Black Republican politicos can't absolve white Republican racism

The Monday Musings

Nov 08, 2021

“All things are subject to interpretation. Whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.”—Words by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche

***Last week, Republican Winsome Sears, a former Marine and homeless shelter advocate, became the first Black woman elected as Lt. Governor in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Her election came during the same week that arguably the most popular Black Republican in modern history, former General and Secretary of State Colin Powell, was laid to rest following a state funeral in the nation's capital that was attended by President Joe Biden, former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush, and former First Lady, Senator, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Lt. Gov.-elect Winsome Sears and husband

Will Lt. Gov.-elect Sears, similar to General Powell, serve in a way that honors our shared ancestors by giving deference to what another Black Republican Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice, called America's "original sin" of slavery—and its subsequent Jim Crow horrors that plague Black people writ large to this very day?

It is too soon to tell but, it seems these days that whenever a Black Republican is running for office or gets elected that two things happen: 1. The elected Black Republican projects that he/she is "different" from other Blacks and boasts of being an "independent thinker;" 2. White Republicans praise said Black Republican for "leaving the liberal plantation" while grinning broadly that they can get away with this flawed and highly disrespectful analogy to real plantation life for formerly enslaved and sharecropper Blacks.

Right on cue, Bernard Goldberg, a smug conservative 76-year old journalist from New York, invoked the old plantation trope in his latest article in The Hill, and added: "Except, when the subject is race, it’s always 1963 to elites on the left. It’s always Birmingham, Ala., and the hateful Bull Connor, or some other racist place and person in the Old South. You’d think that by now progressives would have, well, progressed. But they’re stuck in the past. On matters of race, the past is their safe space. That’s when Blacks were victims and whites, their oppressors. Winsome Sears is telling them that 'It’s not 1963' anymore, and that’s something they don’t want to hear."

The problem with Goldberg's analysis is one that many white conservatives and moderates who claim that they "don't have a racist bone in their body" tend to make, which is that they are WHOLLY unqualified to tell any Black person how we should feel about the ghosts of racism past—and the gollums of racism present!

You see, Goldberg and his ilk often point to the election of Barack Obama and many other significant accomplishments of Blacks in other fields of endeavor over the past 50 years and conclude, "alas, racism is no more!" But such viewpoints are horrifically near-sighted and tend to ignore the blatant and latent racism that Obama and all of the rest of us experience each and every day whether it be racist rhetoric, or, systemic racists policies and disparities in education, health care, mortgage lending/home ownership, business lending, and yes, crime, punishment, and police brutality.

Such is why the jury remains out on Lt. Gov.-elect Sears; my own experiences with Black people and the Republican Party, including the years I spent trying to bring the Black perspective as a member of the Florida Republican Party before I simply gave up trying to reason with unreasonable (and oft unintelligent) people, is that the angst has never been strictly about tax policy, military spending, and approaches to governing per se, but where do you stand on acknowledging that white supremacy still exists—and working to eradicate it through public policy!

And while Ms. Winsome excited her conservative punditocracy friends last week by claiming that she would love to have a "woman to woman" sit down with award winning MSNBC journalist Joy Reid so that the latter “can stop talking behind my back” after Reid called modern Republican fealty to white nationalism “dangerous,” I am sending today's Hobbservations to Winsome directly—along with an invitation to chat with me, one who understands “them” better than many Republicans understand themselves, so that my readers and viewers can see where she stands on matters of equality and justice towards people who share our common hue.

Stay tuned...

***After refusing to allow University of Florida professors to testify in several racially charged voter suppression lawsuits against Florida Republican Gov. Ron Desantis, a week's worth of backlash from the mainstream media, Ol' Hobbs and the Hobbservation Point, and one ominous letter of inquiry from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) accrediting board's leader, Dr. Belle Wheelan, finally led University of Florida President Kent Fuchs to raise the white flag of surrender and allow the professors to testify free from any disciplinary reprisal.

The predominantly Black Florida Gators football team's struggles this year pale in comparison to its administration's Jim Crow-ish moves

What remains unfortunate is that Dr. Fuchs would seek to subvert racial justice in the first place, particularly at a school that, like its SEC and ACC state University brethren, has such a putrid history with regards to fomenting Jim Crow segregation and discrimination against Black people. This during an age when each of these universities owes the lion's share of their revenue to the talents of young Black athletes who keep the billions rolling in as fans break their pockets while screaming "Roll Tide," "Hunker Down Hairy Dogs," and yes, "Go Gators!" Which is why I believe that for all of the negativity that emanates from social media, that one major benefit is that public contempt can be conveyed to the powers that be in real time—as can the threat of boycotts of Black student-athletes, many of whom already are beginning to choose Southern based HBCUs or white colleges with racial climates that are less hostile.

***This past weekend, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm noted that totally out of control gas prices certainly have the Biden administration's attention, and that the President has both contacted the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to increase supplies of crude oil (which was summarily denied), and is even considering tapping into the U.S.'s strategic oil reserves to ease angst at the pumps.

Today’s gallows humor is that last week at the gas pump, there was a quite humorous convo between a Sista driving a BMW sports car, an off-duty police officer filling up his Dodge Dually truck, and yours truly filling up my Mercedes SUV. As we griped about the prices, the officer said, "ok, let's see whose final tally is the highest?" Minutes later, the Sista said that it cost $54 to fill her tank that morning; I lamented that my cost was $95 and, the winner was…drumroll…Officer Friendly, whose final tally was $163!!!"

While we laughed and went our separate ways, trust, gas prices that high is NO laughing matter; here's hoping that we get rid of these summa cum laude like $3.92 per gallon gas prices, and get down to some academic probation like $1.92 per gallon prices!

***As I reported last week, President Joe Biden's approval rating has dipped to 38 percent, and while Democratic political strategists will work hard in the months ahead to reverse this trend in the runup to the mid-term elections, I found the following analysis in this morning's NY Times telling: "...According to our October Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll, only 35 percent of registered voters approve of the administration’s immigration policies (which a majority view as an open-borders approach); 64 percent oppose eliminating cash bail (a progressive proposal the administration has backed); and most reject even popular expansions of entitlements if they are bundled in a $1.5 to $2 trillion bill based on higher taxes and deficits (the pending Build Back Better initiative). Nearly nine in 10 voters express concern about inflation. And 61 percent of voters blame the Biden administration for the increase in gasoline prices, with most also preferring to maintain energy independence over reducing carbon emissions right now."

The article added: "Senator Joe Manchin and Senator Kyrsten Sinema are not outliers in the Democratic Party — they are in fact the very heart of the Democratic Party, given that 53 percent of Democrats classify themselves as moderates or conservative. While Democrats support the Build Back Better initiative, 60 percent of Democrats (and 65 percent of the country) support the efforts of these moderates to rein it in. It’s (progressives) Mr. Sanders from Vermont and Ms. Ocasio-Cortez from New York who represent areas ideologically far from the mainstream of America."

Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

As a fiscal moderate who is progressive on issues involving racial justice, I often wage my own internal battle which includes agreeing with many of the progressive ideals espoused by progressives like Sen. Sanders, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, and "The Squad," but also wondering how such will be paid for in a nation where "tax the rich" is a lofty ideal that far too many within the lower economic classes seem to reject without much serious contemplation about how we, the people, carry the burden during both Democratic and Republican administrations alike over the past century.

Understanding the perception and attendant realities, Democrats can only hope that this ideological civil war can be quelled before next November—or else 2022 will look a whole lot like the 2010 Tea Party Revolution.

Final Hobbservation

Speaking of that “Cradle of the Confederacy” also known as Virginia, Black Lt. Gov.-elect Winsome Sears will soon work for Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin, a white man who took the “Critical Race Theory” baton and won, in part, due to his stoking white fears that little white kids in Virginia will learn the truth about their racist parents, paw-paws, and me-maws in their school lessons. Which, tragically, is a lie because CRT is found on collegiate and law school campuses—not K-12 schools.

But if you ask me, CRT should be taught starting in pre-school, especially in states like Virginia, ones that were using the following “lessons” glorifying slavery in its history courses well into the 1980s—when I was in primary school down in its Confederate Sister State of Florida.

Take a look for yourself and see why REAL American history is a must—and how those like Gov.-elect Youngkin, and his #2 Mrs. Spears, are either racists or racism supporters for buying into the CRT disparagement:

Virginia State History Book (1957-1980s)