Why can’t conservatives appeal to minorites?
May 22nd, 2010
What is conservatism’s problem with race? Why does everything done in the name of the conservative movement (and by proxy, the Republican Party) fail to appeal to a majority of self-conscious minorities?
1- America was born into slavery. It’s our original sin, and may be the nation’s undoing as its legacy seems to engender the permanent alienation of minorities from traditional American culture. To the racially conscious, every defense of American tradition, no matter how thoughtful or tolerant, smells like a defense of slavery, Jim Crow, and segregation. From a certain standpoint, it doesn’t matter than Americans died to abolish slavery. What matters is that the founders didn’t do it in the first place, which makes appeals to their collective wisdom sound like excuses for slavery.
2- Conservatives must reach out to minorities, especially the black community. No matter how vain it may seem (progressives rarely deny themselves the opportunity to portray their opponents as racists—see Rand Paul) the rift between the political right and the black community is cultural, which means it will almost certainly change slowly, if it’s to change for the better. Only through familiarity with a sober conservative understanding of tradition, unblemished by progressive malevolence, will minorities learn to be comfortable with conservative ideals. Only until blacks are completely comfortable with the paradoxical reverence of American heritage coupled with the acknowledgement and justified rejection of our worst traditions, will that change. Whether or not it’s fair, America’s political atmosphere is such that the burden of proof is on conservatives to demonstrate we’re not racist. At the very least, this means engaging with minority communities, accepting invitations to NAACP events, and empathizing with the African American experience (even if it doesn’t entail sympathizing with it). We should start today, but not expect results for generations.
3- While conservatives are right to reject the assumptions that drive political correctness, a healthy disregard for leftist mores is different than dumb, blunt name-calling. Every time Ann Coulter uses the term “Raghead” to denounce Islamic extremists, or someone like former Republican Senator George Allen says “Macaca,” it only fuels the false perception that right-wingers are pining for a pure, white America. Conservatives should be the last people willing to play with racial slurs, if only because of the first two reasons I listed above. When the assumption is that we’re racist, we can’t get away with the same things the left can. Case in point, then-Democratic Senator Joe Biden’s comment about Indian-Americans: “”In Delaware, the largest growth of population is Indian-Americans, moving from India. You cannot go to a 7/11 or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I’m not joking.” Rightly or wrongly, progressives are given the benefit of the doubt by Americans when they say stupid things that involve race. This is not the case with conservatives, and it won’t change if we simply disregard it.
4- We were dead wrong in the civil rights era, specifically, on voting rights.
When Americans were arguing about voting rights in the mid-twentieth century, classical conservatives, correctly trying to preserve moral nuance on the subject, simply weren’t libertarian enough. In the 1959 book Up From Liberalism, Willaim F. Buckley argued that the federal government shouldn’t guarantee African-Americans voting rights. His reasoning isn’t racist, in fact, it rejects the fundamental tenant of racism, inherent racial superiority—“There are no scientific grounds for assuming congenital Negro disabilities.” So why did he oppose it? Further reading is required.
For Buckley, the salient question about voting rights was whether or not the “claims of civilization” took precedence over those of universal suffrage. Intellectual conservatives have always been aware of democracy’s excesses, particularly mob rule. Thus, the denial of voting rights wasn’t seen as a big deal. “Being able to vote is no more to have realized freedom than being able to read is to have realized wisdom,” wrote Buckley. Yet this ignored the plain truth that African Americans, being American citizens, should be accorded the right to govern themselves through democratic elections. The proposed solution of voting qualification tests is flawed along the same lines. We shouldn’t deny legal citizens the right to vote based on whether or not they understand the foundations of American culture. It would be impractical and potentially abused—what would happen if the test is written by progressive activists who interpret everything as a matter of exploitation? Moreover, to be ruled by a government against your will is simply a less enthusiastic form of slavery.
More than anything else, being wrong about the right to vote has brought into question the conservative stance on every issue from affirmative action to reparations, and made it more difficult to present these cases as the African American community, along with much of the rest of our country, only sees that a generation of conservatives opposed black interests, not a nuanced, comprehensive picture of conservatives who have supported legal equality and have wholeheartedly condemned racial prejudice as readily as any other Americans, but have rejected more extreme claims such as proportional representation. This legacy follows us today, and gives a false air of authority to the claims that conservatism is a racist ideology, when in fact, such beliefs are irrevocably misinformed.
