I have been blogging here for about five years although it doesn't quite seem that long. But it has been long enough for my thinking to evolve on several fronts. Given the great blessing of Socratic dialog and the wit and candor of Cobb readers and commenters, I have grown a great deal more knowledgable, robust and realistic about a good number of things, especially politics.
Part of the charter of Cobb has been to promote black Republicanism as an empowering choice for African American citizens. I've set a number of goals that are perhaps unrealistic for any blogger to set, but I have definitely seen my influence increase. When I was running my own business, I had time to be involved in local politics and sought to assist in state congressional races, but those fortunes have changed. I assumed that there would be a significantly wide consensus among African Americans on the right, but I found greater diversity than I ever expected. I thought the term 'black Republican' would be a good idea, I have since abandoned the term.
The Old School Core Values were started as a way to personify where I was coming from. I think it was very important as a writer for me to exemplify as well as to bloviate. I specifically didn't want to appear to be a clinical sort of think tank personality, instead I wanted my readership to recognize me as a type of black person they have always known. To that end I considered the best of the values my family passed on to me and wrote them up. When I reviewed them, I was satisfied that they were conservative in the way people generally interpret many African Americans to be 'naturally conservative'. The values themselves were widely accepted by many as reasonably representative of those virtues key to American success and became the gating factor of those inducted into the Conservative Brotherhood which I began soon thereafter. Some definitional issues with the value of 'pluralism' raised internal controversy in the Brotherhood and prompted two members to leave, among other reasons. Other than that, there has been little debate over their applicability or substance.
What has caused a great deal of controversy is 'ownership of black'.
Implicit in the expression of these values, and of Republican partisanship, is that this is the best way for blackfolks to go.
As an aside, I have used the term 'blackfolks' and 'whitefolks' for about ten years now and I think it's about time to abandon the terms. They originated out of my anti-racist activism and for a number of reasons that would complicate this particular essay, I think they hove outlived their usefulness.
So as an activist for Old School Conservatism, I was asserting a modified Talented Tenth privilege which arrogates the right to decide what is best for black people. But I wanted to do more than that, which was to wrest control of the very term of 'black' from those cultural producers who I think have distorted American perception of what African American culture actually is. Specifically among them, rap and hiphop as it explicitly vulgarizes and ignores those values and virtues of not only the Old School but of common decency. Indeed I would seek to do the same thing in black politics as well.
In the political realm, the targets were also easy, but defining the burden was not. Nor was tracing the provenance of the Old School itself. For all of us are black, originating out of the various movements associated with black nationalism. I myself claim black cultural nationalism as a great inspiration. But there were certain aspects of black nationalism, specifically it's economic agenda, which came in direct conflict with conservative values. It should go without saying that I believe communist and socialist political agendas and economic theories have no place in the Old School. It is from that perspective that great conflict was afoot in any discussions of African American progress, for many Progressive and nationalist partisans are deeply invested in programs of the Welfare State. If there was a primary aim of Old School activism, it would be to take some advantage of the grounding identity politics of black cultural nationalism and reform its economic outlook towards global capitalism.
But perhaps equally if not more important was to counter black separatist nationalism. It is an axiom of the Old School that we are patriotic. It acknowledges that we have a choice of loyalties and we choose to be loyal to America, that our fate is uniquely bound to the fate of the nation and that we would be leading participants in American life. This owes to the moral imperatives of fighting for civil liberty, lessons we have taught the world in our successful struggle. But I've always seen black nationalism in all of its forms as desirous of greater goals than civil liberty and equality under the law - this was its great energy and why it continues to inspire political activism latent in most African Americans long after its actual demise.
If I could capture the strengths of the African American family from before the Civil Rights Movement, of those men and women who fought for freedom in WW2, the spirit of my grandparents who survived the Great Depression, and combined it with the supreme determination and the aspect of 'bogarding' in the spirit of blacks in my generation as we triumphed in ways nobody expected, then I would have something truly extraordinary. This is the essence of the Old School quest. To define and reify the best of what we have been over three generations.
It has been extraordinarily difficult to say the least. It is a great task I have taken upon myself and I'm willing to admit that I may not be the best man for the job. Along with Joseph C. Phillips and other members of the Brotherhood, we have made a dent in the public consciousness, but we still seem odd out of the bunch, exceptional and not expected. And still we must fight over the existentials of blackness and the political pitch and moment of the day.
I expect that I will continue this effort for the rest of my life. I am convinced that what I have learned from my parents and grandparents examples and from parallels I see in the lives of other emergent families is key and core to success in American life. I have had confirmations from too many directions for this to be a fluke.
These days at Cobb, and since I have posted The New Black Burden of Proof, I have taken to a counter-attack mode. Which is instead of leading from the front a more difficult position to defend, but they are arguments I find must be expressed for a fuller understanding of the evolution I propose. And from this position I have turned to fight the implications and influence of all black identity politics. This includes my own presumptions in assuming a Talented Tenth position. I am submerging all politics of the Welfare State and all entreaties to racial politics under the waters of market economics, and I am defying all political partisans to demonstrate that they provide any infrastructure for progress which cannot be better accomplished by individual initiative in America. I calling into question the very basis of black political activism with regard to its efficacy in delivering any material benefits to its narrowly defined target market. I do so comfortably as a Christian, as a moderate Conservative Republican, as things other than the exemplar of blackness so unarguably appropriate to my humble beginnings as a person. In other words, I don't forget where I come from, I question the very terms of my upbringing to the extent they lead to a racialist identity politics and the arrogance implied by America's ill focus on 'black leaders'. I say it is an undemocratic calamity we have brought on ourselves despite the promise that the Old School holds.
All of this is about approach. None of it is about questioning the ends of sustaining the nation. I believe all proper Americans want what's right for those we presume to assist. If black nationalists of any stripe were infrastructurally capable and successful, there would be no reason to speak up. But instead, I believe black partisans have racialized the public sphere and reinscribed racial identity in collaboration with multiculturalists to the detriment of all concerned. They have not engaged a multiracial anti-racist coalition, but instead have become a hit squad for slights against blacks only... I wont belabor the point.
I'm not unaware of how all of this counter-attacking makes me into a crab of sorts. But I expect the tack to serve its purpose and then I'll move on to the next thing. When? I dunno.
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