By Ariel Worthy
Birmingham Times staff
Why don’t some in Black America like the GOP when statistically the Republican Party actually has a lot in common with the Black community?
Some, but not all, people in the black community share the same views as Republicans when it comes to same-sex marriage, abortion, and religion. According to a 2014 Pew Research poll, 51 percent of Blacks opposed same-sex marriage. Thirty-nine percent of Blacks believe that abortion should be illegal in all or most cases, and 73 percent of Blacks want members of Congress to have strong religious beliefs.
This is an election year and many have watched debates, analyzed the members of each party, and some have come to the conclusion on who they are voting for. This election’s Republican lineup has provided headlines from Donald Trump, whose no-filter comments have skewered both Democratic and Republican candidates, and Ben Carson, the black conservative, who likened Syrian refugees to rabid dogs and believes the Affordable Healthcare Act — known to many as Obamacare — is another form of slavery.
America has its work cut out for this year’s election.
Political affiliation is a strong grouping in America. Political affiliation is often a deciding factor in social realms, such as relationships with people and sometimes careers.
In 2013, a Gallup poll showed that two percent of black Americans are Republicans. Carson is not the only one in that two percent that has been making headlines. Fox News contributor Stacey Dash has had her fair share of backlash in the past year.
Black America wasted no time when Dash spoke on how she felt about programs such as BET and the NAACP Image Awards, and Black History Month.
“We have to make up our minds,” Dash said on the Fox News Channel. “Either we want to have segregation or integration. If we don’t want segregation, then we need to get rid of channels like BET and the BET Awards and the [NAACP] Image Awards, where you are only awarded if you are black. If it were the other way around we would be up in arms. It’s a double standard. Just like there shouldn’t be a Black History Month. You know, we’re Americans, period. That’s it.”
It didn’t take long for blacks to react on Facebook and Twitter, reminding her that she played on BET’s most popular sitcom, “The Game,” as a recurring cast member in Seasons 3 and 4.
So why doesn’t Black America like people such as Carson and Dash and give that two percent of Blacks who are Republican the side-eye?
If you ask some people, Black Republicans can be seen as self-hating. Historically the GOP has stood by laws some could argue have targeted minorities, and that has constantly made black people feel inferior to white people. Historically, redlining has always been considered a way of containing minorities so that they do not mix with whites.
In 1910, Baltimore mayor J. Barry Mahool, while explaining a municipal segregation law, said, “Blacks should be quarantined in isolated slums in order to reduce the incidence of civil disturbance, to prevent the spread of communicable disease into the nearby white neighborhoods, and to protect property values among the white majority.” Many of these areas today are lower class, government welfare areas that are majority black neighborhoods.
When it comes to policies, the Republican Party is fiscally conservative when it comes to addressing the myriad of economic and structural issues that black people tend to face.
Currently Flint, Mich., is going through a water crisis that could lead to irreversible brain damage in children. According to a recent New York Times article, “unborn babies and very young children are most vulnerable to the effects of lead.
“The heavy metal destroys nerve cells, including developing brain tissue. One team of researchers found in 2008 that exposure to lead might even cause criminal behavior. These effects cannot be reversed.”
The GOP has been quite mum on the crisis, and Sen. Marco Rubio even said he’d rather not go into detail about it.
“That’s not an issue that right now we’ve been focused on, and for me to give you a deeply detailed answer on what the right approach should be, other than to tell you that, in general, I believe the federal government’s role in some of these things are largely limited unless it involves a federal jurisdictional issue,” Rubio told reporters Monday while campaigning in Iowa.
“It’s a shame what’s happening in Flint, Michigan. A thing like that shouldn’t happen but, again, I don’t want to comment on that,” Trump said while campaigning in Iowa. “They’ve got a very difficult problem and I know the governor’s got a very difficult time going.”
For black people to side with such beliefs about a majority black city seems as if they have turned their backs on their own.
But Republicans disagree. They would argue they are not turning their backs on the black community, rather, they trying to have one community: The American people.
When it comes time to vote, they don’t want people to vote for someone based on their skin color or political affiliation, but rather who they think will be best for our country’s future.
