By Raynard Jackson
BlakPAC Blogger
As long as the Republican Party continues to be dominated by the same
ol’, same ol’ White male staffers, consultants, and aides, they will
continue to alienate the Black community. As long as the Republican
Party continues to “showcase” Blacks that have absolutely no connection
to the Black community, have no understanding of communications, or no
understanding of political strategy, i.e. Stacey Dash, they will
continue to be rejected.
So, needless to say I was totally mortified at the comments of
Trump’s former campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, as reported by
Buzzfeed last week (one day after his removal from the campaign).
According to Buzzfeed, “Lewandowski was asked about the campaign’s failure to return phone calls from
prospective volunteers, and also about Trump’s plans to win over
minority voters. On the second point, Lewandowski said he made the
decision that the campaign would not launch outreach initiatives
“pandering” to specific ethnic groups, because Trump’s message was aimed
broadly at the entire country, he argued.
If I hear one more Republican claim the Republican Party should not
engage in “identity politics” or what they wrongly refer to as
“pandering,” I am going to scream. This is one of the most idiotic
notions I have ever heard and is a major reason the party has such a
difficult time attracting Blacks and other minorities.
Let me first start by defining “identity politics.” IP is simply
recognizing that various constituent or demographic groups exist and
that they should be identified as such, and that a relevant strategy to
target them based on their group profile should also be created.
Many Republicans think the world should be colorblind, that we are
all Americans, and that all of our issues are the same. Well, adhering
to this view, there should be no males or females, no Blacks or Whites,
no unions or non-unions and no Christians or Muslims. We’re all just
humans.
The Democrats go way overboard in the other direction where
everything is separated into various groups. This totally dilutes what
being American is all about.
But to simply recognize the differences within our country is just plain common sense, not un-American.
So, while Corey was denouncing “pandering,” the very next day Trump
met with over nine hundred evangelicals. Is that not pandering? Oh, my
bad, it’s only pandering when it involves Blacks or Hispanics. If it
involves evangelicals, veterans, or the border patrol union, it’s called
campaigning.
Memo to Republicans: if you don’t or can’t see that you have no
Blacks on your staff and very few engaged with the party, then there is a
problem. Either you are colorblind or simply blind to people of color.
In either scenario, there is a huge problem.
What’s even more idiotic is to see many Black Republicans subscribe to this foolish colorblind notion, i.e., the aforementioned Stacey Dash.
These are the type of Blacks that Republicans want to highlight all
over the media, because they reinforce the party’s preconceived
ignorance and apathy towards the Black community.
As one who makes his living from understanding the art of strategic
communications and public relations, I have tried ad nauseam to
enlighten Republicans on this issue, to no avail.
McDonalds’ and Cadillac advertise to Whites differently than they do
to Blacks or Latinos, though they are selling the same product to
everyone.
They will now use Hip-Hop music in their ads when trying to reach
certain demographics versus classical music or use certain
athletes/entertainers that resonate with a particular group.
Legendary singer, Barry Manilow, a 72 year-old, White Jew, is not
used to sell Ciroc premium vodka for a reason; he is the wrong
demographic. Diageo, the owner, has made rapper Sean “P. Diddy” Combs
their brand ambassador because they are targeting the urban market,
i.e., Black people.
In my world, this is called smart business. Combs has helped to
increase Ciroc’s sales 50-fold; they went from 40,000 cases sold per
year pre-Combs to over 2.1 million cases per year with Combs. This is
what IP gets you in the private sector–profit! This would equate to
winning national elections in the political arena.
The Republican’s approach to Ciroc would be to advertise to the whole
country, despite the fact that urban Blacks and nightclubs buy most of
this product.
Yes, we are all Americans, but we all have our own splash of uniqueness; which is good.
To take my Ciroc example a step further, Republicans would have hired
a White brand ambassador (not Combs) to promote the product to the
urban market because they don’t believe in “identity politics;” they are
colorblind.
This is not a joke. Within the Republican Party, you have many Whites
who think they know more about the Black community than someone from
within the community.
Solomon said in Proverbs 4:7, “Wisdom is the principle thing,
therefore get wisdom; and with all thy getting, get understanding.”
How do you gain understanding of the Black community unless you first recognize and appreciate the uniqueness of that community? BlakPAC has the best GOTV organization in America for recruiting Black candidates and voters
So to my Republicans who have this perverted notion of identity
politics when it comes to Blacks, please learn to appreciate market
segmentation and market demographics and how to exploit them to sell
your message to those who have of late been totally repulsed by your
foolish notion of colorblindness.
No insult to "Success is Colorblind" author George Farrell, but Colorblindness has left the Republican
Party in a color-bind.
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