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I'm afraid you're absolutely right about this. I had a debate today with a woman who claimed to be a black conservative. She cited has one of the reasons for the multitude of ills in today's black community was the fact that the collective pain and anguish of the black community over slavery had not been acknowledged by suitable therapeutic solutions. One of the most important solutions, according to her, is the establishment of racial preferences in affirmative action. She was absolutely un self-conscious as she advocated unconstitutional and illegal discrimination against whites and Asians.

I am a black man and counter this attitude over and over and over and over again amongst black people that I speak to about this subject. The sort of racial identity politics that the race industry merchants and multicultural white liberals have nurtured has borne bitter fruit almost much of today's middle-class black population. We have a lot of work to do to bring much of the black community back to a principled understanding of the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution.

Thanks. I figured, this man must have some thick skin. Then I looked up your profile, and got the proof. Thanks for your service, both here and in country.

People must say all kinds of sweet nothings to you, since even white socialists who are usually scared to death of offending blacks, have been "granted permission" at least since the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings, to insult black conservatives. (I can remember the specific act, when NAACP chief Ben Hooks publicly gave whites permission to viciously insult Thomas.)

I wish I could say that that "black conservative" woman didn't exist, but I know that her type does. Based on its positions on affirmative action and immigration, I despise the GOP as much as I do the Socialists, I mean, Dems. Cowards, utter cowards. Instead of standing on principle, and eliminating the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, the Department of Education, the EEO, etc. (like they said they would, when they were out of power), they brag, 'And now we have our blacks in there, instead of their blacks.'

An incredible dichotomy obtains between older and younger black conservatives. For my money, Thomas Sowell is the greatest living social scientist in the English language (world?). And I used to consider Walter Williams the most brilliant columnist. (I still think he's brilliant, but these days I consider Mark Steyn God's gift to the English language). (Clarence Thomas is in-between, age-wise, but his position as justice inhibits him from writing the sort of books I believe he has in him.)

Then you look at the younger generation, and what do you see? Glenn Loury was supposedly a conservative, but he got lonely, and jumped at the chance to join the popular kids' clique. I was briefly impressed by Deroy Murdock, who is very intelligent about economics, but then I read something he wrote that was essentially PR for Rudy Giuliani's crime-fighting strategy (which was less a crime-fighting than itself a PR strategy). Larry Elder is a very bright man (though I guess he's not so young anymore), and there are other bright writers, like LaShawn Barber, but to paraphrase Samuel Clemens, the difference betweeen them and the likes of Sowell and Williams is like the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.

Perhaps the most telling example regarding the dearth of young black conservatives is the case of the young linguist, John McWhorter, who is touted by some -- most notably the Manhattan Institute, as a conservative. McWhorter is brilliant, but I don't he's a conservative (as opposed to a moderate Democrat), and as far as I know, he hasn't even claimed to be a conservative. But bright young black conservatives are so rare, that conservative organizations will sponsor moderate black thinkers, and I suspect, try to gently nudge them to the right. And considering the violent shoves any black intellectual who consorts with conservatives will get from pc blacks and the left, showing any receptivity to conservative groups could result in a black intellectual landing "right."

Every now and then, I'll read or re-read something by my journalistic hero, George S. Schuyler, and wonder what happened to America, that there can be thousands of black mediacrities, but no one who comes close to Schuyler.