As an African American woman growing up, my family has always been registered Democrats voting blue during presidential races. During mayoral elections, my family never failed to cast their vote in order to elect officials that would represent our district, Washington, D.C, the best.
In 2016, I was finally able to register to vote at the age of 18 and, like my family, I decided to register as a Democrat. During the elections that year, I voted for the Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton. That year I became heavily involved with politics and looking at different commentaries on each side, conservative and liberal. While reading and watching political material I noticed that I have ideals from the conservative party, but support progressive policies more often. Instead of supporting Hillary Clinton, I was a Bernie Sanders supporter just like I was this past election — though I don’t support some of his policies.
Like conservatives, I support lower taxation, limited government, and individual liberty which to me are citizen’s rights that we are afforded under the amendments. Though some people are conservative with policies, I will never link myself to a party that fails to hold individuals accountable when needed. As a Black woman looking at Black conservatives, those that are posters of Black conservatism such as Candace Owens have done a distaste to it.
Candace Owens is an African American conservative commentator and YouTuber that gives commentary on different news outlets such as Fox News and MSNBC. She has become the poster child of Black conservatives and is praised by many for her conservative ideals that she broadcasts on her Twitter account. She is known for speaking against illegal immigration, the Black Lives Matter organization, Black issues, and more.
Brandon Tatum and Jesse Lee Peterson are both African American conservatives that hold prominent roles within the conservative party. Peterson has his own podcast and show that is posted on YouTube that he hosts talking to multiple people in different parties. Tatum is a commentator and former police officer with his own YouTube channel as well. Like Owens, Peterson and Tatum, are known for speaking against the Black Lives Matter organization, Black activists, racism, illegal immigration, and more.
Candace Owens, Brandon Tatum, and Jesse Lee Peterson are the reasons why I will never consider myself a Black conservative. All three of them have made disgusting statements about African Americans and other races. I understand when people say the Black community has an abundance of issues other than police brutality such as poverty, gun violence, drugs and more. When distinguishing crimes, like when a Black person kills or assaults another Black person the person that commits the crimes will be brought up upon charges, rightfully so. It seems when a cop commits an act of crime due to the victim not showing a threat their badge can protect them from being held accountable. During conversations about police brutality, I am not saying all cops are bad or the police should be abolished because that is nonsense to me. There does need to be accountability taken place and fairness within the system which these three are heavily against.
To add on, these three have denounced certain crimes against African Americans that were even caught on camera. Such as Ahmaud Arbery, an African American male that was killed while jogging by a father and son due to their belief he robbed a house under construction. Owens said that Arbery was “not just a jogger” because she believes he really tried to burglarize the home. Tatum doesn’t agree with the system for arresting Arbery’s killers while Peterson made a mockery of Arbery and constantly brought up his past ordeals with the police.
Like Arbery’s case, Owens and Tatum still believe that the three men in the Central Park Five case are guilty though evidence and corruption have proven they aren’t. Apart from that all of them have said statements believing that racism doesn’t exist and does not affect the black community. Though Owens and Peterson have called others racist multiple times.
To me, these three “conservatives” only make statements and denounce situations just for the shock value and to cater to their white audience. They are reasons as to why many African Americans including myself distance away from the conservative party or reflect conservatism differently. A true Black conservative is people like Sonnie Johnson, a talk show host and activist that talks about issues in the Black community, but never discounts racism. She discusses uplifting the Black community and ways in which we can be helped and become a prospering race. She herself has denounced Candace Owens for her viewpoints and non-conservative ideas.
To be clear I am not judging all conservatives or Black conservatives on the basis of these three conservatives. I have issues with Democrats and those who see them as our sole saviors though they have proven multiple times they are not and saviors is not a complex we need. I would just like a better representation of Black conservatives that talk about the Black community flourishing like Sonnie Johnson.