This week was a big one for marriage equality, thanks to President Barack Obama's announcement of support for gay marriage. Following in his footsteps was Jay-Z, hip-hop's leader of sorts, and then T.I., among others, including boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Ice Cube. Ta-Nehisi Coates of the Atlantic says that opposition to gay marriage never actually ran that deeply in America in the first place.
The other day someone mentioned that opposition to marriage equality, while widespread, was thin. In other words, if you asked posed same-sex marriage to someone, initially, they'd oppose it. But it isn't the sort of issue that most people are really going to wage war, unless you truly believe 1.) Gay marriage is an offense to God. 2.) That government should follow that dictate …
Finally, prejudice is a kind of cartel that works best when there is no real dissent. Once one person breaks away, others who may have had doubts find it easy to speak up. Moreover, those who never really had objection—but were just kinda going along—also fall away. It's not like everyone in Mississippi thought Emmitt Till got what he had coming.
I think the marriage equality folks concerned about gay marriage in black communities, should really recruit some rappers. They've already done it with black athletes. But I bet they could get some rappers on board too.
Read Ta-Nehisi Coates' entire blog entry at the Atlantic.
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