Homophobia in Black America

Ta-Nehisi Coates at The Atlantic has some important things to say about that last bastion of acceptable discrimination in America: homophobia. Yesterday, he wrote about black support for banning gay marriage in California. Today he comments on the nature of bigotry in general. You only have to look to blacks' reactions to Arab Americans post-9/11 to see how quickly the oppressed can become the oppressors. There's nothing like watching the down-trodden jump on the bandwagon to trod over someone else. Religious convictions are important. But ultimately, the black church and the evangelical community are going to have to find a way to reconcile those convictions with the reality that gays love God too. And they live here. And we should let them live.