Slate's Blacklist of Black Conservatives

Sonny Bunch

February 23, 2010 1:09 PM

Slate's The Root -- the portion of the website where they cordon off their African-American content -- has compiled a list of "Black folks we'd like to remove from black history." Some of the choices are funny (Dennis Rodman) some are head-scratching (the doctor who prescribed Michael Jackson his meds?) while others are downright offensive. The continuous pathology in the liberal black community to denigrate black conservatives as "not really black" continues apace here: Clarence Thomas, Michael Steele, and Alan Keyes are listed alongside Idi Amin, Papa and Baby Doc Duvalier, and Robert Mugabe.

Oh, and Marion Barry. I imagine that is the excuse that the authors of the list will throw out there if questioned about including a trio of black Republicans alongside cannibals and mass murderers: "Hey, we included a black Democrat too! He was even our very first choice!"

Of course, there's a huge difference between admitting to being embarrassed of Democrat who was caught in a FBI sting doing crack, muttered "Bitch set me up" as the feds burst through the door, and served time in prison as a result -- to say nothing of his myriad tax problems and, most recently, blatant corruption in D.C.'s contracting process -- and being embarrassed about the GOP entries on the list.

What is so embarrassing about Clarence Thomas -- the second black man on the Supreme Court? He would be a source of pride for the African American community, except for the fact that he's a conservative. He's a minority within a minority. One would think that mocking a minority simply for his status as such is something that writers at The Root would want to avoid.