Black Republicans defend their right ‘to be’

BARBARA HOWARD
GUEST COLUMNIST

I am one of the thousands of Black Republicans who find themselves at odds with 95 percent of the rest of the Black community who are Democrats.  Ten years ago I wrote a poem entitled, “Why Do You Call Me Names.” One would think in the most advanced nation in the world in the year 2012, that poem would not be applicable with today’s Black intelligentsia.

But alas, the opposite is the case.  Let’s talk about how one would think how fantastic it is that a Black woman in Utah would not only be elected mayor of a city there, but also could just possibly be Utah’s next congressional representative.  Then let’s have her become one of the speaker’s at the 2012 Republican National Convention.

No one’s talking
Since we are still talking about several firsts in this one woman, one would think that several if not all of the Black media would be celebrating as they normally do for these kinds of firsts. But alas again, the only Black press I see about Mia Love is a put-down – negative and demeaning.  Par for the course from Black liberals about Black conservatives.

But we press on, in spite of the negativity, the cursing, the name calling, even the physical and verbal assaults.  All because we exercised our right to vote – a hard fought right, dripped in the blood of innocents.

What our liberal brothers and sisters seem to forget is that heroes died for our right to vote – not for our right to vote for the Democratic Party – the very party which prevented us from voting in the first place.

Love’s story
Mia Love is a beautiful Black woman of Haitian immigrant parentage.  Born in Brooklyn and raised in Connecticut as a Catholic, Love fell in love with a Mormon on a mission, married him and moved to Utah. A working mother of three, Love later became a Mormon. Evidently she paid no attention to the rumors of racism in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

She later was elected mayor in Saratoga Springs, Utah – a town of 18,000 in a state with less than one percent African-Americans.  Seems she ignored some other racist rumors – which means that White Republican Mormons (those so-called racists, according to Democrats) elected Mia Love to run their town.

Now it seems they will elect her to help run their state. So it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see why she endorsed and is campaigning hard for Mitt Romney.  She has successfully ignored all the naysayers up to now; why not continue?

This is what more and more Black Republicans are doing – ignoring those horrible, evil, nasty names Blacks are calling us and voting our values, our consciences and our faith.

Nothing’s good enough
Michael Eric Dyson once asked me on his radio show, “Why should Blacks join the Republican Party?” Of course, he wasn’t satisfied with my answer and commented that I never even answered the question. So regardless of what reasons or answers we Black Republicans give, nothing is quite good enough for those who consider us as “traitors to our race” and other pejoratives you can’t even print.

But finally, more and more Black Republicans are “coming out” and standing tall for our right to be. Nobody tells us which party we must belong to or for whom we must vote.

In fact, we find it very confusing that people, especially the Black bourgeoisie who claim Christianity as their life map, can serve a political party that conveniently has moved so far away from moral principles that they take God out of every aspect of their politics.

Yet they want to disparage us as traitors.  What audacity.  What hypocrisy.  What arrogance. Meanwhile, warriors like Mia Love fight daily for family, faith and country.

God bless Mia Love.  Her speech at the RNC was exhilarating. Her courage is contagious – a beautiful Black Christian Republican woman, wife, mother and mayor.  We shall soon call her Congresswoman from the White state of Utah.

So haters, hate on.  You never know when you entertain angels.

Barbara Howard is trade and travel goodwill ambassador to Kenya and Florida state chair of the Congress of Racial Equality. Contact her at bhoward11@bellsouth.net.