Black Conservatism: The Next Chapter
During periods of the 19th and 20th centuries, the Republican Party was affectionately known as “The Party of Lincoln.” Some still refer to it in this way, harkening back to a time when the GOP held sway among Black Americans.
A group known as the Radical Republicans were in fact a fiercely loyal faction of the party during Civil War times. Known for their fiery advocacy around the abolition of slavery and racial accountability in the South, they represented a key progressive voice around change.
Today, the number of Black Republicans is scarce, proverbial flies in the GOP buttermilk, with Democrats having garnered in excess of 80 percent of this black electorate over the years.
Black Conservatives find themselves in a very unusual place in current racial discourse. Those who consider themselves part of this rare air are often subject to backlash from those of the liberal ilk. Many are viewed as nothing more than figureheads for placating white conservatives and an existential threat to democracy.
This conservative cohort frequently throws shade on those who view black life and culture from a lens of victimization and persecution, maintaining that racial disparity cannot be adequately addressed through deliberate government intervention. They assert that the obsession of Black Americans with their own oppression has become their greatest roadblock in terms of the achievement of full equality.
A book that does an exquisite job of unearthing the deeper historical context of Black conservatives and their significance for modern times is “Black Conservative Intellectuals in Modern America". Author Michael L. Ondaatje in an opening stanza cites prominent free-market economist Thomas Sowell who once noted that being a Black conservative is “perhaps not considered as bizarre as being a transvestite, but it is certainly considered more strange than being a vegetarian or a bird watcher.”
At first glance, one might be inclined to view this book as one that is fully supportive of the Black conservative movement. Yet, Ondaatje offers a more balanced viewpoint, one where he has no qualms in throwing shade on the nativity and impracticality of some of the movements’ views.
Ondaatje asserts that while Reagan’s presidential landslide victory of 1980 was a watershed moment in accelerating the black conservative movement forward, the progress has been glacial ever since. He believes that while “the 1991 nomination and confirmation of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court is generally credited with sparking the nation’s interest in black conservatives, in reality, interpretations of the group and their philosophical orientation had been emerging since the early 1980s.”
As a classical libertarian-minded individual, I was particularly struck by the book’s look at the questions posed by the Russian anarchist Pyotr Kropotkin during his U.S. visit to the United States more than a century ago. Ondaatje offered this:
“While Kropotkin accepted that there was such a thing as an American black conservative—Booker T. Washington was widely acknowledged as the preeminent black leader of the day—he mocked the idea that their commitment to conservatism could in any way be genuine.”
Ondaatje noted that Kropotkin saw a conservative as someone “who is satisfied with existing conditions and advocates their continuance.” In other words, Kropotkin’s definition says Ondaatje, suggests that “a black conservative was a contradiction in terms, a freak of nature; those who claimed the mantra for themselves were opportunists, and complicit in the oppression of their own people.”
Nevertheless, the book offers a comprehensive look at a number of prominent Black conservative figures throughout history including Booker T. Washington, William Hannibal Thomas, George Schuyler, Zora Neale Hurston, Edward Brooke, and a few others.
Washington arguably was the most prominent of this group. His siren call to Black Americans in the 1890s to merge into a capitalistic system largely influenced by white supremacy became a key philosophical pillar for modern black conservatives.
I was particularly intrigued by the book’s thoughtful look at Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his contribution to the modern-day conservative milieu. Thomas’s ideas, says Ondaatje, often mirrored the sentiments of Washington, particularly those encouraging Blacks to become self-reliant versus counting on the government to deliver freedom for them.
Over the years, I’ve found Justice Thomas to be an interesting study in black conservatism. An avowed black nationalist Marxist and Malcolm X admirer while in college, Thomas made a shift to the right, asserting that the only hope for black people was to turn within — transcending the evils of racism that he experienced as a young adult through the ethics of hard work and self-reliance. While typically demure about his political party (most assume that he is a Republican), Thomas has publicly admitted in the past to possessing “some very strong libertarian leanings.”
This excerpt from Ondaatje’s book captured the sentiment of Thomas:
“An admirer of Ayn Rand’s libertarian tracts The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, Thomas warned his son that he would ‘personally hunt you down and kick your behind from one end of America to the other’ if he ever heard any ‘whining about how you can’t make it because you are black.’”
In modern times there has been a pantheon of black thought leaders who have contributed to the racial discourse including economists Walter Williams, Thomas Sowell, Glenn Loury; cultural theorists Shelby Steele, Anne Wortham, bombastic academic John McWhorter; and social activists Robert Woodson and Jay Parker.
Of these, Thomas’ friend Sowell has arguably received the most attention. Greatly influenced by the capitalist theorist Milton Friedman, he asserts that black America’s efforts at achieving a sustainable future were largely predicated on their ability to obtain — at least in the short term — low-paid private sector positions in the free market economy.
While I admire many aspects of Sowell’s life story and his broader economic views, he is among a handful of black conservative leaders, which include Fox News favorites Larry Elder and Candace Owens whose motives I question. This small but growing bastion of political thought leaders whose peacocking for conservative causes and mean-spiritedness towards blacks seem counterproductive outside of a boost to their ego.
In the end, there is much to be admired by Michael L. Ondaatje’s book “Black Conservative Intellectuals in Modern America.” On the heels of the tumultuous racial issues that our nation has been grappling with since the murder of George Floyd in 2020, I consider it a very relevant and profound read regarding the black conservative voice for our times.