Opinion
A Case for Conservatism in Black Society
The question then becomes: Has African American loyalty to the Democratic Party been rewarded? Well, the post Civil Rights era has been considered the most successful time period for African Americans both politically and economically – with the biggest success being the election of President Barack Obama in 2008.
However it is also said that to whom much is given much is expected. In recent times, the rate of unemployment among African Americans in the U.S. is approximately twice the national average and the highest of the major races (Black, White and Latino). It is also documented that schools in black communities are the least equipped and among the worst performing despite Bush II’s strategic efforts and Obama’s progressive ones. Some of the worst performing schools are in Democratic Party controlled districts and municipalities. Crime rates in black communities like Chicago’s South Side are also a major concern; and African American males are disproportionately incarcerated versus other races. Finally the breakdown of the African American family has resulted in about 70 percent of homes being headed by single mothers.
Despite years of voting for Democrats, these issues have gone un-addressed for a long time and there is a growing disillusionment in African American societies. Allen West (R) (Florida Congressman – Elected 2010) and Tim Scott (R) (South Carolina Congressman – Elected 2010) are the first conservative and Republican African Americans elected from their states since the Reconstruction Era.
These two gentlemen belong to the Tea Party Movement, an even more conservative wing of the Republican party. Both West and Scott as members of the Tea Party advocate strict adherence to the American constitution. Congressman West has said that the black vote has been taken for granted by the Democratic Party and considers himself the modern day Harriet Tubman; one who offers Republican conservative principles as the better way for African Americans to progress. For his part, Rep. Scott speaks of the need for tough love and a move away from over reliance on government assistance and programs toward the freedom and discipline of being in charge and taking responsibility for one’s life. Another prominent black conservative is Mayor Mia Love of Utah. Also a ‘Tea Partier’, Love is the Republican Party candidate for a Utah Congressional seat and her campaign is based on conservative themes like lower taxes, individual liberty, personal responsibility, and fiscal discipline. If she wins, a premise which is almost a foregone conclusion, she’d become the first Republican African American woman in the history of the United States House of Representatives.
What might be a paradox and ironically significant is that there’s, apparently, a meteoric rise of black conservatism in the era of a black American president.
At this juncture, I daresay that conservative principles were more rooted in African American homes than white homes in the 1960s and earlier. Indeed in the 19th century and into the first half of the 20th century, majority of the elected African Americans at all levels of government were Republicans. Conservatism has had a place in African American societies. There’s no disputing the fact that modern African American politics is rooted in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s – driven by people and ideas emanating from the church. The church pulpit was the rallying point from which leaders of the movement (most of them reverends like Martin Luther King, jr) advised and guided their follower-ship.
In the present day, activists like the Rev. Bill Owen, President of the Coalition of African American Pastors avers that as far as he was concerned, ‘… the Democratic Party is not pro-African American!’ He further says that Democratic Party used African Americans as pawns because they (African Americans) automatically assume that the Democratic Party supports their interests. He goes on to lament the decline of the family and [the increase] in crime and joblessness in African American communities.
