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Bigots by the Numbers
Oct. 29th, 2008 12:54 pmSFGate did something unusual and I think somewhat dangerous today. They put up a searchable database of proposition 8 contributors.
Now, this is all public information. However, what's unusual is that it's so easy to see who made what contributions to what side and where. I also think it's a snapshot of the future, and I'm not sure how I feel about it.
The problem with centering this on prop 8 is that the proposition is so highly charged. And, with good reason. As far as I'm concerned it's a hate crime that people are trying to make the law of the land. I can accept that people might vote for McCain (even if I think many of them are misinformed). However, when people are trying to pass a law whose sole goal is to take away personal liberties from some of our citizens, that's an affront. I've read responses from gay people who consider it more: a personal attack.
Now, in that highly charged situation, you can look in a database and discover the names of the bigots in your community. It doesn't give addresses, but it gives full names and businesses, which means it would be pretty easy to find out who's who. I just hope that the daylighting of donations to this hate crime proposition doesn't generate more hate crimes.
On the other hand, perhaps it will make people think more about their political donations, now that they realize that their bigotry and their hatred can so suddenly be shown to the world. Though the people running the Yes on 8 campaign tried to blackmail businesses who contributed against it, I think it's actually people who gave money to it, thinking their prejudices would be secret, who are in danger of real-life financial repercussions.
I mean, would you want to support The Piano Studio of Patty Brown or Emerge First LLC, two Berkeley companies, if you knew that their principals tried to deny basic social rights to 5% or 10% of Californians? I certainly wouldn't, and I'm sure I'm not alone there.
Glancing through the database, I was really surprised to see how liberal Berkeley is. Though roughly the same number of people have contributed to and against 8 as a whole in California, in Berkeley there are 6 donations listed for prop 8 as opposed to 1067 against.
Now, this is all public information. However, what's unusual is that it's so easy to see who made what contributions to what side and where. I also think it's a snapshot of the future, and I'm not sure how I feel about it.
The problem with centering this on prop 8 is that the proposition is so highly charged. And, with good reason. As far as I'm concerned it's a hate crime that people are trying to make the law of the land. I can accept that people might vote for McCain (even if I think many of them are misinformed). However, when people are trying to pass a law whose sole goal is to take away personal liberties from some of our citizens, that's an affront. I've read responses from gay people who consider it more: a personal attack.
Now, in that highly charged situation, you can look in a database and discover the names of the bigots in your community. It doesn't give addresses, but it gives full names and businesses, which means it would be pretty easy to find out who's who. I just hope that the daylighting of donations to this hate crime proposition doesn't generate more hate crimes.
On the other hand, perhaps it will make people think more about their political donations, now that they realize that their bigotry and their hatred can so suddenly be shown to the world. Though the people running the Yes on 8 campaign tried to blackmail businesses who contributed against it, I think it's actually people who gave money to it, thinking their prejudices would be secret, who are in danger of real-life financial repercussions.
I mean, would you want to support The Piano Studio of Patty Brown or Emerge First LLC, two Berkeley companies, if you knew that their principals tried to deny basic social rights to 5% or 10% of Californians? I certainly wouldn't, and I'm sure I'm not alone there.
Glancing through the database, I was really surprised to see how liberal Berkeley is. Though roughly the same number of people have contributed to and against 8 as a whole in California, in Berkeley there are 6 donations listed for prop 8 as opposed to 1067 against.