Akindele, a charter member of the Conservative Brotherhood, was one of the key individuals laser-focused on local issues from a conservative perspective. Whenever people asked me the hackneyed question 'What are Republicans doing for the black community', I would point them his way. Nothing happening in Detroit escapes his scrutiny, and so if he didn't coin the term 'urban conservative' he always embodied it to me.
There have always been, and continue to be folks who expect that black Americans are shy when they crawl over to the right, but nothing puts the lie to shyness like a good 'blacker than thou' argument. People know what they are *not*. And so with that preface, the quote of the day from 'Afroconservative' Vanessa Jean-Louis representing the Urban Conservative:
Urban America doesn’t need ideologues, urban America needs solution-oriented conservatism. Solution-oriented conservatism comes through public policy advocates and those who are invested in changing the paternalistic monopoly that’s been a part of those communities for several decades. Conservatives of all colors and ethnicities need to put our heads together to save the inner cities in America. If constituents in the inner city can globally compete through education and economic expansion, America wins. Conservatism is clearly the answer. The time for textbook talking points that do nothing to address the real issues is over.
I've always been proud to have played my small part in getting black American bloggers off on the Right foot. Clearly, this movement has legs.
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