Black Conservatives Who Support Donald Trump are Racial Mercenaries and Judases to Black America [View all]

Cable news media’s coverage of Donald Trump’s reaction to the white supremacist terror and mayhem in Charlottesville has been an emotional spectacle. Hosts and panelists have cried, yelled at each other, become unhinged, hurled insults, acted stunned and displayed almost every range of human emotion. This is the tragic melodrama that helps to define a medium. America in 2017 may not have a Hindenburg disaster but it does have Charlottesville.

I must confess to a guilty pleasure. For me, the most “entertaining” part of the post-Charlottesville TV spectacle has been watching black conservatives with all their tears and feigned outrage and surprise at Donald Trump and the white supremacists, neo-Confederates and Nazis he coddles. The cognitive dissonance of today’s black conservatives in Trump’s America is almost awe-inspiring.

For roughly the last 50 years the Republican Party has been the United States’ largest white supremacist organization. To that end the Republicans have tried to keep African-Americans and other people of color from voting, relied on an electoral strategy of both subtle and overt racism to win white voters, supported the racist conspiracy theory of “birtherism” against our first black president, and advocates a range of public policies that disproportionately harm nonwhites.

Republicans are also much more likely than Democrats to hold racist attitudestoward African-Americans. And of course, the Republican Party is led (at least nominally) by Donald Trump, a man who by virtue of his words and actions has repeatedly shown that he is a racist.

In today’s Republican Party, black conservatives — especially the professional cheerleaders who are trotted out on cable news shows — occupy a very specific role. In the post-Civil Rights era, displays of overt racism have largely fallen out of favor. However, the Republican Party is addicted to using white racism to win elections and advance its policies. To help make this strategy viable, black conservatives serve as a type of human shield for the cause of white supremacy. In essence, they are professional “best black friends.”
As they blubber and bemoan their “pain” about Donald Trump and Charlottesville, black conservatives face a basic question which they will likely never answer.

Oh please read it all. Chauncey DeVega nails it once again. http://www.chaunceydevega.com/2017/08/black-conservatives-who-support-donald.html