Black Conservatives Convene for a 'New Birth of Freedom'

Townhall.com ^ | May 18, 2022 | Star Parker

[Kaslin]

Recent remarks by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, noting the institutional damage caused by the leak of Justice Samuel Alito's opinion on Roe v. Wade, have gotten exhaustive coverage in the press.

But, not surprisingly, the venue where Thomas made these remarks has gotten little attention by these same journalists.

The event was a convening of the nation's leading Black conservative intellectuals -- from academia, policy institutes, media -- to focus on, as explained in a press release from one of the institutional sponsors, the American Enterprise institute, why "despite decades of affirmative-action programs, wealth-redistribution schemes and other well-intentioned government efforts, racial gaps in educational achievement, employment, income, family formation and crime persist."

The venue, Old Parkland in Dallas, was provided through the generosity of Texas businessman Harlan Crow.

The Old Parkland Conference was inspired as a reconvening of a similar effort organized by economist Thomas Sowell in December 1980 at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco -- a pioneering effort, the first of its kind.

At that time, in 1980, Sowell was already making his mark challenging what had become conventional wisdom that it was essential for government to play the central role in dealing with challenges facing Black Americans.

Sowell, who began his career seeing the world from the perspective of the left, changed. He was once asked in an interview what drove his transformation in perspective from left to right, and he answered, "Facts."

The Old Parkland Conference was organized by four of the nation's leading conservative Black thought leaders -- Brown University economist Glenn Loury, Jason Riley of The Wall Street Journal, Ian Rowe of the American Enterprise Institute and Shelby Steele of Stanford University's Hoover Institution.

Three days of speeches and panels covered the gamut. Why do the gaps persist? Speakers assess the current realities in education, law enforcement and crime, government programs such as affirmative action, and the role of culture and the persistence of social inequality and claims of racism.

Sowell, now 91 years old, did not attend this reconvening of his effort of 40 years ago.

Looking over those who presented at the 1980 Fairmont Conference, we see greats who no longer are with us. Greats like the late economist Walter Williams and economics Nobel laureate Milton Friedman.

The topic of Friedman's presentation then says it all. "Government is the problem."

However, one attendee of both events -- last week's Old Parkland Conference and the Fairmont Conference in 1980 -- is Clarence Thomas, who attended in 1980 as a young congressional aide.

I was honored to be invited to participate and reconnect with admired friends with whom I have worked toward common goals over many years.

It reinforced my own sense of mission.

The analysis and conclusions of Sowell and others 40 years ago at the Fairmont Conference were correct. They saw then that human lives are not liberated by government programs and politics, and they saw then that this approach would make lives worse, not better.

This is indeed what happened.

I began my work in the 1990s inspired to bring the success of a capitalist America to the failures in low-income communities caused by socialism.

What we have today, unfortunately, is the reverse. Mainstream America is looking more like our poor communities destroyed by socialism than the other way around.

The work must continue.

The special responsibility of Black Americans, with their unique and troubled history, is to show that evil occurs because men sin. Not because the vision of American freedom is flawed, as we hear almost daily from progressives.

In many ways, the country is in worse shape today for everyone than where things stood in 1980.

More government, slower growth, family breakdown.

The answer can only be to seek, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, "a new birth of freedom," for every American of every background.

[ronnie raygun]

change as to come from within, the black community has been bamboozled by the left for decades

[Tupelo]

RE: Black Conservatives Convene for a ‘New Birth of Freedom’

Since “Black Conservative” is damn near an oxymoron,
I would be very curious to find out if attendance was in the tens.

[Kevmo]

black conservatives have been kind of clueless about what they can do in their own culture
***from my home page
__________________________________________________________________

Culturism.

The problem isn't racism. Race cannot be changed. The problem is Culture. Culture is the thing that can be changed. None of us, including obambam, and others can change the color of their skin but we can change our culture we choose to uphold. The key is to uphold positive aspects of our own and others' culture, and reduce the negative aspects.

Some cultures are superior to others. An example is San Diego vs. Tijuana. They're 5 miles apart, separated by a simple fence. On one side is a shiitehole and on the other is a pleasant enough place to live. Same climate, same location, the only difference is that fence that separates 2 distinct cultures -- one of which millions of people clamor to get into and the other of which people try to get out of.

Even obambam is culturist: "Parents have to... eradicate the slander that says a black youth with a book is acting white." ~Barack Obama , 2004 Democratic National Convention

Serenity prayer approach to racism:

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change like Race

the courage to change the things I can like Culture

the wisdom to know the difference like the difference between Race and Culture.

___________________________________________________________________

[joshua c]

education
education
education

every successful culture makes education the top priority

black voters should be single issue voters: school choice

expect more of the same until that happens

[joshua c]

the LEFT wants you to think its an oxymoron

biden: you aint black

yet we are seeing more and more and they are being elected

va lt gov: sears

[Nateman]

You pay mom’s to have kids without dad’s and you get rotten kids . What happened to blacks is a warning to the rest of the world. When you destroy families you destroy society with it.

[Ikeon]

The very first thing they need to do is get rid of the word black when describing themselves.

#2 get rid of the premise that black is somehow special and needs to be separated from anything else in a story.

#3 stop believing their own b.s. about being victims?

[Deplorable American1776]

Black conservatives are waking up.. They know the Dems aren’t the party for them.

[Albion Wilde]

Tagline change.

[Albion Wilde]

This is a brilliant essay that nails it exactly. Thank you, Star Parker.

[Albion Wilde]

Since “Black Conservative” is damn near an oxymoron, I would be very curious to find out if attendance was in the tens.

And this is just some of the older generation. There are many more, and many more upcoming. It stands to reason that the media tries to suppress their presence and their work, but you can certainly read about it here.