Conservatives Boycott Ebony Magazine: Universe Astounded

In what comes as a surprise to absolutely no one, internet racists, er, social Conservatives have come out flailing wildly against Ebony magazine’s recent cover choices, which depict several prominent Black men with their sons wearing hoodies and seeming to actually care for one another.

A visit to Breitbart or Twitter yesterday would have revealed the absolute outrage that Ebony would do such a thing as depict Black Americans as feeling, loving individuals who mourn the tragic death of Trayvon Martin.

Take a look at the Breitbart comments. It makes Thought Catalog’s comments section look like words out of a hymnal. This is the Republican base unfortunately, entitled people with all the answers to the world’s problems despite their total isolation from any diversity of thought or feeling. It really makes me crazy for two reasons because as a White man, I know and count many Republicans and pseudo Libertarians as my friends. The difference is that the people in my life are fiscal Conservatives concerned legitimately with spending and the role of government. However, they still believe that the government has a role in forming policy and spurring business and etc. They’re Conservative because they believe that people, all people, know how best to run things. Agree or disagree, it’s a policy viewpoint that’s rooted in hopefulness and possibility. They even like minorities and *gasp* some are even in interracial marriages. Imagine that, normal people with disparate views living side by side and having interesting conversations over coffee, even having sex and babies. It’s unfathomable!

But in the world of social Conservatives, no one can ever understand one another or have empathy or sort things out. I’ve often thought that this explains the social Conservative penchant for the Ten Commandments over the Golden Rule. One’s a lot harder than the other. With people like this, it’s all or nothing all the time, the switch is on or off, and there is no separation between issues as exhibited by this comment which got 158 upvotes.

It’s not about race. Racism, Sexism, Homophobism, etc, are about “Social Justice”.

The Democratic Party has bred victims. (No disrespect to Jimmy the Greek). They’ve incentivized out-of-wedlock births, convinced those who haven’t worked to achieve that their lack of achievement is because someone else has some of their part of the pie.

Resentment is a rampant in Obamerica. It stokes discontent, which serves the Liberal Elite masters.

Whew! Talk about tying it all together. Social Conservatives complaining about out-of-wedlock birth rates in the Black community is nothing new…it’s also nothing new in the Black community but the absolute dissonance between this poster’s complaint and the reality of the Ebony mag spread is really impressive.

Ebony’s sought to be family friendly for decades and these September covers are no different.

You have photos of fathers and sons together, a celebration of Black familial love and the relationships between fathers and sons. So, the poster above is complaining about Ebony putting forward an image that he/she/it should approve of but no, that’s not good enough. And check out that racist language, “bred victims…Liberal Elite masters.” Now that’s some angry speech right there. But this is the new thing for social Conservatives. Democratic leaders are “slave masters” which I guess means that Black voters are “slaves.” Racist? What? Who, me? It’s not just racist, it’s legitimate self harm.

This is what happens when you decide that nothing is worth thinking about deeply and when you decide no one can have a point but you. You lose your ability to care for people you don’t know or agree with. Of course we can all be crazy about some things. I’ve done it, and many of my friends, Progressives and otherwise, have been crazy as well but you have to head it off or we’ll never make any headway.

All or nothing doesn’t work. It makes us all into islands and locks us down. But, perhaps worst of all, it blinds us to beauty and beauty, as we all know, is love’s twin.