LaVar Hosting Jeopardy July 26-30 Stan Account 👁

re: this "freethinking business"...Black people aren't averse to conservatism so much as they're skeptical of *white* conservatism, which necessarily defends the current racial order, often by denying that the current racial order even is what it is.

Black conservatism has maaany strains, most which acknowledge that racism (and anti-blackness in particular) as an active if not central force in American life. put another way: black conservatism is a conservatism that isn't organized around illiteracy abt our racial history.

you can throw a rock and hit any number of Black conservative Christians or Black nationalists or capitalist true believers. That they almost all STILL end up voting for Democrats speaks to how they see the ways Republicans have organized themselves around whiteness.

it's not that hard to find, um, Cosbyite* Black capitalists out there. Every time we do an episode or story about the racial wealth gap, they pop up: "we need to own our own banks!" (*gotta come up with some other term besides "Cosbyite" given, well, you know.)

And it's worth remembering how many Black folks were clamoring for tough-on-crime policies in the 1990s, but they were also viewing the lowest points of the Crack Era from a veeeeeery different vantage point than white suburbanites who wanted tough-on-crime policies.

and that distinction is important. People say: there are lots of conservative Black Democrats that Republicans could pick off with better messaging! But think abt the distance in outlook btwn your churchy-ass auntie and, say, Candace Owens or Herman Cain.