<div dir="ltr"><h2 class="" id="header-title">Elbert Guillory: GOP Language On Race Shapes How Minorities See the Party
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Elbert Guillory: GOP Language On Race Shapes How Minorities See the Party </p>
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<p>A recent <a href="http://www.policymic.com/articles/49705/black-senator-elbert-guillory-switches-from-democrat-to-republican-and-it-makes-perfect-sense">article</a> by <em>PolicyMic</em>
pundit John Giokaris, applauding a black lawmaker for switching from
the Democratic to the Republican Party, highlights a major problem in
American political discourse. Namely, the language around race and
political affiliation in the country is damaging and divisive and a
large part of the reason that minority voters tend to swing Democratic.
The tone of Giokaris' article, in fact its very existence, is
illustrative of the power of language and how Republican language
regarding minorities drives them from the party.</p>
<p>The way conservatives react whenever a person of color “comes out of the closet” (the author’s usage from the <em>PolicyMic</em>
article) and publicly espouses conservative values conveys a
questioning of the mental capacities of minorities. “It makes perfect
sense,” the author says, for minorities to support conservative policies
and politicians because liberal and Democratic administrations and
policies have caused so much damage to minority communities. The author
cites statistics that show how poorly African Americans and other
minorities have fared under Democrats and how well they have done under
Republicans to prove his point.</p>
<p>While the statistics may show evidence that support the author’s
claims for why minorities should support conservatives, the raucous
celebration of every black conservative who publicly supports the GOP
has the unintentional effect of raising questions in the minds of
rank-and-file conservatives about minorities' ability to make rational
decisions regarding their welfare. The unspoken questions here are,
“What’s wrong with the rest of you?” and “Can’t you people muster enough
brains to make a rational decision to benefit yourselves?” These
questions do not go unnoticed by minorities who have a deep cultural
memory regarding oppression and abuses of power. Such questions stoke
the flames of those memories.</p>
<p>Much has also been made about the penchant for black conservatives to use “<a href="http://www.policymic.com/articles/49085/minorities-vote-blue-because-they-re-being-paid-off-says-conservative-minority-outreach-panelist">slave imagery</a>”
in describing why minorities trend toward Democrats. Terms like “being
chained” to the party or being “brainwashed” are tossed around with
reckless abandon while the white majority of the party generally looks
on with nary a frown to show disapproval of the language. Such implicit
approval of the language used by black conservatives, language that
represents and perpetuates centuries of oppression, further cements in
the minds of minorities that they are not welcome within the ranks of
the party.</p>
<p>In short, the language that the GOP uses in reference to minorities
has shaped the way that minorities view the party. No matter how much
their policies may benefit minorities, until the GOP can act as if
minorities are capable of making good decisions regarding their own
welfare (and acting accordingly), and until the party can begin to treat
minorities who also happen to be conservatives as they do any other
member of the party, they will continue to lose the minority vote.</p>
<p><em>A version of this article was originally published at <a target="_blank" href="http://www.connectingthegarden.blogspot.com/">Living Connections.</a></em></p> </div><a href="http://www.policymic.com/articles/50039/elbert-guillory-gop-language-on-race-shapes-how-minorities-see-the-party">http://www.policymic.com/articles/50039/elbert-guillory-gop-language-on-race-shapes-how-minorities-see-the-party</a><br clear="all">
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