Sirius XM Radio host Clay Cane of “The Clay Cane Show” (11 a.m. to 2 p.m. central on Urban View Channel 126), is lending his prolific voice, which has often been used on CNN and other national platforms, to the reading public. And he’s coming hard with a serious message for Black people during these serious times.
Cane believes his book, “The Grift: The Downward Spiral of Black Republicans from the Party of Lincoln to the Cult of Trump,” offers Blacks an insight we need to stop the nation’s downward spiral.
The Defender spoke with Cane about this and more.
Defender: So, why the topic of Black Republicans?
Cane: I wrote this book because I care about my country and I’m so disturbed at the direction the country is going in right now. I called it “The Grift” because first of all, the Black vote is so important to every election, whether it is a national election or whether it is a local election. And I wanted to break down how Black Republicans were the original progressives. They pulled the Republican Party and Abraham Lincoln to “liberation,” to “emancipation.” This is how we began. Our first Black political ideology comes via Black Republicans. So, I wanted to examine how in the world did Black Republicans go from Frederick Douglass to Clarence Thomas? The original Black Republicans are rolling in their graves at the likes of South Carolina Senator Tim Scott and some of the Republican influencers out there today. So, I thought it was a really important analysis, and I hope it wakes people up, because it’s not only about the downward spiral of Black Republicans, but also the downward spiral of racial politics in the Republican Party.
Defender: How did it go from the party of Frederick Douglass to what it is now?
Cane: What I found out is the grift existed long before Trump. In the 19th century, you’d see some Black Republicans, very few, having this proximity to and taste for power. They noticed, “If I hurt my own, I could rise in the ranks.” Frederick Douglass talked about a man named Isaiah Montgomery in Mississippi who voted against Black men being able to vote. Douglass famously said, “Others will be dazzled by fame and imitate their bad example.” He didn’t use the word “grift,” but he saw what was happening. “Others will be dazzled by the fame.” As time goes on and as the Republican Party turns its backs on Black voters, you see other folks saying, “Hey, if I align myself with this, I can get some money.”
Defender: Was there a game-changing moment?
Cane: You have this groundbreaking moment of Clarence Thomas. The Blackfolks in the GOP in the 1970s, policy-wise, problematic, but they weren’t a Clarence Thomas. Thomas changed the game when he realized, “If I can be the anti-civil rights figure, I will rise in the ranks.” One of the key things he does is shame his own sister for being on welfare. I have a brief interview with his sister in the book. He doesn’t use the words exactly but characterizes her as a welfare queen. At that point, he hit the blueprint. I’m sure you know all the lines: “welfare queen,” “democratic plantation,” “I’m an independent thinker,” lines almost identical to what we hear today.
You have some folks like General Colin Powell, who I, policy-wise, don’t really like, but he wasn’t a grifter. He leaves the party and says, “I can’t deal with their racism and their lies.” Michael Steele, former RNC chair, again, not a fan of his policies, but he wasn’t a grifter. He leaves the party. So, where we are now with this downward spiral, Clarence Thomas, breaking new ground, other folks following him, there isn’t even space for authentic, sincere Blackfolks in the GOP who care about Black issues at this point. If you aren’t willing to hurt your own, if you aren’t willing to grift, you aren’t even allowed in the party.
Defender: What does this mean for Black people as a whole?
Cane: (Black Republicans) are dangerous. They have a legislative impact on Black communities. Senator Tim Scott has a legislative impact on Black communities. This guy named Mark Brown, who’s running for governor of North Carolina, I hope folks read this book and see the alarm that I’m ringing. I also show how the GOP has been recruiting Blackfolks to say they’re Republicans, even if they’re not. I interviewed someone in the book who said she was approached. We got here because certain people saw opportunism in saying whatever they can say to rise above. And then they are supported by a billionaire conservative GOP base. And for some people, that’s too intoxicating.
Defender: How does exposing this help Blacks discover a viable plan to emancipate our future?
Cane: There’s a quote that I live by from Ida B. Wells, who was also a Black Republican, and I’m paraphrasing here. She said, “The way to right past wrongs is to shine the light of truth upon them.” And I see this book as shining that light of truth. I think the answer in moving forward where we are, is to call out the hustlers and the con artists and the grifters like Frederick Douglass did. But the answer, where I think we could go with this country is in the original Black Republicans: the ones who believed in public education; the ones who believed in federal policies to protect folks from white violence; the ones who believed in voting rights, not state’s rights; the one who believed in high voter turnout. And 1868, 80% of Black men voted and reinvented the south – Sadly, Black women couldn’t register to vote at the time.
They had a Black agenda back then before the word was even being used… I think closing this grift, you have to call out extremism before it gets too far. That is one step. Then, revisiting Bishop Henry McNeal Turner, Frederick Douglass, Harriett Tubman, Robert B. Elliot from South Carolina, a name everybody should know. These were revolutionaries. They believed in liberation. And they also believed in poor white folks having freedom.
