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Posted on 01/14/2003 6:10:53 AM PST by syriacus
Black conservative leaders said they were surprised by the frankness on both sides in a meeting yesterday with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Republican National Committee Chairman Mark Racicot and Deputy National Chairman Jack Oliver.
"It was extraordinary," said Bob Brown, chairman and chief executive officer of a North Carolina public relations firm and a former domestic policy adviser in the Nixon White House. "The candor between black leaders and top Republicans was like something I haven't seen before — and I've been to a lot of meetings."
Mr. Brown added, "We got past the niceties real quickly."
Each side said the other had a responsibility to carry through on plans to boost the Republican Party among a new generation of middle-class black Americans who they say share conservative political values but have yet to break their decades-long loyalty to the Democratic Party.
"We weren't there just to shoot the breeze but to give advice and instruction," said the Rev. Glenn Plummer, chairman and chief executive officer of the National Religious Broadcasters Association. "What was surprising and encouraging to me — they received it and wanted to act on it."
Mr. Frist and Mr. Racicot said the group, brought together by black conservative writer and TV talk-show host Armstrong Williams, should meet again within a month.
"We talked about what we as a party could do concretely to become more fully engaged and completely relevant in the lives of African Americans across the country," Mr. Racicot said after the closed meeting at the party's national headquarters on Capitol Hill that lasted for more than two hours. "It's not that we haven't tried hard over the last two years to do that, but we have miles to go."
Several black leaders who attended yesterday's meeting later characterized Mr. Frist, a Tennessee heart surgeon who entered politics at the top by getting elected to the Senate, as "naive" about racial issues but eager to learn.
The white Republican leaders and black conservatives agreed their goal was to find and hire more black staff for Republicans in Congress, recruit more black Republican candidates of quality, to make the Republican Party more hospitable toward blacks, and to boost black voter turnout for Republican candidates in 2004.
At Mr. Frist's behest, the black business, religious and political leaders agreed to be an employment service to recommend black conservatives for jobs in the Bush administration and on Capitol Hill. Both sides agreed to meet again within a month to review progress and come up with more ideas. Since the time the late Lee Atwater was national chairman in 1989, Republicans have claimed their party is a big tent, but a sea of white faces still greets anyone attending a national or state Republican gathering, despite repeated party "outreach" efforts, leading to considerable skepticism in both parties about Republican outreach.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe yesterday said the reason Republican leaders met with black conservatives was to try "to repair their image with minorities." Although he applauded Republicans "for trying to address their party's pervasive problems with minority outreach, holding a two-hour meeting is hardly going to solve the long-standing problem."
Mr. Williams said the measure of success of the meeting yesterday and another to be hosted by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas on Jan. 28 will be the extent to which "you see the party apparatus change from the grass roots to the state and national levels and to staffs on the House and Senate sides, where you will see more black Republicans."
The Rev. A.R. Barnard Sr., head of the 20,000-member nondenominational Christian Culture Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., said his congregation is made up largely of young black middle-class conservatives who are open to recruitment by the GOP in ways he discussed with Mr. Racicot and Mr. Frist.
Asked if he thought anything concrete would come of this initial meeting, Mr. Williams said, "Only time will tell. The good news is that Senator Frist has asked us to go out and find people for him" for congressional staff positions and to run as Republicans at all levels of government.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
I think I've found the thread you mention. Thank you.
Black conservatives tell Republican leaders party needs to lose 'lily white' appearance, by the Associated Press
I would expect nothing less from Dr. Frist.
Impressive....so far.
Speaking from the perspective of a white guy, I suspect many blacks are reluctant to identify themself as conservative or republican to avoid backlash from within their own community. Consider the abuse that Clarence Thomas receives from many RATS who pretend to represent tolerance in matters involving race.
Second, if many blacks "share conservative political values" but continue to support the RATS as the article suggests, it follows that a vote based on the color of one's political party and not the content of the candidates character goes against the values of the civil rights movement.
Unless these black leaders step-up to the plate and put their support where their values are, American blacks will continue to see their community underperform educationally, economically, and socially.
What a shame.
What is your problem with the statement? We should be trying to increase voter identification with the Republican Party from all races.
Even if you believe it's moral to exclude Blacks, from a practical standpoint, Whites are going to be in the minority in this country in the near future. The demographics are against us. The Black and Hispanic populations are growing at much faster rates than Whites. Better that we start planning now to expand the party, than wait till judgement day and sell out our principles and pander to retain power.
I think I know what you mean.
I'm reluctant to identify myself as even a "non-liberal" among my relatives. The liberals in my family feel they have a monopoly on "insight" and "compassion," and I have to "diplomatically" choose the moments when I present even a little of the other side of an issue.
I can't blame them, because I was like them once. They are like the inhabitants of Flatland, who don't realize the world can have three dimensions.
This is all I could get from the July 2000 archived FR thread about Harris.
Va. Black Republican Tells His StoryPHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Paul Harris will tell anyone willing to listen why he joined the GOP and how he became the first black Republican in the Virginia Legislature since Reconstruction. Monday night, he gets a chance to tell the nation. For about three minutes on the opening night of the Republican National Convention, Harris, 36, will discuss his ascent from public housing to the General Assembly seat once held by Thomas Jefferson. ''We didn't have two pennies to rub together back then,'' Harris said. ''What we did have, though, was a sense of community. I'd come home and see a ...
Republican Sears says Va. black caucus is excluding her
Associated Press
© January 9, 2003
Last updated 7:28 PM Jan. 9
RICHMOND -- The only Republican member of the Legislative Black Caucus said Thursday she has been excluded from meetings of the group because of her political affiliation.
Del. Winsome E. Sears, the first black Republican woman elected to the Virginia House of Delegates, said Democratic members of the caucus did not include her in discussions over the group's response to the Republican-drawn redistricting plan last summer. They also did not tell her about an informal meeting of the group when the legislative session opened on Wednesday.
``Sometimes I ask myself, 'Is it worth it? Is it worth it to try to prove that I'm black?''' she said.
Sears, a 38-year-old ex-Marine who upset a Democratic incumbent in 2001 to win her Norfolk seat, said she believes the caucus would be stronger with a bipartisan exchange of ideas, but Democrats have rebuffed her attempts at being involved. Continue
Background threads:
Black Republican Woman Elected To Black Majority District
Black Republican woman stuns Virginia political establishment with win in Democratic stronghold
There's something about that statement that gives me the creeps.
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