I can't remember what year it was when Jack Kemp first started talking about Enterprise Zones, but it was probably about 20 years ago. Plenty of business minded blackfolks took notice. Here was a Republican meeting with black folks and talking about community reinvestment. It seemed completely out of character for the GOP, and yet there he was, talking the talk and walking the walk.
It was around 1982 when I started paying attention to Thomas Sowell and black conservatives. I can remember a lot said about a cat named Clarence Pendleton. It was a big deal back then. I remember the article in Harper's Magazine that started the career of Shelby Steele. I can remember Randall Kennedy's publication 'Reconstruction' at Harvard Law - I still have some issues of that in my library. So by the time Kemp came around, Then of course there was Alan Keyes. I can remember scratching my head about him, as well as about Condi Rice when she first spoke at the GOP convention. But over the years there have been many milestones which America have marked along the axis of black politics and the Republican Party. The refrain has been constant, very much like that associated with racism in America: There's been progress, but we still have a long way to go.
Black America remains hungry. I recall the joke response to the age old question: "What do you people want". The answer is "anything worth having", implicitly, anything we perceive whitefolks as having that we don't have. And so the ambition grows and the edgy dissatisfaction remains - this time at Morgan State.
This time, in contrast to the photo-op at somebody's church, Republican candidates showed up for a debate. Historians may have me beat on this score, but I'm not sure how many times this has happened in the past. I tend to recall very specifically when Christy Todd Whitman ran for the governorship of New Jersey, a certain GOP strategist got in a lot of hot water for allegedly paying black ministers so they wouldn't complain when she didn't show up at their churches. It became a hot button for me. In fact, it launched my Boohabian crusade. That was just the kind of disrespect I thought to be at the root of all sorts of political evil in America.
Readers of Cobb know I wrote an open letter to Fred Thompson regarding his decision not to show. I've not received any satisfaction on that score, and I don't expect to get any. The event went strictly to the second rank candidates. Of the second rank, I like Duncan Hunter most, and I hope he becomes the next governor of California, for what it's worth. But as much as I would to have liked to see Thompson and the rest of the front runners attend, I cannot ignore the progress.
I know I will not ignore the progress because I watch lots of things the Republican Party does and I have a history of doing so. I see the good and the bad. I see the progress and the frustration. So let us mark this moderate showing with some history in mind and give one cheer for the GOP. Hip hip hooray, and better luck next time.
We all know how progress in race relations is made in America when it comes to blackfolks. Nobody is satisfied until the black man or woman completely dominates the are of endeavor, then everybody says "I told you so". Progress means nothing because people only look at history when it's convenient. Remember when Tiger first won the Masters? That's when we started taking black golfers seriously, but not a moment before. And now of course, we've forgotten all about the Charlie Siffords of the world.
The one day didn't come for Colin Powell, but one day it is inevitable that there will be a signal moment for the GOP when all of the incremental progress will make the critical mass for the critical masses. They will likely forget Kemp and those candidates who did show up at Morgan State, basically half the field. Folks will continue to talk about the Southern Strategy and continue to make up false theories about Republican Antipathy to Civil Rights. And I suppose that I'll be the one that responds, since I don't believe that blackfolks actually confront Republican bloggers on their websites.
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