{"id":27996,"date":"2020-02-06T11:32:12","date_gmt":"2020-02-06T16:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/?p=27996"},"modified":"2020-02-06T11:32:40","modified_gmt":"2020-02-06T16:32:40","slug":"the-progressive-bloc-the-con-of-black-conservatism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/tartan-news\/2020\/02\/06\/the-progressive-bloc-the-con-of-black-conservatism\/","title":{"rendered":"The Progressive Bloc: The “Con” of Black Conservatism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Progressive Bloc is a weekly opinion column by Contributing Writer Quinton Bradley that discusses politics, society and culture from an unapologetically left-wing perspective.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Traditionalists? Concerned citizens? Patriots? Grifters? Or woefully misinformed political dissidents?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the United States, conservative thought among the Black community is nothing new. From the days of Marcus Garvey<\/a>\u2019s \u201cBack to Africa\u201d movement, Booker T. Washington\u2019s appeals toward Black self-reliance<\/a> in place of fighting for civil rights, Malcolm X\u2019s fixture within the Nation of Islam (prior to his trip to Mecca, which lead him down a more left-leaning path<\/a> before his assassination) and the appointment of Clarence Thomas<\/a>\u2014regarded as America\u2019s most conservative Justice on the Supreme Court\u2014in 1991, Black Americans have always had some presence within conservatism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This presence, however, has been traditionally small over the past 40-odd years\u2014and for good reason. One only has to briefly run down the litany of incidents both historic and contemporary to conclude that the Right side of the political aisle\u2014be it center-right, moderate republican, neoconservative, \u201cpaleoconservative\u201d or the far-right \u201cidentitarian\u201d sects (neo-Nazis, the alt-right, etc.)\u2014is no tent that we should consider encamping ourselves under.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A look at late Alabama Gov. George Wallace\u2019s rallying cry of \u201cSegregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever,\u201d during his 1963 inaugural address, Barry Goldwater\u2019s opposition of Civil Rights during his 1964 presidential campaign and the dog-whistling utilized during the presidential campaigns of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and President Trump prove that the right\u2019s adherence to the \u201csouthern strategy<\/a>\u201d won\u2019t be going away any time soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With that being said, why then has there been an uptick in young, MAGA hat-wearing Black conservatives professing their love of both Trump and the Republican party over the past year?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started picking up on the trend during the summer of 2019. Little by little, I would see African Americans popping up on social media that would (rightfully) bash the Democratic party for its feelings of entitlement toward the Black vote and party\u2019s penchant for using the tactic of \u201cpander, not policy\u201d when courting Black voters (famous examples of this apply to both Bill and Hillary Clinton, with the former\u2019s sunglasses-clad saxophone riffs on the Arsenio Hall Show in the nineties and the latter\u2019s cringe-inducing \u201chot sauce in my bag\u201d line from her appearance on \u201cThe Breakfast Club\u201d morning show, which holds a predominantly Black audience).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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