I don't often find myself nodding in agreement as I read the thoughts of conservatives of color. But, I did just that while reading an article C. D. Ellison wrote for Salon in 1998. In it, he described why he did not find common cause with many other black conservatives. Ellison was responding to one of the 'Negroes, this is how you are supposed to behave. . .because I said so' diatribes racist writer David Horowitz spits out from time to time.

David Horowitz's patronizing portrayal of the black community in "Baa baa black sheep" suffers from a few misconceptions. First, the GOP is not concerned about what it can do for African-Americans; it is most concerned with what African-Americans can do for the GOP. But since the Republican Party is primarily composed of white people who can only know so much about black people, naturally they feel that simply throwing a black face before a national audience will attract black people, and more importantly, black votes. So they rely on the self-anointed "black right": lost black souls and "Sambos" of the right — people I call black "CON-servatives" — who have become Horowitz's chief sources of black wisdom about the party.

The GOP's shameless, futile reliance on such noted comedians of the right as Armstrong Williams, Alan Keyes, Ward Connerly, Ken Hamblin, Larry Elder and others has made them by default the black face of the Republican Party. One critical reason black people have not turned to the GOP is the devastatingly Uncle Tommish, shoe-shining, sorrowful image of the black CON-servative. Black people are sickened by their hypocrisy. They travel in small, exclusive packs of opportunists who enjoy being little black fish in a sparkling white pond, spreading vicious, vitriolic and uninspiring anti-black rhetoric (such as the title of Horowitz's column) that does little good, if any good be found.

. . .Contrary to the beliefs espoused by black conservatives beloved by Horowitz, African-Americans have the resources, the ability, the competence, spirit and independence to exercise a considerable degree of power into the next century. The strategy is very straightforward and simple: We must make informed, calculated and rational political decisions. That is the true essence of being a conservative. But Horowitz and his get-fresh crew of black conservative scam artists wouldn't know about that.

Ellison has exposed the black conservative movement for what it largely is — a group of opportunists, of very limited ability, out to attract attention and a few bucks by clowning for Right Wing white people. As he says, it is a CON. The persons involved usually know that they are misrepresenting African-Americans in order to bask in the Right Wing spotlight. (However, some, including Jesse Lee Peterson, are too stupid to have even self-knowledge, I suspect.) The benefits they derive from the con game are attention and money. Much of what passes for black voices on the right is actually scripted, set up and paid for by far Right foundations, including Olin and Bradley. When cornered and questioned, a black CON-servative will tell you that he is just "gettin,' paid," and besides, the persons being conned are white, so there is no harm to African-Americans from the behavior. If only that were so. The ongoing minstrel show provided by people like Keyes and Peterson distracts attention from real efforts to confront the problems of the poor and minority Americans. It also provides white America with blame the victim excuses for inaction.