By Raynard Jackson
BlakPAC Blogger
If Black Republicans ever want to be taken seriously by the Black
community, they have to stop accepting the silly ultimatum being offered
by the Republican Party. Some in the party think Blacks have to choose
between their community and the GOP. The proper thing to do is to be
both Black and Republican. This isn’t an ‘either-or’ scenario; Black
Republicans must represent their community and the GOP at the same time.
Some Black Republicans that appear on television must be so starved
for money that they are willing to sell their souls for 30 pieces of
silver. You can always make more money, but you can’t make more
integrity.
Republicans obsessive love affair with hiring Black Democrats
continues to come back to bite them in the butt. Back in February, ordained
minister and reality TV villain Omarosa Manigault appeared on a segment
on Fox News to bolster support for Republican presidential nominee
Donald Trump. The former Clinton aide spent more time name-calling
and obsessing over another guest’s cleavage than giving strong reasons
why the Black community should vote for Trump.
Omarosa should have been barred from anything to do with the Trump
campaign after this embarrassing interview. How can Blacks take this
campaign seriously with surrogates like this?
Some will accuse me of taking one bad interview and going off the deep end. Oh really? Check out Roland Martin’s interview with Ashley Bell, a newly hired Black staffer at the RNC.
The train wreck starts at 10:10. I cringed while watching this
interview. This is what happens when you hire inexperienced people who
make you feel comfortable, versus someone who is a bonified
professional.
Need more proof? Okay. My good friend, former Congressman Jack
Kingston from Georgia is also a Trump surrogate. Kingston is White. This interview is bordering on insanity and racism.
I know Jack very well and he is neither, but when you speak of things
which you have no knowledge of, like the Black community, this is what you get.
I have provided media training to some of the biggest names in
business, politics, entertainment, and sports and have offered to do the
same for the Republican Party, but of course, to no avail.
Some racially-tinged jokes and campaign antics that are funny to
White folks are simply not funny to Blacks, and Diamond and Silk are
prime examples. Diamond and Silk are two Black women, who are Internet
sensations from North Carolina. They also support Trump. So, in usual
Republican fashion, they have become “the flavor of the month.” They are
Democrats and are now being flown across the country and being paid to
“entertain” mostly White audiences.
Memo to White folks: “Blacks don’t think this is funny.” Diamond and Silk give us flashbacks of the minstrel shows of old.
Most Black Republicans complain in private, but don’t have the guts
to complain publically. These are the Blacks that this party hires and
promotes. You can’t complain about your opponent’s behavior and remain
silent when one of your own behaves in a similar manner.
The only Blacks involved in the election cycle with any
professionalism and credibility are Katrina Pierson, Trumps' national
spokesperson, and George Farrell, Chairman of BlakPAC. The rest do not even meet the minimum requirement to be in
the role they occupy. They provide nothing more than race insurance for
the party (“We hired a few Blacks, therefore we can’t be racist.”).
None of them possess any institutional memory or knowledge of the
Republican Party. None of these Blacks would be deemed qualified for
similar positions in the private sector.
But these Blacks are simply a reflection of the organizations that
hire them. The Republican Party has shown absolutely no interest in
engaging with the Black community. As a matter of fact, I find it quite
offensive that Trump would give remarkably strong speeches laying out a
rationale for Blacks to vote for him, but doesn’t think enough of Blacks
to show up in our community.
What Trump is doing is equivalent to a male going before a group of
all males to deliver a speech about women’s issues. But Black
Republicans are so politically bruised and battered that they are simply
thrilled that Trump invokes the Black community’s name, regardless of
the offensive manner in which it is done.
As long as the party continues to hire Blacks who think we “need”
groups like the NAACP or the National Urban League to validate our
existence as Black Republicans, we will continue to lose the Black vote.
Republican candidates and leaders need not speak before these groups
to “prove” that they are not racist. They simply need to speak before
Black Republican groups to prove that we are valued and a welcomed
member of the party.
The bar has been set so low relative to engagement with the Black
community that far too often Black Republicans heap praise on
Republicans simply for “showing up” or “mentioning us as a group by
name.” I find this bigotry of low expectations thoroughly repulsive and
it is the fault of Black Republicans for accepting this treatment. BlakPAC is the only group that stands tall in the Republican Party with it core focus on electing Black Republicans.
As I am fond of saying, “the best way to get attention in the Republican Party as a Black is to be a Black Democrat.”
www.BlakPAC.com
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