Racism Directed at Black Republicans

From the Washington Times:

Black Democratic leaders in Maryland say that racially tinged attacks against Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele in his bid for the U.S. Senate are fair because he is a conservative Republican.

Such attacks against the first black man to win a statewide election in Maryland include pelting him with Oreo cookies during a campaign appearance, calling him an “Uncle Tom” and depicting him as a black-faced minstrel on a liberal Web log.

Operatives for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) also obtained a copy of his credit report — the only Republican candidate so targeted.

But black Democrats say there is nothing wrong with “pointing out the obvious.”

“There is a difference between pointing out the obvious and calling someone names,” said a campaign spokesman for Kweisi Mfume, a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate and former president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Such attacks on black Republicans have become quite common. Here in Milwaukee, there is the infamous “asterisk” comment from the Journal-Sentinel attacking Justice Clarence Thomas.

In Madison, last year, talk show host Sly Sylvester called Condoleezza Rice an “Aunt Jemima.”

And in 2002, Harry Belafonte derided Colin Powell’s service in the Bush Administration with the following statement:

There’s an old saying in the days of slavery. There are those slaves who lived on the plantation, and there were those slaves who lived in the house. You got the privilege of living in the house if you served the master. Colin Powell was permitted to come into the house of the master.

On the Larry King show, Belafonte was asked “Do you have the same views about Condoleezza Rice?” Belafonte replied:

Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. Even more so. Because I’ve never heard from Condoleezza Rice even the suggestion towards some of the more lenient thoughts or some of the more appropriate thoughts that Colin Powell has expressed.

These sorts of attacks are, quite simply, profoundly racist.

Official black spokespeople make them, and the liberal media repeat them with approval, on the assumption that black anger and venom is a righteous response to generations of racism and oppression.

But the average white American is likely to view them as a sleazy hustle at best, and as downright stupid at worst.

High profile black spokespeople making stupid comments is not a way to promote the cause of racial equality.

The attacks are profoundly racist because they imply that black people are not allowed to think for themselves. Whites, of course, are allowed to come to liberal or conservative conclusions, and to become Democrats or Republicans. But black people aren’t supposed to exercise this kind of intellectual independence.

If the Harry Belafontes and the Kweisi Mfumes of the world had their way, white people would conclude that black people are incapable of independent thought, since they would never express any.

It follows from this that people truly committed to racial equality should applaud the Michael Steeles, the Colin Powells, the Condoleezza Rices and the Clarence Thomases.