The Gollums among us

The classic Emerge cover of Clarence Thomas,
the most hated man in black America


HURRICANE KATRINA: Blame state and local Democrats, not the president
By Z. Dwight Billingsly

09/22/2005
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I think there are two lessons we need to take away from the Katrina fiasco:

First, the people we saw rioting in New Orleans are America's flotsam, and they exist in every society. Other than the physically disabled, young children and seniors 80 years old and up, the people we saw holed up in the Superdome and elsewhere are the perfect demonstration of what happens to people who choose (yes, choose) to lead third-world lives in a captialitst society.

They were accustomed to living off a government check every month, accustomed to subsidized housing, accustomed to food paid for by food stamps. They've elected politicians like Mayor Ray Nagin and Gov. Kathleen Blanco to make them comfortable in that third-world existence, and now they have neither the resources nor the political leadership to survive in a time of crisis. Such has been the case throughout history for people who don't take charge of their lives.

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Make no mistake about it: State and local government in Louisiana have been in the hands of Democrats for generations. There might be a mayor somewhere else in America as inept as Ray Nagin, but I doubt it. An earlier hurricane, Georges in 1998, demonstrated that using the Superdome for emergency shelter wouldn't work. And Governor Blanco, despite a declaration of disaster by the president two days before the storm hit, failed to take advantage of the offer of federal troops and aid until two days after the storm hit.

It's worth mentioning that Alabama, Florida and Mississippi - all of which were hit hard by Katrina but fared far better - all have Republican governors.

We have important elections coming up in 2006. The U.S. Senate races will serve as a barometer for where the country wants to go. I hope we'll go for security. Picture Democrats in charge of national security or a truly national emergency. And be very afraid.

Z. Dwight Billingsly is a principal of Branford Gateway Investment Co., a longtime activist in local Republican politics and a regular contributor to the Commentary page.


First, Nagin was a lifelong Republican until he ran for office.

Most of the people in the Superdome were working class, people who got up every morning and got on the bus and served food, or vacuumed floors or wiped people's asses. They didn't lay back and get checks. They didn't expect a handout. They owned their homes and worked like hell to get them. This man slandered them to make himself look good. Some of the poor got that way because they had shitty, backbreaking jobs until their health gave out. The idea that they were waiting for a handout is dead fucking wrong.

And the people of Gulfport still haven't seen FEMA

I'm sure they chose the shitty schools, low tax base and service economy of New Orleans. In a population which is 50 percent functionally illiterate, I'm sure they chose every aspect of their lives.

Second, only in Billingsly's world does the blame fall on the state and not FEMA.

Everyone else is scared witless of Bush's inept management. Nowhere in this sad narrative is the horse lawyer, Flying Dutchmen bags of ice, or cronyism.

But why is he so slavishly supportive of Bush while even David Brooks is critical of his leadership?

This is the note which came with the link:

Given your recent writing about black Republicans, I thought you might be interested to read this op-ed from Z. Dwight Billingsly, an African-American who has run unsuccessfully for public office several times as a Republican. I'd love to read your take on his victim-blaming and excuse-making.


Well, I'm not surprised he's lost repeatedly. After his groveling, no self-respecting black person would vote for him. And white people forget to.

See, as a black Republican, he has to grovel to be accepted. He can't just be a Republican, he has to slander the people of New Orleans, like he's not black or something. That he's a better class of Negro.

He's a fine one to talk about "taking charge of their lives". He slavishly runs after a GOP who will not elect him to dog catcher. He isn't in charge of his life, he's waiting for white people to like him enough to vote for him. They tend, like black people, to dislike black Republicans in the voting booth. They just lie about it.

You know, I thought about Bob George today. I thought hard about him. And I realized something, the difference between us is simple. No matter what I've done, it's been because I could do the job. This isn't to say I haven't had help, everyone has help. But I wasn't part of anyone's agenda. There was never a point when I was editing something, or covering something, where I was being used to make a point. I wasn't doing TV, I wasn't going to political conferences. And now that I do go there, I would think half the audience has no idea I'm black until I walk in the room. When I go on Air America, I don't think most people know I'm black. Hell, people on this site don't know I'm black until I say so.

The reason I got in the room was because of my work and my opinions. And I think I can say the same for Kos, Olliver Willis and the few known minorities on line. I'm friends with John Lee, one of the old school hackers, an extremely intelligent man. I don't think people hire him because they need to fill a slot, they hire him for his immense skills. The fact that he's black usually isn't relevant.

Now, the thing is that 90 percent of the stuff on Kos or here has little relevance to race. My opinions on food or Andy Warhol or beer are not race specific. But like when people bring history into the conversation, I comment on the things I know about race as well. But my prime purpose here is not to defend black people or promote them or explain them. Any more than I explain New York or working as a reporter.

The problem with people like Bob is that their whole careers are about being race men. Now, that's an old term to denote civil rights activists. Thurgood Marshall was a race man. But people like Bob George and Jonathan Capehart, a Bloomberg staffer and former Daily News editorial writer, exist in their roles because they are black. But these race men serve to hurt black people to promote their careers. They may believe conservative dogma, but they know social democracy works a lot better for black people and that they vote that way every time. They propose policies which will make more black people poor, limit opportunity and close off the options they had when they were young men.

Imagine if Sam Seder pointed me out as a black liberal. Poor Janeane would fall over laughing. That would be like being pointed out as a Knicks fan on 7th Avenue in December.

But when the Post can use George or the Daily News Capehart, they can say, hey we have a black conservative here. They can use them to push an agenda which harms people.

I think Bob thinks I should see there are variations in black Republicans and all I see are people dedicated to making black people lives harder. Just so they can curry favor with the white people who can promote them. I don't see the dignity, the strength, I was raised to embrace in manhood. I guess some people would rather run after success, no matter what the cost, to their dignity, to the respect of others.

It hurt me to see Bob try to explain away the way that his white "allies" made it so clear that black life was cheap and expendable. It was like he couldn't admit the people who patted him on the back laughed when he was out of the door. This time, they didn't even close the door. They just started laughing like he wasn't even there.

As much as Stanley Crouch frustrates me, he's his own man. He stands on his own two feet and while I disagree with much of what he says, I know he's not saying it to please his masters. I wish I could say the same about Bob George, but I'd be lying to myself. He's no more his own man than Pinocchio was. His entire career was predicated on being that Negro who would attack his brethren and convert them to the wisdom of Republicanism.

I think to myself, what would it be like if black Republicans like him were men, and not real-life Gollums, entranced by the GOP like it was a ring. Precious, precious....if I just get closer to George Bush I will get .....precious. Peter Jackson did an amazing job with Gollum, he made Tolkien's words come to life, his description of Gollum, the sad, gnarled figure always chasing after an illusion which ruined him and broke his soul.

When I see Armstrong Williams stung by the fact that his conservative buddies let him twist in the wind, Gollum comes to mind. That sad, gnarled figure crawling along the ground, hoping to be reunited with the ring.

I realize what makes me so angry about them, and I think other people, too.

Our black heroes are the men and women who challenged the system.

Malcolm X was right about field Negroes and house Negroes. But what he didn't explain is that house Negroes wasn't just people who served massa. They were also on slave hunting teams. White overseers would use them to track down runaways. The Emerge cover depicted Thomas as a lawn jockey, because slave owners would use lawn jockeys to signal if slaves had escaped. The article wasn't much nicer. How hated is Thomas? When he tried to speak before a junior high school, half the parents wanted to retract the initiation. To a sitting Supreme Court justice. Many didn't let their kids go.

Keep in mind, this is in middle class, suburban Maryland, home of DC's professional class. Yet the reaction was nearly uniform.

Why is he hated? Because he violated a compact of black life: he trashed his sister to make him look good in front of white people. He claimed she was on welfare, when she had quit her job as a nurse's aide to take care of their aunt. You can do a LOT of things, and be forgiven. But not that. For most black people, he went from just another tom to Public Enemy number one.

So when someone ran away, they not only had to challenge the white power structure, but the blacks who would enforce it.

Now, you can explain away the servants, but hunting down your kin? Nope.

Because of that, there has always been two aspects to black political life. One is a loyalty test, the other is standing up to power.

When Harriet Tubman helped slaves escaped, he had a revolver, ready to shoot anyone who would lose their nerve. If they went with her, they were on for the full ride or the ride would end right there. There was no going back. Anyone even thought of being disloyal was dealt with.

When Barrack Obama ran for Bobby Rush's Congressional seat, he was vilified. He was called every kind of white interloper and Uncle Tom in the book. Why? Because Rush had earned his stripes as a Black Panther. Everyone knew where he stood with the community and what he had done for them. Obama was just a man on the make. And he lost, badly. He didn't even get a fair hearing. Now, remember, this is in a Cook County Democratic primary and the liberal Obama was vilified like he was on the board of the Heritage Foundation.

But two years later, Alan Keyes was nearly attacked in the same streets as Obama got 94 percent of the same people's vote. People ran up to Keyes and spit on him, that's how reviled he was by them. Why? Because Obama had proven he was trustworthy and Keyes was anything but.

So when I see people like Bob defend the GOP, I know no one would ever take him seriously in black political life. Contrary to popular belief, blacks may vote Dem, but they do not do so quietly. They bitch and moan when things aren't right. They don't sit back and take it. Black Republicans do.

They always have to explain away the insults and the hurt, the degradation. We see this, we see these people and how they can never stand up to oppose the insult, the hurt. It's worse than battered wife syndrome, it's slave syndrome, massa's always right, no matter how hard he hits you, or how badly he shames you. I've never seen a black Republican without a white patron. They had some conference at the Heritage Foundation and most of the people there were white. When black Democrats need to meet, they don't need a room full of white people to give them permission or pay the bills.

If just one of them called the GOP on their bullshit, said "you know, George Bush has ignored black people since he became President and backed people and policies which harmed black people" people would respect them. Then, we could have a debate on policy. But they won't. Because they can't. They simply lack the courage to do so.

But you can't debate a man on his knees, you can either pity him or scorn him. But you cannot respect him.

posted by Steve @ 3:24:00 AM