From a longtime reader:

You know I am a black republican (one btw- whose entire family looked at me like I was nuts when I turned 18 (not quite 20 years ago) and told them I had registered as a republican). Most of my friends are black and democrats and very liberal and that is regardless of level of education or career. I and some acquaintances have been having a discussion via group emails (I call it a discussion despite the fact it often turns ugly aimed at me and a few other moderately conservative voices on the email) over race, race relations, interracial dating and of course Obama’s presidential bid. The group is comprise of a few lawyers, and most people have some college education or above. The answer to Derb’s question over a color-blind society is mixed – among moderate to conservative blacks- yes, among liberal (ie authentic blacks)- no, not really. One of the main discussion points has been to define “black” or “blackness” and to a person among the liberals -having immediate African or African-American parent or grandparent is not enough, you must be one of them and one of them generally means you must be very liberal, very pro-big government, somewhat anti-capitalism and definitely continue to hold the black community blameless (or near enough) for any of our community’s problems (high rate of children born out of wedlock, crime, poverty, high school drop out rate and other education performance issues, etc) and place the blame on a racist society. Such notions to the few black moderates and conservatives on the discussion thread are both deeply depressing and a repeated source for those authentic blacks to question our “blackness”- being called white or toms (as in uncle) or sellouts is not rare. In order to even raise the foregoing issues you must first be qualified as authentic black- meaning- conservative blacks, whites and republicans are racist for pointing out such issues (see reaction to Bill Cosby’s comments from some liberals). A definite point of contention is that the more educated and financially successful blacks on the thread are attacked not exactly for such success (Oprah is worshipped like she has joined the holy trinity especially among the women) but for holding non-liberal views often believed by the authentic blacks as the result of success. Black media and black “leaders” have so successfully integrated the idea upon blacks, especially poor, that supporting republicans is tantamount to selling out (to white people). Although most, even the authentic blacks, see Jesse as little more than a hustler peddling race issues to enrich himself and his family. The so called black leadership (a group I never voted for but then as a conservative maybe I don’t get invited to our meetings)- promotes dependency on government and antipathy towards republicans and conservatives (despite the fact that on social issues blacks are generally very conservative). All black conservatives are generally not really black, -Justice Thomas is evil (though none of the non-lawyers have ever read any of his decisions- he is conservative, married to white woman, appointed by republican, therefore evil no discussion is necessary)- rational discussion on him has been conceded by the conservative and even the moderates (who don’t necessarily agree with Justice Thomas but think blind devotion to hating all things conservative and republican is retarded). The group concedes voting at 90% rate for any and all democrats is completely squandering our political capital but still none can stomach the idea of voting republican and discussing doing so is met with venom from the authentic blacks- even one of the more moderate voices said he would rather loose a testicle then vote republican. On Obama, he is going to have an issue with the “authentic blacks”, some acknowledge that since blacks are a minority and can’t elect him or anyone to national office on our votes alone, he will have to represent us all, which is a problem for the authentic blacks who expect him to champion each and everyone of their grievances er issues. A few already complain he didn’t speak out enough or do enough about Katrina (despite his limited power to do anything a Senator). I do disagree with blacks supporting Hilary over Obama- that is people telling pollsters what they want to hear or more likely the polled blacks support HRC because they presume that Obama can not win presidency, if Obama gets the nomination, he will get near 100% of black vote, but then getting black vote is not really important until he gets the nomination and Hilary will do everything to stop that- though she has to walk a fine line, a white liberal can say really racist things about a conservative black (see maureen dowd comments about Justice Thomas) but not against a black liberal- if Obama is deemed an authentic black and I have no doubt he will be- such attacks will blow up in HRC’s and any democrats face badly. BTW- excellent post I found myself in total agreement with your analysis and it depressed me more.