(ThyBlackMan.com) It was over a decade ago when I, along with hundreds of other politicized African-Americans, attentively listened to Dr. Michael Eric Dyson. At this moment, Dyson was a well-established superstar within the realm of Black public intellectuals. Michael Eric Dyson’s existed in a stratosphere that only the formidable intellectual Cornel West could exist.
Of all the things articulated that night, the most reverberating for me was the following assertion.
The Black church is the only place where a Negro can say that he received a calling from God and the next week he is provided a venue to speak in front of Black America. No one cares that he has not studied anything, knows nothing, or has not developed any plans to do anything. Nonetheless, his lack of qualifications and capabilities did not preclude his pulpit appearance in front of a captive audience eagerly awaiting to hear a message from God regarding the path to earthly liberation and eternal salvation.
What brought this moment to the forefront of my mind? Right-wing darling Candace Owens. The promotion of Candace Owens by the opponents of racial uplift and justice as a person qualified to speak on behalf of Black America reminds me of the ascension of unlearned preachers that Dyson lambasted above.
Owens, like ignorant preachers who have been “called to preach the Good News”, is wholly unqualified to address racial matters in any public arena, let alone before Congress or national news outlets for many reasons. Most notable of these reasons is that her message is not one that articulates the Conservative message of fiscal responsibility, socially responsible individualism, and entrepreneurship. Where many Black Conservatives provide a somewhat unusual path to liberation for African-Americans, Owens’ message is a hate-filled, convoluted, indecipherable, and illogical utterance. It would be a fair assessment to consider Candace Owens the favorite Negro of racial bigots, a population that I do not necessarily believe represent the breadth of Conservative thought, as akin to a political prostitute who has sold her allegiance to the highest bidder. Most of her critics agree that Owens’ political allegiance shifted from the “Left” to the “Right” with the arrival of handsome payment for her rabble-rousing. The fact that Owens’ services have gone to the highest bidder once again proves that the world’s oldest profession does not always require sex.
Candace Owens’ meteoric rise once again proves that American power-brokers are not serious about correcting ills facing such as institutional racism, pervasive economic inequality, and gender inequality. If there was an ounce of seriousness behind efforts to solve the above, Congress and the droves of others who have offered coverage to Candace Owens would have asked themselves crucial questions such as the following prior to providing her a venue to spew her baseless rhetoric.
- “What are her qualifications to speak on this topic?”
- “What is her message regarding racial matters?”
- “Who financially supports her?”
- “Is Candace Owens’ voice and message a necessary one in the raging debates regarding Race?”
Apparently, none of these pertinent questions were asked prior to providing Owens with a venue to hurl her hateful message.
Although I am certain that many will attribute calls for Owens to be silenced to be little more than efforts to silence Black Conservatives. Such an analysis is thoroughly flawed and contradicts the history of diverse Black intellectual leaders.
Let’s be clear on this matter, calls for Owens to be silenced flow from the recognition that her message is an anomaly when compared to centuries of Black political thought. One needs to look no further than the robust debates that occurred between Black leaders of yesteryear (Booker T. Washington vs. William Monroe Trotter, W.E.B. DuBois vs. Marcus Garvey, Booker T. Washington vs. Anna Julia Cooper) to dismiss charges that Owens’ opponents are seeking conformity among Black political thought; we have always been non-monolithic.
My problem with Candace Owens is the undeniable fact that she, unlike those Black leaders mentioned above, has no interest in the politico-economic uplift of Black America. She has repeatedly proven that she is nothing more than a political prostitute willing to dance to whatever tune the highest bidder has chosen.
Yet, it is Candace Owens who stands before audiences with a microphone in front of her and droves of naïve youth listening to her idiocy; an idiocy that I am certain offends many Black Conservatives whose ultimate desire is the betterment of Black America via a path that they charge is not fully understood by their Leftist brethren. I have no problem with Black Conservatives seeking to liberate Black America through a path that calls for the abandonment of a well-worn narrative of inadequacy and the helping hand of white liberals. Once again, that is not what Candace Owens is doing.
Owens is deliberately working to push Race relations back to the days of Jim and Jane Crow where bigoted Whites were allowed to demand Black silence through unbridled terrorism that included but were not limited to, lynching, burnings, economic exploitation, rape, and the forceful removal of the franchise from Black hands.
In the end, there is no denying that Candace Owens is only the latest Negropean who has received the “Call to preach a terrifying Gospel” to the nation. Unlike Black leaders before her, she has not studied anything, given any thought about racial matters, or considered the repercussions of her antics on not only the nation but more importantly her soul. However, I guess that such things are a non-consideration for Owens and those soulless individuals who pay her so well.
Staff Writer; Dr. James Thomas Jones III
Official website; http://www.ManhoodRaceCulture.com
One may also connect with this brother via Twitter; DrJamestJones.