Whoopi Goldberg To Be At NYC Protest

I just heard on Michelangelo Signorile's Air America radio show that Whoopi Goldberg is going to be speaking at the protest tonight once the march reaches Columbus Circle. Whoopi has maintained an admirably clear head in all of this.

I've said this before - an African-American woman speaking about gay civil rights is a powerful and poignant instrument of civil rights.

This got me thinking about Jasmyne Cannick, an African-American woman who writes for The Daily Voice: Black America's Daily News Source. Jasmyne has a post today that suggests African-Americans were not correctly targeted in the No on Prop 8 ads: "So let's recap, no Black people for the No on 8 campaign ads (using Samuel Jackson's voice doesn't count) and Black people in the Yes on 8 campaign ads. And Black people made up 69 percent of the Yes vote you say?" Cannick writes in an article in the SF Chronicle:

I am a perfect example of why the fight against Proposition 8, which amends California's Constitution to ban same-sex marriage, failed to win black support. I am black. I am a political activist who cares deeply about social justice issues. I am a lesbian. This year, I canvassed the streets of South Los Angeles and Compton, knocking on doors, talking politics to passers-by and working as I never had before to ensure a large voter turnout among African Americans. But even I wasn't inspired to encourage black people to vote against the proposition.

The blame for the failure lies with all of us. The No on Prop 8 committee failed in its approach to get the right information to the right people. The LA Times asks, "Where were the gay leaders? It's hard to imagine the civil rights movement of the 1960s succeeding without Martin Luther King Jr. or Malcolm X, or to imagine the women's suffrage movement without the likes of Susan B. Anthony."

Below, is the video accompanying Jasmyne Cannick's post. It shows how the idea of gay marriage as a component of civil rights was twisted and re-shaped into something almost unrecognizable. Let me be clear - I am not saying in any way that African-Americans are to blame for the passing of Prop 8. This video is an indication of how some of those who favored it viewed its relation to civil rights. Imagine if there had been a similar ad that was AGAINST Prop 8?