Stop Ignoring Giants Like Justice Clarence Thomas During the Celebration of Black History Month

Nearly halfway into Black History Month, an ideal time to celebrate the significant and consequential contributions of African-Americans, I’ve yet to see mainstream media shine their bright lights on some of the many black giants of the conservative movement.

I think we know why. Leftwing activists have been calling conservative African-Americans race traitors for decades. During 2020 Election day coverage, MSNBC’S Joy Reid slandered Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas by calling him “Uncle Clarence” – a racial slur suggesting the esteemed judge was beholden to his white superiors.

If conservative giants like Justice Thomas aren’t being maligned, they’re being ignored. Don’t hold your breath to see The New York Times or Washington Post hail the High Court’s longest-serving conservative jurist this month. That’s because for the left, someone’s race is only worth celebrating if they align with their radical point of view.

It wasn’t always this way, of course.

Before there was “Black History Month,” there was “Negro History Week” – first established in 1926. Its motives then were much the same as they are supposed to be now – to call attention to black Americans whose words and works positively shaped and advanced our nation.

It was President Gerald Ford who became the first chief executive to codify the month-long commemoration to “honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”

Ironically, political and ideological bias are now neglecting the recognition of many of the outstanding black men and women in our midst. Clarence Thomas is at the top of the list of ignored heroes – but he’s hardly alone.

At 91 years of age, Thomas Sowell is one of America’s most brilliant writers and thinkers. A former college professor, the columnist is bold and unapologetic in his defense of liberty, often cutting to the source of liberalism’s selfish motives. “When you want to help people, you tell them the truth,” he wrote. “When you want to help yourself, you tell them what they want to hear.”

The Daily Wire’s Candace Owens is just 32 years of age. A popular speaker on college campuses, Ms. Owens is a woman of strong Christian faith who once said, “It’s incredible what Jesus Christ can do to any person who will let Him.” She’s a fierce proponent of personal responsibility, once writing: “My challenge to every American is simple: reject the Left’s victim narrative and do it yourself. Because we will never realize the true potential that this incredible country has to offer—in the land of the free and the home of the brave—if we continue to be shackled by the great myth of government deliverance.”

Dr. Shelby Steele has been a popular guest on the Focus on the Family daily radio program. A senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, this articulate defender of freedom believes the liberal stranglehold on the racial issues is loosening. “I believe there is in fact a new racial order slowly and tenuously emerging, and that we blacks are swimming through rough seas to reach it,” he recently wrote in the Wall Street Journal.

Dr. Condoleeza Rice has broken numerous race and gender ceilings throughout her career, including being appointed the first female African-American secretary of state and national security adviser.

Many Christian conservatives have been championing and celebrating Dr. Ben Carson for decades. A man of deep Christian faith, Dr. Carson was first known for his work as a neurosurgeon – becoming the first to successfully separate conjoined twins. The surgery took over 22 hours. Raised by an illiterate single mom, the doctor’s story was inspirational. Predictably, though, the left was determined to tear him down after he announced his run for the presidency. 

Numerous other black heroes are deserving of recognition but often dismissed because of their conservative politics. These would include pro-life stalwart Alveda King and columnist Star Parker. 

Winsome Sears is the recently elected lieutenant governor of Virginia. A veteran of the Marine Corps, Lt Gov. Sears is a remarkable story – but that didn’t stop a guest on MSNBC from calling her a “black mouth” for “white supremacist practices.”

As Bible-believing Christians, we recognize that in God’s economy, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). Racial prejudice is an earthly evil that should have no place within the Body of Christ. We do not evaluate someone based on the pigment of their skin but instead on their principles and actions.

Thankfully, the rise of the new media has exposed the hypocrisy of those who claim to celebrate the accomplishments of all black Americans when, in fact, they’re only recognizing the achievements of those black Americans who agree with them.

Photo from Twitter.