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| Charles Barkley: No longer a poster child of black Republicanism? |
Per the header, here's my Tweets about that, which I will expand upon:
My off the cuff take on black Republicans, both pre and post #MAGA.— @realDonaldTrump 🌻🚩 (@SocraticGadfly) October 19, 2018
1 1/4 is true believers in the BS, like Clarence Thomas thinking affirmative action didn't help
2. 1/4 is grifters, figuring they're getting used and using back first. Vernon Robinson of Black #MAGA an example.
And
My off the cuff take on black GOPers, both pre and post #MAGA.— @realDonaldTrump 🌻🚩 (@SocraticGadfly) October 19, 2018
3. Another 1/4 was pre-Trump black GOP. Some, like JC Watts, burned out over GOP racism. Others, like Colin Powell, still stick
4. 1/4 thinks Dems have taken them for granted and votes GOP as "notice."
And
The first 1/4 of black GOPers is largely "insider" enough to get away w/self-delusion. 2nd 1/4 is getting theirs, so don't care. Third 3/4 ... can shit and get on the ConservaDem pot. 4th 1/4, I agree with but it's wrong vote. Vote Green or SPUSA.— @realDonaldTrump 🌻🚩 (@SocraticGadfly) October 19, 2018
Yes, I'm going out on a bit of limb with this, but, like the likes of Doug Henwood, I don't have white liberal guilt, so let's dive in.
Many of the people in the first one-fourth are like Colin Powell in the third group: Veterans. The U.S. military, especially in the officer class, is very arguably about the most racism-free big business in America. (The ranks, especially in the Army, having to downgrade its recruiting standards as the War on Terra drags on and unemployment drops, is a somewhat different story.)
And, yes, since the military has no official affirmative action program, it's easy to believe that all America could just really be this way.
But, once you join the armed forces, you're forced shoulder-to-shoulder with people of other ethnicities. Unlike big business, you can't easily self-segregate. Plus, since the armed forces integrated earlier than private businesses, whites in the military have long been more likely to have minority bosses than people in the private sector.
In addition, the private sector has limits on what a minority boss can do to you if you wear racism on your shoulder. In the military? A black drill sergeant can tell a white hoodlum PFC "Gimme 50" day after day after day. Assign that person to perpetual KP or latrine duty. Etc., etc.
So, racism may still exist in the military, contra the Allen Wests of the world, but where it does, it has to be hidden more, too.
The grifters? Can't blame them.
Beyond obvious grifters, where do we put a, say, Charles Barkley? Remember when he was being touted as Alabama Republican gubernatorial material? Was he just along for the ride the whole time, or was he more in category one?
Other athletes pro and top-level college, like former Oklahoma Sooner J.C. Watts, have jumped on the GOP bandwagon before, only to become disillusioned later. Athletics, especially at the pro level, seems broadly similar to the military on lack of at least overt racism, and why.
On the pro athletes, if Dennis Rodman can be pigeonholed at all, it would be as a grifter. Shawne Merriman and Terrell Owens as Trump Train riders first, GOPers second. Herschel Walker would be a mix of No. 1 and No. 3. Latrell Sprewell? Trump Train rider, I guess. Karl Malone? The group 1 real deal.
Lynn Swann and Tony Dungy seem true believers, and unlike the likes of Colin Powell, social conservatives who will remain Republican. (How vocal a religious rightist like Dungy is about Trump's immorality is still to be seen.)
This issue applies even more to black Republican religious leaders like T.D. Jakes. So far, most of these folks have, if not going full Robert Jeffress in effusive Trump praise, at a minimum, kept their lips zipped on not offering condemnation of Trump's racism or his sexual immorality.
Then there's the black social conservatives who even repeat the canard that Margaret Sanger (who was definitely not perfect on race or class issues) intended abortion to be a black genocide. (These are often the same types of people who claim that Southern Democrats, and Dems in general, of today, are just like pre-LBJ Democrats in being the real racists. Just one step removed are the people who talk about long dead blacks like Zora Neale Hurston as black Republicans. And yes, I saw a website that did just that, as well as a very white New Zealander.)
Wikipedia has a page on "black conservativism in the United States." When 20 percent of the people listed don't have their own pages, you're barrel-scraping, even if who gets a Wiki page can be arbitrary.
Many of the people in the first one-fourth are like Colin Powell in the third group: Veterans. The U.S. military, especially in the officer class, is very arguably about the most racism-free big business in America. (The ranks, especially in the Army, having to downgrade its recruiting standards as the War on Terra drags on and unemployment drops, is a somewhat different story.)
And, yes, since the military has no official affirmative action program, it's easy to believe that all America could just really be this way.
But, once you join the armed forces, you're forced shoulder-to-shoulder with people of other ethnicities. Unlike big business, you can't easily self-segregate. Plus, since the armed forces integrated earlier than private businesses, whites in the military have long been more likely to have minority bosses than people in the private sector.
In addition, the private sector has limits on what a minority boss can do to you if you wear racism on your shoulder. In the military? A black drill sergeant can tell a white hoodlum PFC "Gimme 50" day after day after day. Assign that person to perpetual KP or latrine duty. Etc., etc.
So, racism may still exist in the military, contra the Allen Wests of the world, but where it does, it has to be hidden more, too.
The grifters? Can't blame them.
Beyond obvious grifters, where do we put a, say, Charles Barkley? Remember when he was being touted as Alabama Republican gubernatorial material? Was he just along for the ride the whole time, or was he more in category one?
Other athletes pro and top-level college, like former Oklahoma Sooner J.C. Watts, have jumped on the GOP bandwagon before, only to become disillusioned later. Athletics, especially at the pro level, seems broadly similar to the military on lack of at least overt racism, and why.
On the pro athletes, if Dennis Rodman can be pigeonholed at all, it would be as a grifter. Shawne Merriman and Terrell Owens as Trump Train riders first, GOPers second. Herschel Walker would be a mix of No. 1 and No. 3. Latrell Sprewell? Trump Train rider, I guess. Karl Malone? The group 1 real deal.
Lynn Swann and Tony Dungy seem true believers, and unlike the likes of Colin Powell, social conservatives who will remain Republican. (How vocal a religious rightist like Dungy is about Trump's immorality is still to be seen.)
This issue applies even more to black Republican religious leaders like T.D. Jakes. So far, most of these folks have, if not going full Robert Jeffress in effusive Trump praise, at a minimum, kept their lips zipped on not offering condemnation of Trump's racism or his sexual immorality.
Then there's the black social conservatives who even repeat the canard that Margaret Sanger (who was definitely not perfect on race or class issues) intended abortion to be a black genocide. (These are often the same types of people who claim that Southern Democrats, and Dems in general, of today, are just like pre-LBJ Democrats in being the real racists. Just one step removed are the people who talk about long dead blacks like Zora Neale Hurston as black Republicans. And yes, I saw a website that did just that, as well as a very white New Zealander.)
Wikipedia has a page on "black conservativism in the United States." When 20 percent of the people listed don't have their own pages, you're barrel-scraping, even if who gets a Wiki page can be arbitrary.
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