A new group called Conservative Clergy of Color believes the only “systemic racism” that exists in America today is found in the Democratic Party itself.
“Democrats and their foot soldiers on the left insist there is a rot in our country, but the only rot I see is the rot that has festered in the very foundations of the Democratic Party – a party that was built from the ground up on the backs of oppressed blacks,” said Bishop Aubrey Shines, one of four founding members of the group.
Shines, a native of Chicago, was joined by Reverend Derek McCoy of Maryland, Reverend M.J. Reid of Detroit, and Pastor Francisco Vega of New York in launching the organization.
“The data says systemically – in the United States of America in 2020 – there is no systemic racism,” Shines said during a Monday interview on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast.
“Now, if you would have asked the same questions some decades ago – sure, there has been. We can all point to that particular dynamic.
“However, that dynamic has primarily come through one conduit, and that conduit has been and, still by the way prevails, and it is called the Democratic National Party,” he added.
The group was officially launched over the weekend with the publication of an op-ed by Shines in The Washington Times.
“Former slaves and their children were forced for decades to endure the cruel, wretched Jim Crow laws that kept them from advancing in the South. And who was all too happy to keep those laws in place? The Democrats,” Shines said in his op-ed.
He said the Republican Party platform addressed the “rights of African Americans in the early 20th century,” while the Democratic Party was “lynching and terrorizing blacks in the South.”
“The Democrats, those paragons of virtue, refused to include anti-lynching planks or planks addressing racial rights in their platform for all of the early 20th century,” he said, noting that President Lyndon B. Johnson “was fond of using” racial slurs “behind closed doors.”
“Systemic racism is indeed a vile problem, one that must be addressed immediately. When Democrats stop pointing fingers and look in the mirror, we can begin the conversation about where the systemic racism truly lies,” he wrote in conclusion.
All four founders of Conservative Clergy of Color – Bishop Shines, Reverend McCoy, Reverend M.J. Reid, and Pastor Vega – joined Bannon Monday on his popular “War Room” show to discuss their new organization.
Shines said the mainstream media projects the view that “all blacks think alike,” and that the mission of his group is to take an accurate look at racial issues in America, and not through “the prism of emotions.”
He then elaborated on the arguments laid out in his op-ed, saying:
An individual who comes in and doesn’t know anything about America, if he or she were to take a look at the data, here is what they would find historically.
They would find this concept of slavery. Where did it come from?
Well, it was birthed out of a party that did not view individuals as divinely inspired by God, but they viewed individuals by what they could extrapolate from them. Now, if you were to go further and ask the second or third, fourth question and followed this train of logic this is what you find.
It has come out of a party system. That party is called the Democratic Party. And anyone who understands basic history would know that. This was the idea of the Democrats. By the way, there was some opposition and that opposition came in the name of a different party called the GOP. That’s why their platform was established to eradicate this concept of slavery.
So, if one wants to start with systemic racism – if you do not start in its genesis, at its origin – then you would have no idea. Because if you look at it today, you would only assume, ‘Oh my God, how horrible are these people that are called white people.’
But let’s remember it was these white people – with other black people – that came together, formed a party and said, ‘This is not God’s way, this is not God’s idea.’ That party was the GOP. That’s just fact. It’s not my opinion. It’s documented incredibly well throughout our history.
And so if we are going to look at something systemic you must look at its origin. And if you follow it you’ll find that hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives trying to eradicate it, black and white. If you continue to follow it, you will find that laws were developed, even after the Constitution began to come into fruition for all people, that there was still a party that opposed it systemically. It was still the Democratic Party.
And if you continue to follow it through Jim Crow laws, through Planned Parenthood, you’ll find that this systemic idea still is permeated and it is still through the Democratic Party. And that is the party that is continuing to try to divide us, as it did in its genesis, by skin tone. And I’m telling you that’s not American at all. That’s called the Democratic Party.
Watch the full, hour long interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZ3XG_faMNU
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Anthony Gockowski is managing editor of The Minnesota Sun and The Ohio Star. Follow Anthony on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Conservative Clergy of Color” by Bannon War Room.
