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The MAGA movement is making a mockery of Black Republicans.
At an occasion for Black conservatives in South Carolina final weekend, Trump gave a broadly publicized speech during which he claimed that Black people like him now as a result of they see his a number of legal indictments and mug shot as akin to the discrimination Black folks face within the authorized system. Aside from the very bizarre racism of these remarks, they caught my curiosity for an additional purpose: the way in which they undermine long-standing tenets of many Black conservatives’ ideology.
I might argue Black conservatism is outlined by adherence to any or all the following:
- Black conservatives like writer Shelby Steele have denounced the so-called sufferer mentality amongst Black people, particularly reprimanding them for not taking private accountability on the subject of private outcomes.
- Black conservatives (like Invoice Cosby) are fixated on what they see as self-importance on the subject of vogue, specifically Black folks’s alleged obsession with sneakers. As you might bear in mind, Cosby’s infamous “Pound Cake” speech — an ideal distillation of the Black conservative psyche — scolded Black dad and mom for purportedly shopping for their kids “$500 sneakers” moderately than “Hooked on Phonics.”
- And Black conservatives are inclined to emphasize philanthropy, rather than government interventions, as a way for Black group uplift.
It’s been considerably comical to see the MAGA motion decimate these speaking factors.
Trump, for instance, leaned into the sufferer mentality stuff along with his declare that Black persons are flocking to him as a result of they like his mug shot and relate to the alleged “discrimination” in opposition to him by regulation enforcement.
That MAGA fanatics assume Trump’s overpriced gold sneakers will help him win Black voters implies these voters are materialistic rubes who will be seduced with shiny, overpriced sneakers. The Trump marketing campaign is solely leaning into the gaudy consumerism that many Black conservatives declare to reject.
Black conservatives through the years have emphasised non-public giving over authorities “handouts” as a way to assist Black folks. But the MAGA motion continues to wage a authorized conflict that threatens to make that form of giving harder. The Stephen Miller-backed affirmative motion lawsuit in opposition to a company generally known as the “Fearless Fund,” which has given grants to companies majority-owned by Black girls, is a direct shot at the philanthropic investment that Black Republicans want to authorities packages.
This has been the backdrop in opposition to which I’ve watched Black conservatives fall over themselves while attempting to downplay Trump’s racist remarks. Their desperation is comprehensible: With every passing day, Trump and the MAGA motion are discarding every of the ideas Black Republicans have cited as the idea for his or her allegiance to the GOP.
And if you strip away these ideas, all that’s left is Trump’s cult of character.
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