By Bruce LeVell | The Washington Times
Illustration
on Big tech dividing Black America by Alexander Hunter/The Washington Times
Disinformation that Republicans are racist has spread far and wide
Fake news, cancel culture, and misinformation have been
around for generations. The media has always found a way to weaponize content,
whether in print, online, or running over the airwaves. Many times, it’s been
used by Democrats to divide and control minority populations by propagating the
myth all Republicans are racist.
Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson, when he signed
the Civil Rights Bill, said, “These Negroes, they’re getting pretty uppity
these days and that’s a problem for us since they’ve got something now, they
never had before, the political pull to back up their uppityness. Now we’ve got
to do something about this, we’ve got to give them a little something, just
enough to quiet them down, not enough to make a difference. For if we don’t
move at all, then their allies will line up against us and there’ll be no way
of stopping them, we’ll lose the filibuster and there’ll be no way of putting a
brake on all sorts of wild legislation. It’ll be Reconstruction all over again.”
Was that sentiment because Mr. Johnson was concerned
about Black people being mistreated in America, or was it because he saw an
opportunity for Democrats to control the Black voting base?
As early as the 1950s, the Democratic Party understood
the value of keeping Black Americans in their camp. Obviously, our section of
society was a powerful voting block due to the strength in our numbers.
And since then, they’ve largely been able to keep the
Black community in their corner by ramping up the rhetoric that Republicans are
racist and Democrats are the Black community’s saviors.
President Joe Biden is particularly adept at propagating
this narrative – and his friends in the mainstream media and Big Tech – are all
too happy to comply.
Why else would voter-ID laws (of which the majority of
Black America agrees with) be labeled as “Jim Crow 2.0?” Why else would
Democrats push critical race theory, which purports we as Black people are
“oppressed” and “victims” of “white privilege,” with no chance of succeeding on
our own? Why would they preach about “systemic racism” in law enforcement,
which is doing its best to keep Black and Brown communities safe? To oppose any
one of these Democratic policies, you’re automatically dubbed “racist” – no
matter what your skin color – and it effectively shuts down any form of real
debate.
Democrats want to keep us down and divided, so we’re
dependent on them to provide our salvation. But all they’re really doing is
making things worse – and some in the Black community are catching on.
Democrats were so complacent and cocky in the lead up to
Donald J. Trump’s 2016 run they never assumed Black people would ever vote for
him.
I recall sitting in Mr.
Trump’s conference room in the summer of 2015 with many pastors, predominantly
African American, and the then-presidential candidate stated one of the key
issues affecting Black America included getting unemployment down and building
and restoring generational wealth in the Black community.
That famous quote, “what the hell do you have to lose”
was an in-your-face call to Black voters asking them to look at what Democratic
policies had done to their schools, their roads, and their communities in
general.
The call was asking Black America to give Republicans a
chance to fix what Democrats had not fixed for decades. For those Black
conservatives who supported Mr. Trump on mainstream media, including CNN,
MSNBC, and other networks, there was a constant onslaught of intimidation,
talking over you, and name-calling by Democrats, especially Black ones.
One thing I can commend the left for accomplishing is the
constant division of Black America that pitted Black Democrats against Black
Republicans. One was good, and the other was evil.
Before running for office, Mr. Trump has been in the
public eye for over 40 years as a celebrity, builder, businessman, author, and
more. Never in history did anyone on any network late-night show or elsewhere
accuse him of being a racist until he put his name on the ballot.
That is when the Democratic party turned to their
traditional playbook from generations before and decided that their play was to
shape him as a racist to scare Black Americans away from even thinking about
supporting him. Yet, ironically, his policies while President, from criminal
justice reform to developing Opportunity Zones, to lowering Black unemployment
to the lowest levels ever recorded, did more for our community than Democrats
ever promised.
Yet, you wouldn’t know it if all you listened to was
MSNBC, CNN, ABC, CBS, and read the news propagated by Facebook and the Big Tech
goliaths.
The racist Republican troupe has been ingrained in our
consciousness from decades of Democrats and the media repeating it. I recall my
first political volunteer job stuffing envelopes for Ronald Reagan as a high
school student. I remember some of my Black classmates saying, ‘why are you
supporting Reagan? He’s a racist?’ But once again, while he was a famous movie
star and later governor, he was never accused of being a racist until he was
about to put his name on the Republican ballot.
The unfortunate part about new technology in the digital
age is the ability to move this disinformation and “fake news” around the world
in seconds. Woke members in the media will happily repeat it – both as a way to
virtue-signal and to prevent Republicans from carving off a larger block of the
Black vote.
We, as the Black community, need to wake up. Evaluate
government policies based on their merit, not by which party proposes them.
Democrats have been race-baiting, dividing, and failing us for too long. I
mean, what do we have to lose?
Bruce LeVell is a retail jewelry manufacturer
owner and the executive director of National Diversity Coalition for Trump. He
is the former chair of the Gwinnett County Georgia Republican Party, and a
frequent contributor on Fox News, One America News, Newsmax TV, MSNBC &
CNN.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/jul/19/democrats-big-tech-look-to-divide-black-america/