Last week yet another race-related uprising wounded a US city, and President Obama’s promise of a “post-racial America” is a distant memory.  Who is to blame?

“So when I hear that Baltimore has been run by the Democrats for the last 50 years,  I don’t hear a ‘diss’ on the Democrats.   I hear: ‘Republicans have SUCKED for the last 40 to 50 years!’  We can all agree that the progressive ideology is destroying America.   It breeds death, destruction, and poverty.  How bad do Republicans have to be to LOSE to death, destruction, and poverty!?”

Sonnie Johnson – hip, young, black, and female – just smacked her fellow conservatives upside the head.  Her talk at the RightOnline digital media conference last weekend was a wake-up call, to say the least.  The Bloggers,Tweeters, Facebookers, and other new-media writers and thinkers who attended got a blistering, take-no-prisoners, Breitbart-style tongue-lashing, the effects of which will not wear off for some time.

Republicans and conservatives seem to have given up the African-American community as a lost cause.  In the face of media reporting of near-monolithic black support of liberal Democrats, it seems that right-wing political leaders don’t believe they have a chance to win black voters.

“For years I have been trying to tell Republicans and conservatives that there is a real anger brewing in the black community . . . way before Baltimore, way before Ferguson.  If we don’t do something our cities are going to be set on fire . . . and there is no excuse for burning down your own city.  There is no damn excuse!”

Like many conservatives, I have never understood identity politics.  Voting for somebody because of skin color makes no more sense to me than voting for somebody because they are right-handed.  But then I was not born into a culture that had been perennially subjugated, lied to, and used.

“Is the black community perfect?  No!  But I still live there.  It is still worth fighting for.  I see black people and I love them.  I love being black.  I love black people.  I love black culture.  I love hip hop.  I love fried chicken, watermelon and sweet tea!  I can go from zero to ghetto in a heartbeat!  But I can also point to the intellectual need to destroy the progressive ideology in America.    What better place to start than the wasteland that we have ignored for decades?”

What we don’t understand, we can sometimes still accept.  In the Obama era, African-Americans have endured higher unemployment, deeper poverty, poorer education, and little of the “hope and change” that was promised them.   Still, Republicans don’t often publicly challenge black support for the liberal ideology that has failed them.  Sonnie Johnson has given up on some of them, too.

“We can’t, nor would I want to, reach the people who want to “Kill Whitey”.  To reach the people who WANT to live in section 8 housing – who WANT to collect food stamps – who WANT to be dependent on the government for everything – these people are perfectly fit to be Democrats!  And the Democrat party can have them! “

Conservatives recognize and celebrate the common aspirations and values of all Americans, regardless of skin color. Surely African-Americans want the same quality of life and opportunities for their families that all other Americans do.

“There is a section of black America that has a ‘get up, get out, and get something’ attitude . . . they wear hoodies – they dress in all black – they walk with a swag in their step – they are not “thugs” just because they are in tune with their culture – they are the black conservatives you have been looking for, but refuse to see!”

Democrats have long taken the voting loyalty of African-Americans for granted.  Can Republicans and conservatives ever expect to turn that ship around?

“This is about more than just gaining new voters – it’s about losing the black conservatives we have.  It’s the government’s responsibility to provide housing, jobs and food?  And the citizens are told not to think for themselves but to blame the color of their skin and accept the shitty hand that has been dealt to them?   For 50 years Republicans have allowed that ideology to grow and fester.  Democrats want to be the party of the poor.  In order for that to happen they have to keep you POOR!”

“So when you hear black people screaming to be heard, it’s because they know the people who govern them are not listening. They want American government to fail because they HATE what progressives have done to them.  Where is the conservative solution?” 

Who is to blame?  Everybody, according to Sonnie.  Several days after her passionate speech, and having had time to think about the stir it caused among her conservative audience, she told me, “I wanted to tell the black community:  ‘The same people that set your trap, designed your circumstance, let your cities burn…now want you to protest for $15 an hour to flip burgers for a lifetime, and [protest about] global warming, and LGBT rights and equality.  That’s more hope and change that you will never see.”  But she takes square aim at conservatives, too.  “ I think the black community is waking up, but there is no safe place on the right for them to ease into conservatism.   Saying to them ‘we’ll accept you, you just have to change everything about yourself and your culture’ isn’t really inviting.  If there were more people that focused on themselves instead of society as a whole, society would be better for it.”

African-American conservatives are ready to leave behind the failed liberal policies of the last 50 years.  All they need is leadership.  They have that in Sonnie Johnson.

This post can be seen in its entirety at Watchdog Arena.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

I’ll shine up my old brown shoes.
I’ll put on a brand new shirt
I’ll get home early from work
If you say that you love me.

I Want You To Want Me – Cheap Trick