Black conservative ping
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Posted on 07/25/2005 10:22:28 AM PDT by Renfield
Don't Want Nobody to Give Me Nothing (Open the Door, I'll Get it Myself)." – James Brown
“In the colonies the truth stood naked but the citizens of the mother country preferred it with clothes on.” – Jean-Paul Sartre, introduction to Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth
I double-dog dare anyone to solve the mystery of the Negro Conservative.
The dictionaries define conservatism as “the tendency to maintain the existing order and to resist change;” conservative is “favoring preservation of the existing order.” Why would an African American, whose historical experience and contemporary status are largely shaped by racism and discrimination in every facet of social, political, and economic intercourse, want to “preserve the existing order” and “resist change”?
To be clear, I am not referring to African Americans like my parents who were strict in their values about self-respect, work, faith, family, community, discipline, and manners (“Sit down, Junior, and quit acting a fool.”) Laziness, or “loafing,” was close to a sin before the Almighty God.
Self-help at both the individual and community levels was the gold standard. So was justice. Since when are these values “conservative”? Since the right-wing think tanks and media machine reconfigured its code words to obscure racist intentions. Since it upgraded its language and operating system to give cover to the same old disgraceful practices of disenfranchisement. Since old (young, too), entrenched, Manifest Destiny right-wingers crafted a grand strategy to return America to “the good ole days.” Remember them?
As a part of its relentless propaganda campaign to demonize African Americans, the right-wing has hijacked the values of my parents and their contemporaries as its exclusive playbook. And if “the problem” with African Americans is rooted in the lack of “conservative values,” then that logically dismisses all of the traditional black complaints.
In the conservative mentality, it makes sense that after centuries of slavery and discrimination, affirmative action is “reverse discrimination.” The Voting Rights Act is “political affirmative action,” and the plague on the nation’s house is not an absence of voting rights, but voter fraud committed by blacks. Fair employment policies are “politically correct” straitjackets choking the life out of businesses, and Trojan horses for the dreaded “multiculturalism.” And safety net policies represent New Deal socialism, big government hand-outs, and a sense of entitlement by people who are recklessly devoid of “personal responsibility.”
What is most egregious is that the right-wing has recruited a new generation of Negroes to communicate its propaganda and give “legitimacy” to messages that otherwise would be recognized as obvious poison to the needs and interests of African Americans.
The New York Times recently reported that the Republican Party is grooming a crop of eager Negro Republicans to run for governor or the U.S. Senate in 2006 in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan, which is a part of a larger scheme to take a chunk of the black vote from the trifling Democrats.
Deeper still, Bush’s faith-based initiative has furnished a cash-driven enticement to a growing network of black preachers parroting the “conservative” message, and attacking the credibility of progressive black leadership as well. The package is completed and the bow is tied by the out-of-the-blue appearance of a truck load of right-wing black media commentators, from Armstrong Williams to Joe Watkins. The list is long, and growing.
If you depend on the visibility of Negro conservative commentators to measure African American public opinion, you could only conclude that Black America had gone “Right.” The only demographic of media commentators growing faster than black right-wingers is the surreal saturation of blonde Eva Brauns.
To be frank, Negro conservatives have always been with us, starting with old Tom on the plantation (“Massa, we sick?”). To be fair, some have been honest in having a different approach to the road to freedom; Booker T. Washington comes to mind. Others have been charlatans. (I won’t call any names here, you know who they are.) Others have just been inexplicable; Zora Neale Hurston comes to mind. Pardon me, but it must also be said that even though I have not met a black person over 40 who didn’t “march with Dr. Kang,” I remember the black preachers and churches that ran away from him. I remember scary Negroes saying Dr. King should “just oughta hush and go somewhere and sit down.”
And certainly it is understandable that blacks embraced the Party of Lincoln after Emancipation, as the Democrats and Dixiecrats mounted a campaign of disenfranchisement and terror against African Americans for decades following the Civil War and into the early 20th century, including a fierce resistance to desegregation and anti-lynching legislation.
Even during the sixties – and perhaps before – there has always been a schism between those blacks that measured progress and social change only by the extent to which blacks were included in American life (“The Big House”), and those who pushed for structural change beyond mere inclusion.
So, the seeds of an honest ideological and strategic disagreement are deeply planted in our history. (They tell me that Booker T. Washington and W.E.B DuBois are still arguing.) That is a debate that needs a new summons. Bill Lucy’s recent call for a return to “Gary” is right on time, and offers an opportunity for leadership accountability and honest, vigorous debate about vision, strategy, message, and integrity.
Let the Negro conservatives come to “Gary” and let’s explore the merits. Let’s have an honest discussion about 21st century America and the best strategy for African Americans. But later for the disingenuous and asinine rhetoric hatched in Republican think tanks by white right-wingers. Later for the prophylacytic messaging and absurd role-playing.
Let’s take the historic baton and solve the mystery of the Negro conservative. Is it a legitimate political course connected to the realities of African American challenges? Is it mere mathematics of putting our troops in both parties and all camps? Is it like simply choosing which team you want to play on? Is it just being tired of sitting on the bench? Is it only about getting paid? Is it what America really is, take it or leave it? Is it the T-word? Is it akin to the Stockholm Syndrome? Do we really want a class of Duvaliers, Savimbis, and Mobutos in America?
Is it possible to be a Negro conservative when American conservatism is inextricably tied to racism, the obstruction of every single step of black progress, and the dichotomous syndrome of black inferiority and white supremacy? Is it a butt-neckit contradiction? Is it real or is it Memorex? Let’s see. To paraphrase your president, “bring it on.”
Meet me in “Gary” and let’s talk. But come honest; come real. And if it gets your motor running, take a page from the story about the cherry tree and George Washington, with his wig wearing self.
Charles Cinque Fulwood is a writer and communications strategist living in Washington, DC.
OK, how's this?
Some people refuse to live in the past and be defined by the sins perpetrated on people whose only connection with them was skin color.
Black conservative ping
If you want on (or off) of my black conservative ping list, please let me know via FREEPmail. (And no, you don't have to be black to be on the list!)
Extra warning: this is a high-volume ping list.
This screed stikes me as extremely racist.
What was his intent here except to throw the "N" word in everyone's face?
Democrats prior to the Civil War pushed for expansion of slavery.
Democrats during the Civil War initiated Draft Riots in an effort to disrupt the war effort of the North.
Democrats after the Civil War founded the KKK.
Democrats after the Civil War created Jim Crow.
Democrats in the 20th Century stood in the schoolhouse door to block integration.
Republicans voted for the 1964 Civil Rights Act by a greater percentage than did Democrats.
Let me quote the author's father: "Sit down and quit acting a fool."
As a result, they are conservatives by default.
Call it what you like, Mr. Fulwood. If you practice your parents' values, you will be economically successful. If your community practices those values, it will have low crime, no drug abuse, economic success, education and strong families. You may encounter bigots from time to time but they won't be able to do much harm. It's not the bad old days.
"Just damn" is certainly correct.
Someone direct this man to the restroom, he's consumed such a large quantitiy of Kool-Aid he's gotta be about to bust.
No mystery here. My life is an open book.
After the KKK and the Civil Rights Legislation that was championed by Republicans, Democrats invented welfare as a means to continue oppressing blacks.
"Democrats invented welfare as a means to continue oppressing blacks."
Hush money.
The way I see it, too many hold the word "conservative" up like it's the Holy Grail. And, like this Leftist here, far too many conservatives live in the past.
Then again, what do I know. I'm high...
At one point in my life I worked in a garage that repaired cars. One of the workers there was a brusque, overweight white guy with a peculiar trait, he would use the word "nigger" as an adjective saying things like, "Damn 'nigger' bolt, can't get it loose, 'nigger' water pump, dripping in my face...". Although I was shocked, I was also somewhat amused as the owner,a black guy named Larry from New York was just as big an offender as he; one evening a car came in driven by a big black man and he was hot. Seems the clutch that was put in his car was still causing him trouble and he had been calling all day trying to get the owner to make it right or else.
Well, the owner went out to the car, listened to the rant for about one minute and went back into his office, pulled out a big old pistol and went right up to the car and stuck it in the guy's face.
That old Porsche burned rubber clear out to the street.
Larry came back inside laughing and yelling about how he had put that dumbass "nigger" in his place.
I only worked there for about three months.
I've heard it said that conservatives today are really old style liberals.
That's 'cause you got the "good drugs."
[g]
On the pain meds, eh? Good to hear you are back in the saddle.
All I've got to say is, "sit down, Junior, and quit acting the fool!"
Nice to see you back here. I hope the narcotics are keeping you comfortable.
"Charles Cinque Fulwood is a writer and communications strategist living in Washington, DC."
Mr. Fulwood may call himself a writer and communications strategist, but he could use a good writing instructor and editor. I found his article hard to read and not well constructed. His thesis or reasoning did not convince me.
The conservative ideas all Americans could benefit from are hard work, education, family and ambition to better one's self through self effort. If those are racist ideas, our society is in trouble.
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