When I watch cable news I see the same black men and women expressing their pride in being black Republicans. But my question is: “How can any Black people justify being a Republican?” It appears to me that any black person that is a Republican now would have been what Malcolm X referred to as “a House Negro” during slavery. Can it be that by separating themselves from the masses they think they have nothing in common with the masses? Any black person who thinks they have been accepted by and welcomed into the Republican Party needs to take a few days to sober up. These black people will say this is America and they have the right to choose which party they want to belong too and that’s true, but it amazes me that a black person would want to support the same candidates as the KKK.
Trent Lott spent 34 years in Congress and seven years as one of the leaders of the Republican Party and these black Republicans don’t have a problem with that. For some reason, they didn’t notice his voting record which clearly shows he voted against Affirmative Action, the Voting Rights Act, the extension of the Voting Rights Act, School busing, and desegregation, the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday, and all other legislation directed towards equality, in general, and black people in particular. Since Trent Lott’s support for Strom Thurman’s failed bid to be president was not his first show of support for segregation, why didn’t the people that had a problem with it in 2002 have a problem with it before?
All of a sudden people were shocked by his words but what about his actions? Not only did he vote against the legislation I’ve mentioned, but he also spearheaded an effort to restore United States citizenship to Confederate President Jeff Davis, who was a trader to this country. He also filed a friend of the court brief arguing that Bob Jones University deserved tax breaks, declared the spirit of Jeff Davis lives on in the 1984 Republican Platform, called the Civil War “the war of northern aggression”, said the Council of Conservative Citizens stand for the right principals and not once but twice said “we wouldn’t have all these problems” if Storm Thurman had become president in 1948.
All this went unnoticed and some black people are part of a party that, not once but twice, made him one their party’s leaders.
I have even heard “black Republicans” refer to Ronald Reagan as if he was some kind of Republican Saint. This reminds me of Malcolm X’s “Message to the Grass Roots” speech when he said, “that during slavery there were two kinds of slaves. There was the house Negro and the field Negro. The house Negro lived in the house with his master and he loved his master more than he loved himself and when the master’s house caught on fire, the house Negro fought harder to put the fire out than the master did.”
These same black Republicans talk about Ronald Reagan as if he were a Saint, so let’s look at what Reagan did and didn’t do.
Reagan’s first stop, in his general election campaign, was Neshoba County, Mississippi which is the place where civil rights activist were shot to death by whites who were outraged by the idea of people working towards securing the rights of blacks and at the time, this case was still news. The House and the Senate voted overwhelmingly voted for the comprehensive apartheid act which levied sanctions against the Republic of South Africa. President Reagan vetoed this act however Congress had the votes to override his veto. Ronald Reagan also did not support any civil rights bill throughout his years in office. He opposed the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. Reagan argued that this legislation infringes on states’ rights and the rights of churches and business owners. When Reagan used the term “State’s Rights”, he was simply using the same old racist language that southern states have used and still use today.
In 2008 Barack Obama’s historic campaign resulted in a record turnout drawing more people to the polls than the country had seen in 40 years. Almost all of the record increase came from Black, Hispanic and young voters. Republican governors and GOP controlled statehouses so this is a problem. They responded by throwing up new obstacles to voting that adversely affected people of color. In an interview with The Daily, Don Yelton, a GOP precinct chair, in North Carolina defended the state’s new ID law. Yelton said if these new obstacles hurt lazy blacks who want the government to give them everything so be it.
According to what I’ve seen on television, in the beginning, the “Tea Party” demonstrations were attended by whites only, and when this was brought to the attention of the American people they went out and found a couple of black people to join the party. Namely, Herman Cain and Allen West, who are nothing more than black puppets, Herman Cain once said he and the Koch brothers are brothers from another mother. Does that mean they have the same father? And when I hear Allen West talk about President Obama it reminds me of the slaves who told the plantation owner the other slaves were planning an escape. How can these two Black Men justify being members of the same party as David Duke, the Grand Poo Pa of the Ku Klux Klan, Jeff Sessions and aligned with the Neo-Nazi, KKK, and other white supremacy groups? Now, these two black men and others support Donald trump. Donald Trump as president has attacked Gold Star families of color accused a judge of being biased because he was Mexican and Justice Department sued his company twice for not renting to people of color. In fact discrimination against black people has been in a pattern throughout Trump’s career. Workers at Trump’s casino in Atlantic City have accused him of racism over the years.
In a recent poll, Republicans across the country continue to say that they support flying the Confederate flag by a 55% To 32% margin. The Confederate flag was designed by people whose goal was to overthrow the American government and keep slavery alive.
Yet we have black men and women who claim the Republican Party as their own.
Thanksgiving Day