A recent piece by Tonyaa Weathersbee about the GOP’s latest black media phenom (and here) reminded me that President Bush’s brand of Republicanism goes best with inexperience.
Adam Hunter is a brash law student who thinks he has figured out the game. But as Weathersbee writes, reality bites:
Now I’m not – repeat – not saying that all young black people should stick with the Democratic party. In fact, I believe it’s extremely healthy to question anything one buys into. Rebellion is healthy too. But as black people, we can’t afford to eschew our history when rebelling. I mean, what good does it do for a budding black businessperson to embrace the Republican party because he or she sees it as the party of entrepreneurs, only to be denied a loan to start a business because that same party has weakened anti-discrimination laws?
So to the Hunters and other young, GOP-leaning black people, here’s what I say: Rebel if you must. But there are better ways to do it. Rebel by being an independent. Or better yet, rebel by starting another political party altogether. Don’t rebel by joining a party that has built its modern base by exploiting white hostility to the societal changes that made your progress possible.
In other words, don’t trade one plantation for another. Especially when the accommodations at the new one are bound to be worse.
