From rapper Kanye West having to apologize for claiming “slavery was a choice” to political pundit Candace Owens going on a podcast and proclaiming, “I just don’t believe this, like, at all” on the subject of climate change, President Donald Trump’s exemplary black conservatives are an interesting breed.
For West and Owens, it’s the lucrative attention and recognition that drive their sudden awakening to the power of being “liberated” from being liberal. Conservatism is a marketing strategy in the age of Trump. For the rest of us, black people politics have sadly devolved into being either a whitewashed sellout or down for helping the black community.
To be extremely clear, there is nothing wrong with being black and conservative. A number of black people do not believe liberal policies are best for the advancement of the black community in a capitalistic American economic landscape.
Many counter-claim that no community in American history is as oppressed and marginalized as black people in the justice system or marketplace, and the duty of all is to provide equality for communities everywhere.
The fact is, most black Americans vote for Democrats and support liberal ideology. That being said, there are many ideologically conservative black Americans who deserve to be heard and respected. Disagreement is the base of democracy, and intellectual rational argument has shaped America from its founding.
The “self-help” vs. governmental accountability debate dates back to the days of author and presidential adviser Booker T. Washington. Washington himself could be considered a black conservative because of his views on government involvement in the rehabilitation of the black community after slavery.
Personally, I don’t think Washington accounted for the weaponization of government through the Black Codes, Jim Crow and eventually, the War on Drugs. But, he knew economic stability is key to success in America.
Unfortunately, in this age of Trumpian politics, divisive rhetoric is bolstered on every side and fundamental policy is dismissed. Today we see partisanship spreading beyond political parties into intersectional debates over identity and loyalty to community.
Also in the age of Trump, black conservatives have found themselves on the outside looking in even in their own political party.
Well-respected Republican strategist Shermichael Singleton served as Deputy Chief of Staff at the Department of Housing and Urban Development in Trump’s administration until a background check revealed he wrote an Op-Ed criticizing Trump during the 2016 campaign.
The fact that a black man is fired after criticizing Trump when a wealth of other people in his administration have done far worse is something I want you to think about this week. The point is that Trump’s black conservatives are not conservative, they are merely blindly loyal “yes men” and “yes women.”
“For those folks, it’s definitely a cult of personality,” said Theodore Johnson, a senior fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice in an interview with the Washington Post. “They just like the access to power.”
Frankly speaking, real black conservatives deserve respect. More often than not, we all have the same goal of producing positive change within the black community. Conservatives today must see that Trump only cares about Trump, and supporting him is forfeiting reason and intellect for all-caps tweets and embarrassment.
Justin Franklin is a 19-year-old political communication sophomore from Memphis, Tennessee.