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Jaguar Nation
Black Conservatives Abandoning Lott
Remarks Stir Sense of Betrayal, Frustration Among GOP's African Americans
By Darryl Fears
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 19, 2002; Page A04
J. Kenneth Blackwell is one proud Republican. He served as a housing undersecretary during the first Bush administration and ran for office under the GOP banner, winning reelection as Ohio's secretary of state in November.
Whenever he has time, he travels into "black neighborhoods and Latino barrios" to reach out to what he called "nontraditional Republicans." The outreach was going well, he said, until Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) made his remarks in praise of Strom Thurmond's 1948 Dixiecrat campaign for the presidency at the retiring South Carolina senator's 100th birthday celebration.
"This is a setback," Blackwell said. "It says to me that the hill has just gotten steeper." As for Lott himself, he said, "This is a matter of whether or not he is fit to lead, and the answer to that question to me is no, he is not."
Blackwell was mild compared to other black conservatives, many of whom have called on Lott to resign as the Senate Republican leader. What distinguishes them from other Lott critics is an acute sense of betrayal, because they have supported the Republican agenda for years against a powerful tide of black liberal opinion and borne repeated taunts and demands that they explain themselves.
"I was offended," said Armstrong Williams, who worked for Thurmond as an intern in 1979 and attended the Dec. 5 birthday celebration at which Lott spoke.
The more Williams thought about Lott's comments, he said, the angrier he got. "I thought, 'Man, you're the guy I've been getting hammered because of. You're the reason I have to keep defending myself to other African Americans.' I was shocked. I was hurt by it."
Lott's appearance Monday night on Black Entertainment Television, during which he offered one of his several apologies for his remarks, convinced Hoover Institution fellow Shelby Steele that the senator should quit as leader.
"It was sad," said Steele, a prominent black conservative who was contacted by friends of Lott for advice on how to shape an apology. "He's gotten this high up in American public life with so little self-examination around race. He's a better man morally than he was two weeks ago, but that doesn't help him politically."
Steele joined Thomas Sowell, another black conservative at the Stanford University-based Hoover Institution, in calling for Lott's resignation as Senate leader. Other prominent black conservatives who want Lott out include Harold Doley, who has worked in various capacities for at least four Republican administrations, and Deroy Murdock, a respected young opinion writer.
In a piece that appeared on the National Review Online, Murdock wrote, "If Republicans -- black and otherwise -- must spend the next two years reassuring Americans that we oppose lynching, we might as well pull white pillowcases over our heads."
Earlier this week, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell declined to defend Lott, and at a news conference yesterday, he "deplored the sentiments" of Lott's remarks in unequivocal terms.
Peter Kirsanow, a recent Bush appointee to the federal Civil Rights Commission, joined the board's three other conservatives in a statement denouncing Lott.
"The president has been the most aggressive Republican in terms of minority outreach . . . in history," Kirsanow said. "And in a span of about 15 seconds, Trent Lott has made that job extraordinarily difficult, and I don't say that lightly."
To be black and Republican can be a lonely existence. Among the nation's 9,040 black elected officials, the Joint Center for Political Studies counted only 50 from the GOP. There are more than 3,700 Democrats. The rest, said Liselle Yorke, the center's spokeswoman, were elected in nonpartisan races.
A Joint Center study conducted earlier this year showed that 71 percent of African Americans say they are Democrats while 10 percent identify themselves as Republicans.
Today, African Americans generally view the party of black abolitionist Frederick Douglass as acting against their interests in fields as diverse as criminal justice, education, welfare and employment.
In a Washington Post/ABC News poll completed Sunday, barely half of all minorities interviewed -- 52 percent -- said they thought the Republican Party was committed to equal opportunity for minorities, a view shared by only three in 10 black Americans. By contrast, three in four minorities and two-thirds of all blacks said the Democratic Party was committed to equal opportunity.
Black Republicans including Dana White, a communications specialist at the Heritage Foundation, said she had to defend herself continually against people who say: "You're African American, but you're not black. You don't know who you are."
White said she was not offended by Lott's comments and did not believe he should step down. "I think he was just saying something nice to a 100-year-old man at his birthday party."
Rep. J.C. Watts (R-Okla.), the only black conservative in Congress, on CNN suggested that Lott not try to keep his leadership post. "I can tell you that if it was me, I would not put my family nor my grandchildren nor my party through that," he said.
Williams said the success of Republican efforts to reach out to African Americans and Latinos hinges on what happens next. After one of his numerous television appearances since Lott's comments, Williams, a Republican, was greeted warmly by people who spotted him on the street -- but only because he had ripped Lott.
"I've had black people coming up to me, hugging me, shaking my hand, thanking me," he said. "But they also say, 'We've got to do something about that party.' They want to have hope that whoever's in power, they won't be espousing racist ideas."
Remarks Stir Sense of Betrayal, Frustration Among GOP's African Americans
By Darryl Fears
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 19, 2002; Page A04
J. Kenneth Blackwell is one proud Republican. He served as a housing undersecretary during the first Bush administration and ran for office under the GOP banner, winning reelection as Ohio's secretary of state in November.
Whenever he has time, he travels into "black neighborhoods and Latino barrios" to reach out to what he called "nontraditional Republicans." The outreach was going well, he said, until Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) made his remarks in praise of Strom Thurmond's 1948 Dixiecrat campaign for the presidency at the retiring South Carolina senator's 100th birthday celebration.
"This is a setback," Blackwell said. "It says to me that the hill has just gotten steeper." As for Lott himself, he said, "This is a matter of whether or not he is fit to lead, and the answer to that question to me is no, he is not."
Blackwell was mild compared to other black conservatives, many of whom have called on Lott to resign as the Senate Republican leader. What distinguishes them from other Lott critics is an acute sense of betrayal, because they have supported the Republican agenda for years against a powerful tide of black liberal opinion and borne repeated taunts and demands that they explain themselves.
"I was offended," said Armstrong Williams, who worked for Thurmond as an intern in 1979 and attended the Dec. 5 birthday celebration at which Lott spoke.
The more Williams thought about Lott's comments, he said, the angrier he got. "I thought, 'Man, you're the guy I've been getting hammered because of. You're the reason I have to keep defending myself to other African Americans.' I was shocked. I was hurt by it."
Lott's appearance Monday night on Black Entertainment Television, during which he offered one of his several apologies for his remarks, convinced Hoover Institution fellow Shelby Steele that the senator should quit as leader.
"It was sad," said Steele, a prominent black conservative who was contacted by friends of Lott for advice on how to shape an apology. "He's gotten this high up in American public life with so little self-examination around race. He's a better man morally than he was two weeks ago, but that doesn't help him politically."
Steele joined Thomas Sowell, another black conservative at the Stanford University-based Hoover Institution, in calling for Lott's resignation as Senate leader. Other prominent black conservatives who want Lott out include Harold Doley, who has worked in various capacities for at least four Republican administrations, and Deroy Murdock, a respected young opinion writer.
In a piece that appeared on the National Review Online, Murdock wrote, "If Republicans -- black and otherwise -- must spend the next two years reassuring Americans that we oppose lynching, we might as well pull white pillowcases over our heads."
Earlier this week, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell declined to defend Lott, and at a news conference yesterday, he "deplored the sentiments" of Lott's remarks in unequivocal terms.
Peter Kirsanow, a recent Bush appointee to the federal Civil Rights Commission, joined the board's three other conservatives in a statement denouncing Lott.
"The president has been the most aggressive Republican in terms of minority outreach . . . in history," Kirsanow said. "And in a span of about 15 seconds, Trent Lott has made that job extraordinarily difficult, and I don't say that lightly."
To be black and Republican can be a lonely existence. Among the nation's 9,040 black elected officials, the Joint Center for Political Studies counted only 50 from the GOP. There are more than 3,700 Democrats. The rest, said Liselle Yorke, the center's spokeswoman, were elected in nonpartisan races.
A Joint Center study conducted earlier this year showed that 71 percent of African Americans say they are Democrats while 10 percent identify themselves as Republicans.
Today, African Americans generally view the party of black abolitionist Frederick Douglass as acting against their interests in fields as diverse as criminal justice, education, welfare and employment.
In a Washington Post/ABC News poll completed Sunday, barely half of all minorities interviewed -- 52 percent -- said they thought the Republican Party was committed to equal opportunity for minorities, a view shared by only three in 10 black Americans. By contrast, three in four minorities and two-thirds of all blacks said the Democratic Party was committed to equal opportunity.
Black Republicans including Dana White, a communications specialist at the Heritage Foundation, said she had to defend herself continually against people who say: "You're African American, but you're not black. You don't know who you are."
White said she was not offended by Lott's comments and did not believe he should step down. "I think he was just saying something nice to a 100-year-old man at his birthday party."
Rep. J.C. Watts (R-Okla.), the only black conservative in Congress, on CNN suggested that Lott not try to keep his leadership post. "I can tell you that if it was me, I would not put my family nor my grandchildren nor my party through that," he said.
Williams said the success of Republican efforts to reach out to African Americans and Latinos hinges on what happens next. After one of his numerous television appearances since Lott's comments, Williams, a Republican, was greeted warmly by people who spotted him on the street -- but only because he had ripped Lott.
"I've had black people coming up to me, hugging me, shaking my hand, thanking me," he said. "But they also say, 'We've got to do something about that party.' They want to have hope that whoever's in power, they won't be espousing racist ideas."
