A Racist E-Mail Does Not Define Us

by Kathleen McKinley | April 25, 2011 9:12 am

You may have heard about the story in California where an Orange County Republican Central Committee member Marilyn Davenport, sent to fellow Republicans an image with a “Mom and Dad” chimp with a baby chimp that had Obama’s face photoshopped as his face, along with the words, “Now you know why there is no birth certificate.”

So wrong. There are no words. It makes me sick.

My friend Claver at RagingElephants.org sent this letter to ForwardTimes.com, a black community newspaper here in Houston:

The Republican Party must deal with decades of relationship and image damage done in the eyes of the black community. The unfortunate action of Marilyn Davenport of Orange County, California can now be used to infuriate the black community, deepen the perceived stereotype that the GOP (and, Tea Party) is racist, and increase the difficulty to bring voters of color into the GOP voters base.

Why is RagingElephants.org being so critical and calling for her resignation? Because these type of insensitive actions make our job at RagingElephants.org much harder.

As a supporter of RagingElephants.org, you understand our mission to grow the conservative voting base through racial diversity. You are aware of our efforts to change the image of the GOP and make the party more attractive to conservatives of color. The Davenport scandal can now be used as propaganda against our efforts and totally infuriates us.

Davenport has apologized several times. However, anyone holding public office with a “R” behind their name – regardless of the rank of the office – that commits such a serious transgression, must be pressured to relinquish that post for the exact reason that the front-page story from the Forward Times illustrates.

Houston is our backyard. The Forward Times circulates in the district of Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee. Davenport has given the political opposition a mighty gift. She deserves no cover. All excuses must be dismissed. All transgressions of this nature must be condemned, universally!

STAMPEDE!

Apostle Claver T. Kamau-Imani
Chairman & Executive Director

It needs to be noted that GOP committee members have demanded Davenport resign as well as the Orange County Republican Central Committee chairman Scott Baug.

Many people on Claver’s site say that Bush was depicted as a monkey a great many times when he was President. This is true. A google search shows that here.[1]

Both are disrepectful of our Presidents. Both do not have a place in civil discourse, but it is worse in President Obama’s case because of the long history of racial insults to blacks, with blacks being portrayed as apes or monkeys.

The great irony is that history was perpetuated by Democrats. Below is a poster put out by Democrats in the 1860’s:

This was typical of the time, and that is just one example of many, and examples can be cited through to the 1950’s when Democrats fought against civil rights, standing in the doors of schools to keep blacks out, and ordering dogs and hosing on blacks during protests. This is history. This is no longer the Democrat party of course, but neither is it the GOP.

It is also frustrating how the media handles racial insults depending on the party. When the Majority leader of the Democrat party, Harry Reid describes how wonderful it is that candidate Obama is “light skinned” and with “no negro dialect” the media ignores how racist that was. When Bill Clinton tells Ted Kennedy during the primary fight that Obama “would have been bringing them coffee a few years ago,” the racial insult there is also dismissed by the media.

But when a low level no body on a Republican committee somewhere in California sends out a racist e-mail, then THAT somehow defines the GOP. Yet the LEADERS of the Democrat party saying prejudice things not only doesn’t define the Democratic party, it’s pretty much dismissed.

That is the double standard we live with. But that does not excuse us from always condemning racism, no matter where we find it, even if it is in our own party.

I might add that this wouldn’t have as much of an impact if the GOP did a better job of reaching out to the black community and not just giving up on them because they felt they would always vote Democrat. There is no doubt that the GOP ignored the black vote from the 70’s on. It is one of the GOP’s biggest mistakes.

My point is and always has been that there is racism and prejudice in both parties. Let’s not continue the false narrative that it is mainly in the GOP. Examples like this e-mail is overt racism, but examples like Reid and Clinton are a more hidden prejudice, that is only whispered outside the ear of the media. Which is worse? You decide.

So, I’ll take this opportunity to promote my friend, Dr. Earl Johnson’s Crispus Attucks Tea Party. [2]

Their objective:

Our primary objective is to break the cycles of dependency and decay that continue to anesthetize and hold captive too many Black families and neighborhoods. We provide continuing series of speakers, seminars, training and practical business support services designed to help Blacks fully assimilate into and be competitive in American society. Our objective is to teach all Americans the fullness of the history of Blacks in America and to help Blacks gain control of their lives and the destiny of their children. Only by understanding our full and true history will we all of America be liberated.

So, let’s continue to condemn racism wherever it exists, hidden or overt, Democrat or Republican, and as conservatives, let us reach out in an effective way, to all people of all colors who share our values and principles.