Black Conservatives and Me
I have written before that I am a Kemp Republican: fiscally conservative and socially moderate. I feel that this is the best direction for this extremely diverse country of ours as opposed to the rampant liberalism or rabid conservatism that we often see trumpeted on talk radio or elsewhere.
I am opposed to income taxes as inherently unfair and I don't appreciate our government using them as a social engineering device. I am a proponent of the FAIR Tax (www.fairtax.org) as a more complete method of raising revenue for our government without the biases and puppeteering of our current tax code. I am not going into all of the benefits of the FAIR Tax nor will I be preemptive in its benefits but do invite you to study it to fully appreciate it.
I am not a fan entirely of affirmative action because I believe that we as Black people can do so much better on our own if we take the time to take care of our own. I believe we should settle for absolutely nothing less than the best that we have to offer; ranging from OUR own schools to OUR own neighborhoods. We do not have to always be identified as poor or leeches on society when so many of us are not. We pay a lot in taxes and contribute mightily to the infrastructure of this nation...we should benefit just as much.
I believe that nearly everyone of us should look to go into some kind of business for ourselves and hire the best of our people to achieve the "American Dream" that is so highly sought by other ethnic groups who will brave death itself to get here from other nations.
My dear friend Olu Asade just became a citizen after coming here from his native Nigeria nineteen years ago. He is extremely proud of this and he is highly accomplished in his field. He too demands the best from his people and even though he has an empathetic heart and soul, he will soon tire of someone not giving their best.
Does this make me sound like a so-called Black Conservative in the Republican mode as defined by Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Newt Gingrich, or even Clarence Thomas? Let me throw a few more names in the mix to help you further clarify your definition: Larry Elder, Walter E. Williams, Thomas Sowell, Wardell (not Ward) Connerly, and Armstrong Williams.
If you think so, then I beg to differ.
To differentiate myself from those gentlemen, let me give you a name of someone who I believe I identify with more: John McWhorter. Mr. McWhorter not only will point out what is wrong but challenge us to ask ourselves why is this so, and what can we do about it. The others do not or least not that I have seen.
I think that Black people as an entity is a group worth studying to see where and why we have not lived up to our potential...to identify those trappings that cause us to be categorized by so many as a negative...to have the first thought of us be one of mortal dread and fear by many folks, including ourselves.
But, I do not, as those other gentlemen do, speak of Black people in the third person. When I speak on my people, I am including myself and I am not going to distance myself to the point that I am above and beyond my folks on any level. I do feel VERY strongly that we should live our lives with dignity and respect. I strongly advocate that we are courteous and civil with each other and that we do whatever we need to do to protect ourselves from everyone including our own. For instance, those who believe that "No Snitching" is ok can go to hell. Further, do not do anything around me that you don't want snitched on!
Larry Elder for instance has an extremely difficult time making the case that he is Black at all. I do not see where his writings offer any salient suggestions for correcting our ills or providing an uplift for us to seek to obtain.
So many Black conservatives have, in the canard of old, forgotten where they came from and find it so easy to speak of us in detached manners, much to the delight of those who chortle with glee at someone reminding everyone of just how "different" we are.
You see, I have no problem with Black wealth nor living well or behaving with culture and sense of dignity. I do not believe that is turning our backs on those who haven't gotten there yet, but I do believe that one should not be excoriated for wanting the best out of life.
Where the jealousy comes in is when people think that by achieving these statuses that Blacks have morphed into some variation of White people when it is more a case of being more American than anything else. I don't care how one defines being "American" but it doesn't have to mean being White.
When Bill Cosby speaks truth to wisdom and you have a Michael Eric Dyson castigate the messenger but offer NO suggestions of his own, choosing to characterize Dr. Cosby as a hypocrite because his life heretofore was not a model of perfect living, I have a problem with that.
One of the interesting things that has come out of the Barack Obama candicacy for President is the latent racial biases and prejudices and bigotry that has bubbled to the surface. When you have Black Republicans feeling that it is OK to make statements like, "Slavery was a good thing for Black people because it taught Black people the work ethic" you have a polarized society ready to pounce on every little stereotype imaginable and actually forget that behind closed doors or in private company, their ass is being labeled the same way!
So, I say to any Black conservative that believes in the laissez-faire treatment of Black people to just try once to address the problems that beset us in a first person manner. Don't create position papers or tout the right wing lines about "content of our character" when you know that unless and until we remove racist thinking and societal mores built on the notion of our inferiority which are held by ourselves (not anyone else...what they think is unimportant unless it boils over into our arena), and take advantage of opportunities to improve our own lives with their supposedly superior help, we will not advance as a society.
I challenge any Black conservative to just see how racist and patriarchal policies are addressed to them as well.
We will continue to be regarded as anchors around the neck of America...pariahs that suck the welfare system dry when all the facts point to everyone else but us doing so...we will continue to exist as second-class citizens both in lifestyle and in attitude.
Black conservatives are by no means above any of us in the broad scheme of things. In fact, before we were "freed" by the 1960's, we were more conservative than anything else. After all, we were all we had. After that, we became wards and slaves to the state and we are no better off as a group (Black conservatives love to cite individual examples of why this is not so) than we were before.
Come on, Black conservatives...just once, sing it loud: "I'm Black and I'm proud" and not wait for some racist law or policy forces you to do so.
We still love you!
posted by Don Short at
8:40 PM
3 Comments:
Let me first say that I am presently registered as an Independent. Of course, that is just my voting category. I've been married to and dated black conservative women and the lady of my life also fits in that group. If we agree on nothing else we concur that the Democratic Party has taken black people for granted and have not served us well. After reading your post I feel that I am more aligned with what you are saying than anything else I have come across. Blacks who speak the conservative rhetoric do not offer anything in the way of solutions. I agree that Mr. John McWhorter is an exception to that. I believe that a Kemp Republican fully defines my position more than anything else out there.
Thanks for sharing!
Earlston ~
Hold up... the affirmative action dice was rolled and it so happens that is HOW I LANDED MY JOB... you are saying this was taken away I would have landed this job? I am going to enjoy as long as it lasts until the whole department is white.
Thank you for YOUR opinion sir. I respect your opinion as you do mine. No hard feelings.
Bruh-hemm... you've got more blogs than China has Chinese.
I can understand you're wanting to distinguish yourself from the Personalities Known as Black Conservatives. Ward Connerly, Larry Elder, et al., are stridently contemptuous of Black culture -- or more accurately, the cartoonish stereotypes they misrepresent as Black culture. They're hacks further demagoging race for personal gain. (I'm not sure why you exempt McWhorter from this group.)
I've got two points. First, a 'Kemp Republican' is economically liberal and socially moderate, if not also liberal. Jack Kemp was (is) the last vestige of a GOP prior to its hijacking by Dixiecrats (Confederates), hawks, and the Christian Right. The Jack Kemps have steadily been chased out of the Republican Party over the last 25 years, to the point they're no longer a national party.
The hallmark of economic liberalism isn't 'big' government or income subsidies, but a policy of deregulation and shifting taxation from consumption to labor. Here, the Republicans stayed true over the years. The result was Neo-conservatism; the marriage of economic liberalism to social conservatism.
I wouldn't disagree that America, politically, is just right-of-center, even for most Blacks. But the formulation is different for Blacks than Whites, for the former surely don't agree with social conservatism and its racial caste system. Having said that, my second point is most Black people are economically conservative and socially liberal. We want equal opportunity under the law; we aren't much for a dog-eat-dog, anything goes economy.
One last point is there are politically liberal arguments for the FAIRtax and against AA. I won't go into the details here, other than to counsel the dangers of attempting to characterize your ideology from a list of talking points.
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