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BLACK CONSERVATIVE

Jul 30, 2021 • 50 tweets • 23 min read • Read on X

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Black Conservatism is NOT Lily-White Conservatism

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

— Kareim Oliphant

#BlackConservatives

If Burkean conservatism is a response to the French Revolution, then African conservatism is also a response. It emerges out of, and in response to the shock of both Colonialism and The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade — the largest forced migration in history.

pbs.org/newshour/natio…

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".

@Limerick1914

“The system of racialised perpetual hereditary chattel slavery that was developed in the New World by Europeans has NO EQUIVALENT in history."

— @Limerick1914

"It is a sad truth of our history that American slavery based on race was invented in Virginia, very close to where I sit today.'

markfordelegate.com/content/newsle…

The European Colonization of
Africa 🌍

"European nations colonized Africa from the late 19th century until the middle to later 20th century. Although Europeans had had contact with many parts of Africa much longer than this (for example, through the Atlantic Slave Trade),

.. they did not impose a formal rule of law over Africa until this time period."

“NEVER in world history were slaves considered chattel due to skin tone until MODERN times.”

— Dr. David Neiman

#RacialSlavery

“Even during Hamarabi’s rule slaves were recognized as human beings, not cattle, under Hamarabi’s rule we have evidence from antiquity of slaves suing their masters and wining a judgments in court.”

-- Dr. David Neiman

Biblical Slavery vs American Slavery

“Slaves were bound to their masters, you could purchase a slave (Torah mentions this with regards to paying debts, slave is paid, must have a certain living standard) ....

.... but they were always recognized as human beings and had real recognized rights.”

— Dr. David Neiman

Historical Context: American Slavery in Comparative Perspective gilderlehrman.org/content/histor…

African Kings & Slavery

Most slaves sold by chiefs were WAR CAPTIVES (other tribesmen). (cont) tl.gd/n_1spqq8h

There was representation of slaves, freeborn and the nobility at the royal court in most African states.(cont) tl.gd/n_1sn7tuq

"Earlier coerced labor systems in the Atlantic World generally differed, in terms of scale, legal status, and racial definitions, from the trans-Atlantic chattel slavery system that developed and shaped New World societies."

#NEVERFORGET: 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,

#BlackLivesMatter

It is black conservatism's long relationship with White Supremacy, that will distinguish it, from other forms of conservatism.

As the 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."

As it engages the nuances of state power, and its relationship(s) with the larger culture, Black Conservatism can justifiably be both reactionary and conservative.

@ChrisALadd

As Forbes writer, and Republican historian @ChrisALadd 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.”

Like the Ancestral Tree in Black Panther

Black conservatism is more than just a disposition. It’s also the network of institutions (like The Back Church) that capture the dissimilar history, that tells the story, of how institutions became a powerful weapon against racism.

"Generations do not cease to be born, and we are responsible to them because we are the only witnesses they have."

-- James Baldwin

“Society is a partnership between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born.”

— Edmund Burke

While unmistakably black ...

Back 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.

@AlsoACarpenter

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…

In Defense of Black Conservatism

Dr. Kelly Miller, Radicals & Conservatives and Other Essays on the Negro in America, 1908

expo98.msu.edu/people/miller.…

"The author of the " Souls of Black Folk " is also a Harvard man, and possesses extraordinary scientific and literary talent. Few men now writing the English language can equal him in linguistic felicity. He is a man of remarkable amplitude and contrariety of qualities, an exact

... interrogator and a lucid espositor of social reality, but withal a dreamer with a fantasy of mind that verges on " the fine frenzy."

Read more: expo98.msu.edu/people/Miller.…

"I maintain that Malcolm X was, for much of his public life, a black conservative."

― Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Atlantic

The Black Conservative Connection

The Connection: Malcolm X’s father was a Garveyite, and Marcus Garvey was inspired and informed by the teachings of Booker T. Washington!

#BlackHistoryMonth

"What we should do in all our schools is to turn out fewer job seekers and more job-makers."

―Booker T Washington #tcot

Booker T. Washington to Marcus Garvey

Tuskegee Institute,

April 27, 1915
My Dear Mr. Garvey:

"I am very glad indeed that you have decided to come here and it will give us all great pleasure to make your stay as pleasant ..."

newafrikan77.wordpress.com/2018/08/18/cor…

"Rise up Black Men, and take your stand. Reach up black men and women and pull all nature’s knowledge to you. Turn ye around and make a conquest of everything North and South, East and West."

‘Look for me in the whirlwind’
🌪️🌬️🍃

unia-aclgovernment.com/marcus-garvey-…

“I have known the joys and pains of friendship. I have served and been served. I have made some good enemies for which I am not a bit sorry. I have loved unselfishly and I have fondled hatred with the red-hot tongs of Hell. That’s living.”

— Zora

“Sometimes, I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It’s beyond me.”

— Zora Neale Hurston

#racism #discrimination