Neo Conservative and Arthur Ashe

By

Sampson I.M Onwuka

To define Neo-conservatives or Neo-Cons requires academic assessment and consensus of opinions. But this process of determination is purely and totally contextual and rely very little of past and historical precedent than anything. For how else could this be the happen? There are schools of political sciences that distribute their translation of the word conservative along the new and modern day reality of building a nation from several unrelated groups.

But this is not that easy to describe especially from the spectacle of the Greeks who vented their anger over a whole line of differences from one form to another. But for all intent of history and something else - how the world around translate their difficulties is an orientation to the statuesque.

The motivation is the law in understanding the Neo-Conservatives (Neo-Cons) and the outcomes are cultural relativism, the last two words - cultural-relativism is my definition of Neo-Conservative especially from African American perspective. Define U.S as a country, it is such an example and in particular - an example regarding a deliberate attempt to transform the lives of it's citizens and from those who lived under these conditions in time past.

It is meeting to discuss the small bracket of Neo-Cons from African American perspective from learned experiences of industrial giants such as Arthur Ashe who is an American conservative.

Arthur Ashe

Perhaps there is wisdom in drawing some blood from African scientist and teachers, Joseph L. Graves JR. (2001), for instance revising some basic perspectives on African American history, that for instance, "The presentation of Moors in Elizabethan drama before Othello consisted of only foolish or wicked characters. For example, there was Muly Harmet, the "Negro Moore" in George Peele's Battle of Alcazar (Ca.1588), probably the earliest Moor Villain; Aaron, the "barbarous Moore" in Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus (1593 - 1594); and Eleazar in Marlowe's Lust's Dominion (1599). These characters were used to fulfill the dramatic expectations of this period, whereby a man's color revealed his villainy." From this adapted disguise of the influence of social situation in drama situation, the book 'Emperor new cloths' elaborates on how the future is also past of the past, how the blood types of most African Americans are so mingled with others that the original Y genotypes are no longer visible.

Consider the controlling influence of these saying from a drama's standpoint, it becomes clear that characters that aid our visions on Africans and Africans in diaspora shift with age and with themes ranging from conservations such as Ashe, liberals, Democrat and Republicans - each, best able to define the age which attracted the largest vote from African Americans. Republicans for instance, attracted large African American following following the end of the Civil War by Abraham Lincoln - who was a Republican not a Democrat. Then the advent of the 1920's great depression led to the creation of Welfare and Social Security under FDR, that also yielded a large commitment from African Americans from the end of the Second World War till lately.

Was Martin Luther King a Neo-Con or not? Was Malcolm X a Neo-Con or not? The only way to understand this question is compare the early years of Malcom X and his influences compare it to the early influences of Martin Luther King, each accountable to their transition and transformational years, each divided by that experience of their past – or so it seems in their later years. 

But this is not the issue; we are trying to define Neo-con from the plural interpretation of Black theology and the lessons of Civil Rights Era and how two fronting disciplines at some point together at Harvard; Henry Louis Gates Jr., and Cornel West – both former members of the Black Panther group and each concerned about their own discipline and pursuit.

These men and perhaps other groups of interest elsewhere do not divide along the lines of political interest and Neo-Conservative or the Liberal; they help us understand how to persuade the African American society and the Country at large by the underlying principle of Neo-Conservative. 

We may have seen Pan Africanism leading to the age of Independence in Africa, may or may not have seen the cultural issue of Civil Rights America and New Deal which shifted the political weight of African Americans from Republican to Democrat, seen the voting rights issue and breaking down of certain institutions which survive the Civil Wars in United States. The Civil era was no doubt water shed, each shedding its meaning, 

Former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. A Neo-con?

Not likely.

But the issue of a nation and its people is a challenge for political scientist who decides how to shape the structure of the whole country and how several people/s of world could possibly lead their lives in one Country.  

It is experience that gives us law says Emerson, but from this experience and the sharing of independent opinions, we increase our chances of striking a balance. Experience leads us to determine the political structure of our society, how the fair and sometimes fatal play on reaching compromise lift a case to a whole new level especially for Neo-Cons.

By experience we make reference to the Lawn Tennis legend, Arthur Ashe, who is renowned especially for his last years attempt at overcoming an inevitable and at confronting a very serious public issue.

Recent intellectual discusses on Neo-Cons raise the need to question who is in fact a Neo-Con and what it is. These progressives in American Society or any society of the World lack the size and envelop theme necessary for being a political party, it is a “persuasion” says Irving Kristol, which from examples available to us lingers between reality and anti-capitalist agenda. It torches an American Agenda and its reason to exist. Since the advent of 9/11 incident in New York, it is responsible for advertising 

How persuasive is a persuasion? Arthur Ashe letter to his daughter Camera (1993), we read the following descript information and ultimate signing, that,

 “I may not be walking with you all the way, or even much of the way, as I walk with you now. Don’t be angry with me if I am not there in person, alive a well, when you need me. I would like nothing more than to be with you always. Do not feel sorry for me if I am gone. When we were together, I loved you deeply and you gave me so much happiness I can never repay you. Camera, wherever I am when you feel sick at heart and weary of life, or when you stumble and fall and don’t know if you can get up again, think of me. I will be watching and smiling and cheering you on.”  How persuasive it’s persuasion?

We can argue that there is nothing political about the above notions of farewell, there is an understanding that even from silence the levels of separation is not impregnable and like President Obama often say, ‘What holds us together is more than what separates us.’ The line may have arrived from Chinua Achebe and his Igbo proverbs, but in understanding the great demands of republic and how the republic aspire for the future can be reduced to the political institutions that now exist today, all of which are means and ways to forcing the gaps between the peoples of world and the nation into an envelope theory.

Why is neo-conservatism an opposite of melting pot? It is an opposite since the whole definition of the ‘persuasion’ can only be fully grasped from a fracture, that if a center or core exist, they exist by law and by circumstance which 

But this is closer to an inquiry than a thesis on reasonable subject for political scientist.  Since the advent of Iraqi invasion and the political triumphs of George Bush, this idea of a neo-con has received a staying power in the political framework of U.S. and has remained part of the American political corner stone. 

Late mayor of Detroit, C.A Young.

In his 1993 memoir, Arthur Ashe reasoned that the themes of leadership and the place of African American leaders evolve with a new definition for the American Society. In his words, “If American Society had the strength to do what should be done to ensure that justice prevails for all, then affirmative action would be exposed for what it is; an insult to the people it is intended to help. What I and others want is an equal chance, under one setoff rules, an on a tennis Court.” 

There is no doubt we recognize the need to force the hands of the government in breaking down some of the tough doors holding African Americans backwards or other Africans elsewhere, but Ashe’s argument suggest a leniency towards conservative African America approach, that he is perhaps outside the definition of Neo-Conservative in context of cultural relativism saving for the issue of personal pursuit which is determined by our past.

This past separating the experiences of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X sponsor a defense mechanism, establishes its priorities - our priority from fears (justifiable fears), which when estimated along the lines of the word priority and right to choice (discrimination) gives us the secular issues of voting and political party and the choice and conservative exercise of these laws created for us or by us.

In the words of Arthur Ashe, “Practically, affirmative action is probably necessary. But I would not want to know that I received a job simply because I am black. Affirmative action tends to undermine the spirit of individual initiative. Such is human nature; why struggle to succeed when you can have something for nothing?”  

Some recognition may be given to those who popular sources suggest to be pioneer in this political discourse, especially Irving Kristol, alumni on City College and a leader in men and ideas and how societies are shaped. There are others who could be compared directed with him but the idea of neo-con is elder to all the names living now including the nation itself. 

For a start, Abraham Lincoln is invoked all over the world for defining democracy – ‘Government of the people for people and by the people’.  The elective process of determining what’s left and what’s right in any society is also elder to Lincoln and his republican party. 

It is no child play and no child behind act to suggest that the elements of political identify suffices with the Republic and the Democrat or any comparative other, but the nature of any society, especially when they attain some level of stagnation of equilibrium trap like someone used in quantifying China at the turn of the last two century and how a group of English and French men managed to divide and conquer these empire with relative ease. In this case, the rate of growth in any society, either young or venerable is can be reduced to how they understand their society and above all, how act for changes. 

U.S for a start was founded with direct and possessing intent to end the inherited problems of European society; class, indentured servitude, forced imprisoned, slave and gender bias. The authors of the Constitution understood their society and what needed to be done, but the question is how to achieve it. How do they end slavery and class problems in U.S without facing off the English   

Arthur Ashe, “I like being reckless, as long as I was reckless only on the tennis court, as long as I won.”  Arthur Ashe.The opening page and acknowledgment to the book begins with the statement by Arnold Rampersad that Arthur Ashe that “Arthur Robert Ashe Jr., died of Pneumonia on the afternoon of Saturday, February 6th, 1993, at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical center, in Manhattan. He was buried the following Wednesday at Woodland Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia.” 

“If one’s reputation is a possession, then of all my possessions, my reputation means most to me. Nothing comes even close to it in importance. Now and then, I have wondered whether my reputation matters too much to me, but I can no more easily renounce my concern with what other people think of me than I can will myself to stop breathing. No matter what I do, or where or when I do it, I feel the eyes of other on me, judging me.”

On African American Society

  

“The problem of leadership continues to plague black America. The very fact that we speak of “leaders” and “role models” as much as we do tells of your lack of power and organization. No reasonably coherent body of people would think in terms of “leaders” and “role models”. Jewish American, for example do not have leaders and role models, as we define them, even though certain highly influential people are Jewish. But we depend on all sorts of blacks to be leaders and role models for the community. We even think of Athletes and ineffective record of Black power – young power in young people – vision, learning.”

S.O------On the question of Neo-Cons

 

“We are also afflicted, it seems to be, with the messiah complex, which is another sign that we as a people are wandering in the wilderness. I often think that if the blacks of Memphis had organized themselves properly, they would not have felt the need to send for Martin Luther King, Jr…THE Messiah – to help them with a local crisis involving garbage collectors. Then he would not have been killed, like a messiah, doing what others should have done for themselves.”

“I must also confess, although I know I may offend some people, that I did not fully share their passion for Malcolm X. I was fascinated his autobiography, but until his conversion following his pilgrimage to Mecca, I found him in other ways hard to accept. Having lived under white-imposed segregation, I was not about to deliver myself to the black – imposed segregation central to the Nation of Islam.”

“I think the Spike Lee motion picture, whatever one may think of it as cinematic art, gives a fairly rounded portrait of the man; and yet, in the world, Malcolm lives mainly as an embodiment of black rage at his defiance of Whites, and Martin Luther King, Jr., seems to have seems to have few followers or admires among those who admire Malcolm. It is as if King spoke only to Whites, Malcolm only to blacks”, who according to him seem to have genuine ideas or ideals….

“In this category I would place New Yorkers such as the Reverend Al Sharpton and Professor Leonard Jefferies. Such men may mean well but need to be challenged.” 

Al Sharpton defenses of Tawana Brawley.

Al Sharpton courtesy of the Blaze.

“Jefferies, the chair for nineteen years of the Department of Black Studies at City College of the City University of New York, represents to one the almost complete subversion of an intellect by race. His blanket, pseudo-scientific attacks on Whites and Jews in particular, are indefensible – and he himself has hardly defended them, since he has published virtually nothing of his own in his years as a professor at the college.”  

 
 Leonard Jefferies  @ City College, CUNY (melanindvd) 

…invited some people to his announcement and Defeat Aids

“Among those who came were then former mayor of Atlanta. Andrew Young and Douglas wilder when he was lieutenant – governor of Virginia.”

“Although Sharpton and others like him in the African American would gain the headlines. I am grateful for those other blacks who quietly prepare themselves to occupy positions of Authority and to represent all of us in a morally responsible way. I refer to talented, foresighted blacks such as Andrew Young, the former U.S ambassador to United Nations.

"Douglass Wilder the governor of Virginia; John Lewis, the former Civil rights worker, now a congressman from Georgia, Maxine Waters, the California congresswoman whose district includes many people tragically affected by the recent Los Angeles disturbances; Kurt Schmoke, the Mayor of Baltimore; Maynard Jackson, the Mayor of Atlanta; Willie Brown, the speaker of the California Assembly; Sharpe James, the Mayor of Newark; and David Dinkins, the Mayor of New York.”

Former Mayor of New York David Dinkins (fronpagemag.com)

“In many ways I am philosophically closest to Young, our temperaments also seems almost to mesh. An ordained minister, Young is a reconciler rather a divider of person; he is pragmatic in a way that apparently involves no compromise of principle."

 
 Andrew Young (Mayor of Atlanta 1982 - 1990)

 "True pragmatism, I believe, takes into account the moral consequences of an action. If the action leads to immorality, then one has not been genuinely pragmatic, merely opportunistic. And yet must be able to act. Speaking about the need to make decisions, Doug Wilder said to me once, “you have to be willing to pull the trigger.

First you have to think you are right, that “what you are doing is morally defensible, that it is good for the people you wish to help, The you have to be willing to pull the trigger.”

Douglass Wilder - Governor of Virginia ( )

“I like being reckless, as long as I was reckless only on tennis Court, and long as I won”