Only
a few weeks into the new year, and it seems that black
conservatives made their way out of the gate on the wrong
foot.
That�s
not to say that they ever were on point, in my estimation.
But these days, they seem particularly off their game,
out of place, out of step and isolated. When the Republicans
were a center-right party with a semblance of a big tent,
black conservatives were useful tools - pawns who were
willingly exploited to put a black face on regressive
social and economic policy. And I�m sure they did it all
for a chicken wing and a bowl of grits. Now, at a time
when the GOP is tea party-owned and steeped in 100 percent
pure corporatism, greed, intolerance and white supremacy,
they are simply useful idiots.
Case
in point: the lieutenant governor of Florida, Jennifer Carroll, said that she couldn�t
think of anyone who epitomizes the values and vision of
Martin Luther King more than Gov. Rick Scott. That would be Rick Scott, the anti-union, voter disenfranchising
corporate fraudster, and perhaps the worst governor in
the country, which is no easy feat.
Ward
Connerly, the former California regent and anti-civil rights crusader,
is accused of financial impropriety and is being investigated by the IRS. He earns around $1.5 million
a year at the American Civil Rights Institute, accounting
for half of the nonprofit�s budget. The person leading
the charge against him is none other than Jennifer Gratz, the white plaintiff in the University of
Michigan affirmative action case that struck down programs
of inclusion in that institution. Gratz later worked for
Connerly, but no longer does. And Connerly is portraying
her as disgruntled former employee. So, a man widely regarded
in the black community as a race-based con man who pimps
colorblindness and quotas for personal profit is now being
accused by his own supporters of being just that - a race-based
con man who pimps colorblindness and quotas for personal
profit.
Black
tea party spectacle Jesse Lee Peterson said he agrees with Newt Gingrich that blacks lack a work ethic.
Peterson�s solution is to send blacks back to the plantation,
literally, not figuratively. Doubling down on Newt�s racial
rhetoric, Peterson said �one of the things that I would
do is take all black people back to the South and put
them on the plantation so they would understand the ethic
of working. I�m going to put them all on the plantation.
They need a good hard education on what it is to work.�
And
in an apparent case of buyer�s remorse, Juan Williams, Fox News� resident black apologist, received a proper verbal
beat down from Newt Gingrich at a recent GOP presidential
debate in South
Carolina. Williams appropriately exposed Gingrich for
his comments on food stamps and the poor - including his
remark that �black Americans should demand jobs, not food
stamps� - saying the words were �intended to belittle
the poor and racial minorities.�
Don�t
get me wrong, Juan was right to attempt to put Gingrich
in his place. But that was not the job for which Fox -
and by extension the Republicans - pay
Juan so generously. They pay him to be
different from the rest of us, to engage in self-loathing
and attacks on black people, poor and working people,
liberal thought and progressive values. So for a moment,
Juan forgot where he was, and that�s why the crowd booed
him. I don�t know what caused Mr. Williams to lose his
way, but if this is a sign he has found it, we should
embrace him. But he must realize that a GOP debate is
the wrong venue to address Republican racism and scapegoating
of the poor. The base wants to hear about doing away with
child labor laws, about forcing black and Latino kids
to clean the toilets in their school for pennies, and
about calling Obama a food stamp president.
As
for the black conservatives who are embracing this ignorance
in the era of the 99 percent, they are really just a sideshow
oddity. It is likely the loneliest job in the nation as
a person of color, to sell your soul to a nearly exclusively
white-extremist-fringe movement, one that truly hates
everyone who looks like you, and works hard to scapegoat
you for political gain. It�s as if they�re turning their
back on the mama who raised them.
Meanwhile,
J.C.
Watts - who has returned
from obscurity after apparently not suffering enough abuse
in the party - says that Republican candidates need black
strategists at the table to help them win over black voters
and avoid controversial remarks. �Somebody that looks like us needs to be at the
strategists� table to say �I know what you�re trying to
say, but I wouldn�t say it like that,� Watts said at an
even hosted by black tea party darling, Rep. Allen West
(R-Florida). West said that blacks have conservative views
but don�t vote Republican.
Watts and
West are missing the point. Having
a black face at the Republican race-card table never changed
the game, and they are proof of it. They are the only
ones who don�t realize that they are the punch line to
this offensive joke, and the joke�s on them.
BlackCommentator.com Executive Editor, David
A. Love, JD is a journalist and human rights advocate
based in Philadelphia, is a graduate of Harvard College and the University
of Pennsylvania Law School. and a contributor to The Huffington
Post, the Grio, The Progressive
Media Project, McClatchy-Tribune News Service,
In These
Times and Philadelphia
Independent Media Center. He also blogs at davidalove.com, NewsOne, Daily Kos, and Open Salon. Click here to contact Mr. Love.
