On: Romney Redux -- The Governor’s tough sell

If the NAACP is wise, it will issue Mitt Romney an apology forthwith.

There was no cause for its members to jeer Romney as they did Wednesday. A presidential candidate should be treated with the same regard and reserve due any man who graciously attends an event. Instead, Romney was on the receiving end of conduct more suitable for a sports game. Perhaps he exhibited an overabundance of aplomb, but he was nothing but respectful when explaining his views. It is respect which should have been returned in kind.

Yet instead of an apology, the century old organization merely noted that Romney’s agenda was “at odds with what the NAACP stands for” and that they “appreciate that he was courageous and took the opportunity to speak with [them] directly.” 

Well. Romney’s remarks were a mere 25 minutes, neither extensive nor torturous enough for good will to evanesce. Polite applause would have sufficed in reinforcing what everyone knew to be true: No person present was an undecided voter. Barack Obama has been president for four years; Mitt Romney has been at his heels for nearly as long. We know who these men are. We know their positions. Anything they could possibly say we’ve heard before.

Romney at the recent NAACP Convention

But then we listened to Romney’s speech, and the last two presuppositions became cloudy. Here’s the relevant portion:

“If someone had told us in the 1950s or 1960s that a black citizen would serve as the forty-fourth president, we would have been proud and many would have been surprised. Picturing that day, we might have assumed that the American presidency would be the very last door of opportunity to be opened. Before that came to pass, every other barrier on the path to equal opportunity would surely have come down.

“Of course, it hasn’t happened quite that way. Many barriers remain. Old inequities persist. In some ways, the challenges are even more complicated than before. And across America — and even within your own ranks — there are serious, honest debates about the way forward.”

Romney then expatiated on the black unemployment rate, the heighted duration of black unemployment, the number of black youth trapped in America’s failing school system, and the degradation of black neighborhoods and families. “[Y]ou in particular,” he said, “are entitled to an answer.”

Americans can (and will) debate about how these problems came to be, why they persist and what should be done.  But step back for a moment; contained within Romney’s speech is an important conceit. At least since Barry Goldwater, African Americans have legitimately wondered whether Republicans understood the essence of what Romney said.

It has been a routine refrain since President Obama’s inauguration that one black man in public housing doesn’t mean the country has entered a post-racial eutopia. But now it seems this essential premise has been granted: African Americans face specific difficulties the rest of the country doesn’t, and are disproportionately impacted by challenges the nation faces as a whole. 

If Romney’s words were any indication, we can move past debating that premise and onto what should be done. Romney has ideas as to how this might be achieved, and like any candidate on the stump, they can be rejected or accepted come November.

Most in the black community will reject them. But there is now agreement that this is a debate worth having, and that African Americans specifically have much to gain or lose based on where the country falls.

                                                

That’s an important step forward. It’s a pity some of this subtle substance went unnoticed because of boos from the crowd. 

“The way forward”
When I last mentioned Mitt Romney’s attempt to garner black votes, I wrote that in order to broaden their base, Republicans were relegated to playing the long game. Now it appears they are gearing up for another attempt.

Let’s be honest: Romney didn’t win anyone over with his speech. Granting a premise is imperative in any debate, but it isn’t sufficient to win votes.

Still, none of this should detract from the credit Romney deserves for not treating the black vote as if it were a foregone conclusion, as if it were a monolith -- even if it is. I applaud Romney’s efforts to make inroads within the black community, and the reader should as well.

African Americans must embrace an “all hands on deck” philosophy if they wish to move forward. For any real changes to take root, more than a few of those hands must come from Republicans.