

[ratcreature]

What? It's not just offensive. It also makes no sense whatsoever. I mean, first, what about the lesbians removed from the heterosexual marriage pool? Those ought to roughly equal the gays out. And second, why would any of the gay guys decide to suddenly marry a woman just because they can't marry their boyfriends?? What a bizarre argument.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

what about the lesbians

Pfft. Lesbians are never part of the debate about gay marriage. They don't exist politically. Didn't you know that?

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

And second, why would any of the gay guys decide to suddenly marry a woman just because they can't marry their boyfriends?

What a catch that guy would be!

[iko.livejournal.com]

The leap in logic that this writer manages to make escapes me. Completely.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

The whole article is like that.

[thebratqueen.livejournal.com]

I - what? WHAT? Jesus Herbert CHRIST!

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't know wtf to do with any of that.

[vickita.livejournal.com]

Oh, good God. WTF, srsly?

Jesus.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Pretty much, yeah.

[raincitygirl.livejournal.com]

What a fucking ASSHOLE!

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

He's special, isn't he? Read the rest of it. Here's another choice bit:

"Then, make it part of a broader discussion about the perils of rigidly applying yesterday’s sexual morality to today’s sexual mores. Show black women that it backfires."

Yeah, you *show* those black women! Because I, as a black man, am obviously far superior and know all that is right and good in the world.

[taffimai.livejournal.com]

WTF?!

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

INORITE?!

[dragovianknight.livejournal.com]

I have sometimes lamented that all the best guys seem to be gay, but in the sense of "Mother Nature likes her irony, doesn't she?" rather than as an argument against gay marriage. Mr. Blow needs to be beaten around the head and shoulders with a cluebat.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Mr. Blow needs to be beaten around the head and shoulders with a cluebat.

I don't know if even that would help.

[dragovianknight.livejournal.com]

Well, it might not make him smarter, but if we knock him unconscious he can't spew any more of this shit, right?

[amy_vic.livejournal.com]

...the FUCK?

What I'd really like to know is how this man managed to actually become a published "journalist". Or rather, what's going on in the brain of his editor, because. WHAT.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Maybe he has a doctorate in What Black Women Think from Crockofshit U.

[amy_vic.livejournal.com]

HEE.

[auroramama]

You have made me happy, which is quite a feat given the subject under discussion.

[dargie.livejournal.com]

The mind, she is boggled.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Pretty much, yeah.

[arallara.livejournal.com]

Wow, he's taking that already offensive argument about Prop 8 and the "black vote" to a whole new place of offensiveness. I mean, I'm just generally offended when people use psychological speculation to make political arguments, but this is that + a whole lotta other bullshit that makes me crazy. I can find this kind of thing funny when it's on some wingnut fringe blog, but when it's in the conventional media, it makes me CRAZY.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

:nod: Yeah, I don't know how the editor of the Op-Ed page thought "Oh, this will make a great Sunday column!"

[kirbyfest.livejournal.com]

::boggles::

Talk about Just Not Getting It. Not to mention Being A Total Moronic Fucktard.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

That's just it - dude, you're a buttmunch.

[amadyce.livejournal.com]

I used to have an art professor in college who said that Alex Katz's (http://anti-corporation.blogspot.com/2007/12/alex-katz.html) paintings made her embarrassed to be a white person. Well, this article is one of those things that kind of makes me embarrassed to be a black person.

I really hate to say it but I think the journalist is right about a lot of what's written in the article. Not all, but a lot. Unfortunately, a lot of black people do think this way. I've met them. Some of them are unfortunately related to me. People do argue stupid bullshit anti-logic like this. And to be fair, it doesn't seem like Mr. Blow is necessarily agreeing with the "logic". Just stating that it's out there. That people think this way. He's theorizing about why a certain part of the population chose to vote a certain way. And I think he could be right.

Years ago, when I first decided to move to San Francisco, I ended up staying with relatives for a few weeks until I found an apartment. I ended up with my aunt and uncle in predominantly black Oakland across the Bay. After a few days of me taking the Bart across the Bay to the city in order to look at apartments, my aunt questioned me as to why I was "bothering with San Francisco when Oakland was a much better place to find a black man." I was dumbfounded! I couldn't even begin to describe how many things were wrong with her statement, plus I was a guest in her house at the time which made things really awkward. Luckily I found an apartment soon after.

The thing is there are many black people who think in this way. I once got into an argument with a woman who was trying to tell me why black people should live in their own communities, separate from whites or other races so they could be stronger! She was arguing for segregation! I couldn't believe it. Now I know plenty of intelligent, open-minded black people. And I tend not to continue to associate with people I discover are morons (of any racial or cultural group), but every time I walk down the street and a black person ignores the chinese woman walking in front of me but smiles and calls out "Sister" as I walk by, my fears are confirmed that this kind of anti-logic persists. And while it certainly isn't confined to black people, these particular arguments may be. I can so see my aunt making that comment about the women who can't find a man. That's just the way she thinks. It makes me kind of sick, which is why I haven't talked to my aunt or uncle for about eight years now. After a few years of spending the holidays with them and their bigoted friends and ideas I'd had enough.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Thanks for commenting with this. Since I can't know, and wouldn't presume to speculate, on what this or that black community believes about anything, my reaction was mainly to his tone, and to his style of "here's what women think, I bet", rather than specifically to what he's saying. I didn't think he was agreeing with the sentiments either; but my sense of it was more "Here's how you talk to stupid people, especially black women, who are especially stupid". Plus the fact that he starts off with "here are my theories" and then goes into this condescending outline of ignorant, Bible-thumping, homophobic black women and how to get them to *see reason*, my knee-jerk reaction was "I would like to punch you in your smarmy face."

There are plenty of people who believe idiotic and prejudiced things, regardless of their race (gender religion yadda yadda). But I wouldn't publish an Op-Ed in a national newspaper in order to sneer at them and instruct Other Smart People Like Me on how to edumacate them. That's why my lj is for.

[delux-vivens.livejournal.com]

There were and are lots of Black people who were not in favor of desegregation. They had their reasons. (http://delux-vivens.livejournal.com/1091726.html) I dont think that necessarily has a lot to do with this (lack of) perspective on gay marriage, however.

[gypsyjr.livejournal.com]

... WHAT.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Couldn't tell ya.

[kiki-miserychic.livejournal.com]

That is insane troll logic.

[delux-vivens.livejournal.com]

Too many people make a career out of analyzing what is wrong with people who like like me and what needs to be done about it for me to be surprised at this.

[anoel.livejournal.com]

I am stunned in disgust that the freaking NYT published this shit.

WTF?!