It was just a couple years ago that Glenn invited Americans from all across the country to join him in the nation's capital from Restoring Honor. Dana Loesch was there covering the event. While filling in for Glenn last night, she explained that she witnessed a group of "trust fund socialists"…you know, the white Angle-Saxon Protestant "hipsters" who can afford to preach about wealth redistribution, because they're busy spending their parents money. While interviewing Michael Warns and a large group of black Republicans after the event, this group of "socialists" came over and began shouting out the conservative group, saying "you should be ashamed of what you're doing to your people."
Dana also shared a story from the summer of 2009 when she was attending a town hall meeting in her home state of Missouri. As she was leaving the event, she witnessed the beating of a man named Kenneth Gladney. An African-American man who was being attacked by union members who profiled him as a black conservative for selling Gadsen flaws and pins. The thing is, the first time Dana saw Gladney was outside of an Obama event where he was selling Obama merchandise.
"He's a capitalist. What he believed was irrelevant. He was beaten in a parking lot for coming across as a black conservative," Dana said. "He never received justice, and I haven't seen him selling his wares at an event since."
And that's just two of many examples in recent history of how black conservatives are treated by the left. They're labeled traitors, frauds, and worse simply for speaking out against the growing size of the government — the very thing their ancestors fought so hard to free them from.
Last night on the Glenn Beck Program, Dana was joined by ZoNation's AlfonZo Rachel, blogger Wayne Depree, President of the Frederick Douglass Republicans K. Carl Smith, and actor & conservative commentator Joseph C. Phillips to discuss the labels and tactics the left has used to defined the black community and how conservatives can begin to win the propaganda battle.
"Everything is racist nowadays. Do you feel that the word has almost kind of lost all meaning?" Dana asked. "It seems any sort of dissent with any policy, anything, is somehow suddenly racist."
While racism obviously still exists in America and around the world, Dana's point is that, the individuals experiencing real racism in our country being marginalized because of the faux racism being painted on everything by the far left. It's shutting down the conversation of policy in struggling inner cities and painting the entire concept of conservatism as racist.
As pointed out by the guests, the truth is that most African Americans poll conservatively — they just don't vote that way. Despite the overwhelming polling data that shows the black community as pro-life and for traditional marriage, President Obama was elected with an overwhelming percentage of the black vote.
"Let’s just say what’s really going on here is that the left understands something that we on the right, the Republican Party specifically, has yet to get through its thick skull, which is that black people speak the language of race. Black people vote primarily on one issue, which is the issue of race," Phillips stated. "Since when I came into the party and was campaigning with Bush, Ken Mehlman was head of the RNC and did something very similar as to what the GOP is talking about doing now, spending a lot of money going out, trying to reach into the black community. They’re going to talk about values. They’re going to talk about all of these things. It will not work, because black people do not vote on values; they vote on race."
"They don’t vote conservatively," he added. "The only poll that matters is the one on Election Day, and let me just finish this, black people will go to church, and they will say they oppose abortion. They will say they oppose homosexual marriage, that they are for gun rights, that they are for school vouchers, etc., etc., etc. And then they will go to the voting booth, and they will put in office Democrats who will vote against all of those issues."
Another important factor playing into this is education. Real African American history isn't being taught in America's public schools. Students aren't learning who Frederick Douglass is or the events that lead up to the Civil Rights act — who was for it, who was against it.
"You know, when you look at the places that have high school dropouts, high high school dropout rates, high incarceration rates, high teen pregnancy, so on and so forth, low test scores, and all these sort of things, well, who do you think is running these communities, these things that you have this state of discontent? It’s the Democrats, and you get a chance to, you know, like one thing I’ll say about, you know, how we’re promoting this stuff in the communities, the problem is going up against groupthink," AlfonZo explained. "You know, you go into a big discussion, you know, we want to go in there, we’re going to, you know, ride in, and we’re going to talk to these people. It ain’t gonna happen, because who wants to be the first to step forward and say let’s do this? Well, they don’t want to be the Uncle Tom in the group, right?"
It's obvious what the problem is, what's the solution?
Dana pointed out that there is almost no Republican presence in the inner-cities. And because of that, no Republican outreach. However there are OFA offices and DNC outreach offices all over the cities. Because of gerrymandered districts and almost a zero possibility of winning an election, the GOP doesn't even try to have influence in these areas.
How does the GOP begin to spread some seeds in an area where it isn't welcomed?
"Innovation, it’s a party of supply and demand and commercialism. If we’re going to do these things, and we’re going to sell it, you know, then you have to figure out creative ways to say, Okay I’ve got to exercise my creativity to be able to connect with you. You know, but there’s also – I mean, and there has to be ways to, you know, I understand, it’s like they go in and say, Okay, well, you’re the evil businessman, and you must have some other agenda, and you must have some sort of ulterior motive. I understand that there’s a whole bunch of suspicions to deal with," AlfonZo said.
"Guess what, everybody’s got a cross to bear, and everybody’s got some sort of cross to bear that’s going to feel like it’s unfair, you know? Hey, it was unfair that, you know, we were slaves. But, you know, I don’t have a chip on my shoulder about that, because I think everybody around the world has experienced some sort of servitude, so, you know, let’s not, you know, carry any of that.
But there’s always going to be somebody, some faction, some organization, some race, some religion, that’s always going to have some unfair cross that they have to bear. Get over it, get your behind in there, and get into this fight."
But that's not always realistic. Joseph Phillips points out that the Republican Party isn't going to invest money in areas that cannot win. It's going to be up to organizations in the communities, in media, and people who can put boots on the ground in these neighborhoods.
Eric Lee / Stringer | Getty Images
Andrew Harnik / Staff | Getty Images
Hesham Elsherif / Stringer | Getty Images