Q&A Friday #10: How Do You Convince People That Republicans Aren’t Racists?

28 Jan, 2005 by John Hawkins

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Question: “As a conservative, Christian, female college student in the teacher ed program, I’m in need of advice on how to argue the stereotype of Republicans as racist. What ammo can you give me so that I don’t go insane trying to slog through my liberal indoctrination?” — BoilerFox04

Answer: Well, there are of course racist Republicans out there (just like there are racist Democrats), but they are a tiny minority of people in the Party. Unfortunately, convincing people of this is always difficult because, sadly, most people have been bombarded by Democratic propaganda for so long that their minds are made up and nothing you say is going to turn them around. But, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still make the effort.

Now there are historical things you can bring up (Lincoln freed the slaves, a larger % of Republicans than Democrats voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964, The Dixiexcrats, George Wallace, & Bull Connor were all Democrats, not Republicans, etc, etc) but most people are more interested in what’s happening today than what happened in the past.

And the reality is that the GOP simply doesn’t match up to the racist stereotype that the Democrats have so successfully managed to propagate….and that’s really pretty obvious. Think about it, if Republicans are closet KKK members who hate black people and think they’re inferior, how can it be that the only black justice on the Supreme Court was appointed by a Republican President? How is it that the first black Secretary of State and first black woman ever to be the Secretary of State were appointed by a Republican? Why does Rush Limbaugh, the most popular conservative radio host in America, have a black man, Walter Williams, as one of his fill-in hosts? Why in the world would he do that if his audience is filled with bigots? Moreover, how can it be that the right side of the blogosphere voted Condi Rice as their preferred candidate for President in 2008? I mean, would you want someone running the country you viewed as “inferior”? Of course not!

That being said, Democrats do have more black representatives in Congress than the GOP does, but that’s only because percentage wise, there are so few black Republicans out there (although the Democrats have a terribly unimpressive record in this area when you consider the miniscule numbers of black Dems who get elected in majority white, liberal districts). I’d also add that some people claim Republicans are racist because they don’t support programs like Affirmative Action and reparations. But to call someone a racist because they believe government should be colorblind and oppose discrimination based on race is positively Orwellian.

Hope the ammo provided helps, although again, let me warn you that I’ve found that it doesn’t matter how much rhetorical firepower you have if you’re going up against someone who has a closed mind on a particular subject…