The Black Informant | African American Commentary, News and Community Building

Mad magazine was never one of my favorite magazines growing up, but my friends always seemed to have them. So it became quite natural for me to pick one up from time to time. The usually sick and gross humor is usually what kept me away from this periodical. The two things I did like about the magazine was A. The cover–the creators of this magazine would always find some unique way to use that cover guy (I never knew his name) to poke fun at some person that was popular at the moment. The other thing I liked in the magazine was the comic strip Spy Vs. Spy (pictured above). From issue to issue, these two guys would go at it resulting with one winning a round followed by the other winning the next round. This would just go on and on with no end to the conflict in sight.

For years a similar battle has been waged in this country between people of various political persuasions. Only in recent history has two sides emerged as the prominent arch rivals in the political spectrum: Conservatives and Liberals.

In the earlier days, the engagement between these two groups was only regulated to those who were “in the know” in Washington. Today, thanks to mass media, not only has the common man been given a ringside seat to this conflict, but society all around us has slowly fashioned itself into one of these opposing sides. I have seen advertisements on various websites that ask the question “are you tired of dating Conservatives?” or “Liberals”? Movies (something that used to be a form of entertainment) have now become part of the battleground. The states that make up our union are now referred to as either a red state or blue state. And it just goes on and on.

Now this battle within the political cosmos is widening itself to include the black community. The further division is something we just do not need.

Since the civil rights era, the black community has been very loyal and faithful supporters of mainly one side: Liberals. However in recent years, as the legacy of Jim Crow has been dismantled and more opportunity is made available to us, numbers of blacks have been considering other political ideologies that best fit their outlook on life–something that is quite different from that of our parents.

One of the unfortunate things about this conflict that I have been talking about is that the two sides give very little room to the other political ideologies that are out there. As a result, the political climate in this country is limited to a two-party system. Blacks who have grown tired of politics that tend to be more hostile towards personal advancement have moved over to the conservative side or at least come to appreciate some of its values. As expected, this has caused quite a stir within the black community.

Before I continue, let me tell you a little bit about myself

First and foremost, I am a Christian. I know that that title has become played out these days, but for me this is a real deal. I use the Bible as my guidepost for life. This applies to things starting from my thought life, how I conduct myself both privately and publicly, how I love my wife and children, and how I view the world around me. It is with these values that I abide by, I have found myself to align more with the conservative movement. This does not mean that conservatism equals Christianity. This simply means that I have found conservatism to be closer to the things that I cherish deeply as a person rather than Liberalism. So if the Conservative movement were to take a turn that is inconsistent with my values (which is slowly happening today), I will gladly abandon the conservative tag; however “Christian” is what I will always be—by the grace of God.

For a number of years I have worked in the non-profit sector serving the community around me. I have done this type of work both on a part-time and full-time basis. This is something that I just don’t like talking about simply because I never want to give the impression that I am boasting on doing what all of us should be doing anyway–helping people. I have seen first hand the effects of drug addiction on a mother and how it drove a wedge between her, her young daughter, mom and dad. I’ve seen rebellious teenagers who have no respect for their mom who is doing everything that she can to see to it that there is food on the table. I have seen men (both young and old) leave their families for someone else while the kids become more resentful of the man they once knew as “dad”. In some cases, I myself became “dad” to some of these kids simply because I was willing to listen. I have done all of these things and much more simply because I cared. Most of the people that I have encountered during those years in my life happen to be black. As for the other ethnicities, I treated them no different.

My dad worked for years in a steel mill in the Philadelphia area. My uncle got him the job even though my Dad had very little experience. As a hard worker, my Dad worked his way from a entry-level position to a superintendent post where he was responsible for at least 100 employees. I remember the days he would come home from work angry to the point of tears because of the level of racism he had to endure during those days. My mom and I also became very angry and wanted him to perhaps consider other options. Dad would not hear of it. He continued to do his job with great excellence.

One of the things that I would hear my dad talk about was how disappointed he was at the other black men at his mill that choose to whine and complain about the job, perform poorly, and get upset when they were passed over for a raise. Now of course this did not apply to all black men at the mill, just a good percentage of them.

Instead of just talking about the problem, my Dad would oftentimes go way beyond his job responsibility to try to encourage these guys to be the best. He would oftentimes do this off the clock. Seeing that the need was much greater than just poor job performance, he started a group called “Men be Men”. Once a month or so, he would get together with these men usually over breakfast at one of the local restaurants in town. There he would encourage them spiritually, mentally, and socially how to be the best man that they could be. He would also arrange deep sea fishing trips where we would spend hours at sea just talking about “stuff”.

Now of course some of these men blew him and his efforts off, but there were some men who not only respected him for what he was doing but their job performance as well as their life decisions greatly improved.

There were also numbers of times where my dad had to point out the crap that these guys were doing not only on the job, but with their own lives. For some it seemed like he was too overbearing. However these critics could never refute what he was saying as falsehood. My dad was a conservative and it is his many examples that I pull from on a personal level.

Those “demeaning” Black Conservatives

One of the biggest knocks against black who are conservatives is that they tend to be too hard of the black community at large. When this argument is broken down, it usually comes down to the fact that there are those who are embarrassed to discuss the issues that have plagued our community for years on a national stage in the presence of whites. These critics feel as though whites have armed themselves with enough negative imagery and stereotypes of black folks and don’t need a black person to “pile on”. To do so will earn you a title such as “Sambo”, “Uncle Tom”, “Sell-out”, “race-hater”, “Oreo”, and any other racial epithets that was once reserved for the use of racist whites.

As “embarrassing” these issues may be to us, that still does not negate the point that not only do these issues need to be addressed from multiple vantage points, but there is a desperate need for real world solutions to be brought to the table and implemented.

There have been many social groups/organizations within the black community that are both deeply rooted in the Democratic/Liberal philosophy and have (and are) taking positive steps to deal with these issues. However, the same can be said with many conservative-based organizations. The faith-based initiative for example (BTW, I have major problems with this initiative as it mixes federal monies with the monies of non-profits) is an initiative started by conservatives that not only brought together pastors, but faith-based organizations that have been serving their community for years without the “Conservative” banner (I guess the other reason why I dislike this initiative is because politics becomes a factor into helping individuals. that, to me waters down the message of these faith-based organizations).

Yet despite all of these “good deeds”, black conservatives are still regarded as being too hard, or insensitive towards blacks.

On this website (blackinformant.com), not only do I celebrate the successes of our people, but I also bring attention to our failures. It is usually when I bring attention to our failures when the criticism directed towards me begins to show up.

The reason why I can become so passionate when discussing our flaws is simply for one reason only: I know we can do so much better for ourselves. This is not an assessment based on what whites can do—this is something where I know we posses the inner strength to do for ourselves.

During the recent Katrina fiasco, I became enraged not because of what the government did or didn’t do, but because we as a people were a lot more adamant about pushing accusations of racism to the national spotlight than other issues like fatherlessness in our communities. Our disappointment about black on black crime paled in comparison to the outrage we felt when we saw thousands of black folks stranded in New Orleans. Yes, many of us turned our anger into mobilization to help our folks, but when you put this whole situation in perspective, the effects of this storm was nothing in comparison to the effect a father has on his children when he walks out on them—and sadly we lead the nation with this trend. Katrina happened over a few days–the trend of fatherless homes has been destroying families for years.

There are two types of people that are given full license to be consistently critical of black folks in a national spotlight: comedians and sports analysts.

A comedian can freely make fun of the whole baby momma drama issue, the poor, the obese, the homeless, etc. without the stigma of being “too hard” on blacks.

A sports analyst can freely criticize black players for not playing up to par. Even a white sports analyst is not considered racist for stating the obvious. As I mentioned not too long ago, if a black athlete screws up a major play, there will not be a rush to defend him by claiming that “…it was because he/she was a decedent of slaves…”. Why do we hold a different standard when it comes to discussing these issues on a national stage in front of non-blacks?

{The reason why I keep bringing up the “white presence” factor is because these important issues are discussed freely in black churches every Sunday. Only when the same black person brings the dialog to a national audience where whites are present will you hear the “you’re being too hard on blacks” accusation. There is just something about a white person condemning anything in the black community that irks many people.}

As I said before, I talk about these issues because I am motivated by the love that I have for my people. I want to see young men and woman have a father at home waiting for them. I want to see black on black crime eradicated. I want to see babies stop having babies. I want to see math and reading scores go up. I want to see all these things and more return back to my people. We may not agree on political philosophy, but we must agree with the point that if we do not begin to show the same force and tenacity that we showed regarding Katrina and most recently Bill Bennett’s “racist” remarks, the days of black America are numbered.

The battle between the two sides will continue to go on. But we cannot allow politics to dictate to us what we need to do for ourselves.