I'll bite.
Ed Brown has been jabbing me in the ribs every week about why the Black Right hasn't defended Earl Graves when he did right, or why the Black Right didn't defend Kwesi Mfume when he did right. I don't have specific answers to that, just a general one. Black Conservatives don't play the 'Positive Black Images Game'.
Taken from here.
This isn't exactly right. I don't play that game. And while I'm old school, and I am black, and I believe in conserving the best of black life and culture, I'm no black conservative.
Furthermore, though I don't recall the last time Dr. Rice played that game, there are an entire host of black conservatives who do play that game. Many black conservatives, like black nationalists, black feminists, and black radicals, are interested in recruiting more adherents. A project that requires marketing...and marketing requires images of some sort (in mass recruiting efforts anyway).
Now I think it IS accurate to say that Cobb--like me--doesn't give a whit about positive images. Keep that sh*t. We are both interested in putting forth the best face of what it means to be black, but it isn't about having someone look at that and say WOW--unless that someone has my last name and calls me "Dad." Or pays me to speak or write.
Now in as much as conservatism focuses on individual initiative you'd THINK that black conservatives would be the first ones to opt out.
"You hear what happened to Artest in Detroit?"
"Umm yeah. I follow basketball."
"Gives black Americans a black eye don't you think?"
"I don't know that fool. What's he got to do with me?"
Or
"You hear what Jesse said about protesting Skippy Peanut Butter? Turns out they aren't recruiting enough black people."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. What do you think about that?"
"I don't know that fool. And I eat Jif. I'm a choosy mom. Ask me about what I think about black people again, and I'ma slap you in the mouth."
Now I weigh in on these questions because this is what i do for a LIVING. I write on these issues. I teach on these issues. I speak on these issues. I research these issues.
But to the degree that black conservative pundits consistently address racial issues above almost ANYTHING ELSE (check out Jelani's piece in Africana.com where he takes on McWhorter) they've fallen victim to the trick bag they claim they're trying to get out of. If race doesn't matter, why the hell do they talk about it so much?
Now here I'm not talking about the black conservative blogging community. Avery's all up in hip-hop like it was one of his lungs. Nykola and Avery both have written reams about Christianity. They've got a whole lot more to talk about outside of race and racial issues.
But it definitely seems like most of the black conservative pundits--Armstrong Williams, Shelby Steele, John McWhorter (I know Booker, he voted for Kerry...and for Nader before that)--write an awful lot about race for it not to matter.
How to get out of the trickbag? The solution to this is pretty easy. Stop letting fools like Elders, Steele, McWhorter, and Williams speak for you. Cobb is right. The "liberals" won the game. Stop playing. Get back to work.