Black lawmakers in New Jersey have sharply criticized Republican Gov. Chris Christie for comparing a ballot referendum on gay marriage to the civil rights movement thusly: “The fact of the matter is, I think people would have been happy to have a referendum on civil rights rather than fighting and dying in the streets in the South.”
On Thursday, New Jersey Assembly Speaker Sheila Y. Oliver (D) released a statement decrying Christie’s comments, saying that he’d “better sit down with some of New Jersey’s great teachers for a history lesson, because his puzzling comment shows a complete misunderstanding about the civil rights movement.”
Christie said on Tuesday that rather than pass a marriage equality bill in the New Jersey legislature — which is looking more and more likely — the state should put a referendum on the November ballot and “let the people decide.”
Christie, who has said that he would veto a marriage equality bill from the legislature if it reached his desk, said that there’s nothing “so special about this particular issue that it must be handled by a legislature.” According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, he added: “The fact of the matter is, I think people would have been happy to have a referendum on civil rights rather than fighting and dying in the streets in the South.”
The comment outraged many African-American leaders in the state, who pointed out that such a referendum never would have passed in the south during the 60s — and that many black people were also disenfranchised at the time.
“People were fighting and dying in the streets of the South for a reason,” Oliver said. “They were fighting and dying in the streets of the South because the majority refused to grant minorities equal rights by any method. It look legislative action to bring justice to all Americans, just as legislative action is the right way to bring marriage equality to all New Jerseyans.”
“The governor’s comment is an insult to those who had no choice but to fight and die in the streets for equal rights,” she added.
Newark Mayor Cory Booker (D) had a similar take. “Dear God, we should not be putting civil rights issues to a popular vote, to be subject to the sentiments, the passions of the day. No minority should have their rights subject to the passions and the sentiments of the majority. This is the fundamental bedrock of what our nation stands for.”
Jerome Harris, chairman of the New Jersey Black Issues Convention, told the Star-Ledger: “The 1965 Voting Rights act was enacted to overcome the systemic, intentional racial suppression of the black vote. It’s certainly a lack of historical understanding about how the expanding definition of who ‘We the People’ are has happened.”
And State Assemblyman John Wisniewksi (D) added: “Rosa Parks didn’t get to the front of the bus through a ballot question and Jim Crow laws weren’t repealed by public referendum.”
According to the Ledger, Christie defended himself Wednesday in a press conference: “My point is, they’re trying to say the only way to deal with a civil rights issue is through legislation, and my point is that in a state like this, the fact of the matter is their own polling belies that position.”
A recent Q poll found that the majority of NJ voters support marriage equality, 52%-42%.
Jillian Rayfield
Jillian Rayfield is a Reporter/Blogger for TPM, and started as a News Intern in May 2009. She graduated from Cornell University in May 2008 with a degree in Film, and worked as a Research Assistant for a market research firm in London in between.
@ImpureScience If you see him state that he would veto a gay marriage Bill, does that not mean you see him opposed to gay marriage?
Was he talking about the 1960s or the 1860s?
This is simple: Christie wants gay marriage, but is to afraid of the extreme right wing to sign it himself. Thus the move to put it on the ballot - so he can tell the extremists it was a "state's rights issue" - of course the extremists only like state's rights when that is the shortest path to extremism - not when it supports WE THE PEOPLE.
GOP to America: "You are dumb, we can tell you ANYTHING"
Christie made an ignorant mistake here, but you'd have to admit he was great in Daddy Day Care.
Whale-boy knows this is a false equivocation: The black population in the south was effectively prohibited from voting, so having a referendum on their civil rights would be meaningless.
And this guy is the great white hope of the GOP?
The New Jersey state constitution can be amended by the voters. If the polls are so in favor of gay marriage in New Jersey, why not amend the state constitution?
What can you expect from a guy who actually looks like a good ole antebellum plantation owner and is not in the least ashamed to abuse his power!
Why go through with this useless vote since Fatso is just going to Veto it anyway?
being overlt fat and a racist homophobe is no way to go through life mr christie....i see a democratic new jersey in the future
Dispite the fact that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican I doubt that many of todays leaders of that party, if transported back to 1863, would support the Emancipation Proclamation.
"We're getting our cotton at a good, cheap price. Freeing the slaves is an undue governmental regulatory burden that will only drive the price up."
See people, this is why Black History Month, well history in general, is important.
Christie's gaining points with the GOP when he's blowing off this type of hot air, and he knows it. Whether it's for the upcoming election or one down the road, speaking such BS wont hurt him at all!
Just between you, me and the fence post, I say, "What a Maroon!!!"
Blacks endured a hundred years of repression waiting for freedom after Lincoln (R) freed them. All along Dixiecrat statesmen asked what was the big hurry for civil rights. I am pretty sure GLBT people do not want to wait another hundred years for self evident human rights rights to be redundantly legislated by the likes of Christie.
I'm sure African Americans would've loved to vote on the Voting Rights Act of 1965...except that at the time in large swaths of the American South, African Americans were effectively prohibited from voting. Now only if they had a law to secure their voting rights, then they'd be able to vote on a law securing their voting rights.
But seriously, Governor Numbnuts is supposed to be the big, bright shiny Republican star who has the Beltway quivering with excitement at his courageous, damn the torpedoes truth-tellingyness?
he's clearly trying to avoid being forced to either veto or sign gay marriage into law. If he vetoes it, he probably won't get reelected. If he signs it, he can kiss the 2016 election goodbye. http://paranoidpolitico.blogspot.com/2012/01/civil...
paranoidpolitico Agreed. He's in a no-win situation and to top it off with these comments, I think he just lost the black vote either way..
paranoidpolitico I used to think Christie was pretty smart for a big-mouth.
Why this woman hates her own race so much borders on psychotic. She seems to go out of her way to write stories involving black people views on what they consider racial regardless that common sense show that these views fail to bear that out. Tell me little girl, how many black writers ever write stories against other blacks that say things that some white people may find racially offensive? Very few if any, I can't point one out. Take this article you wrote, in which you report how racist Christie was for pointing out a way that would have kept people from ending up dead in the street, and still acomplish their goals. You state that "The comment outraged many African-American leaders in the state, who pointed out that such a referendum never would have passed in the south during the 60s. Yet you don't bother to name these outraged prophets. Why is it never pointed out that legislators are elected to represent the people in their district, and had it been such an impossible outcome to have the civil rights referendum pass, then how was it passed legislatively? Next, since all these old white men legislators voted to approve it, which according to your outraged black leaders, voters never would have, why were these legislators not recalled by their constituents, or at the very least voted out of office, it's very easy to check, I did, and not one legislator that voted for the civil rights bill of 65, was voted out of office......wow, so maybe, just maybe Christie was right, and your angry black leaders you idolize so much were wrong. I guess these same outraged black leaders had they been born in the 1800's would probably never have believed over six hundred thousand white males would have given their lives to release the black man from the bonds of slavery either.
mauler43 You're a mauler all right. Of history, logic, knowledge of federal legislation, and reading comprehension. I'm willing to bet you are a birther.
mauler43 Wrong, very very wrong!!! Tragic really and those reading comprehension skills and historical knowledge is quite questionable. Wow!
mauler43 . A republican being right. You might have to go back to the 60's to find a Republican being right about anything. And if they were right they most likely became Democrats right around 1964. You do know what happened in 1964.
mauler43 The civil rights acts were passed by Congress. There are no federal referendums. The states that had segregation and Jim Crow would not have passed any such referendum. It was the oppression of a minority by a majority, The civil rights acts passed with very few southern congressional votes. 2 of the 4 southern senators who voted for the Voting Rights Act of 1965 failed to get reelected the other 2 declined to run. Others who voted for it or the Civil Rights Act of 1964 failed to get re-elected.
Those "old white men" only passed the legislation after all the marches and violence. Please either learn some actual history or just keep your "hates her own race" nonsense to yourself.
mauler43 I wish being wrong caused severe discomfort in the writer rather than in the reader who has to suffer through his ignorant bullshit.
mauler43 Half of that number died trying to keep that from happening
mauler43 And people wonder why we think the GOP preys on patriarchal, white supremacist sentiment for its political support. Jillian "hates her race" for reporting on issues about race. And she is a "little girl." I'm surprised mauler managed to post this comment before the drool shortcircuited his keyboard.
I'm confused by the claim that there has to be something "special" about an issue in order for it to be handled by the legislature. Isn't "let the legislature handle it" the default? Isn't that the purpose of even HAVING a legislature?
At every event in front of a camera, Captain Hindenburg accuses the President of being a lousey leader. What does he call this, a profile in courage? Why didn't he hold referendums on the minority judges he appointed? How about a referendum on new needles to prevent AIDS and HIV among drug users? Civil rights decisions don't belong on referendums that give everyone an opportunity to express their prejudices. Was heterosexual marriage codified by referendum? Keep eating, governor.
Stuck in the 60's mentally, trapped in a disease prone body physically, limited by an inner weakness that dominates him & completely lost on the realities of human struggles, Christie defers yet again when presented with the chance to lead
Only by comparison to his party's other pathetic leaders can this guy be thought of as some sort of savior or visionary to rescue the withering ideology called conservatism.
jeevmom, You can say that again. People's rights should never be put to a vote, regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or anything else. The issue 50 years ago during the Civil Rights fight, as it is today with the marriage equlaity fight, was all about assuring people were given the due process and equal protection rights the Constitution guarantees ALL Americans
The idea that Southern whites were really not at all prejudiced and were being forced to discriminate because of laws mandating such discrimination. You can hear that in the Paul boys' discussions of the civil rights laws. Somehow, I find it implausible that the same people who violently resisted court decisions striking down those discriminatory laws would have voted in favor of integration.
Yes. FREEDOM AND LIBERTY should ALWAYS be made subject to POPULAR VOTE. rIGHTS ARE NEVER WON BY struggle, THEY ARE GRANTED by a benevolent MAJORITY! cRAZY LIBTARDS!!!!!
@Eustace Tilley 2.0 I dont know if you were being sarcastic with your comment, probably not b/c you used the word "Libtard", b/c if you are serious then you have an unbeleivable misunderstanding of what it means to not let the rights of the minority be subjected to the vote of the majority. Do you really think that the whites of the South in the 1960s would have have voted to grant black people any rights? it always seems that the people who know the least talk the loudest.
ViceRoza@eustace Eustace=Troll...don't feed it.
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MyMercurialMuse a., that comment doesn't even make sense, and b., I thought he was pro-civil-unions tpm
onthebird My governor, he's a strange bird.
MyMercurialMuse Yes. Also an incredibly anti-union bird.
onthebird This I know painfully well :( I'm addition, he's also anti-teacher.
MyMercurialMuse I thought he was just ant public-school-teacher? (Not that that's really an improvement.)
MyMercurialMuse By the way, as a blog that has worked with me before, if you want in on The Void's blog tour, you get (cont)
MyMercurialMuse (cont) priority pick on what days are best for you. I'm hoping to cover the entire month of April if possible.
onthebird Well, yeah--that is the more precise stance. Really, anti-any public workers. He also thinks police & firefighters are overpaid.
MyMercurialMuse ... That might actually be even more unconscionable than thinking teachers are overpaid.
MyMercurialMuse Which, as the son of a public school teacher, is not something I say lightly.
onthebird I agree 100000%
onthebird April is a good month for me. I've got open spaces all month.
MyMercurialMuse I'm hoping to finish principal writing work by end of Feb. (i.e., everything but the line edits), send out the ARCs (cont)
MyMercurialMuse (cont) to the bloggers in late March, and release the book mid-April.
It's very possible that Christie is kicking the issue back to a referendum in order to have it rile up more right wing voters for the 2012 election; even if the referendum goes through it will have brought more Republicans out for other elective issues.
Also, he may be a dick a lot of the time but I don't think he's crazy about regressive social stuff and I don't see him being opposed to gay marriage. Maybe he's just looking for cover/avoiding responsibility for it should he have ambitions to go on with his political career.
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