I’m a man of a certain age. I think and I walk around with my Eyes Wide Open all the time. I’m always engaged in a constant process of learning and analyzing new information. Last night I watched a film/documentary about black conservatism in America. It had to have a hook and that hook was its title. It was titled Uncle Tom. I watched it because black conservatives represent a curious anomaly in our society.
The first thing that I noticed was that it focused on the relationship between black people and the two political parties. The Republican versus Democrat. The premise being that one was better for the interest of black Americans. That belief dating back to Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. People don’t know history. At best they know the watered-down down sanitized version that we are fed. They don’t know that the founders feared that the formation and adoption of political parties would be the downfall of the new Republic.
The story is told from the perspective of some of Americas most controversial black conservatives in the person of Candice Owen’s, Larry Elder, and Allen West. To support their position that the fate of black people in America is more closely aligned with Republican principles they throw in people like Thomas Sowell and Booker T. Washington. What they ignore is the fact that Sowell as consistently downplayed the existence of systemic racism. As for Bookef T.Washington they take the position that his posture that blacks had to demonstrate that they were ready for equality as reasonable.
The story that we have been spoon fed about the great emancipator ignores the truth. Lincolns goal was not the emancipation of enslaved men and women but the preservation of the Republic. Lincoln was not prepared to embrace his black brethen, instead he wanted to send them all back to Africa. He believed that black and whites could not live together as equals. The Civil Rights act of 1866 likely would not have happeared had Lincoln lived. It along with the period of Reconstruction were short term experiments that the Republican party got credit for implementing.
Black conservatives would argue that the party of Lincoln was and is more aligned with the interest of black people. Being a man of a certain age I don’t see a line of demarcation in how black folks have been used by either dominant political party. Black loyalty to the Republican party is rooted in the myth of Lincoln and individual prosperity. Black loyalty to the Democratic party is rooted in the policies instituted by FDR during the great depression and beyond. FDR’s policies were not driven by a belief in equality, they were driven again by a need to save the nation. FDR knew that programs like the WPA in order to succeed needed to be open to everyone. It was a matter of necessity rather than conscience that led to policy changes.
When FDR died and Truman became President he was a man with a racist past. He in fact may have had an affiliation with the KKK. Truman is credited with fully integrating the military services. He did so out of necessity rather than any belief in racial equality.
Black conservatives are quick to point out that the 1964 Civil Rights Act recieved great resistance by the southern dixiecrats and that Republicans voted for it in greater numbers than Democrats. The 1964 Civil Rights Act was about avoiding a tsunami of racial unrest. It was not about some great awakening. In 1965 when the voting rights act was signed it put a bandaid on an open wound. In 2020 that bandaid was ripped off and the festering wound of voter suppression targeted at black communities was revealed to the world. The spector of wide spread voter suppression was a result of Republican party action.
Black conservatives have bought into the notion that all that is required to achieve success in America is self determination and rugged individualism. They have been hypnotized by the siren song of Capitalism and its promise of unlimited wealth if you just apply yourself. They have ignored that out of necessity capitalism must create a winner and loser class.
Lest anyone think that I am saying that the Democratic party is the salvation of black people understand that nothing could be further from the truth. I don’t think we have to show blind allegiance to either of the dominant parties. On the contrary our allegiance should be to the idea of equality now. Not proving that we deserve it. Not being patient for some magical event to happen. Not believing that it will ever happen without a demand.
The politics of black America must be fluid and based on alliances that move our agenda forward.
While the Presidency of Barack Obama gave a measure of hope to Americans that we had crossed the Rubicon they were wrong. We have work to do and miles to travel before we sleep.
THINK!!
EYES WIDE 👀 OPEN!!!