"I Don't Want Nobody to Give Me Nothing (Open the Door,
I'll Get it Myself)." – James Brown
“In the colonies the truth stood naked but the citizens of
the mother country preferred it with clothes on.” – Jean-Paul
Sartre, introduction to Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched
of the Earth
I double-dog dare anyone to solve the mystery of the Negro Conservative.
The dictionaries define conservatism as “the tendency to maintain
the existing order and to resist change;” conservative is “favoring
preservation of the existing order.” Why would an African American,
whose historical experience and contemporary status are largely
shaped by racism and discrimination in every facet of social,
political, and economic intercourse, want to “preserve the existing
order” and “resist change”?
To be clear, I am not referring to African Americans like my
parents who were strict in their values about self-respect, work,
faith, family, community, discipline, and manners (“Sit down,
Junior, and quit acting a fool.”) Laziness, or “loafing,” was
close to a sin before the Almighty God.
Self-help at both the individual and community levels was the
gold standard. So was justice. Since when are these values “conservative”?
Since the right-wing think tanks and media machine reconfigured
its code words to obscure racist intentions. Since it upgraded
its language and operating system to give cover to the same old
disgraceful practices of disenfranchisement. Since old (young,
too), entrenched, Manifest Destiny right-wingers crafted a grand
strategy to return America to “the good ole days.” Remember them?
As a part of its relentless propaganda campaign to demonize African
Americans, the right-wing has hijacked the values of my parents
and their contemporaries as its exclusive playbook. And if “the
problem” with African Americans is rooted in the lack of “conservative
values,” then that logically dismisses all of the traditional
black complaints.
In the conservative mentality, it makes sense that after centuries
of slavery and discrimination, affirmative action is “reverse
discrimination.” The Voting Rights Act is “political affirmative
action,” and the plague on the nation’s house is not an absence
of voting rights, but voter fraud committed by blacks. Fair employment
policies are “politically correct” straitjackets choking the life
out of businesses, and Trojan horses for the dreaded “multiculturalism.”
And safety net policies represent New Deal socialism, big government
hand-outs, and a sense of entitlement by people who are recklessly
devoid of “personal responsibility.”
What is most egregious is that the right-wing has recruited a
new generation of Negroes to communicate its propaganda and give
“legitimacy” to messages that otherwise would be recognized as
obvious poison to the needs and interests of African Americans.
The New York Times recently reported that the Republican
Party is grooming a crop of eager Negro Republicans to run for
governor or the U.S. Senate in 2006 in Maryland, Pennsylvania,
Ohio, and Michigan, which is a part of a larger scheme to take
a chunk of the black vote from the trifling Democrats.
Deeper still, Bush’s faith-based initiative has furnished a cash-driven
enticement to a growing network of black preachers parroting the
“conservative” message, and attacking the credibility of progressive
black leadership as well. The package is completed and the bow
is tied by the out-of-the-blue appearance of a truck load of right-wing
black media commentators, from Armstrong Williams to Joe Watkins.
The list is long, and growing.
If you depend on the visibility of Negro conservative commentators
to measure African American public opinion, you could only conclude
that Black America had gone “Right.” The only demographic of media
commentators growing faster than black right-wingers is the surreal
saturation of blonde Eva Brauns.
To be frank, Negro conservatives have always been with us, starting
with old Tom on the plantation (“Massa, we sick?”). To
be fair, some have been honest in having a different approach
to the road to freedom; Booker T. Washington comes to mind. Others
have been charlatans. (I won’t call any names here, you know who
they are.) Others have just been inexplicable; Zora Neale Hurston
comes to mind. Pardon me, but it must also be said that even though
I have not met a black person over 40 who didn’t “march with Dr.
Kang,” I remember the black preachers and churches that ran away
from him. I remember scary Negroes saying Dr. King should “just
oughta hush and go somewhere and sit down.”
And certainly it is understandable that blacks embraced the Party
of Lincoln after Emancipation, as the Democrats and Dixiecrats
mounted a campaign of disenfranchisement and terror against African
Americans for decades following the Civil War and into the early
20th century, including a fierce resistance to desegregation
and anti-lynching legislation.
Even during the sixties – and perhaps before – there has always
been a schism between those blacks that measured progress and
social change only by the extent to which blacks were included
in American life (“The Big House”), and those who pushed for structural
change beyond mere inclusion.
So, the seeds of an honest ideological and strategic disagreement
are deeply planted in our history. (They tell me that Booker T.
Washington and W.E.B DuBois are still arguing.) That is
a debate that needs a new summons. Bill Lucy’s recent call for
a return
to “Gary” is right on time, and offers an opportunity for
leadership accountability and honest, vigorous debate about vision,
strategy, message, and integrity.
Let the Negro conservatives come to “Gary” and let’s explore
the merits. Let’s have an honest discussion about 21st
century America and the best strategy for African Americans. But
later for the disingenuous and asinine rhetoric hatched in Republican
think tanks by white right-wingers. Later for the prophylacytic
messaging and absurd role-playing.
Let’s take the historic baton and solve the mystery of the Negro
conservative. Is it a legitimate political course connected to
the realities of African American challenges? Is it mere mathematics
of putting our troops in both parties and all camps? Is it like
simply choosing which team you want to play on? Is it just being
tired of sitting on the bench? Is it only about getting paid?
Is it what America really is, take it or leave it? Is it
the T-word? Is it akin to the Stockholm Syndrome? Do we really
want a class of Duvaliers, Savimbis, and Mobutos in America?
Is it possible to be a Negro conservative when American conservatism
is inextricably tied to racism, the obstruction of every single
step of black progress, and the dichotomous syndrome of black
inferiority and white supremacy? Is it a butt-neckit contradiction?
Is it real or is it Memorex? Let’s see. To paraphrase your president,
“bring it on.”
Meet me in “Gary” and let’s talk. But come honest; come real.
And if it gets your motor running, take a page from the story
about the cherry tree and George Washington, with his wig wearing
self.
Charles Cinque Fulwood is a writer and communications strategist
living in Washington, DC.