[dwd1]

OK, let's dance...

I respect everyone's right to express an opinion but I respect no one's right to be wrong in their facts.

The institutional racism did and in some areas does exist. Please refer to any Tuskegee Airman that returned after WWII and were not permitted to submit an application...Anyone who applied for admission to University of Alabama before George Wallace was president...Anyone who wanted to have lunch at the restaurant of their choice in North Carolina...The silencing of Benjamin Davis at the US Military Academy...The fact we fought the world's ultimate racist during World War II with a segregated army(or was that executive decree by Truman simply reaffirming something done earlier...
The racial profiling that is still persistent in many parts of our country today..
Separate but equal...Plessy vs. Ferguson in 1896 to Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954...1954 to 1957 Little Rock...1957 to 1964 before the Civil Rights Act...And what were these Grandfather Clauses... Oh...and Ladies...How many elections did you participate in before 1920?...

As black conservatives we are never going to have credibility if we accept the opinion of a revisionist who denies that black people have been treated unfairly by both political parties at times when it served their needs.

When the economy gets bad, everyone here knows that there is that fear that they will be laid off and that if an equally qualified black person is competing against an equalified white person for a job or a contract, the black person does not always feel that he is on an even playing field.

We will move forward if we deal with the history and the present honestly.

I would love to have a discussion about how it is that Blacks came to support the Democratic Party so heavily... I have the feeling it may have something to do with the perception that we were sold out so that Rutherford B. Hayes could gain the presidency (removing those federal troops from the south and all)... Then the Jim Crow laws... Somewhere in there, black people must have felt their best interests were not being served by the Republican Party...

We can say that conservatives treat us more fairly TODAY and we can say that conservative IDEALS serve us and empower us TODAY but we also have to understand that our acceptance into the corridors of opportunity and success are based only on what we do...We are not going to be given many second chances (or do you think that JC Watts is going to be running for Governor, Senator, or be appointed to some cabinet or administration post some time in the near or distant future)... Do you think Colin Powell is going to be given a second chance to fail?

Let us all take a breath of reality and realize that we are on our way to becoming an established interest and with the education and opportunity provided to us recently, we have an opportunity to secure our future by joining the conservative movement...

But let us not slip into complacency and think that there are not those that in both parties that will sell us out in a moment if circumstances dictate...

Also, I notice that the writer seems to always point to persons that are not necessarily in the mainstream of our community and define our entire community based on the attitudes of those persons... In other words, they tend to grasp every opportunity to think the worst of us...I think there is room for improvement here on all sides...

I would say that maybe the real truth may be that there are many among us who have outgrown what the Democratic Party has for us but we would be lying to ourselves if we walk around trying to act like conservatives have always been as fair and open minded as they are today.

Live in the present, but learn from the past...

[=Intervention=]

You don't show any evidence of continuing "institutional racism." All of your examples date to 1964 or before. Additionally, "racism" is not the same thing as "sexism." And you also ignore the fact that division of labor among the sexes isn't necessarily a bad thing -- there were feminists who fought against the right to vote, precisely because they did not want to shoulder the duties that men do. In 2003, now that women are in the armed forces and are raped in war, I wonder if they were right...

[rdb3]

As black conservatives we are never going to have credibility if we accept the opinion of a revisionist who denies that black people have been treated unfairly by both political parties at times when it served their needs.

Preach, preacher!

But let me interject this l'il tidbit: We're not "black conservatives." We're "conservative blacks."

Let that marinate.

[wardaddy]

yea...that 1920 suffragtette thing is a bit of an itch...lol

...as for black males voting...no problem..lol

when we granted full rights to women, we doomed ourselves to a lengthy flirtation with modern liberalism...emotive politics.

Do I have any answers?...no....just an observation.

[BraveMan]

Let us all take a breath of reality and realize that we are on our way to becoming an established interest and with the education and opportunity provided to us recently, we have an opportunity to secure our future by joining the conservative movement...

Entire generations (black & white) have become accustomed to the soft, sweet, do-nothing life afforded to them via the socialist support network spawned by FDR and cultivated in the fields of LBJ's "Great Society". These souls will continue to find little incentive to pick themselves up by the bootstraps. Lets face it; its easy to be a victim these days. Pity the person who becomes comfortable with their status as a victim.

Institutional racism continues to exist today; of that I have no doubt. However, its form and presentation is not the same; handouts disguised as hand-ups. Not everyone has a conscience (or a work ethic). The institutional racism prevalent today in its present form panders to that. It becomes all the more insidious by virtue of its disguise . . .

[T-Bird45]

Anyone who applied for admission to University of Alabama before George Wallace was president...

And when was George Wallace president, exactly???

bedolido: thanks for the article, good post.