Please pass this along. We really need to stop the propagation of the myth that black California's overwhelmingly voted for Prop 8.
According to fivethirtyeight. com the passing of the measure was a generational divide and not solely a racial one. Nate Silver wrote on NOV 11 that, "At the end of the day, Prop 8's passage was more a generational matter than a racial one. If nobody over the age of 65 had voted, Prop 8 would have failed by a point or two. It appears that the generational splits may be larger within minority communities than among whites, although the data on this is sketchy".
Also according to a story that aired on local LA NPR station KPCC, little more then half of black voters voted for the measure. This statistic is based on exit polls conducted by Center for the Study of L.A at Loyola Marymount University.. According to Fernando Guerra director of the above stated Center, "Seventeen-and-a-half percent of all blacks in state of California live and vote in city of L.A." He went on to say, "for us to get only 52 percent – and statewide 70 percent, all blacks outside the city of Los Angeles would have had to support that proposition by 75 percent, so it makes it even higher.” This seems very unlikely.
Please pass along the word to everyone you know. We cannot not afford to alienate anyone from our movement. We don't want to see a racial divide, a sex divide, an orientation divide, or for that matter any divide.
Thanks friends,
mark
