Chicago Republicans

During the days of slavery, white Democratic slaveholders attempted to destroy their slaves’ sense of self-worth and dignity. They accomplished this by encouraging self-deprecating behavior, later called ‘tomming.’ Tomming, a reference to the famous Uncle Tom from the Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, was a method slaves employed to avoid negative attention or punishment. The idea was that if a slave derogatorily referred to him or herself as merely a ‘nigger,’ that the slaveholder wouldn’t feel threatened and might treat the slave benevolently. By subtly acquiescing to the white stereotype that black slaves were mentally and spiritually inferior, black slaves kept the peace.

After the fall of the slavery, white Democrats further encouraged black self-hatred by focusing abuse on those blacks that acquired political or economic power. Black politicians, Republicans to a man, were often targeted for torture and assassination for failing to play the part of the ‘subservient negro.’ White Democrats offered African Americans a horrible choice: “either walk, talk and act like our inferiors, or stand on your own feet as an equal and face our wrath.” Many African Americans bravely chose the latter option and dared to live as free men and women. They ran for Congress, pioneered black universities, started their own businesses, and preached the gospel of liberation and equality from their pulpits. Many of these courageous black leaders were killed.

Democratic Klansmen killed them as a warning to others who might leave the Democratic plantation and adopt an attitude of self-sufficiency. Democrats, afraid of true black independence, resorted to violence, segregation and finally the welfare state. For the most part, African Americans resisted the temptation to tear down their own people despite the Democrat’s alluring promise of peace and security. The black community regarded as an “Uncle Tom” anyone who would sell out their people’s future hopes for temporary comfort.

Democrats in the 1960’s, however, ingeniously co-opted the term “Uncle Tom” to refer pejoratively to any African American that fled the Democratic plantation. Today the Democratic Party encourages African Americans to distrust any of their kinsmen that rise to greatness through their own efforts. By perpetuating the ridiculous and demeaning notion that blacks cannot thrive in this country without welfare, quotas, and other government programs, Democrats reinforce the disempowering black inferiority complex. Sadly, many in the black community today ridicule and condemn successful black men and women.

One need only look at the treatment dished out to distinguished black men and women who dare call themselves Republicans or conservatives. Colin Powell, Clarence Thomas, J.C. Watts, Michael Steele, Condoleezza Rice, Ward Connerly, Ken Hamblin and countless other courageous black leaders are vilified by Democrats and their friends in the media for refusing to accept their insulting labels. Every one of the aforementioned leaders is pilloried as an Uncle Tom. Somehow by achieving greatness they are traitors to their race. Have you ever stopped to wonder why a woman like Condoleezza Rice who speaks five languages and represents our country to foreign leaders is ‘not really black’ while the drug dealer on the street who destroys black children is truly black? Can this type of treatment be construed as anything but a continuation of the Democrat war against the black psyche?

In Chicago, the real “Uncle Toms,” if we must use the term, are those who retreat to the safety of the White Democratic Machine and allow that machine to sell their people down the river. Black aldermen recently voted to prevent Wal-Mart from building a store in the predominantly black south side. Though Wal-Mart would have provided hundreds of jobs to eager black workers, the Black Democratic Aldermen defended the interests of white union members and left their constituents out to dry. When Wal-Mart opened a store in the nearby suburb of Evergreen Park, over 25,000 job-hunters applied. All but 500 of these applicants were from Chicago. Black workers from the city will now have to spend valuable time and money commuting to work in the suburbs because their aldermen decided to kowtow to Mayor Daley and his Democratic cohorts.

The Chicago Republican Party applauds the black heroes of past and present who reject the slave mentality and its pernicious corollary that blacks can only rise as high as the Democratic Party allows. We encourage African Americans to leave the plantation of the Democratic Party and embrace their God given liberty and dignity.