Do The Election Results Indicate Tolerance Or Hypocrisy?
While the election of our first black president is a historic event that would seem to indicate we are becoming more tolerant as a society, the passage of ballot initiatives in 3 states banning same-sex marriage tells a very different story. Voters in California, Florida and Arizona all passed constitutional amendments that define marriage as only between one man and one woman.
Homosexuals and blacks are the two minority groups in our country that have been discriminated against in the most blatant and persistent fashion throughout our history. Both groups have made tremendous advances in recent decades as a result of legal protections, and a general shift in attitudes among the population. Since the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, virtually every form of discrimination based on age, race, religion, physical disability and sexual orientation has been outlawed. For some reason, we still see fit as a society to prevent same-sex couples from enjoying the legal benefits of marriage.
One would think that blacks and homosexuals would be well served to combine forces in their efforts to eradicate the last vestiges of discrimination, but the exit poll results from California and Florida tell a very different story. White and Asian voters in California were almost evenly split on the issue, with each group voting 51% to 49% in opposition to the amendment. Hispanic voters were 53% to 47% in favor of passage. Black voters, however, voted overwhelmingly in favor of the marriage ban by a 70% to 30% margin.
Voters in every racial category supported the same-sex marriage ban in Florida by varying degrees. The least intolerant group was made up of whites who voted to pass the amendment by a 60% to 40% margin. 64% of Hispanic voters were in favor of the ban, while a shocking 71% of black voters cast their ballots in favor of legalized discrimination against homosexual couples.
The pundits have already begun the endless debate over what the 2008 election really means in terms of our shifting attitudes. Does the fact that we freely elected a black man to the most powerful office in the world mean that we are finally prepared to give up our old prejudices, or does it simply indicate that dissatisfaction with the current administration was so great that any Democratic candidate would have won by a convincing margin? I suspect the latter to be true. The fact that one aggrieved minority is so obviously willing to enforce legal discrimination against another indicates that we are still a long way from becoming a truly tolerant society.
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