GOP Presidential candidate Herman Cain is catching a lot of flak over comments he recently made on CNN about African-American people “being convinced to vote Democratic no matter what”.  To many African-American (let’s just say “Black” for the sake of keystrokes) people this was an absolute outrage, and turnoff before they even take the time to hear Cain’s reasoning for this statement.  Many Blacks are so taken back at the comments that they have gone completely stone faced to the facts he gives to back them up.  Many have stated that politically it will be a disaster, as they feel he has put down an entire group of people.

So did Cain commit political suicide?  Maybe, but I feel what he said has some validity, and here’s why.

Every election year I speak with most of those in my family and in “My” Black community, and what I find is that it is never a question of who the candidate is or their policy , but if they are a Democrat. The subject of how their plan or agenda is laid out never comes up.  If they are going to raise taxes, or what they are going to do to create jobs for American people never comes up.  If they are for or against Gay marriage never comes up.  If they are pro-life, or pro-choice, never comes up.  It’s always “are they a Democrat”.   That has almost always been the determining factor.  Sad but true.  When President Barack Obama was running for office, there was no question who you were supposed to be voting for if you were a Black person living in this country.  It was not supposed to even be a second thought.  If you even pondered 2 seconds when asked you received a look of utter amazement and risked losing your “Black card”.  Punishable by being locked in a room for 48 hours listening to Earth, Wind, and Fire, Stevie Wonder, Maze, and Lil Wayne just to earn part of it back!  This is the mindset that people had when President Obama was running.  Right or wrong, good policy  or not, he was absolutely the only choice .  If you read one of my previous blog post,  I detailed how difficult of a decision that election was for me because of my conservative beliefs and feelings.  I felt that I owed the people that died for me to have the right to vote, more than just a hap-hazard decision just because the candidate was Black and Democratic.  As bad as I wanted to see history made, with the first Black president for this country, I still had a duty to those who never even got the opportunity to vote just because they were Black.  I forced myself to truly look at the candidates and their policies (not party) before making a decision. I eventually did vote for our president, (cause I know I had many of the Black readers hanging! ) but it was not without prayer and really viewing the agenda of those running.

My feeling is this, we as Black people have to really analyze why we do many of the things that we do.  Why do we cut the ham in half when we cook it in the roasting pan?  Is it because it makes it taste better, or is it because our great, great, Grandmother did it that way?  Maybe she did it because that was the only way it would actually fit in the pan, and never told us. Why are you and your family Baptist? Because that is what your great, great, great, Grandfather woke up one morning and decided you all looked Baptist that day?  Or was it because the slave owner of the plantation that those before you worked on was a Baptist that took them to church with him to sit in the balcony!  So they considered themselves Baptist from then on.  I know that sounds harsh, but many of the things we do, we do just because those before us did them, “so it must be the right thing to do”.

Lose the mind-set people!!  Or at least stop condemning those that have……

Herman Cain comments: