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In the 1970s, adults in the black community said don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Sage advice – except when it comes to partisan politics.
White people have always had the luxury of choosing which political party best suited them. It has been one side or the other since slavery.
Originally Republican. For the last 60 years, it has been the Democratic Party.
That’s because Civil Rights-era Republicans, especially in the Deep South, began to exhibit symptoms of either selective amnesia or collective stupidity. I still don’t know which one it was.
As we head into the new year, Republicans have a new opportunity to do what they wanted: bring more black people into their party.
Of course they don’t do that. They’re too Trump drunk for that. But maybe we Democrats have avoided the dreaded red wave in other states, so I’m feeling generous.
Blacks of the Silent Generation, the predecessor of Baby Boomers born in the 1920s, were more likely to be Republican. Their loyalty was to the party of Abraham Lincoln, the so-called “great liberator” of the slave complex.
Some historians point out that the Republican Party turned away from blacks as early as 1876, when Republican presidential candidate Rutherford B. doing. But blacks didn’t abandon the Republican Party en masse until the emergence of charismatic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy.
Kennedy’s stance on civil rights appealed to us. A necessary alternative to the lynchings, rapes, burnings, leasing of inmates, brutality from law enforcement, and the fear of discrimination baked into nearly every aspect of American life.
On the other hand, as alluded to earlier, Republicans have been slowly retreating from black people and our problems since the 19th century. I won’t bore you Search on Google or grab a copy of Taylor Branch’s brilliant civil rights trilogy Divide the water, the pillar of fire, When at Canaan’s Edge.
The shift in separatist ideology from Democrat to Republican was not subtle. And today, the stench of prejudice still haunts the Republican Party.
It’s like Uncle Beanie dragging you to your favorite cigar bar while wearing your favorite sweater. Hours later, you still smell like brown liquor and bad batch of Cubans.
Hopefully your local dry cleaner can get rid of the stench.
If black people come back in significant numbers, that’s what the Republican Party needs to do. Clean up the platform and rhetoric. Or throw them away and start over.
Conservative Republicans, push back as much as you like. History does not support your position. Blacks and other minority groups have been warmly received by Democrats during his 60 years, by nearly every indicator—legislation, public policy, political appointments, federal judges, endorsed candidates. It’s not your fault.
One example: Since 1967, only two black Republicans have been elected to the U.S. Senate. The late Edward Brooke of Massachusetts and Tim Scott of South Carolina. In contrast, the Democrats elected his seven blacks, two of whom were later elected to the executive branch by the American people. (Barack Obama and Kamala Harris, in case you forgot. Or was trying to forget.)
Brooke was a relatively moderate Republican, not as conservative as Scott is today. History sees both as competent despite their ideological differences.
But if Republican leaders endorse candidates like Herschel Walker, the Republican Party’s faith in the black community will continue to crumble. Black skin and football heroes are not candidates for the United States Senate. Especially when that same candidate struggles to articulate cohesive thoughts and considers vampires and werewolves to be substantial topics.
Message to Republicans: Shake off selective amnesia. Or collective stupidity.
Start remembering who the Republicans were when your party was founded. And we should be grateful to stop acting like black people and join a party whose rhetoric and views are openly hostile to us for the most part.
It’s almost 2023. You should be able to do better, right?
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