Op-ed submission by Project 21
In his book “It’s OK To Leave The Plantation”, C. Mason Weaver said the next logical step for the civil rights movement is the rise of a black conservative movement. Weaver, a black conservative, former congressional candidate and public speaker, says that hysteria, angst, crime, family breakdown and many other ills facing America today are prophetic of the progressive agenda. It was not Weaver’s opinion that black conservatives could solve all these problems overnight, but at least black conservatives could be counted upon not to perpetuate the failed progressive ideas and programs that created this mess in the first place.
Weaver also wrote, “There has always been two sides to the civil rights movement, violence and non-violence. From the suffrage movement to Nat Turner to the Abolitionist and Toussant L’ Overture, we have always had a choice in this struggle. If you followed Dr. Martin L. King’s way or Malcolm X’s, the choice was still non-violence or violence. However today’s choices are different and alarming. This nation seems to be dividing itself into violence and passive victims. The violence is towards our own people, and the passiveness is toward those leading us back onto the plantation of hopelessness.” Weaver wrote this over a dozen years ago. How have things changed since then?
On one hand, there is the Obama Administration and a progressive majority in Congress that is working fiercely to enact as many new big-government policies as possible. On the other side, the tea party movement grew out of opposition to Obama’s overspending, overregulation and a foreign policy that overlooks dangerous threats to our national security.
I have written and spoken on these very issues in the time since Weaver’s book was published. It is clear to me and other free-thinking blacks that the constant mantras of “give us more,” “feed us,” “we cannot make it without your help” and “you owe us something” that is championed by progressives have all worn out their welcome.
It is often said we should give hope, peace, change and prosperity a chance, which is what independent conservative thought represents. So, give conservatism a chance!
In his book, Weaver also wrote, “It is time to evaluate our communities and our decisions. Forty years ago we decided government handouts, welfare, job training and birth control assistance were needed in our communities. Well, it is time to check on this noble mission and evaluate its progress. We have faithfully given our vote to one party and it is time we look at what we have received for our loyalty. We have blindly followed self-appointed leaders in social, economic and political ideology; lets see if it has benefitted us.”
Again, Weaver hit the nail on the head. It is evident that our loyalty and trust have been used and abused over the years by progressives and those who claim to speak for black America. I have long labored to introduce free-thinking blacks to the idea of becoming more politically independent and leaving the political and social plantation run by the progressive movement. We must not allow any political movement or party to take us for granted.
Go to a tea party with an open mind. Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi control the bully pulpit. People owe it to themselves to hear the opposition — free of the filter of a media that seems all-too-wiling to provide a negative portrayal of the tea parties.
As a black conservative, I know that fighting the stranglehold progressives have on black America presents a long and uphill battle. I also know that too many of our own have vested interest in maintaining the status quo and seeing to it that nobody escapes from the plantation.
I am also comfortable with the fact that I am seeing more and more black Americans across this great nation who are waking up and realizing that — as Weaver said — it is OK to leave the progressive plantation. But, most of all, they are realizing it is in their best interest to do so.
Jimmie L. Hollis is a member of the National Advisory Council of the Project 21 black leadership network.
afrospear.wordpress.com 
It’s difficult to take some of these “black conservatives” (more often then not parrots of the Republican Party) seriously. Our POTUS has problems. However, weak on national security? President Obama is killing people via drone strikes at a faster clip than Bush did. U.S. aggression militarily has actually been ratcheted up since he took office.
In terms of his analysis and juxtaposition regarding King & Malcolm; the suffrage movement vs. Overture… it is ahistorical and intellectually obtuse. Comparing Overture to the suffrage movement is like comparing apples and finger nails.
The fundamental differences between the schools of thought seeking viability in African American freedom movements typically boil down to the idea of seeking greater inclusion within a society that has systemically denied the humanity of African Americas versus the idea that African Americans would be better off pursuing freedom (agency) independentl of societal institutions.
Go to a tea party demonstration. What? You mean go to a demonstration where they overtly exhibity racist inclinations: via their signs, racist exclamations, etc.,. Yeah, ok. Those tea party activists caughting spitting on African American elected officials and holding up racially charged signs are not figments of the imagination.
Here is a more accurate assessment of both parties by W.E.B. Dubois: “The two parties have combined against us to nullify our power by a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ of non-recognition, no matter how we vote … May God write us down as asses if ever again we are found putting our trust in either the Republican or the Democratic Parties.”
Progressives nor conservatives have the answers.
@ J.S. Buford… excellent critical analysis and constructive rebuttle! I particularly like the quote by Dubois! There are indeed many “asses” among us who have put blind trust and given their unwavering support to both parties, especially to Obama and the Democrats.
It doesn’t make sense to leave the progressive plantation for the conservative plantation. I don’t like who you align yourself with , e.g., Newt, O”Reilly, Limbaugh, tea party folks that don’t openly condemn the most racist elements in their group. That’s just to mention a few.
To say that Progressives are o.k. with the problems that plague poor communities black or white is disingenuous.
Black conservatives haven’t come up with anything worth instituting other than exposing “pathologies” in some segments and giving the impression that the only blacks who are responsible and contribute to society are conservative blacks. It’s progressives that bring about change or try to effect change. Conservative means conserving those practices in the past many that have underlying racist principles.
If the majority of blacks shift their ties–it should be to the Independent arena and broker with both sides to meet their best interests. Black conservatives express contempt for many blacks, yet, tend to embrace or diminish what whites have done to promote oppression and make excuses for those who hide behind “American Values”.
I don’t see anything moral about how the majority has treated minorities in this country from the days of slavery, reconstruction, Jim Crow, de facto segregation through “post racialism”.
@ Carolynmoon… Good points and well stated!
The book title alone is off putting. Then you are going to tell me, because I am liberal, that I am not a creative or free thinker, that there was no process in which I came to my beliefs.
Are insults the best way to “win friends and influence enemies?”
Speaking of insults, if conservatives are free thinkers, why is it that they all sound alike and have not espoused an original thought since Atlas Shrugged was published.
Interestingly, I started watching a 6 part documentary on FOXNews called “The Rise, Fall and Future of Conservatism”. I was fascinated that a lot of what is going on today, with the likes of Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and the Tea Party movements, isn’t anything new. There has always been an “ultra”-conservative wing that has been in conflict with the establishment Republican Party. Although conservatives do make up the Republican Party, not all conservatives are Republicans… there is a substantial contingent in the Democratic Party, aka “Blue Dog” Democrats and there are the Independents.
I also didn’t know that the so-called “neo-cons” were former liberal Democrats, like Ronald Reagan. I have a better understanding why he is their messiah and Atlas Shrugged is their bible. I need to read it, as they reference it in the documentary quite a few times.
Conservatism is at its ideological heart is an anti Black ideology.
The four heroes (Barry Goldwater, William Buckley,George Wallace and Ronald Reagan) of modern conservatism were all hostile to Black People and the idea of equity and fairness for African Americans. It is no coincidence that although the Conservative Movement postures as a defender of liberty and freedom it defended Jim Crow segregation and Apartheid in white ruled South Africa. Nor is it surprising that the son of a prominent spokesman for the so called libertarian wing of the conservative movement, Rand Paul sees the 1964 Civil Rights Act as an oppressive attack on his right to utilize his property anyway he sees fit. Conservatism values property rights over human rights. Conservatism values “law and order” but not justice. Conservatism despises the cries of victims unless they are white men or their flunkies.
Black men and women who want a better world for African people must fight this ideology to the death!
“Black men and women who want a better world for African people must fight this ideology to the death!”
lol! Sayeed2k, I think you need to get back on your meds.
Why is black leaders like Rev. J. Jackson, Rev. Al Sharpton, Rev. Raymond Brown allowing the tea party to take us backward and fight against civil rights laws? Is this the same Rev. Brown who lead a march in Jena, Louisiana? I believe it was Rev. Brown who led a march across the Danziger brige in New Orleans in September, we need actvists like Rev. Brown. Now is the time for our leaders to confront the racist tea party, and say in one vioce “forward ever backward never.”
“Black men and women who want a better world for African people must fight this ideology to the death!”
lol! Sayeed2k, I think you need to get back on your meds.”
Asa, do you not think Sayeed2k’s stance is real? After all, death is what all of these politicos have in store for us.
Great comments here. The binary thinking – conservative vs. progressive – is ignorant and is the primary tool of the hypnotists who keep us on the “mental” plantation. (They don’t even have to lock the gate we’re so bamboozled)
We can’t see or think our way off of the plantation because of our attachment to pigment, political parties and other childhood symbols of a reality that doesn’t exist.
The world we see, so says Morpheus, has been pulled over our eyes. Democrats kill, Republicans kill, conservatives and progressives…kill, kill, kill all. They killed Malcolm and Martin, Bobby and Jack, Fred and Mark, Bunchy, Fanny Lou, James Chaney, Medgar Evers, they want to kill Assata, on and on. (Its ludicrous to even mention Jesse or Al in the same breath as these true Progressives)
Progressive=Progress
The Repubs & Dems kill US! They kill us with crack, with jail, with mind control. They talk out of both sides of their neck. Yet, the author of this piece tells us to consider “conserving” a system of white, corporate, ruling class entitlement that has no intention of seeing you or me thrive or…SURVIVE, that murders our kind on every continent.
So, when do WE (black, white, blue, green) who see what’s happening through the prism of reality (reality being the crimes that are being committed right now in our name) come together and try to DESTROY this evil and create something better?! Fuck conserving this bitch: we should be knocking the muthafucka down.
As a think tank – and I will begin to put energy into this shift in my thinking – I/We need to vision the future. What could this tiny world I/We live in – look like, comprehensively, without guns and armies and navies and spies and blood suckers and “believers” in the fantasy of capitalism and other ideological discontents?
Project 21 wants to keep us on the plantation, wants to deliver our “minds and votes” to their paymasters.
“Asa, do you not think Sayeed2k’s stance is real? After all, death is what all of these politicos have in store for us.”
Lubangakene, I am an advocate for the power of life, not death… that’s what’s real for me! So my goal is to shout and live! Of-course these politicos want us all to stay quiet… or better yet, die! Why make it easy and embrace this death that they have in store for us? They say dead men tell no tales… I say they also don’t speak the truth of the moment.
Furthermore, I don’t want to be a martyr for their cause, so they can designate a day to remember me… the “me” they will commemorate with a stamp. You wanna know why “da revolushun” hasn’t happened and probably never will? It’s because martyrs are forever silent and therefore over time are easily re-branded and embraced by the dominant culture as their heroes and sheroes. They become merchandise, i.e, the subjects of films, documentaries and books; the caricatures on government issued or approved Black History Month posters; the false idols on hats and t-shirts with pseudo-revolutionary slogans printed on them like: “Black men and women who want a better world for African people must fight this ideology to the death!” The ironic thing is that while we die, this merchandise ends up being sold at WalMart… or by those like Tim Wise…
True, they may take my life, but i’ll never give it. Certainly not for some pseudo-revolutionary slogan like fighting an “ideology to the death”. It sounds great and pulls at our emotional strings, especially when I was a freshman in University, but it’s meaningless, ineffectual rhetoric in the long term. Now that I am a man, I know better and have put away such childish things. For I have learnt, through experience and discernment, that “we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” EPH 6:12. Which leads me to your statement:
“As a think tank – and I will begin to put energy into this shift in my thinking – I/We need to vision the future. What could this tiny world I/We live in – look like, comprehensively, without guns and armies and navies and spies and blood suckers and “believers” in the fantasy of capitalism and other ideological discontents?”
Bro. I have been thinking about this same thing for a while now: Afro-Futurism. Where are we going as individuals and as a people: politically, economically, culturally and spiritually… and how do we get to where we need to be by taking a pragmatic approach(s) and not as you put it, “in the fantasy of capitalism and other ideological discontents?” … and let me add: or by living out some pseudo-revolutionary fantasy. It’s quite an endeavor. So I have been planning to write on this topic too… just haven’t put in the time yet. However, I am looking forward to reading what you have to say on this.
Stay blessed!
Asabanga,
I think it would be a better use of your time to read Any Rand’s writings on Objectivism. You get a sense of her philosophy, but the plot is rather convoluted. I also think it is better read when one is an adolescent or very young adult. Her philosophical writings get straight to the point.
I read two of her novels when I was either 18 or 19, I think there was some appeal to me because, the protagonist was a strong woman, but I had nagging questions about her beliefs. I never thought of individualism as being contradictory to collective behavior for the common good or capitalism as a moral force. I see capitalism as being amoral. There is a tendency of her devout followers to use her philosophy as a guide for life and the SciFi author Robert Heinlein to be a prophet. Liberty is their calling, but it sometimes appears to me to be anarchy.
Thanks Hathor. Stay blessed!
Maybe I don’t need meds, perhaps you need to recognize your enemies!
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3406
A 1957 editorial written by Buckley, “Why the South Must Prevail” (National Review, 8/24/57), cited the “cultural superiority of white over Negro” in explaining why whites were “entitled to take such measures as are necessary to prevail, politically and culturally, in areas where [they do] not predominate numerically.” Appearing on NPR’s Fresh Air in 1989 (rebroadcast 2/28/08), he stood by the passage. “Well, I think that’s absolutely correct,” Buckley told host Terry Gross when she read it back to him.
At the 1964 Republican Convention that nominated Barry Goldwater, Black delegates had their credentials challenged and at every opportunity they were purged and replaced by white delegates. Black Newspapers at the time said:
http://onedetroitnetwork.blogspot.com/2006/08/why-martin-luther-king-jr-was.html
“GOP Convention Spurns Negroes,” cried the Cleveland Call and Post. “Negro Delegates to GOP Convention Suffer Week of Humiliation,” headlined the Associated Negro Press newswire. “The Great Purge of Negroes,” announced Jet. “GOP Negroes Washed Away by the Goldwater Ocean,” said the Chicago Defender.
Conservatives owe all their pseudo-anti establishment rhetoric to George Wallace a legendary anti-Black hater (Segregation yesterday, Segregation today Segregation forever!). Wallace opposed “activist courts” who ended Black disenfranchisment and Jim Crow. George Wallace’s success in the South paved the way for Ronald Reagan’s southern strategy. Reagan announced his campaign for presidency using the “States Rights” rhetoric of the segregationist in the very town (Philadelphia, Miss) that three Civil Rights workers were murdered by the Klan. Reagan launched a devastating attack on Black rights and supported the white supremacist apartheid regime.
I neglected to mention that following that 1964 GOP Convention where Goldwater was nominated, Blacks deserted the Republican Party by the millions! Why ? Because the Black delegates attending that Convention were spat on, name called and physically attacked.
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+year+the+GOP+went+South-a020388956
The Cleveland Call and Post reported that George Fleming of New Jersey ran from the hall in tears, saying Negro delegates “had been shoved, pushed, spat on, and cursed with a liberal sprinkling of racial epithets.” George Young, labor secretary of Pennsylvania, complained that Goldwater delegates harassed him to the point of setting his suit jacket on fire with a cigarette. Baseball legend Jackie Robinson summarized his “unbelievable hours” as an observer on the convention floor: “I now believe I know how it felt to be a Jew in Hitler’s Germany.”
As I stated in the previous post the chief theoreticians of modern conservatism were anti-Black. Today conservatism finds the need to put a fig leaf of Black tokenism (witness Micheal Steele) on to justify itself but it remains an anti-Black ideology. Those who love African people need to make sure it ends up on the trash heap of history.
“Black men and women who want a better world for African people must fight this ideology to the death!”
This can get your heart pumping and warm, but does not hold up in the practical world, at least today. Just look how long the AfroSpear has been in existence, and yet we are still only read by a very very small percentage of Black people. It has been a difficult task just to get people I know personally (some who often read books and stay abreast of politics and maintain political/economic awareness) to just come to the internet and read conversations like this. Truly, the above statement could render an effect on people that are consciously attempting to become politically/economically astute and lift the mind, but the majority (some call the 85%) prove to be happy in their drunken survival mode stupor.
Surely, we of the AfroSpear and Afrosphere, have been screaming to a deaf, dumb and blind population that refuses to seek out a remedy for their ailments. This then begs the question; Who are we really screaming at? Who wants to be saved and who prefers to die where they are (because they will kill themselves one way or another?)
The Wheat is now beginning to be wrested away from the Tares, we need to recognize the Tares for who they are (Black/African people) and we are going to have to preserve the realm of the Wheat and allow the Tares to go by the wayside. There will be no saving of those that wish not to be saved. This is how I see the future coming. In deed there may be a place for this “…“Black men and women who want a better world for African people must fight this ideology to the death!” In the future but, I believe it will be another name for these people other than “Black” or “African” that will be willing to pick up this particular sword.
Peace!
@ Ensayn… interesting comments! I absolutely agree with your sentiments!
This thread is entitled “Give Conservatism a Chance”. I have outlined a few reasons why no one serious about the empowerment and liberation of African People should give conservatism a second thought. The reaction to my post has been to harp on the “phrase fighting to the death”. Heaven forbid that I be painted as a Psuedo Revolutionary. So let me clarify so that we can return to the heart of the matter. As long as you are Black and breathing those brainwashed by conservative ideology will work to stop you from living. So you may as well resist until you can no longer struggle against them.
This statement also applies to impractical psuedo philosophers such as a Ayn Rand.
Let me be clear. I am saying just because a person is Black or African, does not mean they want to be liberated, which begins in the mind. I don’t believe we can continue to look and say “our community” any longer. Some people do not want the medicine, though they may say they do.
Peace
I find it interesting that we are getting caught up in Sayeed2k’s semantics. The way I read his statement re. “battling to the death”, is maintaining a deep, persistent commitment against an enemy that has always used violence to silence truth. And being willing to stay the course in spite of.
(As an aside, we need to check out the “violence” being done to truth in this Wikileaks matter and meditate on that for a bit…They will pursue the “truth tellers” all over the globe in order to silence them…what do you think they’ll do to us? We already know….but I digress)
If we are doing our job correctly, we will, of necessity, place ourselves in some jeopardy. Does that mean we are placing our head on the chopping block cavalierly? No. But, “the price of freedom is death!” Our ancestors who fought the good fight (without shedding no blood) got took out for THAT!
Their work caused someone to do them in. I heard Sayeed2k simply saying “carry on, soldiers.”
Sayeed2k’s comments were a sober reminder that this work is dangerous; I didn’t read it as “let’s play hopscotch on a ledge/let’s be reckless/let’s pour gasoline over our heads and sit in the middle of an intersection with a a match.”
I’ll say this and shut up: one reason I KNOW that Jesse and Al are phonies, is because they stay within a paradigm that does not threaten the status quo. If they did, they wouldn’t be here.
If we are nibbling at the status quo, without trying to fundamentally change it – we ain’t got nothin’ to worry about.
“I find it interesting that we are getting caught up in Sayeed2k’s semantics.”
Well you asked: “Asa, do you not think Sayeed2k’s stance is real? After all, death is what all of these politicos have in store for us.”
If you didn’t want the conversation to get caught up in semantics, then you shouldn’t have asked me that question. You should know by now after all these years that I have a big mouth and like to “blah, blah, blah”! lol!
We all read into statements and are affected differently, so how you read into Sayeed2k’s statement is relevant to you. If you notice, my inital response began with a laugh: (lol!). I wasn’t taking his statement literally as much as I was injecting some humor. However, if you feel that Sayeed2k’s stance is “real” and then ask my opinion on that, then you have my reply above… “semantics” not withstanding.
Now I’ll shut up too… unless you ask me another question [;o)
For me, you, meaning what Sayeed2K, Asabagna and Freeslave wrote are the true heart of our matter. Yes, the topic was “Give Conservatism a Chance”, but that debate is for someone else. For those that still live on that plane. Your comments sparked more mental motion than the remote possibility of considering conservatism in the form intended by the author of the post. Surely, what you brothers had to say was much more to the true point. LOL..Now I will shut up on this one!
Peace!
@Ensayn… once again, you truly get it!
Of-course, I now have to take the conversation to a whole different route. Raiders vs. Chargers on Sunday! GO RAIDERS!!!!
“As long as you are Black and breathing those brainwashed by conservative ideology will work to stop you from living. So you may as well resist until you can no longer struggle against them.”
Sayeed2k
THAT’S what I’m talkin’ bout!!
@ Asa, I hope I will get that game way on down south here! My Charger fam is hitting me up now!
@Freeslave, Black and breathing…no doubt!
Peace bredren!
This thread grows out of the false notion that both the white left and the white right are equally bad and equally good.
So a purported anti-racist like Tim Wise is construed to be just as problematic as a conservative like Glenn Beck. Such an approach leads to false conclusions. Had Black people taken this approach in the past, we would have said John Kennedy with all of his contradictions was just as monstrous as George Wallace. We would have concluded that the abolitionist were just as evil as those who wanted to keep us in chains.
Sayeed2k: “This thread grows out of the false notion that both the white left and the white right are equally bad and equally good.”
Where did you get that impression?