The falled Illinois marriage vote blame has begun, and guess who getting the blame. Black folks! ding, ding, ding!
But the funny thing is, you can't blame the Black caucus. In fact, two members of the Black Caucus — Rep. Ken Dunkin and Rep. LaShawn Ford spoke out about it:
“It’s larger than that. We have 118 members and we have 71 Democrats who could have passed this bill,” Ford said. “So the fact that we didn’t pass it is not the fault of the Black Caucus. What happened is that we had democracy at its best and the people spoke and their representatives listened.”
In addition, Dunkin said marriage equality is not a civil rights issue and marriage equality advocates may have offended black lawmakers when they equated the two.
“Sorry, this is not the Black Caucus’ burden issue,” he said. “We shouldn’t be wearing the jacket for this. That would be unfair and disingenuous to have the Black Caucus wear the jacket because there are 71 Democrats.”What's been disheartening is how several LGBT bloggers and activists blame them without knowing everything that happened.
I'm not siding with the Black Caucus because I'm Black. I"m just saying it's lazy and irresponsible to do so if you don't have all the facts.
So, to those who completely blamed the Black Caucus, shame on you.
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