Thread by @blackrepublican

Black Conservatism is similar, but, also different from other Western strains of European and American conservatism!

If Burkean conservatism is a response to the French Revolution; African or Black conservatism, emerges out of, and in response to the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

Black Conservatism is NOT White Conservatism

"Authentic black conservatism has always had the fundamental and explicit goal of opposing white supremacy."

— Kareim Oliphant

#BlackConservatives

The LARGEST long-distance, coerced migration in human history — The Atlantic slave trade is the backdrop, for the dissimilar attitudes, values, unique differences, between, Anglo conservatism, and what is referred to as African or "black conservatism".

The Atlantic slave trade: What too few textbooks told you.

Anthony Hazard

Due to the radical nature of White Supremacy, (African) or black conservatism emerges as a reaction. It is an attempt to "conserve" black life from the claws of white supremacy,

#Whitesupremacy was an essential component of the slave trade, of Jim Crow.

And, more than anything, it is black conservatism's long and tempestuous relationship with racialism, that distinguishes it from other strains of western conservatism.

As the African conservative writer Chidike Okeem emphasized in a recent interview, "When demonstrably immoral structures exist, the black conservative cannot ethically justify attempting to look for the positive aspects of such structures."

Its dissimilar history with racialism; is what nforms how black conservatism engages the nuances of state power, and its relationship with the larger culture.

As Forbes writer, and Republican historian Chris Ladd explains, “The black experience is a living reminder that government is not alone as a potential threat to personal liberty.”

“It is possible, as in the Jim Crow South, to build a government so weak that no one’s liberties can be protected.

“African Americans’ repression rose not so much from government as from the culture, ignorance and bigotry of their white neighbors.”

Michael Brendan Dougherty, another conservative writer explores this a little further in an interview he gave some years ago with “University Bookman” a conservative book-review journal.

He explains the problems associated with aspects of “colorblind” conservatism.

He writes, “Most conservatives like to think that they have principles that are color-blind: the eternal verities and such. I think this is a kind of self-flattery that excuses historical ignorance on our part.”

“Enslavement stripped Africans of their ethnicities, languages, and their religion. That means more than any one other group in this country, African-Americans are a people created by the history of our nation ...

... and its politics: commerce, slavery, the Civil War, emancipation, the civil rights movement. It is a naïveté bordering on psychosis to suggest that black politics should conform to some imagined color-blind set of principles.”

In short, black-conservatism is more than just a disposition. It’s also the network of black- institutions (like the black church) that help to capture this dissimilar history; that tell the story of how how black-institutions became a powerful, strategic weapon against racism.

While unmistakably black; black conservatism is grounded in principles so profound and applicable that any people, any community, or society facing racism or injustice could draw universal parallels from it.

it is both a disposition and a dissimilar argument birthed in chains! It is a universal cry, an answer, for any society where some people are believed to be animals, and where one's skin complexion is considered an unredeemable curse.

As one theological writer; Brad Mason (@AlsoACarpenter) , put it, "Black Conservativism has it all. It can argue conservative values and economics without the distinctly American and colonial trappings and power structures. It is truly a model for freedom and self actualization.”

When one encounters a racial, dystopian, nightmare ... and lives to tell about it —where, exactly does one go to tell this story? Where does one go for intellectual and spiritual respite?

Where does one develop a positive identity of self after centuries of being told your skin is a curse from God, after being called "nigger" and "boy" by the very democratic society you live in?

Black Conservatism answers this question by arguing, that while institutions (even race based ones) are never perfect; they can cultivate culture and save life -- they can empower people during their darkest of hours.

A Partial Introduction to Black Conservatism

“The role of the conservative is not merely to preserve old institutions; it is to uphold old moral institutions.” — Chidike Okeem

✍️ kirkcenter.org/bookman/articl…