The RaceDoctor Speaks!

Today I will get right to the point.

To put it bluntly, the Republican Party is too white.

And we should all commit ourselves to doing something about it.

All those who care about the health of American Democracy, black, white, or otherwise, need to make it part of their collective work and responsibility to fix this problem.
Until recently, the problem might have been better phrased as the party is too non-black. But with That [Black] One getting 67% of the Hispanic vote and many of those folks are young first time voters whose initial party affiliations have historically proved rather sticky over lifetimes – we are further down the road toward there being a white (or perhaps whiteness) party, and another party for everyone else.

That is not good for democracy. And it’s not good for people of color. How long have black folks been complaining about being taken for granted by the Democratic party? A few more elections like this last one, and Latinos will be singing the same sad song.

When I say that black and other folks of color need to take responsibility for improving the Republican party, I am not just talking about the give or take 10 percent of us who think Clarence Thomas and Alan Keyes and their racism-minimizing selves are paragons of minority leadership. I am talking about mainstream folks of color, the kind who believe that personal and institutional racism are real forces in folks’ lives (even if sometimes exaggerated in our lesser moments) and who get irritated if not angry at the all too common habit of other folks pretending to us and themselves that those problems are all behind us now. I am talking about the folks who see a connection between the history of slavery and Jim Crow and the fact that black folks are three times as likely to be poor as whites and have on average one tenth the wealth they do.

It is these middle of the road minority folks who will be needed to help the Republican party figure out how to articulate an anti-racist conservatism, one that does not deny or minimize the way that issues of race have and continue to shape the lives of both black and non-black Americans. As long as these types of people of color are not actively engaging Republican thought leaders and regular folks because we find their views and sensibilities on race so irritating, the party will never evolve.

And likely not reclaim the success it has had when the country was whiter. And remember, it’s only getting less so. (The cross-over “whites as minority” point was recently revised down to 2042).
I recently saw a TV talk fest where conservatives were talking about this problem. It was refreshing to see white and black republicans criticizing the decision of the candidates last spring to not accept Tavis Smiley's invitation to a debate. (I think one of them actually called the decision “stupid”).
What was most striking was what they said were the solutions. “School choice” was the policy area they most emphasized. What was remarkable to me was that they missed to facts that are obvious to me. First, with black poverty rates running at 3 times white rates, an anti-poverty agenda would strike me as more galvanizing of black votes than any other policy agenda.

But fundamentally, the disconnect with the Republican Party is not about policy areas. It’s about a deep disconnect of worldview, and secondarily, tone. The disconnect is a reflection of at least 50 years of the party telling black folks that they are wrong in seeing racism is a real, live, actual problem that holds them back. Let’s remember, many republicans thought the civil rights legislation was “moving too fast.” And even if you look past Nixon’s Southern Strategy, Reagan beginning his Presidential Campaign in Philadelphia Georgia, Willie Horton ads, and the like, the fact is the Republicans reflexive response to the idea that racism is real is always to point out the possibility that it can be overstated. Unless the GOP figures out a way to talk about the realities of racism in a way that has resonance with mainstream non-dyed in the wool conservative black (and other) folks, they will always feel like a largely semi-hostile mob that at a minimum, are living in an alternative reality opposed to me and everyone I know.

And candidates for the chairmanship of the RNC distributing songs titled “Barack, The Magic Negro” doesn’t help matters. (Even if a few of us guiltily find it a kinda funny insult to Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson).

So my proposed solution is to create settings where Republicans thought leaders and other folks can collaboratively try to craft what might be called an anti-racist conservatism. I think it’s possible to think about racism as real historical and contemporary forces and still lean toward market forces as the primary strategy for making opportunities equitable. But engaging this topic is not easy, and will need to include black folks who are not paid conservative pundits.

The conservative movement has direct self-interest driving it towards doing something about the overwhelming nature of the Republican party. But I think that progressive folks (like the ones reading these words) need to actively help create an updated, anti-racist conservatism that is in fact, still conservative, but that some mainstream folks of color might sometimes find appealing.

Let me know when y’all are ready to have this conversation. I think I know a facilitator who can help.

At first blush, this most fun to pronounce Kwanza theme sounds not only great, but so, dare I say, so American. I/we do whatever we want; no one determines our destiny but us! In the land of the free, who could be against that?

What you scratch the surface though, this day seems most at odds with the zeitgeist of both contemporary black America, and the nation as a whole.

Let’s start with small but significant concession to the aptness of the concept: certainly, Barack (or That [Black] One, as McCain called him) has a rise to the Presidency represents a rise to prominence like few others in Presidential history. His rise to the verge of the Presidency was not assisted by family connections (like Kennedy), a celebrity career (like Reagan), a long history of collecting favors at the national level (like LBJ), or being plucked from the back bench in an emergency (like Ford). Certainly, TBO benefitted from some fortuitous circumstances (as well as some savvy and hardball decision making) to rise to prominence statewide, but essentially his story is one of a person willing themselves to success through a great deal of moxie, to use a really old-timey word.

And as I have said on the radio, one challenge that his rise creates for black folks is readjusting our definition of how institutional racism functions, given that we can no longer say “The nation would never elect a black president.” (Shoot, I still know some black folks who are waiting to The Man to do something to keep TBO out of office.) It is time that we update our narrative, particularly the one that we tell the next generation.

As the Temptations said about Cloud 9, “You can be what you want to be.” Self-determination, indeed.

All this I will concede, but it seems that the essence of Kujichagulia is about group self-determination. It’s about the independence and agency of a group of people to define their own goals and to achieve them. And here is where the concept seems somewhat out of step with today.
For Black Folks, TBO’s election is about the way that our tremendous efforts at registering voters and turning them out combined with efforts in other communities to create an historic result. It’s all about the coalitions, baby. And it’s not just me saying that.

I recently took the electronic keypads I love to use in speeches to a social event with some prominent black men, and persuaded the organizers to let me engage a group of people around some impromptu questions; one of the questions was about the primary lesson of the election. By a significant margin, the group said the primary lesson was the importance of multi-racial coalitions.

And with all this talk of a post-racial America (a bogus but common concept, I am afraid), black folks doin’ it for themselves does not seem the current focus.

I am certainly not saying that we have ushered in a permanent ere of cooperation across racial lines. I am saying though that this historical moment seems to fundamentally not about black folks gathering in their own private corner and sorting out what they want, separate from everyone else.

The Self Determination ethos seems noticeably off at the national level as well. One could easily argue that the reason that folks around the world were jubilant on November 5 is because we are ushering out the president who has most fetishized American Self-Determination. As Bush 43 told us over and over, the US was going to do what it wanted, regardless of what others thought.

TBO represents a return to a more mindset more about America cooperating with other folks. In Barack’s own words on the Fareed Zakaria GPS show, he said his foreign policy will be more like the approach of Bush 41.

Even at home, with an economic collapse largely created by unfettered greed, government officials siding with workers doing sit ins to collect back pay, and calls for controls on CEO pay in exchange for government bailouts, there is a new wind blowing.

It could be said that “The era of Big Selfishness” is over. Seems fitting that this new time might be brought in by the President who is identified with a group whose history of oppression has meant they have always had to think about welfare of the group.

So with Barack saying “it's all about the coalitions, baby,” the idea of self-determination seems a lot less resonant than the other Kwanza themes.

So with all apologies to Mr. Karenga (inventor of Kwanza), the concept of self-determination seems a little out of step these days.

But I still love saying Kujichagulia.

Even more fun is the private joke to myself when teaching little kids to say it by sounding out “coochie-chocolate-Leah”.

Who would be against that?

Seems like black folks have this one covered this year. Not surprisingly, we voted something like 94 percent for who Rush Limbaugh calls “Barack the magic Negro”. (It's kind of funny on its own, an actually makes more fun of Al Sharpton than That Black One, but coming from the conservative America, I still cringe and got to say, “it's too soon for y’all to joke like that). In any case, you can’t get much more on the same page than voting 94 percent in one direction. (And who are those brothas and sisters who voted otherwise? I would have loved to see the conversation with their extended family at Thanksgiving).

Sadly though, our unity in California played a key role a major political development of the year, the passing of Proposition 8 rescinding court decisions validating gay marriage. My understanding is that black folks voted something like 70 percent to not allow our hair dressers, church music directors, and auntie’s who been living with their “friend” for 30 years to legitimate what we all know is going on. In my mind, this is certainly something that black folks need to really have a dialogue about. And of course, by dialogue, I don’t mean a theatrical or media based chat fest where a few talk and everyone else says “Amen” when they hear something they like.

Going forward, I think the biggest challenge for black folks is not fall prey to feeling an excessive amount of loyalty to TBO. Certainly, given the importance of an almost unanimous black vote to his election, our position in the long line of constituencies wanting something from him should not be at the back. But if TBO does his job in being president of all the people, there should be some tension between the demands of black leadership and the president. To some extent, leaders of an historically oppressed group need to be aware of the need for society to take care of all, but also fight diligently against the possibility (historically grounded) that there group will get the short end. And TBO’s job is to push back, and not give black leaders everything they want. And let’s face it, the level of scrutiny TBO will be under on whether or not he is implementing a ‘black agenda” will likely be intense. I can see the news teasers about this on Hannity’s Show already.

So the bottom line is that too much unity here is a sign of dis-ease. Put differently, if black leaders are not showing frustration at Barack Obama two years from now, they are not doing their job.

American Unity
As far as the nation is concerned, this moment has in it so much promise for at least beginning to heal the divisions that have been such a horrible drag on our progress as a society.

The obvious barrier that has been crossed is the racial one, and I will say more on that in the coming days. But one could argue that the more important barrier that has been crossed is a generational one. My sincerest hope is that this election may have finally put the Baby Boomers fight between sex and drug Hippies and the straight laced types who were publicly against all that is finally over. Whew! That cultural war just SO, SO tired. Let’s remember by electing That Black One, we chose a black man who admitted to smoking marijuana and occasionally doing cocaine. (A lot of progress from the “I didn’t inhale” controversy from Clinton in 1992). We chose his ticket over the ticket that had its vice presidential candidate “raising the roof” to a rap song on Saturday Night Live.

The most significant policy issue that I am expecting more unity on now is around global warming. Even though this was not a function of the 60s cultural war on the surface, my sense is that the idea that human beings were having an impact on millennium long global warming/cooling cycles was rather difficult to accept by people with more of a traditionalist world view. Especially, if the implications were the US might have to create internationalist frameworks that might involve a cutting back of our unabashed emphasis on economic progress based on more and more material acquisitiveness.

So hooray for us! With the cultural was largely behind us, we can potentially move policy on global warming and other issues related to science to a more objective and rational engagement. Stem cell research, abstinence only education are just two of the issues where we might expect better policy debate.

The growth edge: class divisions. With the economic problems – I heard one expert said this is not an adjustment, it’s a “reset” – we conceivably could wrestle with fundamental questions like economic fairness between the top and bottoms of our society. (Wrest your minds from the gutter, that was, mostly, not a lascivious metaphor). Given that the government is going to bail out numerous industries, what we citizens need to start putting on the table are issues around the wage/salary gap that is acceptable. In the past 4 decades, wage gaps between the CEOs and line level workers have grown to levels unprecedented in modern industrial history, here or anyway. Since we seem to be about to start over, and since we just saw the collective results when the expansion of the wealth class combines with a decrease in regulatory structures, perhaps we can really examine what is the level of income disparity that is collectively functional and sustainable.

The RaceDoctor reflects on a fading black cultural nationalist holiday in "post-racial" America
I recently saw and article that discussed the fading of Kwanzaa. I personally always thought that this holiday was great in concept, like so many ideas having to do with “black folks getting their act together. (How many times have we heard “if we could just all [partially self sacrificing and largely unrealistic idea goes here] black folks could support each other the same way the [better off ethnic group – Jews, Asians, etc – goes here}. Followed by the plaintive lament: But we just can’t all get on the same page!

So Kwanzaa always seemed like one of those great ideas: black folks gathering with family, friends, and often strangers, reveling in our bolstered sense of common history, destiny, and distinctiveness. A touching vision, no? No wonder Hallmark made a bunch of money on earth toned cards based on the idea.

But I just never knew actual human beings who really lit the candles, gathered each day to talk about the ideas, and re=changed their lives based on a daily mediation on those Swahili words.

But the concept was very cool.

But now I read that the holiday is fading. That participation is down from a once high of 20 million (quite skeptical of that I am) to just over one million. And that Hallmark, the bellwether of cultural trends, has downsized their Kwanzaa line.

But hey, we just elected That Black One for President. 232 Years of unbroken white rule is coming to an end. So even if the holiday was more theoretical than real, I decided to do my best to revive it. So in the spirit of blah blah, as the spirit moves me, I will briefly blog about the implications of some of the Kwanza ideas in “post-racial America" for black folks and everyone else.