On Friday, we discussed the concept of Leapfrog Paranoia which was defined as the "fear that if you acknowledge another's oppression, your status is reduced, superseded by that group's". I thought a nice exception to this theory is the NAACP's president recent support for the LGBT community.
President Benjamin Jealous said, "The NAACP is opposed to discrimination in all its form. We recognize that many of our members are also members of the LGBT community, and just as the LGBT community counts on us to stand with it for basic civil rights protections, so we count on the LGBT community to stand with us in our unified struggle for the broader civil rights agenda."
Instead of dissociating from each other, the NAACP president has acknowledged the common ground that both groups share. There is no mention of any sort of the "who has it worse?" dispute, as Hancock states is common among minority civil rights groups. She writes, "I call this the additive oppressions argument, and it is easy to see where this question leads - directly to the Oppression Olympics question of, 'Who has it toughest?'"
Unfortunately, some members of NAACP are very much opposed to same-sex marriage, including the Rev. Keith Ratliff Sr. He is a national NAACP board member and has demanded Iowa lawmakers begin the process of amending Iowa's Constitution to keep marriage between a man and a woman.
The NAACP national board has not taken a side on this issue.
No comments:
Post a Comment