My parents live out their religious conviction, emphasize family, demand personal accountability and through their thrift and hard work gave me opportunities they never could have imagined for themselves. Despite their conservative values, my mom and dad find themselves dismissed by a tone deaf Republican Party.
They are not alone. Republicans alienate millions of conservative people of color by delegitimizing their problems and tolerating dog whistles for white nationalism.
Danny Bugingo
Argonaut
Poorly hidden under coded language, an appeal to the fear of black and brown people has been a staple of conservative rhetoric for decades. Politicians weaponize hip hop music, immigrants, urban youth, Islam and anything that does not neatly fit into a white, Christian, Norman Rockwell painting of America.
Meanwhile, the very real problems of poverty and violence in minority communities were long ago resolved with simple moral prescriptions. All they need is better parenting and a little more work ethic.
White conservatives tend to view racism as a set of individual acts of rudeness — a restaurant that won’t serve certain people or particularly offensive language. They are puzzled by anti-racism activists who protest the shooting of a black person by a black police officer in a city with a black mayor and a country with a black president.
But black people understand racism to be a force much larger than the individual. They notice the subtle ways America’s history of profound unfairness continues — how the past never died.
White conservatives paper over the awfulness in America’s history in brazen displays of patriotic correctness, as though to love one’s country is to ignore the harm it has done.
So the vast majority of black Americans — liberals and conservatives alike — support the Democratic Party. They are not mistaken. Republicans have shown little interest in confronting stark racial inequalities in America.
But the handfuls of black conservatives who do align with the Republican Party face a wave of rage and intolerance from the left. Justice Clarence Thomas’ opposition to affirmative action and same sex marriage led to vicious attacks on his race and character — he was called “a clown in blackface” and seen as an “inauthentic opportunist who sold out fellow blacks” according to The New Republic. Ben Carson and Herman Cain saw similar vitriol in their presidential campaigns.
Though I disagree with Justice Thomas, view Carson and Cain to be unqualified for the presidency, and generally find Democrats’ arguments to be more grounded in facts and reality than Republicans, I am appalled at how the leftist ideology of oppression and victimhood implodes when it is rejected by one of the apparent victims.
Nowhere in our politics do black conservatives find a home — on the right, their problems are illegitimate, and on the left, any attempts to fix those problems are futile because of immutable, oppressive forces.
Nowhere in our politics do my parents find an empowering message — on the right, they are dangerous immigrants, and on the left, they are helpless victims.
Donald Trump enjoyed a rare moment of truthfulness when he called black churches, the beating heart of black conservatism, “America’s conscience” according to CNN. It’s a shame that no political party will represent them.
Danny Bugingo can be reached at [email protected]