Mirror, Mirror

Mirror, Mirror
I am happy that President Obama has recently come out in public support of Gay Marriage. It's very refreshing that the President sees this as a human issue and not a political or religious one.

Unfortunately, the people of North Carolina have recently voted to ban Gay marriage and all civil unions. They even went on to define marriage as only between a man and a woman. The problem, however, is that people are using their misguided faith to rob people of their rights. People really need to utilize their empathy chip, because I believe that will allow them to see marriage for what it really is; everyone's right regardless of faith, ethnicity, physical attribute, race, creed and everything else that doesn't matter except the fact that they are human beings.

I am a black man. Both of my parents are immigrants from two small villages in Ghana, West Africa. My father was in the U.S. Army for over 20 years and my mother has been a government employee for over 20 years as well. I can only imagine what they endured when they initially came to the U.S. with their thick accents, dark skin, and simple traditions. During my childhood, they imparted on my brother and I lessons that stay with me to this day and that I will definitely teach my son.

My wife is multi-racial/multi-ethnic, and obviously, so is my son. The gift here is that I can tell my son that he has no room to be prejudice or hateful towards anyone because his makeup is everyone. My wife is of Spanish/Mexican and Irish/Scottish descent. She is fair skinned and to society she is viewed as Caucasian. There was a time in the not too distant past that our marriage would have been illegal, our son a bastard, and our lives at risk. Simply because at that time, ignorant people believed that it was unnatural for Blacks and Whites-and anyone of non-Caucasian appearance-to fall in love with each other, marry each other and create a family together. The idea of interracial/inter-ethnic couples disgusted many at that time-and unfortunately still does for some idiots today. Couples would have to meet surreptitiously and if they were ever discovered, the consequences were senseless and at times demonic. We've all heard of Emmet Till who paid with his life for flirting with a woman. Unfortunately for him the woman was white and it was 1955. His story is no different from Matthew Shepard who was murdered simply because he was gay.

There are many instances of people using faith, religion, idiom, and so on to justify their hatred and heathen 

I am grateful that the founding fathers knew the limitations of their time and designed the Constitution to allow for amendments to change it in accordance to the present and
right the wrongs and/or missteps of the past. Without that foresight, I would still be viewed as 3/5 of a person, my wife would not be able to vote, and my son would have grown up in slavery.

Based on those points, there is no way that I, as an African-American, will ever be for anything that infringes on the rights of others. The plausibility of a stance contrary to equal rights for all people is unnatural. Before you cast judgement and aspersions towards gay men and women who deserve the same rights us heterosexuals take for granted, stop and look in the mirror. Regardless of your gender, race, and what makes you who you are; reflect on this:

There was a time..

1.  when having slaves was acceptable
2. when Blacks and Native Americans, were not viewed as people but as livestock-hence the stock markets.
3. when women could not vote.
4. when Blacks and Caucasians could not eat, sleep, relax, or learn in the same place (Jim Crow laws)
5. when Fortune 500 companies, Ivy League Universities, Banks, Hospitals; etc could openly and publicly deny me service and access with no repercussions 
6. when my son could have been put to death at birth
7. when Caucasian women who dated or married non-Caucasian men risked death, rape, mutilation, and being ostracized
8. when I could have been castrated just for appearing to glance at a Caucasian woman.
9. when women could not go to college
10. when Blacks, Native Americans, Asians and other non-Caucasians would fight and die in wars to kindle and protect the rights and freedoms of oppressed foreign people only to return to the U.S. and not have the same rights and freedoms afforded to them

Below are some items I believe should be known, re-read, understood, and discussed. 

-Edmund Starbanks

1711 Law Appointing a Place for the More Convenient Hiring of Slaves
Source: Minutes of the Common Council of the City of New York, vol. II, 458, December 13, 1711
Be it Ordained by the Mayor Recorder Aldermen and Assistants of the City of New York Convened in Common Council and it is hereby Ordained by the Authority of the same That all Negro and Indian slaves that are lett out to hire within this City do take up their Standing in Order to be hired at the Markett house at the Wall Street Slip until Such time as they are hired, whereby all Persons may Know where to hire slaves as their Occasions Shall require and also Masters discover when their Slaves are so hired and all the Inhabitants of this City are to take Notice hereof Accordingly.-Source





Declaration of Independence-excerpt

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Bill of Rights
Amendment IX
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.


United States Constitution


AMENDMENT XIV

Passed by Congress June 13, 1866. Ratified July 9, 1868.

Section 1.

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

National Archives