Bleeding Heart Conservatives and the Black Republican Pity Party

Last month, I received the following message on LinkedIn….

First of all, you know my disdain for the Tea Party Patriots, thus receiving this message showed the sender had not done her homework and was clearly mining “black conservatives” for some future political exploitation. I say “exploitation” because we’ve all heard blacks call in on a conservative talk radio program, told how “brave” he or she is, given a generous amount of air time, and while it’s supposed to come off as inclusive, let’s call it what it is: exploitation.

The Black & Right website was created as a forum to rebut that public perception that all Republicans are (and have always been) racists, and was just my way of sharing personal views on topics where I could also go places white Republicans publicly cannot.

Simple.

It was never about portraying myself as a victim needing bleeding heart conservatives to acknowledge, feel my pain, and/or come to my rescue.

In September of 2005, I wrote about the looting in New Orleans post-Katrina; was contacted (via a so-called black conservative group) by CNN, commented on-air about my sentiments, and subsequently received around 200 emails an hour for the next three days, which was a big deal pre-Facebook and Twitter. Most of the emails were laden with racial epithets which I shared on follow-up posts. If you read my responses, I was not lamenting being picked on by total strangers, but basically used their words to illustrate the lie that liberals are generally tolerant and inclusive.

It really wasn’t until late in 2009 where black Republicans were officially “discovered” and deemed in need of some kind of endangered species status.

Glenn Beck was more ahead of his time than I realized in 2009 when he aired his first program to prove the existence of black conservatives.
Lisa Fritsch, Project 21

I was really out of the loop as I didn’t think we needed anyone to prove our existence….

A little more than a year ago, I was approached by a prominent black conservative and invited to “like” the Black Conservatives Fund Facebook page and help raise money for black candidates. I promptly declined because of the sheer hypocrisy in the creation of a so-called conservative group based solely on race.

White conservatives have nothing to prove when it comes to the political accusations of racism, liberals are shown to be racists almost everyday, whether we’re talking about the targets of abortion, the inaction when it comes to deadly crime in their jurisdictions, their hiring practices, etc. But for some reason, bleeding heart white conservatives still feel this need to prove to themselves they’re not what they’re called.

For example, whenever a black person speaks out in favor of a Republican or a conservative policy, they will get viciously called out by the left and embraced by the right. If that person is at all media savvy (and is prepared to take the initial stabs from the long, liberal knives), it can be quite the lucrative career move.

We have a prominent talk radio host praising black conservatives, almost always mentioning one by name, but on the very website of which he’s the Editor-in-Chief, she gets a “D” on her voting record and has been previously called out for sucking up to the now-outgoing Speaker.

I used to be a national spokesperson for a semi-well known group of black conservatives. It wasn’t until I moved to the D.C. area did I know that non-profit was staffed almost entirely by whites and that the “exposure” blacks received for the media appearances arranged was considered “payment”. After losing my job, we approached this group to do video work and after my eleven years of working with them for free, the response was a very drawn-out “no”.

I am not stupid and when I worked for a non-profit in Virginia, I knew I (and the few blacks that worked there) was being showcased for the trustees and donors. I was originally hired to bring Black & Right to a bigger audience; a suggestion I carefully blew off because I believed the company’s mission was bigger than that and instead created the successful (and colorblind) MRCTV. While I know how hard I worked and what I tried to bring to my job, I will always be humbled by being awarded Employee of the Year in 2011. However, I was always made to feel very uncomfortable having my name mentioned at the end of their annual gala because my contributions to the actual program were relatively minor and the majority of my work began within hours after the show where I’d prepare the post-production video files for the company’s writers the next day.

It was clear my name, as well as the names of the few blacks who worked there were being mentioned for one reason and one reason only and I can only imagine how the roughly 60-plus other employees who also worked hard must have felt.

Laura and I, literally, ran into that earlier mentioned talk radio host at CPAC and requested to meet with him about producing video rants. If you knew who we’re talking about about, you’d know that his doing video is a no-brainer. Laura and I also met up with another popular radio host at an award ceremony in D.C. where he was the recipient. We gave him the same pitch to do video rants, he seemed quite interested, and gave him one of our last business cards. Neither of these gentlemen bothered to contact us to say “no” and it’s their loss, but in no way were we seeking an in based on minority status alone.

I was a approached by a conservative who suggested I make a video asking for donations that would be shared in that person’s circles. I was to emphasize my being a “black conservative”. I did create the video, but as Laura and I was not in agreement with using my race and political leanings, I made it more about Laura and my history and where we want to go, business-wise.

The video tanked (results wise), and I’m kinda glad it did because exploiting myself as a “black conservative” is not who I am or ever was.

As many of you know, B&R was (and still is) a passion and was originally hosted by Men’s News Daily, later the Canada Free Press, and now Laura and I. Up until last year, it was an expense we could afford. As we never initiated the site for self-enrichment, we never made B&R or B&B Media a non-profit, thus making donation write-offs an enticement. Creating a site with donations primarily in mind is for top heavy nonprofits.

Black conservatism is not about finding the new “it” that can (and will) be exploited.

So, yes, I have a bug up my ass when it comes to the use of the labels “African-American” and “black conservative”. In the Navy, I visited Mombasa, Kenya for six days. Otherwise, I’m a native Bostonian. I am also a born-again conservative.

It’s not a badge of honor and I don’t hand out tissues.

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