Contra Jamelle Bouie, the symbolic value of black Republicans is not real. It is knee-slappingly funny. Need evidence? Watch this:
Are you done laughing?
Good. Did any part of that strike you as symbolically important? Or did it strike you as the most astonishingly brazen Uncle Tomism imaginable. Support civil rights. Vote for the guys who are suppressing the black vote. Throw out the black attorney general who is protecting the black vote. Brought to you by two of the biggest beneficiaries of tokenism in the history of this country.
It’s value lies in allowing the squishier white republicans to murder any pangs of guilt for fucking over the “darkies.”
Adding new meaning to the term tool.
Do these two clowns think other black folks are as stupid as they are?
The only black republicans I’ve ever seen are on t.v.
The symbolic value of black Republicans is strikingly real – for Democrats. Unlike, say, gay Republicans – who share the dynamic of trying to find a place in a party whose members almost all hate them – black Republicans almost always need to disavow other blacks, as well as denying that Republican racism exists, in order to advance in the party.
A lot of Log Cabin Republicans talk freely about the challenges of working within and broadening the appeal of an openly homophobic party. With black Republicans, not so much, and the self-negation which that requires (and the blindingly obvious tokenism that then propels them to publicly visible positions in the conservative movement) have a lot of symbolic value. It’s just not what they think it is.
I also note that Ms. Bouie managed to devote a whole column to black Republican electoral prospects without once mentioning the racism of the white Republican base as a barrier. That alone should disqualify her column from being taken seriously.
Bouie is a man, not woman.
Noted. Point stands.
Time for some more of Herman’s lady friends to speak out again. Americans need to be reminded what a clown he really is.
they are nothing but slave catching Uncle Ruckus’ come to life.
They have value as an object lesson in what happens when you completely give up on the concept of community, the embodiment of the GOP mantra, “You’re on your own – F*** You!” They’re “that” in the conversation between parents and children, as in, “See that? You don’t want to be that.”