Imagine claiming to be the party that protects black people while stealing their culture and history. That is exactly what elements of the progressive movement is doing today. Unfortunately, as much as us conservatives love to pounce on certain issues, we have neglected some of the blatantly racist practices of the hard left.

As I indicated previously, I am writing a series of articles designed to give conservatives better arguments when it comes to the black community. I’m doing this because the right must arm itself with better rhetoric and persuasive arguments if they wish to make progress with black voters. We have already talked about the inherent racism of the open borders policies favored on the left. But what about their shameless misuse of black history to appeal to illegal aliens?

In a tweet promoting a nationwide school walkout day for illegal immigrants, United We Dream, a youth-led immigrant rights organization, posted a video depicting black Americans advocating for civil rights in the ‘60s. It shows black student activists staging walkouts to protest segregation in the educational system. So why is this important?

The problem here is that the video attempts to link the struggle of black citizens fighting for equal rights and foreigners who entered the country illegally. It was a cynical attempt to piggyback on their battle against racist policies.

The reactions to the videos were mostly from blacks who were outraged at the blatant co-opting of the black American experience. The responses were quite enlightening, but not surprising. Black Mountain Hotep responded:

“Y’all need to stop using Black people and our history to help you out. It never does not work in the reverse.

Hispanics ran black people out of their neighborhoods. And there still is a heavy amount of racial discrimination between Black’s and hispanics today.”

Another user wrote, “This is a bad conflation. One can build real solidarity movements and not just co-opt history for one’s own purposes.”

A user aligned with the #ADOS (American Descendents of Slaves) movement didn’t mince words:

“There is no birthright for equality!!  You co-opted the 14th amendment meant for black Americans the same way you are trying to shoehorn yourselves in to our struggle with zero to no skin in the game.  This ends now with #ADOSRising 🇺🇸”

Another #ADOS follower also chimed in:

“Don’t compare illegal immigrants to ADOS EVER!! let them fight their own battles and dont try to ally with us now!  They are quiet on OUR issues so dont use us as a prop now! We good leave us out of it! Good luck #ADOSVSEVERYBODY”

Last, but not least, one user even tagged the Democratic National Committee and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: “@DNC @SpeakerPelosi the Civil Right fought in the 1960’a were literally for the descendants of enslaved people, Black people. This is a misuse of that legacy which remains a dream deferred!”

But here’s the important part: Most of the black Americans responding to the video did not identify as conservatives. But they certainly saw through the disgusting display and made their feelings known. Actions like these anger black Americans on both the left and the right and this is one of the issues conservatives should highlight when discussing racism in politics.

However, it’s also important to note that these are not the only ways the progressive left seeks to exploit the black American experience. Ever hear the term “Person of Color?” Of course you have. It’s one of the ways the left identifies minorities.

While the term might seem innocent enough, a deeper look reveals that it is just another attempt to erase the unique experience of black Americans by lumping us in with other minorities and pretending that the struggles of black Americans are somehow shared by others in the same fashion.

The lovely Kira Davis addressed this issue in a piece she wrote a few months ago. As is her wont, she did not hold back:

“Being a ‘woman of color’ is not the same thing as being a Black woman, and yet the progressive Left has decided it is. A woman of Indian or Mexican heritage may possibly find herself coming up against some kind of discrimination here and there but it is not, nor will it ever be the same thing as what Black women have faced in this nation historically and to this day.”

But she didn’t stop there. “I resent having to tie my heritage to that of other people who may have no history in this country prior to 40 or 50 years ago; people who don’t have communities that still deal with the fallout of slavery, Jim Crow, and the bloody civil rights struggle,” she wrote.

Davis rightly labels the use of the term as “a naked attempt to hijack the unique civil rights struggles of Black America in order to hitch a ride to Victim Town.”

Not only do progressives push for policies that have devastated large swaths of the black community, but their movement also seeks to undermine the struggles that black Americans have experienced. They wish to use black history as a means to legitimize the victimhood status of other ethnic groups, and black Democrats aren’t too happy about it.

As you already know, the hard left is quite fond of pretending that those who hold different political views are racist. But as I’ve stated before, much of their race-baiting is an attempt to cover their more racist tendencies. Their relegating black culture to nothing more than a political tool is evidence of this. If conservatives wish to be smart, we would highlight this every chance we get.

Instead of constantly defending ourselves against charges of racism, conservatives must illustrate the racist outcomes of the left’s machinations and point out how the damage they are doing to black culture and the overall black community. This will get us much further than using the same ineffective talking points to address black voters. The hard left constantly gives us ammo. It’d be a shame to let it go to waste, right?

Follow me on Twitter: @JeffOnTheRight

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