Posted by asabagna | Filed under African-Americans, AfroSpear, AfroSphere, Black History, Black Women, Shirley Chisholm, U.S. Congress, U.S. Politics
Happy Birthday Shirley Chisholm (November 30, 1924 – January 1, 2005)
30 Friday Nov 2012
Category Archives: U.S. Politics
Hating on Love: The Fallacy of Black Unity
04 Tuesday Sep 2012
“It’s so amazing to me that so many of us speak of unity, yet we are to assume we know what is meant by unity and unification. The word is never clearly defined by the user. In the between time, there is a mean spirited tone to the discussion that should be avoided if we are truly in process of unifying. This is based on my own definition of the word.” Bro. Amenta
This is part of a comment by my Bro. Amenta on a previous post. He and I agree on the fallacy of black unity that is preached by the majority of Black people. At the very least, it’s a slogan of bygone days (during the activist stage of their life) or at the very most, it’s an intellectual talking point. Regardless, there is no real substance nor commitment to making this ideal a reality.
Furthermore, what does black unity really mean? I acknowledge it means different things to various people. For myself, there are some Black people I have no desire to “unite” with. In the words of Public Enemy: “a brothah ain’t a brothah just because of collah”… (I would add “sistah” too). The reason I have no desire to unite with certain Black people has nothing to do with their political ideology, or religion, or sexual orientation, or gender, or nationality, or “add in whatever”. It has everything to do with their character, sincerity of purpose and having the same goal (maybe different strategies) to empower people of African descent. I would much rather work to find common ground in an effort to unite with a Black conservative than with a White progressive. Working to unite with only Black people who believe as you do, whether politically, culturally or religiously, is neither work nor unity.
With all this in mind, I was not surprised by all the disparaging and demonizing comments leveled against the Black Republican speakers Arthur Davis and Mia Love, by some in the African-American community. I understand it’s all apart of the “Plantation” politics that the majority of African-Americans, who identify with the Democratic Party Plantation, are engaged in. However what I found troubling was some of the “mean spirited tone” of the attacks against Mia Love.
These two posts are examples of what I found utterly distasteful: “Women of color in a strange place” and “The questionable racial and ideological authenticity of Mia Love“.
Both articles stress the fact that Ms. Love parents were Haitian immigrants and one even falsely makes the point that she “represents the typical immigrant who came to America looking for a better life with her family”. The fact is that Mia Love was born and raised in the United States. However, by highlighting the nationality of her parents and by extension her heritage, both authors went on to use this fact to question her understanding, relating and empathizing with the so-called African-American experience. One went so far as to question her “racial authenticity”. Really!? This smacks of the “birther” arguments leveled against President Obama by the Republicans who question his American citizenship.
Both articles further makes the point that due to her Haitian heritage, Ms. Love has no understanding of the history of slavery that was faced by Blacks in America, and that the Black immigrant experience in America is so much different that the African-American experience:
“Ms. Love, in her mind, isn’t burdened by America’s sad history when it comes the blacks who were brought here under quite different conditions. So sadly she doesn’t even view herself as one of those American blacks.”
“The fact of the matter is that she is the only one of her generation in her family born and raised in these United States. As such, she doesn’t have a personal historical background as do the many black people living here descended from the slaves set free (on paper at least) by Abraham Lincolns’ Emancipation Proclamation a hundred and fifty years ago.”
The actual fact of the matter is whether you were born in Haiti, Jamaica or America and are of African descent, then we have this in common: we are all descendants of African slaves or servants of European colonialism. The actual fact of the matter is whether you fought for your freedom, granted your freedom or your freedom was proclaimed, today those of us of African descent worldwide have this in common, we are all under assault from White supremacy based capitalism and/or imperialism.
The actual fact of the matter is just because your parents were immigrants and you have a different political affiliation that most African-Americans, doesn’t make you any less “Black”.
Let me briefly discuss an aspect of the Black immigrant experience in the North America, whether in Amerikka or Kkkanada. Her politics aside, I can relate to Ms. Love in this respect. My parents came to Canada from Jamaica via England. I was born in England, spent some of my formative years in Jamaica, but I was primarily raised in Canada. My parents instilled these values in my sisters and I: take advantage of all opportunities available to you, but never depend on them to succeed. Regardless of whatever benefits government programs may provide or whatever obstacles society may put in your path, failure is not an option. Our success is dependent on the grace of God and on hard work.
Immigrants from the so-called “third world” have experienced that whatever programs their government provides to benefit the masses, they can be easily taken away by the next U.S. backed government or U.S. controlled international organizations such as the United Nations, World Bank and IMF. Therefore they are sckeptical of what they see as “government handouts”. They have also experienced that social capital, such as education and affordable health care, are not regarded as a “right” by the government in the country of their birth. You have to pay out of pocket to be well and for your children to get even the basic elementay education and most cannot afford either. Therefore, good health and education, especially having the opportunity to attend secondary school or college is the domain of the rich, the children of government officials… not the poor and certainly not the intelligent.
So most children of immigrants are shaped by this message: you better work hard, maximize your opportunities, depend on your own knowledge, skills, abilities, most importantly resourcefulness, to get and keep what you have. Don’t put your faith in anyone or anything other than your God. Focusing on blaming the “white man” for all our ills as a community or as an excuse for your personal failures will get us nowhere… just do it!
One of the authors referred to Ms. Love as the “top token negro” in the Republican Party at the present time… which may be true, just as Barack Obama was at one time seen as the “top token negro” of the Democratic Party during their 2004 convention. Just like the Republican convention last week, the Democrats during their convention this week will parade their plantation negroes to the nation and the world, to extol the glory of their party and their presidential candidate. They will however trump the Republican’s “top token negro” with their own: Bill Clinton… and then by their close second… Barack Obama.
When you get involved in politics, align yourself with a political party and put your views, policies and platform out there as to be assessed and voted on, then they’re fair game to be discussed, debated, criticized and even attacked vigorously. Plantation politics aside, these types of attacks on Mia Love, by other members of the African-American community is neither constructive nor do they move us as a people towards real unity. What they are… in the words of one of the authors… “it’s serious House Negro behavior.”
African American Arrogance 2: The Audacity of the Plantation Negro
24 Friday Aug 2012
Allow me to present these questions to you directly:
1. What is your position, and more specifically, what do you suggest as an alternative to voting for the president, and
2. If you are a non-African American living in Canada, what dog do you have in this fight? What is your purpose of arguing that AFRICAN AMERICANS should not vote?
I was in a debate on an African American Facebook page about Barack Obama and the upcoming US 2012 presidential elections after I had posted this insightful article by Black Agenda Report: “Tired Old So-Called Leftists Give Same Old Excuses For Supporting Obama in 2012“. Of course the Obamabots (one in particular) took exception to the article and my continual opposition to the presidency of Obama. Par for the course, the strategy of “killing the messenger”… since it’s impossible to discount or refute the message… was employed by the Obamabots. Those in opposition to the Obama administration are termed “ignorant, turncoats, snitches and yes… Herman Cain!” (that last one really hurt, ’cause I consider myself much better looking than Herman…lol!)
The fact is though, I don’t take it personally. First, I am fully aware that there are two political plantations in America that most African Americans have enslaved themselves to. These “Plantation Negroes” would gladly give their lives (and some do) to defend their white master’s Democratic and Republican plantations to the detriment of their own self-interests as a community. Second, I’m not an African American, so I have no allegiances to either plantations, nor do I have an emotionally distorted/biased attachment to Obama just because he is Black.
Therefore in reality I have no “dog in this fight”. To be honest, I do get a somewhat juvenile guilty pleasure in riling up the Obamabots (especially one in particular), so whenever I get an opportunity to do so, I will post an anti-Obama article and he always takes the bait. Regardless, the fact is I do expect Obama to easily get re-elected. Why not? Under his administration, the rich have gotten richer, poverty levels are at an all time high in America, and American Corporate Imperialism continues to be expanded and entrenched militarily throughout the “Black and Brown world” unabated… by the 2009 Nobel Peace Laureate. Other than cosmetic and media manufactured differences, both Obama and Romney are pretty much the same guy. Obama has clearly stated that he is not the President of Black America, however his actions are clear that he considers himself the President of Corporate America, Hispanic America, Jewish America and Gay America.
I was asked the above questions by an admitted Obama supporter on the Facebook page. These are legitimate questions that I am happy to answer. In regards to the first, the plantation negro only envisions two choices. If you don’t reside on one plantation, then you must belong to the other. If you don’t support Obama and the Democrats, then by default you must support Romney and the Republicans. However, I do see other alternatives.
One is not to vote for either party. Both political plantations are corrupt and under corporate control, so they are in no way committed to serving the interests of the majority of the electorate… and African Americans in particular. It’s also counter-productive (as well as foolish) to take the approach to vote for the lesser of two evils. In the words of WEB Dubois: “I believe that democracy has so far disappeared in the United States that no “two evils” exist. There is but one evil party with two names…”
However, if one does believe that engaging in the current political process is the only avenue to address African American concerns, then why not field your own candidates under the banner of your preferred political plantation to influence your party and government policies for your own self-interests… sounds familiar? Whether their power was real or perceived, the handful of elected “Tea Party” legislators have been able to influence the policies and direction of the Republican Party, as well as that of the Obama administration. For as long as they have been around, why hasn’t the Congressional Black Caucus been able to have this type of impact within the Democratic Party, nor with the Obama administration? Could it be they are in reality just a group of “Plantation Negroes” whose purpose is to be stooges for the white masters of their Democratic plantation? If so, then they all need to be replaced. They are the real “turncoats and snitches”!
A third alternative is to get off the plantation altogether and research the policy positions of third party and independent presidential candidates. During the 2008 presidential campaign, if I was an American, I would have voted for Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente of the Green Party. Interestingly, when I discussed with the plantation negroes who were going to vote for the then presidential candidate from their Democratic plantation, Barack Obama, the idea to support the McKinney and Clemente ticket… a Black and Hispanic woman whose political platform and policies were more in line with their interests, they all had the same response: “they won’t win”. Well that’s the classic American attitude… it’s not about principles… it’s all about winning!
The second question posed I find interesting. Isn’t it ironic that an American would ask what is my “purpose” in expressing an opinion on their electoral process!? Since World War II, which country has interfered most in the electoral processes and outcomes of African and Caribbean nations!? Which nation has continually assassinated our elected leaders that they couldn’t control and rigged elections to install the ones they could? Which nation has financed armed rebellions against our democratically elected governments, destabilized our countries economies, sponsored sanctions and embargos against our nations, vetoed United Nations efforts for our empowerment and encouraged our genocide by deed or silence? All for the purpose of corporate greed! The good ole USA! So let’s see if I understand this correctly: it’s quite alright for Americans to interfere in our political affairs abroad, but we… those of African descent in the motherland or diaspora… have no right to offer any opinion nor criticize your corrupt, corporate driven political plantation system? Such is the audacity of the plantaion negro.
As I discussed in my previous post: “African American Arrogance“, those of us of African descent outside of the USA are painfully well aware that “Black Americans are still Americans”. Most embody the American imperialistic worldview and display their American arrogance in their dealings with other people of color. It is therefore no surprise that African Americans make up a significant portion of the US armed forces and have no problem doing their patriotic duty by invading and killing other Black and Brown people for the glory of American Corporate Imperialism. In fact, the first commander of AFRICOM, created by President George W. Bush on the recommendation of then Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, to militarily recolonize Africa for American interests, was an African American, General William E. “Kip” Ward. See also:
AFRICOM and the Recolonisation of Africa
Obama’s Scramble for Africa
These two African Americans, “Plantation Negroes” from opposing political plantations, have this one thing in common. They are both warmongers who brought death, disease and destruction to the nations of Black and Brown people in the name of American Corporate Imperialism. Isn’t it also ironic that African Americans fear that voter i.d. laws are a strategy being employed by the Republicans to deny them of their right to vote, while these same African Americans are literally the foot soldiers of the American strategy to deny those of African descent worldwide, the right to vote for the governments of our choosing. The chickens have indeed come home to roost.
Therefore my answer to the question: “What is your purpose of arguing that AFRICAN AMERICANS should not vote?”, is the same as the (African) American soldiers and military helicopters I saw as a boy growing up in Jamaica, engaged in a supposed “drug war” against the supporters of the anti-US and pro-Castro political party, for the benefit of the pro-US government. I do so because I can.
“Eric Holder’s Plantation” by Derryck Green
04 Saturday Aug 2012
Op-ed submission by Project 21
It’s said Lyndon Baines Johnson used voter fraud to win his 1948 Senate primary campaign. In 1954, then-Senator Johnson orchestrated a law prohibiting church involvement in electoral politics. Yet it was LBJ’s presidential library where Attorney General Eric Holder chose to demonize ballot protection laws last year.
And it was Holder who, this past May, huddled with black clergy from the Council of National Black Churches and the IRS and the Congressional Black Caucus to determine how political black churches could be without running afoul of LBJ’s rule. And, for good measure, he further criticized voter ID.
In the analogy that black Americans are imprisoned on the liberal plantation, it’s fair to consider Eric Holder the overseer. In the days of slavery, it was the overseer who managed through fear to maximize crop yields. Nowadays, it’s fear management for political yields.
Today’s bogeymen are 30 state-level laws, enacted through the democratic process, that require proper identification to vote. These popular laws protect against voter fraud, from preventing illegal immigrants from voting to dealing with bogus registrations and identity thieves voting in other peoples’ names.
Holder and his fellow overseers say these laws disfranchise and suppress minority voters. The NAACP alleges in a 2011 report that possibly 25 percent of black Americans don’t possess the proper documentation to meet some ID requirements. Yet the NAACP’s report didn’t contain a single instance of someone deprived of his or her legal vote.
Despite being completely divorced from reality, these radical claims become harder to dismiss when allegedly revered figures such as NAACP president and CEO Ben Jealous calls voter ID the new Jim Crow and Holder calls them “poll taxes.”
Holder cracked his symbolic whip last May to frighten clergymen and their congregations against the idea of abandoning President Obama. Obama’s recent “evolution” on same-sex marriage sent a chill across black churches, and the threat of Jim Crow reborn helps rekindle support.
Holder’s tactics of intimidation and fear is condescending. Having a valid government-issued ID isn’t a poll tax, and the only form of suppression it represents is suppressing voter fraud. Blacks board airplanes, open checking accounts and rent cars just like everyone else. They buy guns, alcohol and tobacco products. All of these purchases now usually require ID. Who is complaining about these restrictions on black Americans?
Yet Holder expects clergymen to take this selective outrage back and insult the intellect of their congregations? How offensive!
LBJ stole people’s votes. He silenced churches. He did that to all races. He was certainly not a man of integrity to follow. Yet liberals embrace LBJ’s legacy, and they seem willing to continue to condone an environment in which votes can be stolen and in which only churches with the right connection can speak.
At what point will blacks become so offended at this condescension that they will no longer participate in the madness? Holder and his fellow overseers are basically telling their obedient, unquestioning slaves that they are too dumb, too lazy — or both — to obtain valid ID. This is absurd!
More importantly, given the ear of the black clergy, why did Holder rush to push politics when he could have helped create a more moral and responsible society? Why didn’t he instead encourage these pastors to return to the pulpit to preach about men being men — being responsible husbands and fathers and shunning the temptation of crimes, drugs and misogyny?
Rather than harkening back to the brutal past, why not promote a dignified humanity that comes with being created in the image of God — the dignity that our enslaved ancestors literally died in struggle to achieve.
But that was apparently too much to ask. For overseer Eric Holder, politics apparently trumps character.
Derryck Green, a member of the national advisory council of the Project 21 black leadership network, received a M.A. in Theological Studies from Fuller Theological Seminary and is currently pursuing his doctorate in ministry at Azusa Pacific University.
“False Claims of Voter Suppression” by Demetrius Minor
29 Sunday Jul 2012
Op-ed submission by Project 21
Benjamin Jealous, the president and CEO of the NAACP, heartily embraces the absurd assertion of the left that asking someone to simply prove their identity in order to participate in the sacred honor of casting a ballot is thinly-veiled voter suppression and an assault on civil rights.
At the NAACP’s recent annual convention, the 39-year-old Jealous likened the opposition to popular and democratically-enacted voter ID laws to the civil rights movement when he referenced “Selma and Montgomery times.”
Such rhetoric is nothing but divisive.
I’m sure Mr. Jealous attempted this analogy to create an emotional response about that momentous time in history. What he neglected to inform the assembly of the oldest civil rights organization in the nation was that voter ID combats voter fraud, which currently serves as the biggest hindrance to voting.
It’s time to rebuke the racial oratory meant to compel people into thinking that voter ID has a race-driven agenda. Efforts to prevent voter fraud are not meant to suppress minorities.
What must be rejected is the notion that minorities are too simple-minded or naïve to obtain a government-issued ID. Liberals and leftists claim to defend minorities, students, the elderly and the poor, but they are really just insulting people’s intelligence by saying that obtaining valid ID is beyond those people’s ability.
It’s odd that the left is adamant about a woman being responsible for decisions about her own body (at least when it comes to abortion), yet they are apparently willing to allow for an ignorance for the need for proper identification in our modern world.
Those who labored in the civil rights movement would likely be insulted by these attacks on commonsense protections. Voter ID is not designed to benefit a particular party or a candidate. It is for all Americans. It transcends ideology to want to protect the outcome of elections from being marred by miscreants.
But the issue of racism was unfortunately elevated to an even higher level when embattled Attorney General Eric Holder addressed the NAACP in July. During his speech, Holder compared voter ID to Jim Crow-era poll taxes:
Many of those without IDs would have to travel great distances to get them, and some would struggle to pay for the documents they might need to obtain them. We call those poll taxes.
Ironically, Holder’s office required members of the media who wished to cover his speech to first present two forms of photo ID.
The hypocritical stance of the left is amusing, yet saddening, to witness because it shows a continuing and genuine disconnect from reality.
Leftists are turning the need to protect voters against identity theft into a weapon in their larger class warfare strategy. They are willing to put the integrity of our electoral process at risk to excite and reinvigorate their political base. They continue to sing the known chorus of racial bigotry because they fear that minorities and seniors will start turning a deaf ear to their policies and that their influence among these voting groups will diminish as a result.
Opposition to voter ID safeguards seems to be all about power and dominion. In all of the bluster over people possibly not having proper ID on Election Day, it seems those worried souls have done little — or maybe even nothing — to work with the laws and get ID to those who lack it. At the same time, they would be working to include these people in the modern world instead of pushing baseless rhetoric that only divides Americans.
The NAACP, Attorney General Eric Holder and any others standing against voter ID laws put our election process and everything that’s been done to expand its access at risk. It’s not complicated. One can either be an ambassador for fairness and justice in voting, or be seen as tolerant of corruption for the sake of political power.
Demetrius Minor is a member of the national advisory council of the Project 21 black leadership network and co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show “He Said, She Said” with Project 21 member Stacy Washington.
“We Don’t Need Another Hero” By Lisa Fritsch
01 Friday Jun 2012
Op-ed submission by Project 21
Our nation’s current political battle about same-sex marriage reminds me of the film “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome” in which rivals fight it out in a cage to chants of “two men enter, one man leaves!”
I also recall Tina Turner’s song from the film. She belts out: “We don’t need another hero. We don’t need to know the way home.”
Conservatives might take Turner’s lyrics to heart. Look at liberals these days. They championed Barack Obama as a superhero, but have discovered the cape doesn’t fit. Conservatives need not repeat the liberals’ folly.
Obama recently revealed his “evolving” opinion on same-sex marriage evolved into support of it. It instantly created a clear division with conservatives he probably wanted to keep muddled for until after the election. Conservatives, to the contrary, have long maintained that marriage should only be defined as a legal bond between a man and a woman.
But this sudden and clear distinctions on the definition of marriage is not the point. Americans want a life beyond what politicians are offering.
Americans yearn for a simpler time when everyone knew everyone else’s name but not all of their business. Perhaps it’s the fault of so much social networking, tweeting and round-the-clock news. It seems that someone always has the answer, or can at least bluff so convincingly that it appears they do.
Americans are concerned that we are in a real-life political Thunderdome, one that makes our union fragile and headed for trouble. We need a world beyond the Thunderdome of class warfare, legislative immorality and financial ruin.
Turning back the clock to the time of our founders is not an option. Who can ever really go back home again anyway?
Like Turner’s song, we should realize we don’t need to be told the way home in 2012. What we need most is to find a way back to ourselves so we may figure out who we are and where we stand.
We are so distracted and overwhelmed with ideological diatribes and identity politics on both sides that we have lost touch with a basic understanding and appreciation of morality.
All of this drowns out the voice of our Creator, who helps us determine right from wrong and the way home.
We need to realize we don’t need hope and change from a leader in Washington.
We don’t need to rely on what a politician thinks about two men or two women buying a house and shacking up, just like we shouldn’t care about what they think about heterosexual couples doing the same. Individuals are responsible to their Creator for their life choices — not someone in the White House.
Welcome to freedom!
Conservatives would be wise to define their values — beginning with a strong appreciation for individual responsibility. For example, I will not make a list of moral right and wrongs for others. I will let their consciences be their guide.
It’s time to get this country thinking again. It’s time for people to be responsible for their choices and accept the consequences.
But as long as we are still arguing and disagreeing so vociferously, like Thunderdome, we take up all the space needed for the sort of self-reflection that empowers people to turn inward to their own responsibility and away from noise of the world.
Maybe Turner’s song is wrong. Maybe we do need another hero, and maybe we do need to know the way home. But it’s more complicated. The hero is beyond this world, and the way home offers a unique direction for each one of us that only He can give us.
We’ve mistakenly tried to find our home and our hero in government.
We need to look no further than Obama’s ill-fitting cape to realize our mistake.
Lisa Fritsch, a member of the Project 21 blackleadership network, is the author of “Obama, Tea Parties and God”. Her personal web site is located at www.lisafritsch.com.
Republican Presidential Hopefuls Should Call Trayvon Martin’s Parents
21 Wednesday Mar 2012
Posted in AfroSpear, AfroSphere, Barack Obama, Republicans, Rush Limbaugh, Sandra Fluke, Trayvon Martin, U.S. Politics
The world of American politics, especially presidential politics is blatantly and unashamedly opportunistic. It’s all about hype, slogans and who can capitalize on the latest story capturing the short attention span of the fickle public in the 48 hour news cycle, and/or trending within the world of social media.
Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich can learn from the master politician, President Barack Obama, on how to jump on an opportunity like a pit bull on a 4 year old. When Rush Limbaugh referred to Sandra Fluke on February 28th as a “slut” and “prostitute” for voicing her support for birth control during an unofficial House Democratic hearing, 2 days later she got a call from the President asking if she was “okay”. The parents of Trayvon Martin, a black teenager who was murdered in a racial motivated shooting on February 26th, has received no call (as yet) from the President to ask if they were “okay”… and they probably won’t.
See… Obama knows he needs the white woman vote to get re-elected, so he strategically decided to show empathy for Fluke’s hurt feelings when she was called a couple of derogatory names. On the other hand, he knows he’s got the Negro vote sown up, so why would he need to show any concern for their pain? Why risk his re-election by being accused of showing favouritism (i.e. sympathy) to people with the same skin colour as him in their time of grief for their murdered son… a grief caused by the imbedded racist attitudes of the “other” people he needs to support him for a second term in office?
The Republican contenders should take a page from Obama’s playbook and call Martin’s parents to offer their condolences. They should also put on a hoody, have a bag of Skittles in one hand and an Iced-tea in the other, take a pic and post it on their Facebook page with the caption: “We’re All Trayvon Martin!” Sure it’s blatantly insincere and strategically opportunistic, but that’s what American politics is all about. It’s about taking advantage of the hot story and manipulating the story line for your own benefit. After the Fluke affair the media was on them, particularly Romney, for not calling Fluke or publicly admonishing Limbaugh, especially after President Obama did so. By calling the Martins, maybe the media… and African-Americans… may finally wake up and realize that “Barack Obama doesn’t care about Black people”. The republicans may even get a few more black votes.
Hmmmm… I doubt it.
“Silencing of the Black Conservative” by Lisa Fritsch
19 Monday Dec 2011
Posted in AfroSpear, AfroSphere, Black Conservatives, Glenn Beck, Lisa Fritsch, Project 21, U.S. Politics
Op-ed submission by Project 21
Glenn Beck was more ahead of his time than I realized in 2009 when he aired his first program to prove the existence of black conservatives.
Despite Beck’s assistance, we remain largely unseen on the news channels. As a black conservative advocate of how blacks should (and, in many instances, do) embrace conservative values for more than a decade, the media does not call us as often as it should.
Black conservative voices must become ubiquitous. We aren’t anomalies. The problem is that we aren’t being heard.
That’s a shame since it is precisely because black conservatives are infrequently invited to espouse our views that the misperceptions about black conservatives fester.
Some want this silence because the more we talk the less unusual it is to be black and openly conservative.
That’s why the left appears adamant in trying to silence black conservatives. After I appear on television, for instance, I can be assured pervasive and virulent e-mails meant to intimidate me are on their way. For instance:
“And you even with your straight-hair wig would have been mistaken for a welfare gal. Beck is using you. I hope it pays well.”
“…you display that sad self-hating stereotype black conservatives are known for by not recognizing your African heritage.”
An oft-expressed, but baseless, suspicion by slanderers is that black conservatives adopt the conservative position for attention. We are called on by factions of the right, they argue, as a sideshow to validate their bigoted and racist views… simultaneously selling out our community for financial gain.
If that’s true, whoever they think is passing out the paychecks forgot mine. Furthermore, I recognize my African heritage more than just every time I look in the mirror. I’m secure in my heritage and my beliefs.
But making a respectable name for ourselves isn’t helped when people such as Ann Coulter appear to validate the suspicion. On a recent edition of Hannity, she said “our blacks are so much better than their blacks.” For Coulter to seemingly take ownership of black conservatives had me throwing trail mix at my flat screen.
This type of flippant remark from a white conservative speaking for blacks whom she purports to support (or, in this case, approves of) unfortunately only justifies the accusation that black conservatives are indeed mere puppets.
MSNBC, CNN and other networks aren’t expected to look to the black conservative commentators to talk about how the Obama Administration has set the black community back. But what about the Fox News Channel?
Fox News has a steady stream of liberal black commentary on their roundtables as opposed to black conservatives. Juan Williams, for instance, shares the Sunday roundtable with Chris Wallace. Marc Lamont Hill is a consistent presence on The O’Reilly Factor and Jehmu Greene is a regular Fox News contributor.
Being a black liberal apparently does pay well, even on Fox News.
In trying to determine what prevents black conservatives from making the cut, I can only surmise that my comrades are also like me: modest in querying producers; afraid to appear arrogant or boastful; insecure about stature and dubious about appearing self-serving.
Likewise, is Fox News leery of being perceived as “using” us? MSNBC and Al Sharpton surely aren’t worried about this, considering Sharpton seems to be taking the race issue to the bank. Cha-ching!
But isn’t there room for a black conservative on The Five or as a foil to Sharpton? After all, respected conservative commentators… white, yellow, brown and black… are considered qualified to comment on issues revolving around the black community. Why aren’t black conservatives called more often to discuss policies pertaining to America at large?
I hadn’t realized that Glenn Beck needed a show to prove to America that black conservatives exist. To a more relevant degree, however, we still don’t.
Lisa Fritsch, a member of the Project 21 blackleadership network, is the author of “Obama, Tea Parties and God”. Her personal web site is located at www.lisafritsch.com.
