GOP hoists sail on Steele ship of racial denial

January 31, 10:25 PMDC Corporate Ethics ExaminerJim Cunningham

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GOP applies affirmative action in attempt to alter perceptions.

The Republican Party has just selected Michael Steele as its new party chairman, the first ever African American to hold the leadership position. Republican pundits have been quick to dismiss any suggestion that Steele was chosen BECAUSE he’s African American. I believe otherwise. And I think I can prove it.

For a party that’s supposedly against affirmative action, there sure are a disproportionate number of African American conservatives on the airwaves arguing the Republican side of the issues. I’m not the only one who noticed an uptick in the number of black conservatives and TV appearances by them that have become increasingly frequent since Barack Obama started chipping away at Hillary Clinton’s aura of inevitability. I don’t question that there are some African American conservatives. That’s old news. I question the number of them seen on TV, and chosen to be conservative spokespeople.

African Americans make up about 12% of the general population. This past election cycle, 95% of those voted Democrat with the other 5% voting Republican. You can extrapolate that African American Republicans make up about one half of one percent of the general population. So, how and why is it, then, that we see so many black conservatives on TV? The black conservative representation in broadcast media is completely out of proportion from the percentage they actually represent in the general population. Why do you suppose? And what kind of coincidence is it, then, that the Republican Party has chosen a black man to lead the party NOW? (Point of fact: two out of the five finalists for the GOP Chairman position were African American. That’s 40%.)

One of the many despicable things Karl Rove was known for was hand selecting people of color and strategically positioning them in view of the cameras during Bush’s political rallies to make the audience appear more racially diverse than it actually was. Now, it seems, that the GOP has learned something from this Rovian tactic and is employing it on a party-wide level.

This shows the tone-deafness and utter contempt the Republicans have for the American people. It obviously hasn’t occurred to them that African Americans, largely, fail to vote Republican, not because they don’t see black Republicans on TV, but because of Republican policies and positions on the issues.

For example, while it’s not true that all African Americans are poor, it is true that America’s poor population is heavily African American. Republican policies favor big business interests and the wealthy, and this was almost exclusively so under the George W. Bush Presidency to the detriment of everyone else. While Republicans make passing, pandering, references to “Joe six-pack” and “regular Americans” during their political campaigns, these people are usually forgotten later in favor of policies directed toward their deep-pocketed political donors. The rift between rich and poor continues to grow in America – especially so under Republican rule. African Americans are disproportionately affected by this inequality and injustice, yet the words “economic justice” will consistently make every Republican sneer. Programs designed to assist and lift people out of poverty are labeled as “socialism” and the “redistribution of wealth”. (Actually, one can argue, Republicans are quite fond of redistributing wealth – more of it to the wealthy.)

During his Presidential campaign McCain’s transparently revealed his priorities when he raised the issue of the sub-prime mortgage crisis by expressing sympathy for those who had “lost their investments”, without mentioning those who’d lost their homes.

Republicans deliver their urban policies at the tip of a sword. The percentage of African Americans serving time in prison is far, far greater than the percentage they represent in the general population. Most politicians will acknowledge this fact, but none of them – not even the Democrats – will face or speak of the real reason why. Here’s why: The powers that be don’t measure the success of crime fighting by the reduction of all types of crime, instead, they focus on only certain types of crime and the number of people arrested. Priorities in law enforcement are controlled by the perceptions of people who vote in local elections and donate to local campaigns. Ultimately, this means that pressure is put on local police departments to increase the police presence in minority neighborhoods. With regard to these neighborhoods, there’s a racist kind of code I often hear among white people – even people who view themselves as not being racist. The not-so-secret code is that these minority neighborhoods are called “bad neighborhoods”. I hear it all the time. The part of town most heavily populated by African Americans – the “dark” area of town – is referred to as the “bad area” of town. If a neighborhood is later developed with upper-income housing and white people start replacing the blacks they say of the area, “It’s not so bad anymore.” To the conservative mind, being “tough on crime” means dispatching more police to the “bad areas” of town.

In truth, the really bad neighborhoods are actually the ones containing shiny, towering, concrete and glass buildings – the business districts - where old white men in boardrooms and the mahogany-furnished offices of billion dollar corporations make decisions that are far harmful to far more Americans with a simple stroke of a pen. Greed. The biggest source of injustice. The biggest crime of all. They get away with it - are even empowered – because Republicans work to keep these kinds of corporate injustices legal and out of public view.

Racial profiling, affirmative action, education, disrespect for single motherhood, health care, skipping NAACP debates and conferences… Hurricane Katrina. Now, while I do try, I don’t presume to be an expert on African American issues. However, one thing that seems obvious to me is that selecting Michael Steele as party chair does nothing to change cemented Republican policies and positions that earned them only 5% of the black vote.

I know, the Republican argument is that Michael Steele was selected on his Republican credentials alone and that it’s wrong for me to assume Steele was chosen because of the color of his skin. Shame on me. I submit the following as proof otherwise:

If Steele was such a proud Republican than why did he distance himself from the Republican Party when he ran for a Maryland Senate seat in 2006, where he was defeated by Ben Cardin, and even go so for as to misrepresent himself as a Democrat in an effort to fool people in the very blue state of Maryland into voting for him? Toward this effort he even had blue signs and bumper stickers printed up that read “Steele Democrat”, and even covered himself from head to toe in blue for press conferences, successfully fooling at least one news organization into thinking he was a Democrat. He distributed information claiming he had been endorsed by prominent Democrats who, it turns out, hadn’t endorsed him at all. So why would Republicans select as their party chairman someone who was so willing to align himself with Democrats and lead people to believe he was anything but Republican? It is because Michael Steel wasn’t chosen because of his Republican credentials.

(By the way, to Democrats, this means that Republicans just gleefully chose a person to head their party who is perfectly willing and eager to run crooked elections based on trickery, but that’s another matter entirely.)

The selection of Michael Steele for party chairman only helps preserve the GOP’s state of racial denial. Their ship is sinking and they’re too arrogant and tone-deaf to take the proper steps – policy and party platform steps - to save it. And African Americans will never climb on board in significant numbers until the Republicans learn that it’s not about the color of the captain but the quality of the cargo.