RNC chairman condemns controversial Obama song - CNN.com
This little tempest in a teapot highlights two issues:
Issue 1: Republicans have the appearance, if not the reality of being tone deaf. Sending out to RNC members a parody CD titled "We Hate America"? that's full of parodies of liberals and pushing the point that they are less patriotic? Asinine. We just got done with an election in which a clear message was that Americans are sick of the partisanship and want policy makers to get down to the business of problem solving. This incident sends the message that republicans don't get it.
Issue 2: this is the smaller deal, simply because republicans don't care, but the Magic Negro stuff merely highlights what is really a fact about the party which is that we don't see blacks or black issues as a constituency to attract or collaborate with in terms of the party's aspirations for governance. We would not make such a mistake with the Jewish or Catholic constituencies, but we exhibit this kind of casual indifference to black voter sensibilities quite a bit. The message that comes across is that our governance ambitions don't include blacks.
Issue #1, if uncorrected will certainly see the republicans in the wilderness for some time to come. Issue#2, left uncorrected, will leave the party perpetually vulnerable to the charge of being willfully callous and indifferent to blacks as a political constituency.
This little tempest in a teapot highlights two issues:
Issue 1: Republicans have the appearance, if not the reality of being tone deaf. Sending out to RNC members a parody CD titled "We Hate America"? that's full of parodies of liberals and pushing the point that they are less patriotic? Asinine. We just got done with an election in which a clear message was that Americans are sick of the partisanship and want policy makers to get down to the business of problem solving. This incident sends the message that republicans don't get it.
Issue 2: this is the smaller deal, simply because republicans don't care, but the Magic Negro stuff merely highlights what is really a fact about the party which is that we don't see blacks or black issues as a constituency to attract or collaborate with in terms of the party's aspirations for governance. We would not make such a mistake with the Jewish or Catholic constituencies, but we exhibit this kind of casual indifference to black voter sensibilities quite a bit. The message that comes across is that our governance ambitions don't include blacks.
Issue #1, if uncorrected will certainly see the republicans in the wilderness for some time to come. Issue#2, left uncorrected, will leave the party perpetually vulnerable to the charge of being willfully callous and indifferent to blacks as a political constituency.
In my view the Republican Party has been tone-deaf about the Black community and Black voters for my entire adult life. I think that they threw away whatever chance they had to significantly attract votes from people of color during this 2008 election cycle. The latest flare-up with the 'magic negro' parody is simply further evidence of what is already known...
ReplyDeleteI continue to feel a sense of sorrow for anyone that identifies themselves as a 'Black Republican'.
peace, Villager
The Republicans know on almost any given election they can when without Black voters. So they can gain the White House AND not be bothered with us.
ReplyDeleteIts not like the party would need to change who they are to appeal to many more Black voters. They would make a solid step if they condemned things like this and the Obama dollars.
However, they continue to allow themselves to be represented by
Villager,
ReplyDeleteNot sure how welfare and other social injustices that the democrats push on blacks to keep the votes coming in is necessarily eyes open to black issues. Seems to me the democrats love to keep blacks fat and stupid, and the blacks keep coming back for more while you claim the Republicans dont' care. There is nothing compassionate about keeping people down. If you don't believe me, do some hard research on why Jesse Jackson owns a beer distributorship. You'll be shocked at some of the things you find.
Villager, I call myself a black republican, but you needn't feel sorry for me at all, and I would respond that its a rhetorical flourish every bit as unhelpful to the debate as when republicans demonize liberals. Its easy to decry republican disregard for black voters as they make it so easy to do. But Clay has a point, though like most republicans, he makes it in a very patronizing way; simply put, democratic party policy approaches don't work. Urban redevelopment, education, economy, you name it, most of their approaches have not worked for us.
ReplyDeleteNow, what Clay is studiously avoiding like most of my republican brethren is the fact that republican political behavior IS conducted with a fair degree of disregard for blacks, and the fact that the party does not regard the participation of blacks as important to its aspirations for governance. If it did, it would operate towards us in a different manner. So Clay, if you're going to be intellectually honest, then you have to stop talking about black antipathy towards the GOP as though we are a bunch of brainwashed lemmings. The GOP's disregard for the participation of blacks in the party is real (doesn't make them evil or racist, but its a fact) and blacks are clear about it, so we don't connect with the party, despite the fact that there are some conservative policy prescriptions that are beneficial to us.