There was a time when Black Republicans like Frederick Douglass championed the cause of racial justice. They were the “progressives” of their day. None were perfect, but most had a sense of integrity.
For example, Arthur Fletcher, who was “the father of affirmative action,” was a Black Republican. (In the early years of the Republican Party’s formation, its views were quite liberal, while the founding Democrats were known for their conservatism.) Hence, the irony should not be lost on us that the current iteration of the Republican Party has been against affirmative action for decades. A 2023 ruling by the conservative-dominated U.S. Supreme Court reinforced this position by ending race-based college admission decisions.
Under the stranglehold of former President Donald Trump, today’s Grand Old Party (GOP) only elevates a particular kind of African American politician. Such a politician is in most cases a man, given the patriarchal nature of the party.
A Black man must be deemed acceptable by the GOP and exist in close proximity to whiteness. It’s not a coincidence that a number of aspirational Black Republican men have chosen to marry white women.
The modern-day GOP deploys these Black Republicans—or “useful Negroes”—as weapons of mass distraction to provide cover for its racism and anti-Black agenda.
Take, for example, U.S. Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, who has not only denied the existence of systemic racism, but said “woke supremacy” is as bad as white supremacy. In a shameful display of buffoonery, Scott did everything but tap dance and play a banjo to curry favor with Trump. He wrongly thought declaring his blind adoration for the former President—even telling Trump “I just love you” at a New Hampshire campaign rally—would grant him the vice presidential nomination. Instead, Trump chose J.D. Vance, a white millionaire who deploys racist dog whistles and weaponizes white racial grievance.
There’s also U.S. Representative Byron Donalds of Florida, a loyal sycophant who routinely lies for the former President. In a recent appearance on CNN, Donalds told two bold-faced lies. First, he falsely claimed that Trump did not call for a day of violence to deal with crime. (At a September 29 campaign rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, the former President claimed a day of police retaliation would eliminate crime: “If you had one really violent day…One rough hour—and I mean real rough—the word will get out and [crime] will end immediately.”) Second, he made the erroneous assertion that crime was “massively up” in the country. (In 2023, for example, the nation saw a historically low murder rate and the lowest levels of violent crime in fifty years.) Both of these claims were refuted by political commentator Keith Boykin and CNN host Abby Phillips.
Mark Robinson, Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina, may take the cake as one of the worst Black GOP candidates in recent memory. Last month, CNN uncovered outrageous and graphic remarks the gubernatorial hopeful posted on an online pornographic forum. Robinson self-identified as a “perv,” called himself a “Black Nazi,” and expressed support for slavery. He also reportedly said that if he were in the Ku Klux Klan, he would refer to Martin Luther King Jr. as “Martin Lucifer Koon.”
All three of these men are deeply flawed—and that’s the way Trump likes his lackeys, who he has patronizingly called “my African Americans.” They have happily allowed themselves to be used and exploited by the GOP as covers for its anti-Black agenda.
To be clear, the Democratic Party does not have clean hands with respect to racist policies that have had a detrimental impact on Black communities. For one, former President Bill Clinton’s signing of the 1994 Crime Bill enabled the mass incarceration of Black men.
The Trump-led GOP, however, has openly embraced an anti-Black agenda. The party has outlawed diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives; removed African American Studies programs; banned books by Black authors; resisted comprehensive student loan debt relief; opposed raising the minimum wage; cut programs for people in poverty; gutted the Voting Rights Act, suppressed votes, and engaged in gerrymandering; and supported the wholesale deregulation leading to the removal of environmental protections.
Black Republicans like Scott, Donalds, and Robinson are what author Clay Cane termed “grifters.” According to Cane, who wrote The Grift: The Downward Spiral of Black Republicans from the Party of Lincoln to the Cult of Trump, grifting on the part of Black Republicans goes beyond mere opportunism. Such grifters are strategic and calculating in crafting their message so as to remain in the good graces of the white power brokers in the party.
The Republican Party of Donald Trump will not tolerate Black voices that address the evil of racism head-on. But there’s plenty of room within the GOP for opportunists, sell-outs, and grifters.
These men will not have left a legacy worth following. They will not have made a positive difference in the lives of people who look like them. All they will have gained is proximity to white power. But in the final analysis, they will never be white.
A version of this article originally appeared in Baptist News Global. It is reprinted here with permission.