The alarm clock is ringing louder than ever; it’s time for black people to wake up from their slumber.
President Obama made the message clear last week; it’s time for black people to put down their bibles and convert to equality.
Obama’s evolvement and affirmation that same-sex couples should be able to get married sent shock waves through every locality across the country, and the ripple effects have reached even to the notoriously influential hip-hop community.
Thirty years ago, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five gave us “The Message,” painting a perfect picture through lyrical and social commentary and transforming the genre that started out in the parks into the politically minded platform we see today.
Today the message is clear. As hip-hop rode the wave, speaking on racial injustice, drugs, gangs, police brutality and other ills that affected black neighborhoods in America, the conversation is changing. A new fight for basic equality is here.
Jay-Z, arguably one of the most influential artists in the last 15 years, affirmed that he supports same-sex marriage.
Jay told CNN:
“I’ve always thought it as something that was still holding the country back. What people do in their own homes is their business and you can choose to love whoever you love. That’s their business. It’s no different than discriminating against blacks. It’s discrimination, plain and simple.”
Here’s the argument: how can Obama garner the same support from black people in 2012 if he believes in same-sex marriage, when a large amount of African-Americans don’t hold the same view?
Last week, a day before Obama’s endorsement, Amendment One was passed in North Carolina, an amendment aimed at blocking gay unions/marriage from becoming legal.
In 2008, Obama received more than 90 percent of the N.C. black vote. So come election time, what’s going to happen?
In N.C., the large black congregations hit the polls and passed Amendment One with 61 percent of the vote.
Many of the churchgoers cited Genesis and the Gospels as defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman, and quote from Leviticus in the Old Testament and Paul in the New, which call same-gender sex abominable, perverse and shameful.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t look at Obama as a spiritual leader, a prophet, nor a pastor. He is our President!
I want my President to make sure I have every right to love, marry and be with anyone I choose, regardless of race or sexual orientation, and make sure that our basic human rights are protected.
You’ll never agree 100 percent with Obama, but the idea of equality isn’t about the President, it’s about everybody, and denying someone equal rights is a world I don’t want to imagine or to live in.
Shaka Griffith is the News/Politics Editor of GlobalGrind.com Follow him on twitter @Darealshaka.
