When Barack Obama was elected president in 2008, I started posting political essays on Facebook. In 2021 I jumped into podcasting and recently I added my voice to Substack. I am interested in who our elected officials are and why we vote for them. I am also curious about black Americans and why they vote the way they do. Black Americans are portrayed as liberals, but I believe we are conservative in our core.
Cecil, I too, have long realized that not only am I a conservative, but so are most black people. If you listened to and believe what your elders taught you, you can't help but be conservative. And no, not a "clickbait conservative"--love that term.
Every elder in my life taught me by word and deed that improving my self, and my situation was up to me, and could be attained by hard work, steadfastness, and being morally upstanding. Is that not the core of conservatism?
I'm encouraged that we are hearing more and more voices like yours that gently but firmly point us back to a balanced and reasonable world. Like you said, we need to hear the negative and divisive voices "drowned out or at least balanced" by thoughtful people we can respect. Thank you.
Look at Byron Donald’s, I think he’s the smartest guy in the House of Representatives. I am bewildered by my generation that don’t seem to be able to wrap their head(s) around color blindness: that was our generation (I’m 65). We need to quit giving our money to the race hustlers of the world.
It takes too much time to get to know someone. It's easier to look at their skin color and decide what you believe about them. Race hustlers are like hyenas, hiding, waiting for the weak to walk by so they can pounce. They do their damage then disappear, leaving us to clean up the mess. Crump and Sharpton are these hyenas, laughing in the shadows counting their money, waiting for the next opportunity to sow the seeds of destruction.
Yes, educating oneself is critical. Can this happen in the black community, writ large? I have my doubts.
I spent much of the 1990s as an IBM Systems Engineer or Project Manager with my primary customer the LAUSD. Working on PC software and LANs or a large student information system in various high schools such as Crenshaw HS for days at a time, it was the norm for black kids not taking home books for homework to accuse other black kids lugging their books, of “Tryna act white.”
The norm. Every day.
I listened to HS history teachers tell kids they’d get extra credit for going to listen to Farrakhan “this weekend,” as he convinced them they lacked agency and everything bad in their life was because of the white man.
Those kids now are in their late-40s & early 50s. Many probably have kids of their own benefitting from their dad’s utter dismissal of education. If Dad’s even at home or known.
Sowell and Elder and Williams and others mentioned and not have been speaking and writing for decades. Has it changed any black minds? Not so’s you’d notice.
As most people develop their ideas of politics and money in their teens (“when I was a kid, gas cost…”), and the media was constantly presenting Democrats as the pro-black party, though Republicans voted in larger numbers for both the CRA and the VRA, and as legacy to LBJ’s family-destroying welfare, it is far more likely than not that blacks, if they vote at all, vote D, and never have educated themselves. If they weren’t doing so by HS, they never did. This is a generational issue.
They probably never saw a dad going to work every day. Being responsible, being on-time, working for his own dignity and and salary. Why? Welfare (D).
Everything DP Moynihan (D) wrote about welfare (D-LBJ) has proved-out.
With Jackson & Sharpton & Farrakhan telling them daily that every bad thing that ever happened to them was not their fault, but that of “whitey,” and their teachers extolling the value of that nonsense, how wise were they going to turn out? How could they possibly turn out as thoughtful adults willing to question the attitudes and voting patterns held by their community since 1928, when blacks moved from R to D after the 1927 Mississippi flood, or 1932, when FDR gave away the store?
Where are the worst schools? The worst teachers? The worst economic opportunities? The worst crime? Black, D-controlled inner cities. Yet still blacks vote D rather than in the interests of themselves, their families, the futures of their children.
Cecil, I too, have long realized that not only am I a conservative, but so are most black people. If you listened to and believe what your elders taught you, you can't help but be conservative. And no, not a "clickbait conservative"--love that term.
Every elder in my life taught me by word and deed that improving my self, and my situation was up to me, and could be attained by hard work, steadfastness, and being morally upstanding. Is that not the core of conservatism?
Growing up my father kept telling me (& siblings) “The harder you work the luckier you get”.
Indeed! That was one of my high school football coach's favorite sayings. It's true, too!
Luck happens when preparation meets opportunity. Hard work is the preparation.
Great observation. I love that term "clickbait conservative" as well.
I'm encouraged that we are hearing more and more voices like yours that gently but firmly point us back to a balanced and reasonable world. Like you said, we need to hear the negative and divisive voices "drowned out or at least balanced" by thoughtful people we can respect. Thank you.
Thank you for joining the conversation.
Look at Byron Donald’s, I think he’s the smartest guy in the House of Representatives. I am bewildered by my generation that don’t seem to be able to wrap their head(s) around color blindness: that was our generation (I’m 65). We need to quit giving our money to the race hustlers of the world.
It takes too much time to get to know someone. It's easier to look at their skin color and decide what you believe about them. Race hustlers are like hyenas, hiding, waiting for the weak to walk by so they can pounce. They do their damage then disappear, leaving us to clean up the mess. Crump and Sharpton are these hyenas, laughing in the shadows counting their money, waiting for the next opportunity to sow the seeds of destruction.
And dude, they fly private or first class and live in nice places.
Looking forward to more of of your thoughts, insights and opinions.
Appreciate your support.👍🏾
Have you ever listened to someone from Congress that is smarter than Byron. There might be, but I doubt it.
A different perspective.
Yes, educating oneself is critical. Can this happen in the black community, writ large? I have my doubts.
I spent much of the 1990s as an IBM Systems Engineer or Project Manager with my primary customer the LAUSD. Working on PC software and LANs or a large student information system in various high schools such as Crenshaw HS for days at a time, it was the norm for black kids not taking home books for homework to accuse other black kids lugging their books, of “Tryna act white.”
The norm. Every day.
I listened to HS history teachers tell kids they’d get extra credit for going to listen to Farrakhan “this weekend,” as he convinced them they lacked agency and everything bad in their life was because of the white man.
Those kids now are in their late-40s & early 50s. Many probably have kids of their own benefitting from their dad’s utter dismissal of education. If Dad’s even at home or known.
Sowell and Elder and Williams and others mentioned and not have been speaking and writing for decades. Has it changed any black minds? Not so’s you’d notice.
As most people develop their ideas of politics and money in their teens (“when I was a kid, gas cost…”), and the media was constantly presenting Democrats as the pro-black party, though Republicans voted in larger numbers for both the CRA and the VRA, and as legacy to LBJ’s family-destroying welfare, it is far more likely than not that blacks, if they vote at all, vote D, and never have educated themselves. If they weren’t doing so by HS, they never did. This is a generational issue.
They probably never saw a dad going to work every day. Being responsible, being on-time, working for his own dignity and and salary. Why? Welfare (D).
Everything DP Moynihan (D) wrote about welfare (D-LBJ) has proved-out.
With Jackson & Sharpton & Farrakhan telling them daily that every bad thing that ever happened to them was not their fault, but that of “whitey,” and their teachers extolling the value of that nonsense, how wise were they going to turn out? How could they possibly turn out as thoughtful adults willing to question the attitudes and voting patterns held by their community since 1928, when blacks moved from R to D after the 1927 Mississippi flood, or 1932, when FDR gave away the store?
Where are the worst schools? The worst teachers? The worst economic opportunities? The worst crime? Black, D-controlled inner cities. Yet still blacks vote D rather than in the interests of themselves, their families, the futures of their children.
Can this change? Technically, sure.
Probability? Way under 10%.