"IT is easy to laugh at the proverbial “black friend” invoked to neutralize charges of racism. However, the humor sours when you realize that this comical ploy is also a strategy the Republican Party uses in its outreach to black and moderate white voters.
Despite the whiteness of the G.O.P. in general — about 90 percent of voters in the Republican primaries this year have been white — a number of black Republicans hold prominent positions in the party, and are often held up as evidence of its commitment to diversity. Last year, for example, when the presidential candidate Ben Carson was doing well in the polls, his presence on the campaign trail helped prompt the chairman of the Republican National Committee, Reince Priebus, to claim that the G.O.P. was “likely to have the most diverse presidential primary field in history — of either party.”
Promoting black Republicans in this fashion may or may not succeed in convincing white voters that the party is not as racially divisive as it can seem. But less appreciated is the effect that this approach has on black voters. As recent research of mine suggests, the image of black Republicans that the G.O.P. disseminates may actually dampen enthusiasm for the party — not only among the black electorate in general, but also among black Republicans themselves.
A common thread that links high-profile black Republicans like Mr. Carson is their commitment to “colorblind” politics. You can also see this with recently elected politicians like Representative Mia Love of Utah and Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina. They acknowledge that being black is part of their life experience but reject the idea that racial identity should orient their political decision making. They often decry efforts, like affirmative action, to address racial inequality explicitly, claiming that such policies undermine black success.
Though colorblind black Republicans get a lot of attention, they fail to represent an important, if overlooked, type of black Republican, which I call “race conscious.”
I began studying the experiences of black activists in the Republican Party in 2006. In addition to monitoring their online presence, I attended political rallies, organizational meetings, conferences and panel discussions. I also spent time interviewing about 50 black Republicans involved in state and local politics across the nation who were often trying to persuade black voters to consider voting Republican.
What I found was at odds with the message of most black Republicans in the public eye. These race-conscious Republicans saw themselves as closely linked to a broader black community, and most experienced this connection as empowering. They were committed to conservative politics as a tool for the uplift of the black community. While they supported most Republican policy positions, their motivations were grounded in their black identity.
For instance, in their view, the virtue of school vouchers was not the free-market approach to education but rather the empowerment of black parents. They championed smaller government as a way of stemming the influence of white bureaucrats in black communities. One activist described his support of Republican politics as a way to achieve “Black Power through conservative principles.”
These Republicans expressed skepticism about G.O.P. outreach efforts and said they rarely felt their opinions were supported within the party. They sensed that while party leaders might want more black faces, the party was less interested in tailoring conservative messages to address the racial identity of black voters. One activist explained to me that “the party is not willing to get out there and advertise what they are doing today that greatly, positively impacts the lives of black folks.” As a result, despite their activism, these Republicans found themselves sitting on the sidelines while their colorblind counterparts were given all the playing time.
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