OPINION:
How would you respond if a politician called a Black man a house slave or an Uncle Tom?
If it were a Republican, we’d see an influx in media coverage dissecting the significance of such racist monikers being used in our society today and calls for that person’s resignation. Yet when a Democrat does it, it gets little to no coverage.
How do I know? Because it happened earlier this month when Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, in an interview with the Michigan Chronicle, characterized Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as a house slave whose loyalty to his White owners overshadowed his loyalty to other Black people.
The comparison is sadly not surprising, nor is the lack of coverage and outrage. Today, Democrats castigate Black conservatives who voice opposition to their party with racial stereotypes and face little consequence.
What Mr. Ellison and many Democrats fail to realize is that they are the product of a shared culture with two different belief systems that are born of different generations and experiences.
Justice Thomas represents a Black community that saw a transition away from the Jim Crow South and ventured into a new life after the civil rights laws of the 1960s were passed. He personifies the behavior Black Americans emulated in that era, when families were valued and 80% of Black Americans came from two-parent homes.
It was an era that deeply valued the Christian faith and believed in the importance of a strong educational foundation for its children. The same generation identified with Republican ideals and saw Black Americans support Richard Nixon by 36% in 1968.
Meanwhile, Mr. Ellison represents a Black community that has become reliant on a Democratic Party that oversaw the destruction of families through the creation of their social welfare programs in the mid-1960s.
This culture was radically and strategically reshaped by the Johnson administration, which introduced and marketed social welfare programs to the Black community.
These programs encouraged and gave women financial incentive to have children outside of marriage.
Sixty years later, Black culture has shifted dramatically. No longer are 80% of children born into two-parent homes; they’re born to single women.
While Mr. Ellison continues to point the finger and accuse Justice Thomas of hurting Black Americans with his decisions on the bench, the reality is far more nuanced.
The abandonment of the social issues that saw Black families thrive in the 1960s has given way to broken homes and communities.
Take a look at my home state. Minnesota has consistently maintained one of the highest academic achievement gaps between Black and White public school students for nearly a decade.
But despite the lack of progress and the continued increases in funding for public schools, Democrats like Mr. Ellison continue to ignore the real-life results associated with school choice policies.
It’s not just education where our children are being failed; it’s crime, too.
In 2009, Forbes magazine ranked Minneapolis as the safest city in the country with a terrific quality of life.
Things have changed for the worse over the last 14 years. Homicides and carjackings are steadily climbing. In Minneapolis, 13- and 14-year-olds are stealing cars at a rate of one per hour.
Mr. Ellison’s refusal to tackle this growing trend led the federal government to step in and enact harsher penalties to deter car theft. Studies show that children who come from broken homes are more likely to find themselves in trouble with the law.
I know it’s hard out there. I spent part of my childhood living in public housing in Harlem with my divorced mother before moving to a trailer park in Oklahoma with my father in the 1970s.
Their commitment to my education, however, allowed me the opportunity to go to college, serve my country, and compete successfully in the private sector.
While Mr. Ellison represents a broken generation, Justice Thomas presents a pathway to success for Black children in desperate need of heroes.
So let’s end the name-calling and get back to the basics of restoring Black two-parent families and instilling high standards of behavior, education and participation in the promise of America.
• Kendall Qualls is a former candidate for governor of Minnesota and president of TakeCharge, a nonprofit that promotes the promise of America being available to anyone regardless of race or social station. He is the author of the upcoming book “The Prodigal Project: Hope for American Families.”
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