The United States has now positioned itself in the middle of an ideological and philosophical crossroad. In a very messy, complex and almost impossible way to understand, the country has been divided into 2 factions. Left winged liberals, and right winged conservatives. It is true that not every voter fits and falls into these two categories perfectly but in our binary political system there are not many other options for people to adhere to. In my opinion, from an outsider’s perspective both sides have similarities but also differ drastically in ideology. Both left and right wingers value personal freedom and individual liberties, both have a strong belief in capitalism, and both maintain a concern for public and national security. That is where the similarities stop. The stark differences between ideologies can be hard to miss. The most basic way of understanding Conservatism vs Liberalism can be broken down in 2 pillars. The first is the argument around government participation. Conservatives push for limited government and free market capitalism that allows more power reserved for the states and individuals with minimum government intervention in the economy. Compared to Liberals who push for a larger, more active role out of government to promote economic and social equality. The second stark contrast comes in social values. Conservatives push for traditional values that are normally opposed to quick social change and normally influenced or regulated by religious beliefs. Liberals normally embrace social change and are open and accepting of social reforms, diversity and fair representation. There are obviously pros and cons to both belief systems and neither is perfect. With that being said I am going to breakdown why a black person or any person of lower class is damn near foolish or has a misguided and uninformed opinion for identifying as a conservative and where so many people are getting the idea of being conservative wrong.
Conservatism is a code word Anti-Blackness. The root word of conservatism is conserve. In American Society today this means those who have will keep, and those who don’t have, will never have. It means to maintain the status quo. As a Black American what is the status quo? Being 14% of the population but obtaining less than 1% of the wealth? Being imprisoned at rates 4x higher than any other race? Black maternal death rates being 3x higher than their White counterparts? Housing and homeownership burdens? Or the Black to White wealth gap being 85%? All of these are symptoms of the “status quo” that all Black Americans live with. What do Black Americans have to conserve? Jim crow? Slavery? Welfare? Food stamps? What in American culture would a Black person need to “conserve”. Like I said before conservatism is the root of anti-blackness in America and the conservatives today are trying harder than they have in the past 60 years to reinstitute white authority, white values and white superiority. The next generation of conservatives will attack race and be more race focused as their ancestors were over 6 decades ago. I hear way too many uninformed Blacks running around yelling “I’m a Black conservative” … what the hell does this even mean? What these people are trying to say is that they are unhappy with the democratic party/ liberals and want something new. But in no way, shape or form do their ideas of racial justice and attempts to diversify workplaces match the ideologies of conservatism. To me this is total foolishness, and Black people are going down the wrong path trying to parallel themselves with typical American traditions. These people are running with the hound dogs pretending to be friends with the rabbit.
With the current administration, there is a conservative movement throughout the white house and congress trying to justify the suffering of Blacks and people in lower classes. There is a major anti-governmental effort around the country with conservatives pushing for states’ rights. These conservatives know that in American history the Federal government has saved Black people twice and by disenfranchising the Federal government there will be no third time. Blacks lose an ally by eliminating the federal government. Blacks were pulled out of slavery and Jim crow by actions of the federal government. Many states, especially the slave owning states of the south believed the federal government had too much power and should not be able to regulate or abolish slavery within individual states. This leads us back to the government participation debate. With a smaller, less enforced federal government, states’ rights would have taken over and who knows when slavery would have ended for Black Americans. This same argument can be seen at the end of Jim crow during the civil rights era. As a direct result of the civil rights movement, civil rights leaders advocated for jobs for Black Americans, instead of wealth and power. Because of that, 60% of all Black people’s jobs were in some form of government. Whether it is federal government, local government, city government, libraries or schools etc. Think about this next time you hear a conservative speak about downsizing or de-employing the government. They are quite literally talking directly about harming Black Americans… and they know this. The rest of the Black Americans who don’t work in government and work in corporations, must get a job outside of their own community and work for someone else who may not have their best interests in mind. Just like people are advocating for the government to downsize, this same ideology will happen in the private sector and cost many educated, hardworking people of all backgrounds to struggle. Less than 2% of Black Americans work in their own stores, neighborhoods and communities. This means 2% of Black Americans have the ability to be self-sufficient. This is an obvious statistic that shows the dire need of governmental intervention economically. A conservative would look at this and say, “the community should pull themselves up by the bootstraps.” But how can a disenfranchised, powerless group of people become self-sufficient without government intervention? Impossible.
My belief in the federal government needing to step up comes with some warning. The federal government has betrayed black people as well many times, so I understand why the trust factor isn’t there. In 1638, the Maryland Colony Council issued a decree that stated that no black people, including their descendants, could enjoy the same rights and privileges as white people in Maryland. This decree, known as the “Maryland Doctrine of Exclusion,” was intended to ensure that Black people remained a subordinate and non-competitive workforce… AKA slaves. This 1638 Doctrine of Exclusion laid the groundwork for future discriminatory practice against Black Americans. This was a significant step in the development of systematic racism and redlining which ultimately led to the enormous racial wealth gap and housing disparity blacks face. As time went on, lawmakers and legislators tried to have actions that tried to partly remedy the hell that was caused. In 1788, number 51 of the Federalist paper states “If a majority be united by a common interest, the rights of the minority will be insecure. Minority rights are best protected in America by the size of the republic and the diversity of interests, making it difficult for a durable majority to form and oppress the minority.” This is simply saying that the protections, rights and safety of the minority class, is the responsibility of the majority class. Whites in America NEVER accepted the fact that it was their responsibility to protect black people if you are going to establish them as a minority. Once again blacks were backstabbed because 2 years later THE FIRST ACT OF CONGRESS WAS A VIOLATION OF THE FEDERALIST PAPERS #51. This first act by congress was The Naturalization act of 1790. This established a ZERO quota on black people and stated that this is a white country, and blacks could only come over as slaves. This limited access of U.S Citizenship to White immigrants. The act specifically defined “free white persons” as eligible for naturalization. This racial restriction was a cornerstone of the law and meant that non-white individuals, including Black people were not eligible for citizenship. It established that any free white person who had resided in the United States for at least two years could become a citizen, provided they swore allegiance to the Constitution. At this moment, black people became the only planned and permanent minority in American history… The only planned loser. The minority is a loser. Don’t ever refer to yourself as the minority. This is why blacks should not be chasing civil rights. It’s a game we cannot win. We don’t have the power. The government has not been perfect by any means but because Blacks are outnumbered and powerless as a whole, a larger role by the government is vital to any type of progress. No other race or group of people have had this dilemma cause by government. Not Women, Gays, Midgets, Handicaps, Mexicans, Chinese, literally nobody. So, because government put us in this situation, they must get us out.
With economic inequality looming at the highest rates we have seen since Black American slavery’s inception. Crucial criminal justice, education and housing policies on the horizon for restructuring and limited government debates the time is now for Black people to make a decision. We have been systematically planned and placed as a permanent underclass with no real leadership or tangible ideas to move forward as a whole. The next generation of white conservatives will be as race focused as ever before. Conservatism is a frightening ideology for Black Americans and new ideas, thoughts and legislation is needed. This won’t happen with typical conservative thinking of maintaining the status quo. The status quo has been bullshit for Black Americans and poor people. And in order to give the power to the people, conservatives must be replaced in all levels of government.
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