What Black Americans should know about Democrats and Republicans and the ‘Party of the KKK’

Political discourse about the two parties on race in America is dangerous without historical and present-day context, experts and scholars tell theGrio.

Recent remarks from comedian and actor Nick Cannon about the Democratic Party being the “Party of the KKK” and the Republican Party as the party that “freed the slaves” are igniting a political discourse that scholars warn is dangerous for Black Americans without historical and present-day context.

“It’s such a false understanding of partisan politics, party evolution, and realignment politics. These old tropes of like the Republicans are the party that freed the slaves…that is absolutely such an antiquated understanding and a false representation of present-day politics,” said Dr. Christina M. Greer, a professor of political science at Fordham University.

In conversation with model Amber Rose, who is a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump, Cannon said, “People don’t know that the Democrats are the party of the KKK,” adding, “People don’t know that the Republicans are the party that freed the slaves.”

The 45-year-old entertainer shared, “I honestly don’t subscribe to neither party. I rock with W.E.B Du Bois when he said there’s no such thing as two parties. It’s just one evil party with two different names.”

Dr. Alvin B. Tillery Jr., a professor of political science and African-American studies at Northwestern University, tells theGrio that Cannon’s oversimplistic history lesson on the United States’s two political parties is “irresponsible” because it not only lacks context, but also ignores the ways in which the present Republican leader, President Donald Trump, is “committed to authoritarianism with regard to race relations.”

Tillery said Trump is “turning the clock back,” pointing to his efforts to weaken the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, including using his “private army” (the FBI) to “steal ballots” in the upcoming midterm elections this November.

“If that’s the one reason [Cannon’s] with Trump. I mean, Trump’s the party of the modern KKK,” said Dr. Tillery. “The modern Republican Party became the party of racism, white supremacy, and the Democratic Party became a party where Black people are uneasily accepted but not embraced enough.”

Who is the Party of the KKK?

Cannon’s remarks about the Republican Party freeing formerly enslaved Black Americans are factual. Republican President Abraham Lincoln, a Republican and the 12th president of the United States, emancipated enslaved Blacks in 1863 through the Emancipation Proclamation. In 1865, the majority-Republican Congress passed the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which abolished slavery, “except as a punishment for crime.”

Dr. Greer notes that the Republican Party’s abolition of slavery was notable for “economic reasons” and “not moral.” Republicans of the 1860s believed that slavery negatively impacted the economic potential of white farmers and laborers and the advancement of industrial agriculture for the purposes of capitalism.

“Republicans have shifted during the New Deal, during the Great Society, during the Nixon era, during the Reagan era. This type of republicanism has drastically changed, and now with Donald Trump, we’ve got this false Neo-Christian, white nationalist version of republicanism that actually has nothing to do with the party that advocated for the abolishment of slavery.”

Post-reconstruction, the Republican and Democratic parties began to evolve and, in many cases, disintegrate over matters of race in America. In the 1940s, President Harry S. Truman, a Democrat, attracted Black Americans with his New Deal policies, which were economic engines for them. And despite much opposition, in 1948, President Truman signed an executive order to racially integrate the U.S. military. During the 1960s, the Democratic Party frequently engaged with Black civil rights leaders who advocated for the end of disenfranchisement and voting rights.

Dr. Tillery said that while the Ku Klux Klan may have been an “adjunct of the historical Democratic Party in the decades following slavery’s abolishment, by the 20th century, leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Fannie Lou Hamer, John Lewis, and Rev. Jesse Jackson had turned the Democratic Party “toward the interests of Black people.”

Dr. King frequently met with President John F. Kennedy at the White House and convinced the Democratic president to support the Civil Rights Act before JFK was ultimately assassinated. President Lyndon B. Johnson was equally compelled to support the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Tillery, the Northwestern professor, said the Democratic Party’s shift on race was especially pronounced after the passage of the 1972 McGovern-Fraser reforms, which changed the Democratic Party’s nomination and primary system, leading to greater Black representation and the prioritization of policies impacting Black Americans.

Dr. Tillery admits that “Black people have a very uneasy relationship with the Democratic Party.” He tells theGrio that it’s because the party has never been “progressive enough.”

“It has not been strong enough at defending our rights,” he says. However, by contrast, Dr. Tillery notes that the Republican Party had grown to embrace the “old Confederate ethos.”

By 1964, the Republican Party had split into its moderate/liberal and conservative wings, with the latter led by Republican presidential nominee, then-U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater, whose campaign was explicitly racist and attracted white segregationists.

“He ran against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and that reset the party positions. The modern Republican Party became the party of racism, white supremacy, and the Democratic Party became a party where Black people are uneasily accepted but not embraced enough,” said Dr. Tillery.

Dr. Greer, the Fordham University professor, tells theGrio that the Democratic Party is “far from perfect.” However, she explained, “But we can also look at the types of support that they’re giving to Black candidates who are trying to run to do better things in their communities.” She said the party has proven its commitment through investments in public education, specifically HBCUs.

The Republican Party is unrecognizable from 1865

Both political science professors note that while celebrity voices like Nick Cannon, Amber Rose, and Nicki Minaj would like to praise Donald Trump and the Republican Party, their actual policies today are a huge departure from the anti-slavery party of Lincoln in 1865.

“The Republican Party of today is unrecognizable, even if we do want to go with that sort of lazy, low-hanging fruit trope that they’re the same party. The Republican Party of today is the antithesis of a progressive politic, when it comes to not just Black people, but anyone non-white,” said Dr. Greer.

She pointed to policies like the Trump administration and the Republican Party’s cuts to federal student loan opportunities and attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion, which were intended to “level a very unlevel and unfair playing field.”

“Under Democratic tenure, we didn’t have 300,000 Black women specifically targeted and laid off. We didn’t have Black military officers targeted for demotion or lack of promotion or expulsion by changing rules about hair and beards,” said Greer. “The level to which this particular iteration of the Republican Party and this administration, in particular, has gone after Black people economically…the list goes on and on.”

As President Trump stares down another two years in office, Dr. Tillery warned, “Trump’s not going anywhere,” adding, “He’s not going anywhere, and he’s not going to stop with this kind of racial retrenchment, and we’ve got to do a better job of pushing back against it.”

While the Northwestern professor made clear that Cannon’s remarks were “ignorant,” he wished the comedian had not received “so much attention” for the statements.

“He has a responsibility, regardless of his views, to not spread disinformation about these parties based on his misread of U.S. history,” says Tillery. He added, “The fact that so many of our wealthy, powerful people have not gone through a traditional model to their wealth and power and privilege means that we don’t have elites in our community that are fully educated about our racial dynamics.”

Ultimately, Tillery said he agrees that Black Americans should hold both political parties accountable. However, he lamented, “For Black people, Black voters, that’s going to get harder and harder, because money drives political outcomes much more than it did even a decade ago, and we don’t have the resources to compete.”

He continued, “The other problem is there a lot of Black politicos and operatives who are so attached to the party they would never countenance what I’m saying.”

Tillery said historic and popular Black Democrats like former President Barack and former Vice President Kamala Harris get many Black operatives “charged up on defending the respectability of these people that they’ve worked for.”

He added, “They don’t ask any hard questions.”