The Lonely Plight Of The Black Republican

Corey Fields puts the demographic under the microscope:

In spite of this rarity—or, perhaps, because of it—African American Republicans are enjoying their highest profile since the Reconstruction era. This attention extends beyond the usual big names like Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, and Clarence Thomas. For instance, Mia Love—the black, Mormon, small town Utah mayor who’s running for Congress—used a prime time speaking spot to wow the audience at the Republican National Convention. Herman Cain ran a brief, high-profile campaign for the 2012 Republican Presidential nomination. And the November 2010 midterm elections saw a record number of African American Republicans running for Congress: 32 candidates made bids for office and 14 won their primaries. Only two, Allen West of Florida and Tim Scott of South Carolina, won in the general election (they became the first African American Republicans in Congress since 2003).

The most visible black supporter of Romney recently, Stacey Dash, suffered a nasty backlash:

Stacey Dash, who also has Mexican heritage, is best known for the 1995 film “Clueless” and the recent cable-TV drama “Single Ladies.” On Twitter, she was called “jigaboo,” ”traitor,” ”house nigger” and worse after posting, “Vote for Romney. The only choice for your future.” The theme of the insults: A black woman would have to be stupid, subservient or both to choose a white Republican over the first black president. Russell Simmons, the hip-hop mogul and Obama backer, called Dash’s experience “racism.”

Nsenga K. Burton agrees:

In my mind, Dash is no different from the scores of black ministers who advise blacks to vote against their interests or not to vote at all because of a specific issue, like gay marriage, as if that were going to affect their lives more than job creation or access to health care. While such pronouncements may be socially irresponsible, the ministers have the right to endorse and vote for a candidate for a particular “moral” reason, and their followers have the right to follow their lead, even if it means that they become more disenfranchised in the process. If some folks think that Dash’s endorsement of Romney is irresponsible toward blacks and women, then say that instead of calling her every racist and sexist epithet available. Inherent in this criticism of Dash is the idea that as a black woman, she should support only black or female candidates, which is also racist and sexist, not to mention self-policing.

On a related note, you can read “The Lonely Plight Of The Gay Republican” here, here and here.