The above photo is of former Maryland Lt. Governor Boyd Rutherford, a Black Republican, but not the one I recently spoke with. I’d been searching for a Black Republican to engage with since 2012, which I wrote about in 2017.
I thought I’d found someone about a year ago, but he ghosted me.
I should have been looking closer to home. I'd lost touch with a former co-worker from my days in corporate America who I knew to be a staunch Republican. A mutual friend put us back in touch, and we talked on a number of subjects, including what it's like to be a Black Republican. He wasn’t your average Black Republican because he’d served in the administrations of three Republican presidents: Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and the first Trump administration.
One of my first questions was, “How did you become a Republican?” His answer was the first of many that defied my expectations. I expected to hear that he was raised in a Republican family and joined the red army because of family history, which is how most Black Democrats became Democrats. He indicated that he’d become a Republican in 1975 after undergoing a carefully thought-out decision-making process. He attended a meeting of the bipartisan Council of 100 (mostly Republican) and decided to cast his lot with Republicans. He also felt it would be harder to make a difference as a young Black Democrat, of which there were many.
Ironically, he ended up being part of a Republican family, with his father becoming a Republican in his later years and his mother working for Republicans. Among his influences were books by Black economist Thomas Sewell and a general feeling that Black people shouldn’t be too dependent on government. Our discussion wasn’t like the back-and-forth shouting matches on cable news stations. Each person could complete his thoughts, and we likely agreed on more than we disagreed.
My friend expressed that having Black representation in both major political parties should be a good thing. He acknowledged that he was “catching hell” from other family members and told our mutual friend the same thing about his D-9 fraternity brothers.
I think he would have us consider that he and other Black Republicans work from the inside to improve things in the Black community. He recognized Herschel Walker wasn’t the best candidate and didn’t respond to Byron Donalds' history as a drug dealer when I brought it up. He later shared that he was unaware of Donald’s past, which wasn’t broadcast loudly even in his home state of Florida. I think he would say they aren’t representative of the entire Republican Party any more than some Black Democrats.
We spent time discussing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). His father was once the president of an HBCU, and we discussed the chronic underfunding of HBCUs. In one of my friend’s careers, he lobbied the Texas Legislature for increased HBCU funding. We were a ways off in our definitions of DEI. He considered it a more recent phenomenon since the George Floyd videos, but I believe it‘s now lumped in with affirmative action and WMBE programs.
I brought up Pete Hegseth stopping military recruiting at the Black Engineer of the Year Awards (BEYA). Assuming the military continues recruiting at non-Black events, the end result is to diminish the pool of minority recruits, which I think is the goal. At least one active-duty general agrees with me, calling the decision “f*cking racist.” Suppose the federal government stops recruiting at HBCUs and continues pressuring private companies to eliminate DEI programs. We both agreed the primary beneficiaries of minority contracting programs are white women.
We finally got to the elephant in the room, Donald Trump. My friend didn’t approve of governing by Executive Orders, all of which can be undone by the next president. He felt that within two years, Trump would become a lame duck and see a loss of power. He seemed to view Trump in the long term as someone who would complete his term and then be replaced, though he may still be influential among Republicans. He acknowledges that Republicans are now Trump’s Party though he believes more moderate Republicans will rise once Trump is gone.
He didn’t spend as much time criticizing Democrats as one might suspect. He was generally disappointed in Democratic Black leadership, which he felt could be doing more for the Black people, and less concerned about maintaining power.
After our lengthy conversation ended, I thought of all the questions I could have asked but didn’t. We’ve agreed to continue our discussions. He’s sent me some material to read, which I have. One point I’d like to make is that we were no less friends at the end of our conversation than at the beginning. I’ve lost a few friends over politics in the last ten years. This doesn’t always have to be the case. The key is to talk with each other and not always at each other. I’m hoping to see more of that across America.
This post originally appeared on Medium and is edited and republished with author's permission. Read more of William Spivey's work on Medium. And if you dig his words, buy the man a coffee.