Posted on 03/16/2012 6:19:52 AM PDT by YourAdHere
As the Republican presidential campaign trail ensues, there is something obviously missing from GOP campaign activities and primaries—Black people.
A look at last month’s GOP presidential primaries reveals that older Whites dominated the electorate.
According to an analysis by the National Journal, 89 percent of voters in Arizona were White, while Blacks represented just 1 percent. Meanwhile, Hispanics made up about 8 percent of the vote.
The findings are a stark increase compared to the numbers found in the same state during the 2008 general election. That year, 75 percent of voters were White, while 4 percent were Black and 16 percent were Hispanic.
A similar increase was shown in this year’s Ohio primary. In the Buckeye state, a whopping 96 percent of voters were White, compared to 83 percent in the general election four years ago.
Aside from the primary elections, it is also apparent that Blacks are considerably absent from many GOP campaign activities.
While it is no secret that African Americans have long voted Democrat, the question at hand is whether the GOP is concerned with the obvious racial disconnect.
Michael Steele, former chairman of the Republican National Committee said in a recent interview with writer Kam Williams that there are a couple of things that the party can do to attract more African Americans.
“One is to own up to our own failures as a party, when it comes to making investments in the Black community when it counted, like the Civil Rights Movement,” Steele said during the interview.
He explained that while Republicans had been the architects of landmark civil rights legislation during the Reconstruction Era, the party hesitated when it really mattered in the 1950s and ‘60s, resulting in a longstanding riff between the GOP and Blacks.
Steele added that Republicans should also, “Show up in the community prepared to have meaningful discussions about issues that actually matter to [Blacks] like job creation, in way that makes sense.”
“That’s why my very first official act as Chairman was to host a town hall meeting in Harlem. To me, that was a very important step to take,” he said.
The National Black Republican Association (NBRA) has also continuously worked to close the gap. Their organization aims to return Blacks to their Republican roots and enlighten them on GOP ideals and values.
In the meantime, the AFRO wants to know if you spot more than one Black person at a GOP event. Email your submissions to Blackfolkspotted@afro.com.
The impression I get from this site is that conservatives and blacks talk over each other, not to each other. So I think there’s less communication that actually goes on.
No, you can’t force them to talk to you, but it’s also an unreasonable expectation to have an expectation to have them seek you out, if they want to talk to you.
I’m familiar with black liberation, so I know what they’re taught. But how do you expect them to think differently if you’re not bothering to engage them?
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I wanted to sign up and post the comment, “Whatever happened to that thing about a colorblind society? - a dream, wasn’t it, of some king’s kids not being judged by the color of their skin but the content of their character? Whatever happened with that?”
I hear you.
It is mostly up to black conservatives to reach out to the black community, as most blacks more likely listen to another black then white.
“when it comes to making investments in the Black community when it counted, like the Civil Rights Movement,” Steele said during the interview”.
What a dumb statement by Steele. The civil rights bill never would have passed if it weren’t for the pubbies. Affirmative action got it’s start thanks to Nixon.The KKK’s were all RATS. Bottom line black Americans can stay on the Democrat plantation if they’re looking to stay on the dole. But if they value freedom and strive to be all they can be there are other alternatives.
“The impression I get from this site is that conservatives and blacks talk over each other, not to each other.”
How do you identify black FReepers? If you are somehow capable of identifying the physical characteristics of FReepers, please send me that app. I’d love to know which of my FRiends are women. Conservative women are babes!
“I’m not saying that we’d make massive inroads immediately, but any attempt to do so would be better than no attempt to do so.”
Please enlighten those of us who have beat our heads against this wall for decades, by telling us exactly what you have been doing in your precinct to turn this around, and how well has it worked - tell us what your “return on investment” has been compared to efforts to change the mindsets of other people?
They have been engaged for over 50 years.
It’s time to try something different.
It takes a lot of gumption to put up w/ that level of crap and most people just don't want to deal w/ it.
Many blacks are trapped in a self-re-enforcing cycle of fractured families, poor education, and cultural icons more suited to sewers than they are to success.
Breaking out of that trap requires a huge amount of faith in ones' self. Faith in ones' self is the thing not being taught to a lot of these poor people.
One thing I don’t try and do is convince them. I’m in agreement here that convincing anybody, of what they will not be convinced of, will not work.
But I do give them the truth of how socialism is damaging, inand of itself. I stay away from making it a black thing but a human thing. By relating to it, on human terms instead of black terms, I’ve had good conversations, on Facebook and black discussion sites, with many blacks.
I’m not saying I’ve converted anybody, but that’s not really my goal. My personal goal is to try share the truth and clear some cobwebs. If you clear enough cobwebs, more light can shine through.
My tagline used to be something to the effect of:
“you can’t use logic to argue someone out of a position they didn’t use logic to get into in the first place”
Well said.
Absolutely untrue. The first comprehensive Civil Rights legislation since Reconstruction was led and pushed through by President Eisenhower, who backed up his legislation with the National Guard protecting school children from harassment. Eisenhower's efforts were vigorously resisted by Democrats. Secondly, Ike intitiated the first integration of the armed forces.
Steele needs to do his homework.
There were a black man and a black woman standing directly behind Santorum at his televised victory speech in Alabama; also a black man was directly on his path as he left the room through the bystanders.
And that we need to do again. Missionary work in our own country.
And we face better odds, but they won anyway.
“It would appear that the goals of conservatives and the goals of most blacks are not the same. C’est la vie.”
Kudos to the most prescient post of this thread.
Oops, William Bennett and Jack Kemp have already done that, and it didn't work.
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