This piece from McClatchy is distressing.

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass said Wednesday that she is “appalled” at the hostility that has been directed at African-Americans since the passage of Proposition 8.

[...]

But during a meeting with The Bee’s Capitol bureau, Bass said that lost in the post-mortems over Proposition 8 is that black support for the measure was “a generational issue” that divided younger and older African-Americans.

There is a lot to say regarding Prop. 8 and the response to it, but this one point is worth making without entering into a long drawn out discussion. States that have the initiative process when these matters are at stake need to seek to build effective coalitions. Continuing to demonize African-American voters, runs the risk of alienating the younger and supportive generation, and creating a possible backlash from moderate Democrats and others who support equality.

The sad and simple fact of the matter is that the No on 8 crowd, mobilized far too late, with not enough urgency, money, or effort. For now the issue will go back to the California Supreme Court, but in other states the lessons of Prop. 8 should be absorbed, the fight only begins after the Courthouse.