Black conservatism
Black conservatism in the United States is characterized by a distinct political and social philosophy among African Americans that emphasizes individual self-reliance, a limited government, and traditional values. This movement has developed significantly since the Civil Rights era, particularly after the dismantling of legalized discrimination in the 1960s, which allowed for the emergence of a growing Black middle class. Black conservatives often critique programs like affirmative action, advocating instead for personal achievement and cultural shifts as means to overcome socioeconomic challenges. Prominent figures, such as economist Thomas Sowell and politician Clarence Thomas, have expressed views that challenge the notion of systemic racism as a primary cause of Black disadvantage, arguing that dependency on government assistance can hinder progress.
In recent decades, Black conservatives have gained visibility in the Republican Party, with figures like Tim Scott and Herman Cain seeking higher political office. However, this group faces criticism for allegedly catering to white conservative interests and for their opposition to affirmative action, even as they advocate for policies they believe will benefit the African American community. The ongoing debates reflect a broader conversation about race, identity, and the varying perspectives within the African American community regarding social justice and economic opportunity.
Black conservatism
SIGNIFICANCE: Black conservatives in the United States tend to oppose treating people as members of racial groups; therefore, they tend not to support programs that aim at improving the situations of disadvantaged groups by means of what they term “racial preferences,” including affirmative action. They usually place little emphasis on discrimination as a cause of minority disadvantages and maintain that individual self-help is the best way to overcome these disadvantages.
Contemporary Black conservatism in the United States is the product of two related historical developments, the elimination of legal discrimination and the rise of the Black middle class. The Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s was successful in overcoming legalized segregation and overt discrimination by law in the United States. By the end of the 1960s, laws enforcing segregation had been struck down almost everywhere in the United States, and Black people had registered to vote in large numbers. African Americans and White people who believed that racial justice could be achieved simply by the government’s ceasing to maintain unequal laws concluded that the Civil Rights movement had achieved its goal of equality between the races. Some argued that any remaining inequality would disappear as individual African Americans achieved higher levels of education and acquired attitudes consistent with upward mobility.
With the disappearance of discriminatory laws, a substantial group of well-educated, financially successful African Americans began to appear. Between 1960 and 1981, the percentage of Black people in the middle class almost tripled, from 13 percent to 38 percent of the Black population. By 2021, the percentage of Black Americans in the middle class had risen to 47 percent. In general, the higher the social and economic position of an individual, the more likely that individual is to hold conservative views on matters such as economics and the role of government in society. While many African Americans remained opposed to conservative politics, these shifts presented the possibility that more Black people in the United States could embrace conservatism. Many Black conservatives have embraced some of the same beliefs as other conservatives in the United States, including advocacy for a small government, support for Christian values, and a free market approach to the economy.
Conservative Black Intellectuals
Thomas Sowell, an economist with degrees from Harvard, Columbia, and the University of Chicago, was one of the earliest and most influential of contemporary Black conservatives. From the early 1970s onward, Sowell produced a long string of books in which he argued that liberal attempts to help Black people had simply made them dependent and led them to see themselves as victims. He argued that success is a product of a culture of achievement and that Black people could create such a culture by striving for individual self-sufficiency.
Many of Sowell’s themes were adopted by other Black academics. Glenn Loury, an economist at Harvard who later moved to Boston University, became well known in the 1980s for his opposition to affirmative action and his advocacy of Black self-help. Loury, who expressed discomfort with being labeled as a conservative, argued that many of the problems of Black people experienced in low-income neighborhoods were the result of irresponsible behavior. English professor Shelby Steele sounded many of the same notes in his books, The Content of Our Character: A New Vision of Race in America (1991) and A Dream Deferred (1998). Steele argued that many African Americans had adopted a view of themselves as victims and that they should concentrate on getting ahead by their own efforts.
The ideas set forth by Black conservatives influenced African Americans usually not considered conservative, such as sociologist William Julius Wilson. Wilson maintained that discrimination was no longer as responsible for Black disadvantage. The lack of jobs, combined with attitudes and forms of behavior created by dependency, produced the Black underclass in the inner city, according to Wilson.
Conservative Black People in Politics
Conservative Black public figures attracted a great deal of attention in the 1980s and 1990s. In 1991, President George H. W. Bush nominated Clarence Thomas, an outspoken opponent of affirmative action, to the U.S. Supreme Court. As head of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission during the administration of President Ronald Reagan, Thomas had rejected lawsuits on behalf of minority members as a group and pursued only lawsuits regarding individual acts of discrimination. Thomas’s nomination, despite charges of sexual harassment, was confirmed.
In 1991, Gary Franks of Connecticut became the first Black Republican elected to the House of Representatives since 1932. Franks always maintained a conservative position and opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1991. Although Franks was defeated in his majority-White district in 1996, most observers agreed that race was not the reason for his loss.
In the 1996 presidential primaries, Black Republican Alan Keyes sought the Republican presidential nomination. Keyes, a former U.S. State Department official with a doctorate in government from Harvard, had headed the conservative organization Citizens Against Government Waste. He had run unsuccessfully for U.S. senator from Maryland in 1988 and 1992. His presidential campaign, in which he opposed affirmative action and abortion, also failed to win him the nomination.
Ward Connerly, a former real estate investor who had been appointed by California governor Pete Wilson to the University of California Board of Regents, focused national attention on the campaign against affirmative action. Connerly led the attack on affirmative action programs in the state’s university system. He became the foremost proponent of the state’s Proposition 209, an initiative banning affirmative action in California that passed in 1997 and was later challenged in the courts.
In the 2000s, the cabinet of Republican President George W. Bush featured a number of prominent African Americans, some more conservative than others. Bush's first secretary of state was retired Army general Colin Powell, who, though a Republican, was more of a moderate. He was succeeded in that post, however, by Condoleezza Rice, who had been Bush's national security advisor and was known for pursuing an aggressive counterterrorism policy in the wake of the attacks of September 11, 2001. Bush's secretary of education, Rod Paige, garnered headlines at one point in his term by referring to the National Education Association, the nation's largest teachers' union, as "a terrorist organization."
A number of other conservative Black Republicans have sought their party's presidential nomination in the early 21st century, including Tea Party activist Herman Cain in 2012 and neurosurgeon Ben Carson in 2016. Carson went on to become secretary of housing and urban development in the administration of President Donald Trump, who was elected president in 2016.
During Trump's presidency, most Black voters in the United States continued to support the Democratic Party. Many African Americans also criticized Trump and other Republicans for their perceived hostility to the Black Lives Matter movement during the racial justice protests that followed the 2020 death of George Floyd in police custody. By September of that year, two months before the 2020 presidential election, Trump had a disapproval rating of 87 percent among Black voters.
While many Black voters took issue with the perceived insensitivity of the Republican Party toward issues of racial justice at this time, a number of Black conservatives rose to high-profile positions within Republican politics and continued to support the party. For example, with his 2016 election to the United States Senate, South Carolina Republican Tim Scott became the first African American to be elected to the U.S. Senate from a Southern state since 1881. Scott was reelected in 2022. In 2024, he sought his party's presidential nomination but withdrew from the race when it became clear that Trump was the front-runner. Additionally, Herschel Walker, a former football star and conservative activist, earned Trump's endorsement in the 2022 U.S. Senate election in Georgia, although Walker lost in a runoff election to Raphael Warnock, the state's incumbent Democratic senator, in December of that year. The 2024 election saw a shift in Black voting, particularly among Black men, with more Black voters voting for conservative candidates.
Criticisms and Defenses
Critics of Black conservatives have accused them of saying things that please White people in order to further their own careers and of turning against programs such as affirmative action after benefiting from them. They have also argued that Black conservatives fail to consider a number of issues, such as systemic racism in the justice system and other parts of U.S. society.
In response, Black conservatives and their defenders have pointed to the continuing wealth gap between Black and White Americans. They have maintained that social welfare and affirmative action programs have failed to improve the lives of Black Americans and have not closed this gap. Further, they have accused their critics of stereotyping African Americans as monolithically liberal and of demanding intellectual conformity.
Bibliography
Faryna, Stan, Brad Stetson, and Joseph G. Conti, eds. Black and Right: The New Bold Voice of Black Conservatives in America. Westport: Greenwood, 1997.
Harper, Tyler Austin. “Of Course Black Men Are Drifting Toward Trump.” The Atlantic, 1 Nov. 2024, www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/11/democrats-republicans-black-vote/680480/. Accessed 26 Nov. 2024.
Loury, Glenn C. The Anatomy of Racial Inequality. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2003.
Mystal, Elie. "The “Faces” of Black Conservatism Tell Us Everything—About the GOP." The Nation, 28 Dec. 2022, www.thenation.com/article/society/black-conservatism-gop-stars/. Accessed 26 Nov. 2024.
Newport, Frank. "Black Turnout in the 2020 Election." Gallup, 25 Sept. 2020, news.gallup.com/opinion/polling-matters/320903/black-turnout-2020-election.aspx. Accessed 26 Nov. 2024.
Ondaatje, Michael L. Black Conservative Intellectuals in Modern America. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 2010.
Steele, Shelby. A Dream Deferred: The Second Betrayal of Black Freedom in America. New York: Harper, 1999.
Sowell, Thomas. Race and Culture: A World View. New York: Basic, 1994.
Wolf, Richard. "Equality Still Elusive 50 Years after Civil Rights Act." USA Today, 1 Apr. 2014. www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/01/19/civil-rights-act-progress/4641967/#:~:text=Fifty%20years%20later%2C%20on%20the,lag%20in%20college%20graduation%20rates. Accessed 26 Nov. 2024.