Page 20
Minority & Small Business Week
October 6, 2010
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It Only Takes One
L ee A. D aniels
It only takes one.
It only takes one
black American who
has done something
wrong - or has been
accused o f doing som ething
wrong - and that special group
o f people comes charging out of
the woodwork.
You know who I mean: those
people - be they white, black or
other - who seize on the flimsi­
est o f straws to make wholesale
negative ethnic-based generali­
zations about black people, black
culture and black institutions.
T hey're at it again now, using
the allegations o f scandalous
behavior made against Bishop
Eddie Long, the Atlanta-based
megachurch celebrity preacher,
to issue all-inclusive condem na­
tions o f the so-called homopho­
bia o f “the black church.”
1 m yself find it difficult to be
tolerant o f any individual or any
institution that declares homo­
sexuality a sin. Some o f my best
friends are gay... And when I
was an adolescent looking to the
by
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am e :
Civil Rights Movement for
spiritual sustenance and
guidance, I knew that two
o f my intellectual heroes,
James Baldwin and Bayard
’ Rustin, were homosexual.
My point here is not about
what Bishop Long did or did not
do. Nor is it about his past public
pronouncements on homosexu­
ality.
Rather, it’s about the hypo­
crites in the forum ofpublic opin­
ion who practice the racist double
standard that still infects so much
o f the discourse. Several “white”
religious denom inations-Catho­
lic, Lutheran, Episcopal - have
been rocked over the past de­
cade by controversies about the
place o f gay sand lesbians within
them or by the exposure o f pe­
dophile priests or ministers in
their ranks. But you can scan the
m a in stre a m
m ed ia
and
blogosphere about these contro­
versies until your eyes cross and
not find any reference to toler­
ance for hom osexuality as a
“problem o f the white church.”
Why is that? We know why it
is, and it has nothing to do with
the fact that there are black
congregants within these white
denominations.
I don’t deny that homophobic
attitudes may be strongly held
among some black churchgo­
ers. O f course, that would be so,
given the deep-rootedness o f the
stigma among human beings
about same-sex relationships.
But, despite the visibility o f some
black ministers in opposing same-
sex relationships and marriage,
th e re is n o th in g in b lack
churchdom or in black Ameri­
can society at large to compare
to the breadth and virulence of
hom ophobia that, for all the
progress made in the acceptance
o f homosexuality as a normal
human condition, remains evi­
dent in white America.
Who is blocking repeal of
“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell?” It’s
not black Americans. Which
black preacher and congrega­
tion, however far out on the
fringe, compares with the odious
Fred W. Phelps, Sr. and his fam­
ily flock at Westboro Baptist
Church, who is profiled in the
current issue o f Time Magazine.
Some cite the Pew Research
Center poll o f last October as
evidence that blacks deserve
special condemnation. The sur­
vey found that 66 percent o f
blacks oppose same-sex mar­
riage and 64 percent think ho­
mosexuality morally wrong. The
comparable numbers for whites
were 52 percent and 48 percent.
But it’s an assertion that, at best,
can be characterized as disin­
genuous.
For one thing, in contrast to
what exists among whites at the
local, state and national levels,
among black elected officials,
clergy, or the general population,
there is no organized opposition
o f any power to the expansion o f
the civil rights o f gays and lesbi­
ans.
For another, translating the
Pew survey percentages to hard
numbers suggests quite a differ­
ent perspective on the matter:
The roughly two-thirds o f black
Americans who oppose homo­
sexuality come to about 24 mil­
lion o f the 37 million blacks in
America. The 48 percent o f the
roughly 225 million whites in
America who feel the same way
equal about 108 million people.
This analysis makes it clear
whose opposition presents the
greater barrier to gays and lesbi­
ans realizing their full human
rights.
C e rta in ly , B ish o p E dd ie
Long’s career illum inates-cer­
tain facets o f the evangelical,
charismatic style o f preaching
that have captured the allegiance
o f millions o f Americans o f all
kinds who attend megachurches
either in person or via technol­
ogy. And some o f those things
may even be particularly repre­
sentative o f aspects o f the cul­
tu re o f b lack A m eric an
churches. But expressing intol­
erance toward others or preying
upon the vulnerable aren’t.
And anyone who says so is
just whistling Dixie.
Lee A. Daniels is Director
o f Communications fo r the
NAACP Legal Defense and
Educational Fund.,
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The racial double standard at work
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J im H ightower
Maybe you're one o f the thousands
o f young lawyers in America working
in some low-skill, part-time job be­
cause law firms have cut so many of
the starting positions you were edu­
cated to take. If so, I have good news:
Jobs for young lawyers are now mushrooming in
companies that provide legal services to U.S.
corporations.
Unfortunately, you'll have to move to India to
get one. And the pay will b e -h o w shall I put
this?-disappointing.
Law yering has becom e the latest category
o f good jo b s disappearing from our Land o f the
Free as corporate chieftains continue, to off­
shore the A m erican w orkplace. W all Street
banks, insurance corporations, m ining giants,
and others are shipping m ore and m ore o f their
law b u sin e ss to P a n g e a 3 , C P A G lo b a l,
U nitedLex, and other rapidly expanding legal
outsourcing Qutfits in India.
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In the past five years the number o f these
upstart firms has more than tripled, with each one
offering from a few dozen to hundreds o f young
Indian law school graduates. These eager legal
beagles are hunkered down in corporate
cubicles, ready to write contracts, review
legal docum ents, and—increasingly—to
handle the more sophisticated chores of
case management and regulatory filings
that corporations have been entrusting to
more experienced American lawyers.
Even though U.S. corporations have amassed
record levels o f profits and cash reserves, they
are offshoring their legal work simply because it
puts even more money in their pockets. They can
pay Indian lawyers as little as a tenth o f what
they'd pay young American attom eys-and the
90-percent wage difference goes to the corpora­
tion, rather than being spread through our economy
as family incomes.
It's another move by the corporate elite to
separate their expanding fortunes from the well­
being o f America's middle class-an d from the
well being o f America itself.
Jim Hightower is a radio commentator,
writer, and public speaker.