It’s an intersectionality paradox: What do you do when a supposedly oppressed class such as African Americans is also an oppressor to another group, such as gay people? Apparently, for Democrats, the answer is to bury your head in the sand.
New York Times columnist Charles Blow, not exactly known for his tempered reason and nuance, blasted the idea that homophobia has anything to do with Pete Buttigieg’s poor polling among black voters, calling it a “disgusting, racist trope, secretly nursed and insidiously whispered by white liberals with contempt for the very black people they court and need.” His sentiments are shared by Boston Globe columnist Renée Graham, who called concerns over black homophobia a “rancid narrative.” Similarly, Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris dismissed this all as a racist trope.
Yet polls show black people hold less accepting views toward homosexuality. To suggest that this magically goes away when it comes to their voting patterns is absurd.
According to 2017 data from the non-partisan Pew Research Center, black people are substantially less likely to say “homosexuality should be accepted by society” than whites or Hispanics. About 73% of Hispanics say gay people deserve acceptance in society, and 70% of whites, but just 63% of black respondents agreed.
That’s a significant gulf.
Meanwhile, according to 2019 Pew data, 62% of white people favor same-sex marriage, compared to 58 % of Hispanics and just 51% of black people. According to a 2014 Pew survey, 70% of black respondents said homosexual behavior is a sin, compared to just 47% of whites.
Consider that Buttigieg polls terribly with black primary voters, despite being somewhat moderate like Joe Biden, their most favored candidate. It’s clear that black people are generally less comfortable with gay people and less likely to support electing one president.
Evidence of black voters’ homophobia is clearly supported by survey data, undercutting Blow’s argument that it’s a “racist trope” or whatever wokescolds with their heads in the sand want to call it.
Of course, this does not mean that all black people are homophobic — it’s always wrong to apply broad generalizations to any individual. But we can’t ignore data just because it makes the politically correct elite uncomfortable.
Of course, Blow and others suggest different factors are at play, such as Buttigieg’s mishandling of race-relations as South Bend, Indiana, mayor. They are not wrong. Where they err is to suggest that black homophobia does not play a major part in his struggles with black voters as well, when all facts suggest otherwise.
An internal Buttigieg campaign memo, for instance, exposed focus group findings that being gay was a “barrier” for many black voters. Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn, African American himself, has acknowledged publicly the role homophobia has played with Buttigieg’s struggle among black voters in South Carolina. Even Al Sharpton recently said, “We’ve got to openly deal with the homophobia that still lingers in parts of the black community.”
Are these prominent black liberals guilty of racist tropes?
Denial is not a strategy. If liberals want the underlying attitudes of the black community toward homosexuality to change, they must at least acknowledge the problem’s existence. Yes, even if it makes them uncomfortable.
