The California NAACP does not speak for us

[Dreadsox]

[Q]said Craig DeLuz, a Sacramento black community leader and a former member of the Sacramento NAACP chapter. “Unlike the NAACP, we understand that marriage is between one man and one woman.” [/Q]


[Q]California : AFRICAN-AMERICANS OPPOSE HOMOSEXUAL-MARRIAGE LICENSE BILL
Posted by Senior Editor on 2005/4/19 10:14:59
Sacramento – Today, the real civil-rights community spoke out. African-American pastors and citizens gathered outside the State Capitol in Sacramento Monday to speak in support of marriage between a man and a woman, and to straightforwardly oppose AB 19, the “same-sex marriage license” bill.

Fifty black Californians stood shoulder-to-shoulder at a noon news conference which openly criticized the California NAACP for selling out on marriage and for ignoring the overwhelming number of African-Americans in California who support keeping marriage for a man and a woman.

“The California NAACP does not speak for us,” said Craig DeLuz, a Sacramento black community leader and a former member of the Sacramento NAACP chapter. “Unlike the NAACP, we understand that marriage is between one man and one woman.”

“Assembly Bill 19 is nothing more than an attempt to get around the will of the voters of California,” said DeLuz. “We want the members of the Legislature and the California NAACP to know that you will no longer be able to enact these laws without us watching. You’re no longer going to be able to slink into the corners of this building and pass legislation with us being completely unaware. We are watching you and we are voters. You will either support the will of the people or the people will make sure that you no longer represent us.”

“We want to be very, very clear that we who are Christian in the black community understand the issue,” concluded DeLuz. “We understand that marriage is between one man and one woman. We wanted to come here together to send a message to both the California State Legislature as well as to the California NAACP that we do understand this fact.”

Another speaker was Minister Alfred Walker of Calvary Christian Center in Sacramento, the largest multi-ethnic church in California. “I am appalled as an African-American male to have all of the other protected groups being added to an Act that was originally designed to protect the rights of African-Americans,” he said, referring to the 1964 federal Civil Rights Act.

Addressing state legislators, Walker said, “You were elected to uphold the vote of the people. The people have clearly indicated what their preference is. It should not be an issue that judges and legislators and other people try to override the vote of the people.”

Brenda Bennett, head of the Sacramento Alliance for Civil Rights, which hosted today’s news conference, said, “We are offended when the homosexual community compares what they do to the civil rights that were fought for in this country for minorities. It is not a civil right for anyone to be married. Marriage is a privilege. It is not a right. The civil rights movement was not fought for that issue.”

“The people have spoken,” said Bennett, “but our legislators are ignoring the will of the people. They’re ignoring us! We as minorities – blacks, Hispanics, and every minority – we’re offended. We’re offended every time we hear them compare what they want to civil rights. We’re disgusted with our legislators. They’re not listening to the will of the people.”

Immediately following the news conference, the citizens entered the State Capitol Building to lobby members of the Assembly Judiciary Committee, which has tentatively scheduled AB 19 for an April 26 hearing. The “gay marriage license” bill is coauthored by 25 state legislators, all Democrats.
[/Q]

[financeguy]

Interesting. We sometimes make the mistake of assuming black Christians are more 'liberal' than white Christians in America but of course many black Americans are socially conservative. I'm not saying they're wrong or right, I just make the obervation in passing.

[Irvine511]

so sad.

particularly when one takes into account just how difficult it is to be both black and gay. you face ostricism by white society, by straight society, and now by black society (and, some gay black men would argue, even by gay society).

i have so many thoughts on this issue, but they're a bit incendiary, and far from being politically correct, so i'll wait a bit and see how this thread turns out.

message to the NAACP: gay black men need you as much as anyone else in the african-american community. perhaps more so.

my heart aches for these men.

[indra]

Morons come in all races.

[nbcrusader]

The more we divide ourselves with labels, the more likely we are to fall....

[Dreadsox]

Originally posted by Irvine511
so sad.

particularly when one takes into account just how difficult it is to be both black and gay. you face ostricism by white society, by straight society, and now by black society (and, some gay black men would argue, even by gay society).

i have so many thoughts on this issue, but they're a bit incendiary, and far from being politically correct, so i'll wait a bit and see how this thread turns out.

message to the NAACP: gay black men need you as much as anyone else in the african-american community. perhaps more so.

my heart aches for these men.

[Irvine511]

Originally posted by nbcrusader
The more we divide ourselves with labels, the more likely we are to fall....

i agree ... it's terrible to be placed into a box not of your own making by those in power.

reminds me of my "stereotypes and labels" thread ...

[the iron horse]

"Brenda Bennett, head of the Sacramento Alliance for Civil Rights, which hosted today’s news conference, said, “We are offended when the homosexual community compares what they do to the civil rights that were fought for in this country for minorities. It is not a civil right for anyone to be married. Marriage is a privilege. It is not a right. The civil rights movement was not fought for that issue.”


I agree.

[BVS]

Originally posted by the iron horse
"Brenda Bennett, head of the Sacramento Alliance for Civil Rights, which hosted today’s news conference, said, “We are offended when the homosexual community compares what they do to the civil rights that were fought for in this country for minorities. It is not a civil right for anyone to be married. Marriage is a privilege. It is not a right. The civil rights movement was not fought for that issue.”


I agree.

Yeah and at the time of civil rights many didn't think sitting in the lower seats was a right but a privelege. A privelege for the white.

[the iron horse]

"Yeah and at the time of civil rights many didn't think sitting in the lower seats was a right but a privelege. A privelege for the white."


My first thoughts: On this crayon gig with black, white, yellow, red ...


It's a real drag that keeps us from coming together.

I think it's time we started thinking about the human race.


*i know, this comment was way off thread*

[BVS]

Originally posted by the iron horse

It's a real drag that keeps us from coming together.

I think it's time we started thinking about the human race.

Too bad that contradicts your previous comment.

[Teta040]

Look, even though people on here know some of my opinions on this issue, (namely, gays adopting children), I have to say that those people who are so "concerned" about America's "moral welfare" are for the most part nothing but a bunch of hyprocrites.

Why don't we see crowds of people, from the NAACP, and all kinds of other "guardians of the common good", flocking to the steps of the State Legislature on a weekly basis to protest passionately about a better public transporation system for minorities (city buses are so crowded on one major LA route, I've read, that they are known in popular perlance, and without a shred of irony, as "slave ships"), or health care, or alternative energy systems for cars, or the consequences of the shrinking "welfare state", or the AIDS epidemic in general, regardless of who the victims are (that suffering face in the hospital bed is the face of Christ), or the sickening gap between rich and poor that EXACTLY mirrors that we saw in "Titanic")?

How about the fact that in South Carolina, only 15% of African-Americans go to college. I don't mean graduate from college, I mean, as in going someplace after high school. How different is that from only 3% of Nigeria having electricty?


How about the fact that we might not have a national train system any longer, and I mean within 7 or 8 yeras--Bush wants to turn over control of the national passenger train system to private companies in the States? (Imagine, by contrast, if the Interstate Highway Sytem was not federally funded. With today's state budgets, how long would it last? 12 yrs ago, a major bridge collapsed on the New York Interstate, not far from Albany, killing about 20 people and paralyzing the system for days; and that was at the height of the 90's economic boom, when the states were rich.. I shudder right now. We see where priorites lie.)

This makes me sick. If this what Lenin indeed meant by "religion being the opiate of the people", for once I'd have to agree with him. "Sexy issues" (as Bono would label them), are a FANTASTIC way of distracting the people from what the really important things happening around them--and, by inference, from blaming politicinas who are directly responsible for THE SHAFTING OF THE ELCTORATE, from whatever party. 15 yrs from now, when a third of the country is without health insurance and another 25% has only basic coverage, when the elderly are starting to die 10 yrs earlier than forcasts used to have them dying, when our life expectancy has dropped to that of Communist-era Hungary, and cars, computers and print books are toys for the rich, then we'll lament just how we wasted out time and energy on TRIVIAL subjects like this. While we become economic slaves to China and INDIA< a country we used to picture in our minds the slums of Calcutta. Someday, they'll come here, and ask to tour our homeless shelters, and they'll see our disease-ridden hospitals, and crumbling roads, and legions of mniserable, struggling, workning-class people, and go home and titter about the once-great America.

Congradulations, you bastard. You and Ratzinger, would make great bedfellows. He'll always be "Ratzinger" to me, and Is supect, to a lot of Catholics as well. Thank God I'm not one. To add to the Bush-Putin-Sharon unholy trio, we now have this bastard, who should do more damage then all.

About a century ago, DW Griffith had a name for these people.."reformers" he derisively called them, in his masterpiece follow-up (and admitted public penance for Birth of a Nation), "Intolerance." Aptly named, and a great film, in soite of it being silent black and white. I urge everyone to find a copy.

[deep]

Originally posted by the iron horse


It's a real drag that keeps us from coming together.

I think it's time we started thinking about the human race.

and stop wasting time with these sub-humans?

i guess they can't reproduce

so they are their own final solution? right?

[indra]

I don't understand why so many people fail to understand that the rights of one group makes it all that much easier to deny the rights of others. I don't think even situation has to line up perfectly with another to be be worthy of similar consideration -- hell no two situations are going to do that anyway.

I guess having someone below you is preferable than standing all on the same level though.

[Irvine511]

Originally posted by deep



and stop wasting time with these sub-humans?

i guess they can't reproduce

so they are their own final solution? right?

yes, with the lack of gay parents, it proves that homosexuality is taught and not genetic, because there have only been homosexuals in existence since the late 1960s and this is why their recruiting drives are so important and must be stopped so children will stop being taught how to be homosexuals.

oh, wait ... they seem to pick it up just fine on their own, don't they?

[Irvine511]

Originally posted by indra
I guess having someone below you is preferable than standing all on the same level though.

yes, absolutely.

this is why, in much of, say, rap -- and the biggest perpetrator of this being Eminem, who i'm a fan of, btw -- that it is perfectly acceptable to make gay slurs because, hey, i might be black and poor and uneducated, or white and poor and uneducated (and because i rap and worship black rappers, i suppose traditional racism is out of the question), but at least i'm not gay.

we all need someone to kick to make ourselves feel better, don't we?

[Teta040]

DON'T get me started on Eminem.

Should I break your heart, Irvine, by saying that Bono is a big fan of his, because he is fascinated with him on a personal level ("but for the grace of God, Ali, and U2 when I was 16, there go I." He was going down Em's road in those 2 yrs between his mother's death and the band. He knew Ali in a schoolfriend sense for 3 yrs but they didn't start a relationship until he was 16.) THis is the only time I don't agree with Bono here, but at least I can understand why the friendship, at least on an intellectual level. Maybe Bono is trying to "convert" him. Who knows?

[Moonlit_Angel]

Originally posted by indra
I don't think even situation has to line up perfectly with another to be be worthy of similar consideration

Exactly. No, gay people haven't been enslaved or kept in the back of a bus like black people have, but they're still facing discrimination. Discrimination can come in any form-anyone can experience it. And yes, gay people are being denied their rights: the right to the pursuit of happiness. They aren't being allowed to do something that would make them happy, just as interracial couples were denied their happiness at one time, or just as black people were denied their happiness (after all, I can imagine that most people aren't happy when they get banned from going to some show they really wanted to see or sitting anywhere they wanted in a building or a vehicle or something like that). It really amazes me that some people don't get that.

Angela

[Do Miss America]

Originally posted by the iron horse



My first thoughts: On this crayon gig with black, white, yellow, red ...


It's a real drag that keeps us from coming together.

Yeah and straight, gay, sinner, bigger sinner...

Originally posted by the iron horse

I think it's time we started thinking about the human race.

Quite contradicting given your view that it's OK to create 2nd class citizens by not allowing them the same rights as you. Do you even read your own posts?

[Irvine511]

Originally posted by Teta040
DON'T get me started on Eminem.

Should I break your heart, Irvine, by saying that Bono is a big fan of his, because he is fascinated with him on a personal level ("but for the grace of God, Ali, and U2 when I was 16, there go I." He was going down Em's road in those 2 yrs between his mother's death and the band. He knew Ali in a schoolfriend sense for 3 yrs but they didn't start a relationship until he was 16.) THis is the only time I don't agree with Bono here, but at least I can understand why the friendship, at least on an intellectual level. Maybe Bono is trying to "convert" him. Who knows?

not at all -- re-read my post; i'm an Eminem fan as well. as much as i'd do anything to prevent my 11 year old from buying his records, his talent is astonishing, and he's sociologically fascinating as well for the reasons i mentioned above.