Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To all the people who are up in arms about the notion that Obama has a leadership role within the black community...are you serious? Obama's election is historic for the black community and regardless of people's political opinions the things he says and does are noticed and commented on by the country in general as well as the black community specifically. He is the President of the United States! He is a leader. That is a fact. It stands to reason that these facts have particular resonance with the Black community simply by virtue of him being Black.

Also, it is well documented that Blacks have historically polled as being largely against same-sex marriage. What Jeff was pointing out is what appears to be a recent shift in that.

It makes total sense to assume that some of that shift might be due to President Obama's recent support of same-sex marriage and the support that followed by other Blacks in leadership positions.

Not really seeing what is offensive here...and I am Black, for the record.

I agree with this, and I'm normally the ornery mean-ass arguing with everyone in the threads about black people and gay marriage.

I don't agree with people who say Sharpton and Jackson are the leaders of the black community, but how can anyone argue that the POTUS is the leader of the US? He's the nation's most prominent Black Christian so it makes sense that his "evolution" had a special effect on other Black Christians.

Well there isn't one person. Jackson has people who like him. The fact is that Jackson and Sharpton were two of the first who stood by gays when other figures in the civil rights era were silent.

Anonymous wrote:To all the people who are up in arms about the notion that Obama has a leadership role within the black community...are you serious? Obama's election is historic for the black community and regardless of people's political opinions the things he says and does are noticed and commented on by the country in general as well as the black community specifically. He is the President of the United States! He is a leader. That is a fact. It stands to reason that these facts have particular resonance with the Black community simply by virtue of him being Black.

Also, it is well documented that Blacks have historically polled as being largely against same-sex marriage. What Jeff was pointing out is what appears to be a recent shift in that.

It makes total sense to assume that some of that shift might be due to President Obama's recent support of same-sex marriage and the support that followed by other Blacks in leadership positions.

Not really seeing what is offensive here...and I am Black, for the record.

I agree with this, and I'm normally the ornery mean-ass arguing with everyone in the threads about black people and gay marriage.

I don't agree with people who say Sharpton and Jackson are the leaders of the black community, but how can anyone argue that the POTUS is the leader of the US? He's the nation's most prominent Black Christian so it makes sense that his "evolution" had a special effect on other Black Christians.

Anonymous wrote:I don't know if Obama has changed anyone's mind but I'm guessing his willingness to finally "come out of the closet" (so to speak) on gay marriage might have had an influence on some other Black leaders who have come out recently in support of gay marriage. Was the NAACP statement just a coincidence? Maybe - or maybe they felt that if POTUS could say something so could they. And, no, a similar statement by George Bush or Bill Clinton would not have put the same kind of pressure on them as a statement by Obama.

Jay-Z just came out in support of gay marriage. I know he's just an entertainer, but entertainers have influence, especially among the young. His statement is undoubtedly in reaction to the President's comments.

I know there are some posters still offended by this leadership thing, but it is not meant to be disparaging. It's about respected people in a community speaking up on controversial subjects. Once one voice is heard, others follow and soon the tide changes.

The press likes a good narrative, and Obama has changed the story line on black views of gay marriage.

Agree pp. I don't think that Obama changed people's minds so much but that he reached folks who were on the fence about this issue. There are quite a few prominent AA pastors that have supported gay rights for a long time, but you'd never know it.

I don't know if Obama has changed anyone's mind but I'm guessing his willingness to finally "come out of the closet" (so to speak) on gay marriage might have had an influence on some other Black leaders who have come out recently in support of gay marriage. Was the NAACP statement just a coincidence? Maybe - or maybe they felt that if POTUS could say something so could they. And, no, a similar statement by George Bush or Bill Clinton would not have put the same kind of pressure on them as a statement by Obama.

Ok...we all do know that you can make statistics say whatever you want them to say? Is this a secret? If I want to drum up some drama for whatever reason it is very easy to take some data and shape it so it says what I want it to say.

You really have to stop taking these polls and media releases as gospel. It doesn't make any of you sound as educated as you claim to be.

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the point of this post?

It's treading on the line of being offensive.

What's the white opinion these days and who is the white leader? Who is the Latino leader and what do all Latinos vote for or against? What about those Chinese? Who is influencing the Chinese vote in America and who do they follow?

Or is it just black people that can be grouped into "black people do this and follow this person because they have no opinions or brain cells"

I'm not sure what post you are referring to, but I wrote the first post in this thread. I didn't say anything about a leader. There have been many threads on this website about how black voters are disproportionately anti-gay marriage. Now we have data that shows that is not the case. I don't know why this alleged trend has changed, if it has even changed. I'm just glad that there are more votes in support of gay marriage in Maryland.

It was not your post. Your post was information. It was post 14:15

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the point of this post?

It's treading on the line of being offensive.

What's the white opinion these days and who is the white leader? Who is the Latino leader and what do all Latinos vote for or against? What about those Chinese? Who is influencing the Chinese vote in America and who do they follow?

Or is it just black people that can be grouped into "black people do this and follow this person because they have no opinions or brain cells"

Dear moron, this is not a "Black" thing. And there is not only one leader of anything.

Dear douchebag. I am talking about you with the duncecap in the corner. Go back and read 14:14 and tell me he/she was not talking about Black people needing to be led. Oh, it's a good thing, Obama and Powell are leading, now if we can only get more Black folks to lead the other Black folks in what you think gay marriage should be.

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

What changed between March and May?

Obama came out in support.

Also the North Carolina amendment passed. If you are a Marylander, do you really want to follow North Carolina's footsteps?

Maryland is the liberal haven of the east and has the same characteristics as debt ridden California. What did you expect from such a horrible place?

Actually according to the debt clock, Virginia has more debt per citizen than Maryland. Oh no, doesn't that just blow your political mind?

http://www.usdebtclock.org/state-debt-clocks/state-of-virginia-debt-clock.html

Anonymous wrote:What is the point of this post?

It's treading on the line of being offensive.

What's the white opinion these days and who is the white leader? Who is the Latino leader and what do all Latinos vote for or against? What about those Chinese? Who is influencing the Chinese vote in America and who do they follow?

Or is it just black people that can be grouped into "black people do this and follow this person because they have no opinions or brain cells"

If you don't believe that leaders sway their followers with their leadership, then you haven't been paying attention to politics in America during your lifetime. While I agree that there is no single leader for any large demographic group, there are leaders who promote a certain platform and that large contingents of certain demographics will follow that platform. For example, while there is no single black leader, there are several black leaders that promote a certain platform of thought and many blacks will follow. These can vary from larger offices such as the POTUS, to black religious leaders (think Harry Jackson and the Maryland anti-gay marriage coalition), etc.

Likewise there are many white leaders who definitely promote platforms that many follow. On the conservative Tea Party side you have those like Rush Limbaugh Ann Coulter and Sarah Palin. On the liberal side, you have those like President Obama, John Stewart and Arianna Huffington.

Who is influential for the Chinese Vote? S. B. Woo. You may not have heard of him, but over 100,000 Asian Americans have. He is the leader of a political action committee with over 100,000 members who tries to bring issues of important to Asian Americans to the forefront. 80-20 has worked to shift the Asian vote to vote as close to a block as possible. The name is based on the idea that aim to get 80% of the Asian vote to vote in line with their stance and to use this block vote to get Asian concerns addressed by candidate politicians. And 80-20 has shifted traditional Asian voting patterns in California and national races. It isn't all Asians, but it's a very large block vote that will vote based on the arguments that Dr. Woo proposes for the Asian demographic.

There are gay leaders and Hispanic leaders. And while they don't establish a 100% following within their demographic, they have a large amount of influence within their demographic. This doesn't make any group monolithic, but it does mean that large groups of those demographics do vote as a block. Often people will choose someone who they feel represents their demographic (whatever they choose to identify with) and will agree with those stances. You are naive if you don't see and understand that this happens.

Anonymous wrote:To all the people who are up in arms about the notion that Obama has a leadership role within the black community...are you serious? Obama's election is historic for the black community and regardless of people's political opinions the things he says and does are noticed and commented on by the country in general as well as the black community specifically. He is the President of the United States! He is a leader. That is a fact. It stands to reason that these facts have particular resonance with the Black community simply by virtue of him being Black.

Also, it is well documented that Blacks have historically polled as being largely against same-sex marriage. What Jeff was pointing out is what appears to be a recent shift in that.

It makes total sense to assume that some of that shift might be due to President Obama's recent support of same-sex marriage and the support that followed by other Blacks in leadership positions.

Not really seeing what is offensive here...and I am Black, for the record.

Couldn't agree more with this. Idk why all the black people (I'm black and gay, for whatever that's worth) are so up in arms when they ALL KNOW they were jamming to "my president is black" in November 2008.

To all the people who are up in arms about the notion that Obama has a leadership role within the black community...are you serious? Obama's election is historic for the black community and regardless of people's political opinions the things he says and does are noticed and commented on by the country in general as well as the black community specifically. He is the President of the United States! He is a leader. That is a fact. It stands to reason that these facts have particular resonance with the Black community simply by virtue of him being Black.

Also, it is well documented that Blacks have historically polled as being largely against same-sex marriage. What Jeff was pointing out is what appears to be a recent shift in that.

It makes total sense to assume that some of that shift might be due to President Obama's recent support of same-sex marriage and the support that followed by other Blacks in leadership positions.

Not really seeing what is offensive here...and I am Black, for the record.

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

What changed between March and May?

Obama came out in support.

Also the North Carolina amendment passed. If you are a Marylander, do you really want to follow North Carolina's footsteps?

Maryland is the liberal haven of the east and has the same characteristics as debt ridden California. What did you expect from such a horrible place?