FAQ 37 - Black Conservatives

Q: Who are the most widely known Black Conservatives?

A: Several come to mind.

Q: What is the support base of Black Conservatives?

A: None of these individuals have been elected by African Americans. So while they may echo the opinions of many black folks, none of them have been designated by any black constituency to represent their political interests.

 

Commentary:

Subj: Re:NATIONAL MINORITY POLITICS 95-03-04 13:29:51 EDT
From: Jeff111

I just wanted to comment that I ordered a subscription to the magazine produced
by National Minority Politics. It turned out to be one of the best reading
magazines of political commentary that I have ever come into contact with. I
suggest that anyone interested in seeing the conservative black point of view
that has been treated the same as UFO's to date...I suggest that you write for a
subscription offer... They are at...

"NATIONAL MINORITY POLITICS"
5757 WESTHEIMER RD. SUITE 3-296
HOUSTON, TX 77057-9764
1 Year Subscription is $ 29.00

Subj: National Minority Politics 95-03-11 12:43:51 EDT
From: DryLongSo

It is clear that the direction of African-American politics is changing, but is
that change to static conservatism. I think not! The data suggest a
"radicalization" as indicated by the National Black Politics Study presented by
the University of Chicago early last year. An analysis of that study will
appear in the Harvard Journal of African-American Public Policy in the Spring of
1995. The analysis in entitled "The Intensification of Racial Solidarity Under
the Guise of Black Nationalism" by Kevin A. Gray, president of the SC ACLU and
former Jackson and Harkin political director.

The media has given a great deal of attention to black conservatives who have no
intellectual, programmatic or constituency base. At present, those groups and
individuals (such as Armstrong Williams) are occupying "affirmative action"
positions either within the Republican party or in the machinations of the
media. Policy wise, they have no structured agenda and fill the media's need to
neatly and falsly pigeon-hole black political direction. This does not mean
that blacks should be captives to the Democratic party or liberal paternalism,
it simply means that the politics of the community are evolving (not to neatly
defined conservatism or liberalism), and to a significant degree that evolution
is more radical. My suggestion to C-Span is that they focus on "valid" black
radicalism and those with a "radical capitialist" agenda. This is the concept
in which affirmative action will be debated around. Perpetuation of the welfare
state versus radical capitalism/economic expansion into the black community.

You can best believe that the black community will not lay dormant while the
black underclass in attacked in the form of welfare reform and crime
legislation, and the black middle class is economically attacked in the form of
attacks on so-called affirmative action. As Sam Donaldson raised with Cong.
Mfume on "This Week with Brinkley", America is in store for "violent" times
should this perceived attack and the hateful racial climate persist. It is safe
to say that we are about to enter a period of intense mobilization and a
leadership change in the African-American community. The political mobilization
will go beyond wasting effort on presidential campaigns (such as Jackson's) to a
movement framework with policy outcome.

C-Span should focus its attention on the developing movement (with ideology and
intellectual support) versus the dribble it has presented in the past.