CURRENT ARCHIVES FOR CONTRIBUTORS GUIDELINES ABOUT US
You didn’t come this far to stop
JOURNAL
What role did black republicans play in Donald Trump’s 2024 Election victory
It may be argued, that there was little to register on the electoral scale. But these black republicans are convinced that they served an important role for democracy and black peoples rights.
They argue that the Republican party is not racist. After all, they declare, all with one voice, it was the Democrats who were in power during slavery and the Jim Crow laws. They just might have a valid point there. Furthermore, they mention the fact that men like Frederick Douglas and Booker T Washington, were black Republicans, as well, lest we forget.
Black Republicans are willing to acknowledge that before LBJ, there were few rights and civil liberties given to black people, throughout the length and breath of the United States. That with the signing of the Civil Rights act in 1964, black people took a giant leap in stepping away from the dreaded past, that soured their very existence. They believe, moreover, that it is the individual worth of black people, as opposed to the collective worth, that matters most of all.
So, even though they will admit that some white people were responsible for the destruction of Black Wall Street, and other advanced initiatives in other parts of the United States, they say that the rebuilding of a vibrant black Wall Street, did later emerge and exist for the next 40 years. They maintain that it was POLICY, and not the state or white racists, who destroyed that successful, black, financial framework, and others, ultimately. Government POLICY, is the main reason they assert, that black people have achieved little progress since then.
They do not want to see black people given jobs because they are black, they say. They should be given jobs based on merit. Positive discrimination took away the rights of black people to individual, self-determination, they rationalise. Collective determination was black people’s downfall, according to Black Republicans. Personally, I think that mindset, is self-delusional. For in my opinion, positive discrimination, was something, earned, by POC and minorities, as a result of the pain of fight and struggle and death, that were their staple diet in the home and on the streets. They fought collectively, en masse, though burdened and beaten, to secure some form of justice and recompense for their harsh, unfeeling treatments by the majority white racist institutions and status quo. They were not handed positive discrimination by whites. They demanded it. White priveledge was a given. Black privilege was an anathema.
Black Republicans believe that their very presence is justified, because all of the well-known black leaders who campaigned for trump and are Republicans, were in fact voted into office by white people themselves, in white majority states. That, they say is proof that Republicanism knows no racial barriers to individual success. It is this kind of individuality, based on merit, not handouts or sponsorship or demeaning gestures that make them good politicians. It is their worth as professional people that is on display. Not tokenism by white folks. That is the main thrust of their argument.
In a recent black caucus event, the Trump motorcade passed by their event and did not stop. It was clear to many there, that it was a snub by the same person who they championed. But they did not seem to register that blatant fact. Trump ignored them. Apparently, he waved as the motorcade went past. The incumbent was on his way to hold a MAGA rally somewhere further along, where ultra, far-right members and well known white supremacists, were to hold sway on the platform.
Perhaps black Republicans will dilute the evident racism in the mass of the Republican party. Maybe their very presence will act as a form of infiltration in the long term. Maybe the more black people who take an interest in Republican politics, the less racist the white demographic will be. Maybe, like the movement of people of various colours, into the land of BLACK Egyptian society, the entrenchment of alien culture and habits, according to the thinking of white people, might indeed change the nature and design of the Republican party in the future. But for now, most black people still show alligience and faithfulness to the Democratic party of the United States of America.
A personality like Candice Owen, might be the new, acceptable, face of Black Republicanism. But I cannot say for sure that the bulk of the MAGA folks or the mainstream white faces in the Republican Party, is anymore considerate of the lady's valiant efforts to educate them. She certainly appears eager and willing to educate black people on the merits and values of a party, that has traditionally represented the views and ideology of a white superior mindset, of an ignorant class of people.
Black Republicans is an interesting idea and I think that is all it can ever be, for now.