“According to the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, 76 percent of Blacks identify themselves as Democrats. However, 5 percent are Republicans and 16 percent prefer the independent label, though many independents lean toward the GOP.”

According to the numbers you have chosen for your argument, if I were putting together a six- or seven-member panel that would be representative of Black people, one INDEPENDENT vs. five or six Democrats would be about right. But even if I had a panel of TWENTY, I could put just in one Black Republican and four independents and STILL reflect the community, according to the numbers you have chosen for your argument.

My point: the Republicans have done a lousy job of convincing Black people to believe in their ideals, and so there are not enough Black Republicans to often get in positions of authority on any local or national level within Black organizations. That said, if even five percent of Black people are Republican, that’s well over a million people. As an independent, I would love to see what results Black Republicans, working together independent of the big organizations, could achieve for the communities they are in. Nothing succeeds like success — and if Black Republicans want more seats at the table, they are going to have to bring a lot more than assertions about diversity giving them a right to sit at that table. Again, according to your own numbers, I could put together 20 people for work projects and STILL only need to include one Black Republican to be representative of the community. But if that one Black Republican could bring me better results than his or her liberal counterparts, I would have no problem making more room at my table for his or her Republican counterparts. But complaints are not going to get Republicans to the tables of influence in the community; only community-benefiting results are.