Ask A White Guy About Black People

Nobody knows the trouble the Mormons have seen, nobody knows but Jay-sus.

Dallin Oaks

Who would have guessed that being "white and delightsome" would fail to protect one from criticism, nay, even oppression, equal to that suffered by Blacks during the Civil Rights era?

Brother Dallin H. Oaks, an apostle of the Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormons), spoke to students at Brigham Young University about the backlash against the church's support of Prop 8, California's anti-gay marriage campaign.

These incidents were expressions of outrage against those who disagreed with the gay-rights position and had prevailed in a public contest. As such, these incidents of 'violence and intimidation' are not so much anti-religious as anti-democratic. In their effect they are like the well-known and widely condemned voter-intimidation of blacks in the South...

Responses to Oaks' comments have been swift and sharp, causing Oaks to backpedal, admitting that the intimidation was not "as serious as what happened in the South."

The LDS church has admitted spending $190,000 in support of Prop 8, though expenses and "compensated staff time" may push that number higher.

On Mormons and the Black