(CNN) -- Not long ago, presidential candidate Herman Cain made headlines when he said blacks were brainwashed for not considering conservative ideas. On other occasions he declared that racism was no longer a problem and blamed the poor for being poor. A personal friend, I know Cain to be more thoughtful than those incendiary sound bites, but I also suspect he knew that uttering them would help him land right where he is: atop the Republican presidential field, a standing that could be threatened by recent reports of sexual harassment allegations. Unfortunately, such trash talk -- popular among many black conservatives -- continues to alienate black Republicans from the African-American community.
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Herman Cain said blacks were brainwashed into rejecting conservative ideas
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Fredrick Robinson: At one time conservatism showed promise as a route for black Americans
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He says Cain and others have gained popularity in GOP circles by trash talk
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Robinson: Denying the impact of racism in America alienates conservatives from blacks
In an environment of runaway corporate greed, where the top 1% is getting richer at the expense of the middle class, where rising college costs are making many students question the worth of a college education, where unemployment is hovering at 16% in the black community, where home values are drying up, and the economy is nearly on life support, black @placeholder -- whose spiel is as one-dimensional as it was 20 years ago -- come off as even more tone-deaf.