The Difficulty Black
males
experience working
with Republicans
The word is out that Secretary of State Colin Powell will not be back for a second term of the Bush Administration; he won't even be at their convention in New York. Most observers say that Powell has struggled in this administration to make his voice heard over the strident, even extremist views of the many hawks inside this administration that, though most have never seen war close up in all its horrors, love the concept of war from afar when neither they nor their loved ones have to partake in it. They love to cheer Americans troops on as the armchair soldiers who glory in war.
The most hawkish of all this administration's gong-ho boys is Dick Cheney, who, when the Vietnam war was ongoing and American boys were being killed for no good reason, as is the case of our troops in Iraq today, was using all five of his deferments to get out of the battle. And asked about that, he brazenly says today that he had other priorities than going to Vietnam. So did everyone else, yet this hypocrite now quickly utters the word unpatriotic of others and curses profanely and freely on the US Senate floor, then tells the nation that he felt good after his cursing. This is the man the moral majority and his Christian conservatives vote for and support. Something is wrong with this picture.
For the last four years, many Black people have actually urged Powell to resign, especially when the Cheney/Rumsfeld camp decided that Iraq would be the exhibition of American military prowess and a type of Vietnam redemption of some supposed American honor lost in Vietnam. But Powell has stayed on in spite of the urging of many and in spite of the reigning chorus of hawkish voices commanding this administration, which voices clearly drown out his and other voices of reason.
Colin Powell came to this administration as a national leader and military commander. He came as a potential presidential candidate, but his tenure as Secretary of State has been rocky and at times humiliating. Although his voice has been the voice of reason that gave credibility to an administration that badly needed and still needs credibility, that voice has not been heeded. Consequently, this nation has invaded another country in clear violation of international law, the UN Charter, and in disregard of the voice of the world; that invasion could cost this nation's tax-payers as much as $400 billion directly to rebuild Iraq because Bush has listened to bad advice from misguided advisors, and economists also estimate that it will cost this nation as much as a trillion dollars indirectly.
Whether Bush's failure to adhere to Powell's advice is because of Powell's Blackness, a fact that is very obvious, or for some other reason, I am not prepared to say--I certainly do not attribute every act where Blacks are involved and receive adverse treatment as explainable by race, even though I know America is obsessed with it. What I am prepared to say is that Bush has been poorly advised and the best advice he has received has come from the most senior military person and the most reasonable mind among the White House team. That mind is the Black male on this team--Colin Powell.
When examining the working of strong Black males with Republicans, there seems to be a pattern that has emerged indicating that Black males have a very difficult time working with white, conservative Republicans. That pattern usually eventuates into those working arrangements being abandoned by Blacks as a result of their frustration.
A while ago there was a problem a prominent Black Republican was having working with his congressional party. Congressman J.C. Watts, the third in command in the Congressional Republican delegation, announced that he would not run for his congressional seat again, but that he wanted to spend more time with his family. That is politically correct language for something else. The word from those who knew said that Watts was often into arguments with Republican members who did not want to respect his position in the House. Not only was there a disrespect of his position but also of his person. And although he held the position of third in command, that position did not carry with it the power it normally does when a white--the regular Republicans--is seated in it. Also, he had fights with Trent Lott; remember him, the Strom Thurmond loyalist? Apparently Republicans wanted Watts to be as much of a figurehead as he was a token. They wanted his presence only as an indicator that Republicans were an inclusive party and thereby attract the Black and Latino vote. Although Watts was willing to play the CP game in his departure, he was not willing to endure for long the disrespect of party members.
Blacks who are accepting of the roles white Republicans give them to play usually get along well, but it is when they are in positions of power and exercise that power that problems arise. And when they criticize the incompetence of whites, problems arise as well.
Stanley Crouch who is a Black Republican and writer who has bellowed long and hard against Blacks, often assuming many of the white conservative Republicans' positions, ventured to criticize an incompetent white Jazz musician in an article written in a white publication. He was quickly terminated from that position. Seemingly, he had assumed a Black stance and said that a white Jazz artist lauded by white media as innovative was not innovative at all, but and that he only received white praise because he is white, much as many are saying about Eminem.
Maybe Crouch thought that Ward Connerly's rhetoric was correct, namely, colorblindness had arrived in America and he had the artistic license to criticize a white artist's artistic merit or demerit, as it may be. Wasn't he awakened quickly! Sometimes, those Blacks espousing white conservative views actually believe them, but when they put them into practice, reality sets in, and the old ugliness of yesteryear shows itself ever so near. That was Crouch's situation.
This is the difficulty of working with white conservatives--the idea that Blacks are there at white behest and for some white pleasure. Although Stanley Crouch said many things that smack with white conservative thought, he maintained a certain individuality and strength. Namely, he was willing to go just so far to make a buck and get access to mass media. And when he thought that an honest critique of a white artist was needed, he did it. Now he sees the consequences of that action.
Secretary of State Colin Powell came to the Bush Administration almost as a superstar. The Europeans openly expressed their comfort at having Powell in that Administration; they had no confidence in Bush and his group of Republican hawks. This Bush Administration has since done nothing to bolster their confidence.
Powell had considered a campaign for the presidency himself, but being a soldier, and asked to support the Bush Administration for the good of the nation, he submitted himself and became the Secretary of State. And submit has been the hallmark of his tenure there. Since in this administration, his voice has almost been muted by the Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Rice, and Pearl drumbeat of war and conquest that this president listens to.
Powell is a strong man, a strong intellectual, a military man who commands men and has seen military action in Vietnam, unlike the Bush hawks who urge US military action as an answer to all things, and he is a Black male. That set of ingredients in a Black male will always mean that he will have difficulty functioning among white Republicans because the two cultures conflict. Strong Black males will not submit themselves to disrespect, tokenism, and figurehead positions. If in a position of authority, they will exercise that authority as it should be exercised, and if disrespected by assumptions of white privilege or white superiority, they will challenge all such assumptions. Hence, a type of a war will ensue.
Most white Republican conservatives are of a Trent Lott culture that exerts itself when Black authority is exercised. It is a culture that assumes that Blacks must succumb to white privilege and a culture that assumes superiority when there is none. This very culture is adversative to any competent and strong Black male. It sets him in a war mode.
That is what has happened in this Bush Administration with Colin Powell. He came in with skills and an opinion that cannot be dismissed, but dismiss is precisely what has been happening to him for a number of years. And a man like Colin Powell can swallow his spit just so long before he says enough, regardless of the position he is responding to.
Bush has been led and pushed by the hawks in his administration to take untoward actions in the name of the national security, and Powell's voice of reason has not been heard, and that is why we are in Iraq in the state of confusion we are in. Being a good soldier, Powell went to the UN and presented a flawed and weak case for an Iraqi invasion. That case was almost laughed at by the international community, and it presented France an open invitation to take over world ideological leadership. And they did.
Junior Bush's administration has spilled its tainted odor onto Powell. His reputation is not nearly as sparkling as it was when he came into this White House. And although he may not have added to this nation through his stay, having been yoked by this White House's warlords, this administration has surely diminished his political capital toward a run for the presidency. In fact, Powell may have lost his political life entirely, and that may have been a goal of Republican conservatives who hate Powell's stalwart position on affirmative action and other known Black positions. The indignity Powell [and other Blacks---Secretary of Education Page and Dr. Rice have just about become invisible people in this administration, as the warlords have highjacked this government!] has suffered under this Bush Administration, no doubt, propels him to no longer be a part of that administration, if he can survive through this last year.
Aside from Powell moving on, other Blacks in this conservative administration are leaving and have left as well. In the Justice Department, the Black Deputy Attorney General, Larry D. Thompson, has announced that he will be stepping down and going on as well. The politically correct resignation and departing words will be given, but most people can see through the supposed reason to the real causes for leaving. Thompson's resignation is further evidence of Black males' inability to work with a culture that assumes superiority in defiance of reality and an expectation of white privilege to be the norm. He has functioned in the Ashcroft Department of Justice, filled with conservative Republicans, as a Black Republican male, but the culture of white conservatives makes it very difficult for a strong Black male to tolerate and be effective.
Notice the contrast in Dr. Condoleezza Rice's ability to function in this Bush White House. Her ability is different from that of a Black male because white males usually behave differently in relationship with Black females than they do is relationship to Black males. Strangely, white males, especially conservatives, tend to take a more subservient stance toward Black females than they do to white females and Black males. With Black males, they assert a type of macho attitude that is pushy and challenging to Black leadership and authority. They even assert a leadership unearned and misguided that is an affront to a Black male. This same behavior is not exercised with Black females. That is one of the reasons Black females have the ability to function in the midst of white conservative Republicans more than do Black males.
The cause for this behavioral change in white males when dealing with Black males (and this behavior is peculiar to white conservatives) is that the male, especially the Black male, is the warrior class of a race, and since whites have historically and almost ubiquitously perpetrated systems of injustice on Blacks and others, they presume antagonism is always present in Black males and being competitive as they are, they have to effect a machismo to compete and to take a leadership they think they are supposed to have.
Over the past 10 years, Black males have attempted to work and function in the Republican Party, but those males who have functioned most effectively have neither been strong nor committed to their own identity. They have been males who cared only about money as the most important aspect of their being, and they allow themselves to become chattel. Former Ambassador Allen Keyes actually attempted to function in the Republican Party, and did for a number of years, but when he ran in the Republican presidential primary he saw the real conservative side of those Republicans that Powell and other Black males deplore. He gave up his political life in the Republican Party; they had failed to support him as they should, and he recognized and labeled that action as it was--racist. But because he owes a half a million dollars of unpaid campaign debt and back taxes, the Republicans were able to recruit him in a sham campaign against Illinois State Senate Barack Obama. Of course, he has given up all shame that normal, decent people have to run for US Senate from a state he doesn't even live in--he is only running for the money. Republicans are paying him and his debt. But he does not stand a ghost of a chance to win.
Black males who can work with white Republicans are those who simply go along, as Secretary of Education Paige does. For them and him, there are no broad strokes of leadership made. Paige is merely toeing the line of the Republican conservatives in a position that could do more than he can imagine. But he has worked for Governor Bush in Texas and is used to living with Bush's questionably competent leadership in quietness and without waves. For him to function is not difficult: he does what he is told, which is not much, to get along.
On the other hand, Powell will not be back for another Bush term, Thompson is leaving this term, Congressman J.C. Watts is gone already, and strong Black males who have actually tried to function in peace and accomplish something in this conservative Republican Party and Bush Administration have not been successful because of the contrasting and almost antithetical to Blacks white Republican culture they must work in.
As long as conservative Republicans, which seem to be most Republicans, only feign an effort to reach out to Blacks while maintaining a culture of white privilege and antebellum assumptions about themselves in relations to Black males, that party will be the southern white party, as it is perceived by most Black voters today. Consequently, the only Blacks they will be able to attract are the Clarence Thomas types and other intellectually weakened Black males--Alan Keyes, even though he seemed to be intelligent initially.
Finally, most Blacks are morally conservative, but today's conservative Republican Party has a conservatism that is so hostile to real morality and to Black male culture that they cannot keep quality people of color working with them. And until they show themselves capable of working with our Black representatives within their party, they will never get more than the standard ten percent of the Black vote. []
Frank A. Jones