Black Republican Ken Barnes confronts his conscience and becomes Black ex-Republican Ken Barnes
I have always thought that black and/or gay Republicans are odd. Over the last few years, however, I have begun to think that black and/or gay Republicans are fundamentally damaged in some way. I know it sounds wrong, and call me small-minded or partisan, but I do not understand pledging allegiance to a party that despises you for what or who you are. This is the party of Donald Trump. Glenn Beck. Antonin Scalia. Michelle Bachmann. Andrew Breitbart. Fox News. Bobby Franklin. Pat Robertson. Sarah Palin. Clarence Thomas.
Certainly, the Democrats are no walk in the park, but at least gays, minorities, and women stand a chance by voting blue. I mean, sure, you may get a dick pic via Twitter, but at least the dude sending it to you doesn’t oppose your right to have an abortion.
Nobody — and I mean — nobody stands a chance with Republicans, and certainly not a bunch of coloreds, ‘mos, and dames.
Below is a snippet of one black Republican’s realization that the GOP is overrun by intolerance and bigotry:
I was one of those rare species: a black Republican, the guy willing to spit into the wind of conventional thought, who was often showcased on camera at party events to prove inclusiveness.
But as a proud black man, I can no longer be a member of the Republican Party.
Being a Republican has long been a part of my personal and professional identities, so leaving the party is a difficult and emotional decision.
In 1998, as a young man searching for what I believed were shared values, I cut ties with the Democratic Party and became a Republican. Democrats, in my view, had become unwelcoming to those holding center-right views not in lockstep with the party, and it was my belief that through hard work, the Republican Party could be utilized as a vehicle for improving our community.
For the next 13 years, I dedicated myself to growing the conservative base of the Republican Party, and in the process bound myself in emotion and deed.
…
As of late, however, when I look at myself in the mirror there is one question which perplexes me: Can I, in good conscience, remain affiliated with an organization whose message purveyors of racism and bigotry find attractive?
Generally speaking, Republicans are decent people, and naturally, many of my closest friends vote Republican. As with any large organization or group, there will always be people at the fringes who hold views that are not representative of the body.
An organization cannot control the behavior of each individual actor, but it can control its response to abhorrent conduct.
The latest incident in a string of tawdry, race-based actions was the promotion of a racist cartoon by elected Orange County Republican Party Central Committee member Marilyn Davenport1. The cartoon depicted President Barack Obama and his parents as chimpanzees, while simultaneously implying that the president is not a legitimate American, but rather an African-born interloper.
While the Orange County GOP chairman and a number of other committee members were quick to condemn the image and Davenport, what’s disturbing is the incredible number of people who continue to defend Davenport’s actions as well as the cartoon itself.
Had this been an isolated event, it could be set aside as a mere aberration. However, when placed in the context of similar offenses by the same self-identified tea party-conservative Republicans, there emerges a disturbing pattern of extreme intolerance.
Over the past two years, we have seen Republicans use long-held racist imagery in portrayals of Obama. The president has been depicted as a communist witch doctor, a man inclined to plant watermelons on the White House lawn, and we watched in disbelief as his face was placed on an “Obama Buck Food Stamp” along with stereotyped pictures of fried chicken, barbecue ribs, Kool-Aid and the obligatory watermelon.
What does any of this have to do with public policy or conservative values? Here is a man who excelled academically at the finest schools in the world, has a wonderful in-tact family, worked hard and rose to become president of the United States. Yet in spite of his accomplishments, the president is still labeled an illegitimate, socialist, African witch doctor and has his face superimposed on a chimpanzee.
If this can be done to a black man who is the leader of the free world, how long will it be before fellow Republicans insert my face on a chimpanzee?
These behaviors also raise larger issues for African Americans and other minority groups within the GOP. How can I look my parents in the eye and tell them I’m a Republican in spite of these offenses? If he were still living, could my Latino father-in-law be proud that his daughter supports the GOP, in spite of the constant anti-Latino rhetoric that comes from the party? Can gay family members reconcile my support of a party that seeks to strip them of their basic human rights?
These are not issues which pit moderate against conservative views, but rather consequential matters which transcend political positioning and speak to universal human values.
There are a number of Republicans (and Democrats) who will view my switch to “decline to state” as a net gain for the Democratic Party. However, I reject the theory of zero-sum politics which claim we live in a binary world of Democrats and Republicans, where a lack of support for one side works only to empower the other.
Having now been active in both major political parties, I’ve discovered the common prohibited activity is critical thinking.
Indeed. As we stare down the barrel of another week of WeinerTalk (TMZ released new pictures, didn’t you hear?!), I wonder if an unhealthy media-driven obsession with the tawdry dalliances of politicians has permanently supplanted critical thinking. It certainly seems it has.
Ugh.
1 You remember Marilyn Davenport, don’t you? First she fired off some offensive emails, then she (not really) apologized, arguing the whole time that it was all okay because she has black friends.
(H/T trollhattan!)
[via Sacramento Bee]
[cross-posted here at Balloon Juice]
Help me out on something Angry Black Lady.
You put “Black and Gay Republicans on trial” but I wonder how you rationalize what is shown on The Grio.com today.
Democrat Danny Davis is heard lamenting over the loss of so many Blacks in Chicago – a “Mission Accomplished City”. He enumerates that the Hispanics that are moving into Chicago also have a higher income than do the Blacks who have been staples in the Democratic Machine.
Is it possible, Ms Angry Black Lady – that you and other progressive spend so much time “Keeping Your Enemies On Trial” that you never bother to see that the REAL QUESTION that must be asked is:
“When are Black people going to reconsider the notion that we can VOTE our way into salvation”?
Also check out the recent words of Joseph Lowery as he explains the need for Blacks to support Obama despite our present grievances.
http://withintheblackcommunity.blogspot.com/2011/06/can-obama-fist-bump-black-press-report.html
With so many Blacks having fused their “Racial Consciousness” into Obama and the Democratic Party I am actually puzzled why THIS is not far more concerning to you.
Whatever that is. That was Danny Davis, and he has some issues. She is talking about Republicans who happen to be black or gay and is wondering about it, especially after the racism and homophobia oozing out recently.
If you are alluding to the idea that Black people are only supporting Obama because of his race, you really need to reconsider some things:
1. Black unemployment, no matter the time period, has always been higher than the national average. It’s a problem of institutionalized racism that has existed for centuries that electing a black man in the WH would not change anything
2. The Black community has traditionally voted Democrat because of the economic policies that are common among the Democrat party (funding for public schools and Pell Grants, health care, public transit, etc.) and Obama has pushed for those things. Those policies benefit the black community.
3. This, it may not be THE reason, but it may play a factor in some of the attacks of calling him wimpy, spineless, pussy, chocolate Carter (aka. Negro’s are, GASP, NOT Magic):
http://www.thenation.com/article/163544/black-president-double-standard-why-white-liberals-are-abandoning-obama
Don’t get me wrong. I was hesitant to even ask the very idea if race was playing a factor, and a factor only, in some of the deranged, fact-free statements coming from some on the left, and That includes Cornel West. Under Clinton, Federal incarceration grew, the death penalty was brought back, Welfare was eliminated, and Obama is the one who has hurt the black community? Look, I think there are things Obama you can fairly criticize (like some cabinet picks, marijuana raids, etc.), but we are rushing to judgement about the guy to the point where we are working against our own interests and encouraging others (regardless of skin color, party affiliation, religion, gender, sexual orientation, etc.) to do so as well. Like saying he’s no different than Bush when it could not be farther from the Truth. (withdrawl from Iraq and focus on Al Queda, advancing gay rights rather than supporting an amendment banning gay marriage, reluctant warrior vs. cowboy, world liking us ten times better, etc.). We should have learned our lesson from the eight years of GWB the consequences of rushing to judgement saying both parties are the same (Gore=Bush is, and was, a complete lie).
David Rakoff does a great essay about and interview with the then leader of the Log Cabin Republicans in his book Don’t Get Too Comfortable — which is, coincidentally, my rule to live by as an Af-Am lesbian.
As far as Uncle Republican goes, I guess it’s never too late to see the light – especially after it’s been shining in you face the ENTIRE time you’ve been walking around with your eyes closed.
I posted a story about this op-ed on the website of my local Democratic club, and I wanted to include a picture of Mr. Barnes. My Google-fu quickly led to one of him from just one year ago where he is at a Sacramento GOP fundraiser, smiling and shaking hands with… Karl Rove.
Mr. Barnes uploaded that particular picture to a Black Republicans website less than one month ago.
This is a stunning sea-change in his life.
I’ve always thought of black and gay republicans as people who just desperately wanted to be interesting. Like, “Yes I’m gay, but I’m a republican. I think out of the box. Aren’t I fascinating?” Kinda the same with people who believe in conspiracies. How they think they are aware of something you just can’t see because you’re so boxed in.
While you are at it, consider the economic prejudice,
Conservatives call American workers LAZY!!! Even Conservatives who are not wealthy themselves are self-haters who call American workers LAZY!!!
You got to do some math, do an average of your income over all the years you been WORKING. Is your average year above or below 250K, the level of the Bush tax cuts, 250,000 a year??
Rich people do not go to prison, they are doing cocaine and hookers every day, they are cheating their taxes, they are committing fraud, and even worse things – but they are these special people who supposedly work hard and invent everything and we got to bow down and bend down, oh great rich person, you shouldnt have to pay down the national debt, let us unworthy MIDDLE CLASS WORKERS pay down the debt for you, oh great rich person, you shouldnt have to pay for my kids education, and dont send YOUR kids off to die in a war based on lies we got plenty of kids in my own family for you. Hail the rich, rich people walk on water, I owe everything to rich people, middle class people like myself arent very good, one rich fingernail is worth 1000 American workers.
Dont put that rich teenager in prison, see, what my middle class teenager did was wrong, my own middle class teenage scum kid should do hard time for years and years, but oh please judge dont punish that wonderful rich teenage kid from that hard working banker family who committed exactly the same crime.
Many years ago, the father of black Republican Rep JC Watts (R-OK) expressed his dismay over his son’s political choices, saying: “Blacks voting for Republicans are like chickens voting for Colonel Sanders.” I think that about sums it up.
What took him so long? He quits over some stupid cartoons but his Republican pals who have been busy dismantling the middle class didn’t concern him? Reagan’s welfare queens didn’t bother him? Their efforts at disenfranchising millions of black voters every election cycle no big deal? What a chump.
I almost feel that the misleading dichotomy of American politics is what is going to sink the country into complete and utter despair. I wish it wasn’t just about democrat or republican because in the end they both seem to serve the same master, Mr Rich.
So while we walk around wondering who is on our side we ignore the fact that they are the same wolf with different badges and loyalties (kinda like high school cliques that we all found to be incredibly odious) and ignoring someone who may not be affiliated with these two parties.
Even then, I’m with you, black and gay republicans are oddities that I find interesting to look at and read from. It’s like finding an elephant with horse ears and the snout of a wildebeest!
Qalil.com
ken barnes you and other black republicans disgust me. as a 65 year old black man born and raised in the south I will never understand how oreos like you forget history, maybe you are just ignorant and don’t know it.you are just like clarence thomas ,stupid ass kissers…of course clarenec got his reward…supreme court and an ugly white woman. Do your mea culpas but what you really should do is educate yourself…you may have a degree but you certainly don’t understand white people.
Conservatives have been chomping at the bit to try to provoke President Obama into acting like the stereotypical “angry black man.” Failing to do so, they have attempted to block his every good deed, and to paint every success as a failure. He’s not perfect, but as far as I’m concerned he is the best president the U.S. has had in my lifetime, and perhaps ever. And I voted for Reagan when I was first old enough to vote, because of the beliefs with which I had been raised. As with me, it is better late than never for Ken Barnes to see the light.
Oh, and lest I forget: “Constructive Feedback” is full of shit. Perhaps he should have used “Destructive Greedhack” instead.
I see Constructive Feedback..I mean Constricted Blowback is still defending racism every chance he gets …I kick his punk ass routinely on the Booker Rising blog..