Prop 8 and Obama

On Tuesday, Californians voted for Proposition 8 to remove a long-existing but only recently acknowledged civil right from a minority of its citizens: the right to marry whomever you choose regardless of gender. The California Supreme Court made it clear in their May 2008 ruling that the equal protection clause of the California constitution guarantees this right.

But which Californians voted to take away this right? A quick scan of the exit polls on cnn.com reveals that while white and young voters tended to oppose Prop 8 (51 percent and 61 percent, respectively), African-American voters were overwhelmingly in favor of it (70 percent). There is more than irony to this. African-Americans have experienced heavy discrimination throughout American history, so why should they choose to discriminate another minority group?

One possibility is that African Americans tend to be socially and religiously conservative, but so do Asian Americans, and they tended to oppose Prop 8 (51 percent). Or maybe it's like when Irish immigrants in Boston discriminated against newly arrived southern blacks in order to offset the discrimination they had faced upon their own arrival. No, I think the blame lies squarely with President-elect Barack Obama. African-Americans voted overwhelmingly for Obama (94 percent), and he made it clear during his campaign that he opposed marriage equality. Despite his progressive message of political inclusion, Obama failed to rebuke this overt hypocrisy.

"Change"? "Hope"? "Yes we can"? Nonsense. Had Sen. Hillary Clinton been the nominee, fewer African-American voters may have turned out and Prop 8 may have been defeated. We'll never know, but I would gladly trade Obama for marriage equality.

Don't get me wrong. I still voted for him because he shares many of my values and views, but it feels like a hollow victory. Let's hope he can and will correct this in his new position as president.

Rick Dilling

Graduate student