Richard Ivory of Hip-Hop Republicans.com shares his views on social conservatives, African Americans and the GOP.
For decades, social conservatives have relentlessly targeted Black Churches as a way to bring more African-Americans into the Republican Party. Despite many sincere efforts, the numbers of church going African-Americans who vote Republican is smaller now than ever before.
While there has been much debate and talk about the Religious Right within the Republican Party, one could equally and strongly argue that African-Americans make up one of the largest socially conservative voting blocs in the Democrat Party. Earlier this year, the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life released a detailed study on the religious views of most African-Americans. The research was unique in that the new analysis found blacks to be the most religious group of people in the United States population as a whole.
According to the research, when compared to other racial and ethnic 
groups, African-Americans are among the most likely to report a formal religious affiliation with 87% of African-Americans describing themselves as belonging to one religious group or another. The analysis also finds that nearly eight-in-ten African-Americans (79%) say religion is very important in their lives compared with 56% among all U.S. adults.
The study also states that six-in-ten African-Americans (61%) say Houses of Worship should express their views on social and political matters, while only 36% of African-Americans say churches should avoid these topics. On this question of expression, African-Americans closely resemble White Evangelical Protestants, among whom 59% say churches should express their views while 38% say churches should keep out of social and political matters.
The study finds, additionally, that half of all African-Americans feel that there have been too few expressions of faith by political leaders while an additional 24% say there has been the right amount of religious expression by political leaders. Only 23% of African-Americans say there has been too much religious talk from politicians.
Overall, 49% of African-Americans are in favor of keeping abortion legal in most or all cases, while 44% of African-Americans want abortion to be illegal in most or all cases.
Four-in-ten African-Americans (41%) overall, think that homosexuality should be accepted by society, while 46% of African-Americans say that homosexuality should be discouraged. According to other Pew Research Center surveys, conducted during the summer of 2008, nearly two-thirds of African-Americans (64%) say they oppose allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally, which is a significantly higher level of opposition than among Whites (51%).
If the numbers are correct, African-Americans should be running into the arms of Republicans and, especially, socially conservative ones. The same data, nevertheless, shows that despite African-American’s deep social conservative beliefs, the community does not as a whole “vote exclusively†on such issues.
Proof of this is in the same data which demonstrates that despite their conservative, social view, by far African-Americans (76%) self describe themselves as Democrats. The same study found that on an average, only about 10% of African-Americans self describe themselves as being Republicans. Across all religious groups, at least two-thirds of African-Americans express support for the Democratic Party.
My own personal view of the data is that while African- Americans agree with social conservative politicians on many issues, it is concerning the issue of race, social justice and economics that these two groups part company.
With regards race, many blacks who lived in the South remembered that many of the leaders of the Moral Majority had deep connections to the Southern Baptist Convention. The SBC’s racist history and its deep connections to the GOP in the 80’s had a great impact on black church members. The SBC’s silence during the Jim Crow Era and during the era of Desegregation was not to be forgotten.
This divide in the south between black churches and white churches is still visible today. It was not surprising, therefore, that when the Religious Right began to grow in political dominance in The Republican Party on a wave of pro- family values that many blacks saw this as the height of hypocrisy and irony given the following:
Where were these ministers who were so outraged over the issue of abortion when little Black Boys were being lynched and denied the right to vote?
Where were these same religious leaders and politicians when their Black and socially conservative brothers were suffering?
Historically, social conservatives have talked about “teaching folks how to fish†but have very little to show for it. In fact, most of the non-profit empowerment groups in minority and urban areas lean toward the left. Social conservative groups will continue to fail in reaching black churches as long as urban folks and minorities worry about getting a job and putting food on their tables.
Views about tax cuts make little sense to a woman who does not pay taxes due to her low -income status. The only way tax cuts will ever make genuine sense to a woman like her is if she owns something or is employed. When the cupboards are bare, and the baby needs milk technical debates about stem cell research or gay marriage will rarely be a priority.
In California, the only way social conservatives could get Blacks out to vote against Proposition 8 was by getting them to come out in large enough numbers to vote for Barrack Obama. What this dichotomy demonstrates is that many minorities agree with social conservatives on many social issues, yet not to the degree that minorities prioritize economic and social justice issues. It does not mean that minorities and social conservatives do not agree; they simply do not agree on what the priorities should be. And as long as these two communities see their “moral issues†as being more important than the other, the two shall never meet.
Richard Ivory is the Publisher and Founder, of Hip-HopRepublican.com, a blog that delves into urban issues from centrist perspective. Mr. Ivory is a political consultant who has worked on over a dozen political campaigns around the country. He has worked for both the Republican National Committee and was the College outreach director for Republican Youth Majority. He is presently the founder of The John Langston Forum and is the College outreach director for Republicans for Black Empowerment.
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Any resources that Republicans use to pander to blacks are wasted. Blacks are the most liberal group in the U.S. Attending black baptist or AME churches has nothing to do with being conservative.
Blacks have high rates of out-of-wedlock birthrate, high crime rates, and high fraud rates despite going to church.
My guess is that the black teachers in Detroit who use schools funds to purchase flat panel televisions instead of purchasing textbooks and school supplies all attend church.
The more conservative party needs to give up on the idea of appealing to blacks and work harder at embarrassing any politician who panders to the most liberal group in the U.S.
What a joke…Yeah, that’s what the GOP should do promote a “real†Conservative message that accuses blacks of having out-of-wedlock birthrates, high crime rates, and high fraud rates. Wow, super destroyer you’re really living up to your name because you know how to “destroy†a Political Party…hey keep it up maybe you’re on you’re way to being the next Karl Rove!
Can’t wait to hear your strategy for reaching out to Hispanics
Jose,
I see that you did not challenge the idea that blacks are not really social conservatives, are really the most liberal group in the U.S., and are a lost cause for any conservative party.
The idea that the Republicans can ever out pander the Democrats and get a sizable part of black vote is ludicrous. The Republicans would be much better off trying to get the upper middle class whites who actually are open to conservative ideas, who have few children out of wedlock, who do not get themselves arrested, and who care about education, community, and the future.
The best way to eventually get the Hispanic votes is to close the border with Mexico and then in thirty years, middle class Hispanics may want to support conservative ideas.
However, following the McCain/Bush idea of open borders and unlimited immigration creates Hispanic dominated communities that will be very liberal and wedded to the Democratic Party.
Black voters are typically more politically inept than white ones. I go to a college that’s almost 1/4 black. The majority of them believe in the whole Jesus concept around Obama, yet when you ask them if they oppose certain issues that Obama and Pelosi want to put into place, just don’t mention any names, they claim they oppose them. Of course there’s a lot of whites who feel this way too, particularly those born after 1985. I’ll chock it up to the Mass Media Mindnumb.
If African-American are not technically “social conservatives” because as you argue “Blacks have high rates of out-of-wedlock birthrate, high crime rates, and high fraud rates despite going to church” then should not the same test be applied to “white social conservatives? Do not white southern white Evangelicals States lead the nation in divorce rates? Are you saying that white social conservatives are more morally behaved than there black counterparts? Can anyone say Mark Sanford? The list goes on of scandal after scandal involving white social conservatives. Why, are black social conservatives held to a different standard?
Riche,
Blacks actually get divorced more than whites even though they marry much less. In southern blue collar white divorce rate is affected by their very high level of marriage. Oklahoma has a high marriage rate and a high divorce rate.
Also, there are no black conservatives and yes, blacks are held to a different standard. Look at how corrupt blacks such as Charlie Rangel is immune to the affects of scandal or corruption.
It is true that a smaller percentage of blacks get married and a higher percentage of black marriages end in divorce (36% of blacks versus 32% of whites). It is not true, however, that a high divorce rate is impacted in any way by a high rate of marriage. We can use Oklahoma as an example.
Pew Research ranks Oklahoma as tied for second as the highest percentage of divorced men (twelve percent of men in Oklahoma are divorced). But Oklahoma’s percentage of married men is virtually the same as Texas’ – 54% of men in Oklahoma versus 53% in Texas. Texas’ percentage of divorced men is only 9%, though.
What Barna Research has found (not limited to any single state) is that Christian evangelicals have a lower divorce rate (28%) than the population at large (33%). Higher divorce rates in the south – or among “blue collar” families – are probably accounted for in the categories “Associated with the Christian faith” or “downscale” as both have divorce rates of 38%.
Going back to earlier comments:
I think the pertinent questions to ask are: 1) Is there a statistically significant difference in out-of-wedlock birthrates among church-going blacks versus non-church-going-blacks? and 2) Is there a statistically significant difference in criminality among church-going blacks and non-church-going blacks? Put me down on the side of assuming there is. I don’t know that it is similar to the rates among whites, but I don’t know that is meaningful as a measure of “social conservative-ness.”
My guess is that you have a very stereotypical view of blacks concerning their attendance at church. Only about 50% of blacks attend church services weekly, compared to about 45% of whites. On top of that, teachers do not make decisions to buy textbooks. That is done by administrators – and it often is made based on grants for technology, which means it is easier to get money for a TV than a textbook.
You’re going to have to define “social conservative” because I think it is a meaningless term. For everyone.
I wouldn’t count Rangel as safe yet. Look at Dollar Bill Jefferson – re-elected, but sentenced to 13 years in the federal pen. If you want to look for evidence of wrong-doing among conservatives/whites/southerners – check out the House Banking Scandal, of which only five Congressmen went to jail for (one of whom, Walter Fauntroy, was a black man).
Let’s get this clear: The elite in this country are held to an entirely different standard than the rest of us. If you have enough zeros in your bank account, you can – literally – get away with murder.
And, your point is? You are not making any sense! What does white social conservatives adhering to moral views about marriage and then violating them at high numbers have to do with blacks not being Conservative?
If anything could be argued, it is that blacks and whites both try to follow precepts of social conservatism yet routinely fall short. Both parties, protect there own, black and white. There are no black GOP Representatives in Congress, so its hard to determine how true favoritism plays with regards race. I suspect it has more to do with partisanship than race.
People should look at what black social conservatives actually support:
1. Racial reparations are supported by over 70% of blacks and that include many of those black women who attend church.
2. Depolicing and emptying the jails. Black juries are famous for not convicting criminals.
3. Not cooperating with law enforcements. Just look at the no snitching movement in the black community.
4. Social engineering over academic learning. To blacks, schools are places that give you a diploma. Actual learning is unimportant. In addition, schools are jobs programs where you do not ever have to show up. Detroit, DC, and St Louis have all been shown to have 100′s on the school payroll who do not how up.
5. Government jobs for all. Prince Georges County, Maryland is the most affluent county that is majority black due to high levels of government employment and yet, the county cannot support most middle class business and has horrible schools.
6. High taxes on others.
7. Thought crimes and the thought police. Remember, if a black person is offend by what you are saying, you have no right to say it.
Why would the more conservative party ever pursue these voters when there are middle class and upper middle class suburban whites who would be much easier to get back.
If the Bush Administration had been the least bit competent, the Republicans would not feel the need to pander to blacks and Hispanics like they are today.
Please provide data on this??? You are giving your own racial theories, but again no facts.
Richie,
I am not the one claiming that blacks are really conservatives and can be convinced to vote for Republicans.
If you are interested in facts, then please provide the polling data, papers, or references that demonstrate that black politicians can be fiscal conservatives, that majority black cities or counties are conservatives, that blacks will ever vote for conservative whites.
Progressive Republicans use two data points: that blacks go to church and that blacks will vote against gay marriage. Short of those two points, all of the data demonostrates how very liberal blacks are and how liberal they vote.
Republicans would not care at all about appealing to blacks and Hispanics except for the incompetence and failures of the Bush Administration and congressional Republicans. How about fixing the incompetence of Republicans instead of moving left to appeal to the most liberal group in the U.S.