10 questions with ‘SELLOUT’ author Ron Miller

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Ron Miller is the author of SELLOUT: Musings from Uncle Tom’s Porch, a personal account of his experience as a black conservative. Miller is the executive director of Regular Folks United and a staunch advocate for conservative values.

Miller recently answered 10 questions for The Daily Caller about himself and his book.

1.) Why did you write this book?

I wrote the book because I felt it was important for people to understand that there wasn’t only one narrative in the black community when it came to race and our place in American society. Eric Holder, the attorney general, said that we were a nation of cowards for not talking candidly about race, but the fact is that only one narrative has been allowed. And anyone who strays outside of that narrative is attacked, usually with racially-charged epithets for not sticking to the script. So I thought it was important, first of all, to let the other side be told and secondly, to let people see that black conservatives are not a caricature, they’re not a cartoon or a distortion, but real flesh and blood people with convictions and principles that deserve as much respect and consideration as any other.

2.) Do you think we are a nation of cowards when talking about race?

I think we’re stifled from talking about it because if you say anything that doesn’t adhere to the politically-correct version of the story, then you’re putting yourself at great risk. And, unfortunately, not everyone has the time or the energy or the enthusiasm to subject themselves to those kind of attacks.

3.) “Uncle Tom” is often used as a slur, but you seem to wear it as a badge of courage – even using it in the subtitle of your book. How and why do you put up with that? It seems like a heavy load to bear.

Well, the fact is that anyone who uses “Uncle Tom” as a epithet has obviously not read the novel. And if you read the novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” you’ll find that Tom was a very noble, Christ-like character. He took care of his fellow slaves, he helped two of them escape to freedom, and he would not divulge their whereabouts to his cruel, white master — even at the risk of his own life. And then, as he was being beaten to death, he forgave his attackers. So, in a time during the abolition movement when you had minstrel shows out there portraying blacks as these ignorant buffoons, here was an image of a black man with great dignity and grace. And so that’s why, basically, I took the phrase and made it my own.

4.) How do you answer your African-American peers when they ask you why you’re a Republican or why you’re a conservative?

Because my parents raised me that way. If you look at all of the statistics and polls people have taken about the attitudes in the black community about a variety of issues, I think many people will find that the black community is fairly conservative on a number of issues — particularly on issues involving family and the sanctity of human life. But the fact is, there’s this disconnect between their beliefs and their political allegiances, and that disconnect is what lead me to become a conservative many years ago.

NEXT: Miller answers whether or not racism has hindered him in America
5.) Do you think that this is the way it will always be? Is there any attempt to leverage the Republican vote?

Well, first of all, you have to understand [what] the ultimate objective is of those that want to keep things the way they are. And I believe it’s all about power. I think liberals realize that as long as they can keep blacks aggrieved and resentful and bitter, they continue to have power. And, as I said in something I wrote recently: blacks agree to be victims and liberals agree that their victimization means America needs to be changed — it’s an unholy alliance. So, first of all, they have to be exposed for their true objectives.

Number two, I believe that the Republican party and conservatives — and anyone in that universe — needs to have more courage. They need to be willing to go into places they haven’t gone into before. They need to be willing to speak to groups that aren’t traditionally aligned with them. And don’t go in and pander to people. There’s nothing more embarrassing than going in and trying to pretend you are one of them, if you will. You need to go in, you need to be yourself, but you need to speak earnestly and honestly, you need to listen, and you need to push back — gently, but firmly — against the idea that somehow because we hold a different point of view, that that is reflective of a racist mindset. And that’s the third thing we need to do: we need to reject the moral authority of those people who call us racists, because they don’t have the divine insight or the ability to discern what’s in our hearts — only we know that.

6.) Has racism hindered you in any way as a black man in America?

No. Not at all. Really. I mean, I look at all of the circumstances in my life and, would I say I haven’t encountered racism? No, I wouldn’t say that. But has that racism prevented me from ascending either professionally or personally? No, it has not. The fact is, if you approach life and see the opportunities rather than the challenges, more likely than not, you’re going to be able to overcome the challenges. So, instead of seeing a wall in front of me, I see something I can climb. Or go around. Or go through if I need to.

NEXT: Miller explains the biggest problems facing  African-Americans today
7.) So what do you think the biggest problems facing African-Americans today are?

The single biggest problem is the dissolution of the black family. I think that’s something that you can extend not only to the black community, but to America and the whole. I think we have devalued the family. We have devalued the importance of children being raised in a home with a loving mother and father that are committed to each other in a life-long relationship. We have devalued the stability and the security that that family provides and the education that that gives to our children as to how to be responsible men and women in the world.

In the black community it’s particularly egregious because of the out-of-wedlock birthrate, which has contributed not only to the dissolution of the family, but it’s contributed to poverty, to crime, to homelessness, and to untimely death in the black community. It all goes back to that.

In 1965, when Daniel Patrick Moynihan] warned people in his report about the crisis in the negro family that was going to come about as a result of the breakdown of the family, he was pilloried; he was accused of blaming the victim. Now, here we sit all these many years later, and the out-of-wedlock birthrate has gone from 24 percent to 72 percent and we see so much homelessness in the black community. I find it personally infuriating that — because of politics, because of power gains, because of the desire of certain people to push a certain agenda — these generations of lives have been lost — the hopelessness — and, in some cases, lost outright.

8.) You speak a lot about your faith in your book and how your faith has informed your politics. Could you provide a short summary of your thoughts on that?

Well, I believe that my faith dictates to me, number one, that each one of us is fearfully and wonderfully made; that we are unique individuals in the sight of God and that God has given each one of us a purpose and the ability to carry out that purpose. And, to the extent that we subordinate our individuality to this collective idea — this group-think — that seems to be pervasive in the black community, I believe we thwart God’s design for our lives.

I also believe that God protects the unborn. I believe that God believes in marriage. All of these are conservative ideas. And I also believe — and this is always something that always gets people’s attention — that God believes in free enterprise, free markets, and the whole concept of capitalism, not in the way that we have portrayed it — it’s not greed — it’s about human beings being given the opportunity to realize their full potential.

If you look in the Bible, even the Ten Commandments, which talk about laws about not stealing or not coveting. By implication, having those laws means that there’s private property. And you remember the parable of the talents, where the men were given a certain amount of money and they were expected to go do something with it. The ones who used the money and made it grow and helped to expand the master’s kingdom were rewarded and those that just sat on it were not. Throughout the Bible there are plenty of references to suggest that any kind of economic system that allows people to thrive according to their abilities, their talents, their experiences — I think those things are reflected in the American character.

And, more importantly, voluntary charity. There’s nothing in the Bible that tells us that charity is paying taxes to the government and then allowing the government to decide what it’s going to do with the money. Government was meant to be an agent of force. It was meant to enforce your rights; it was meant to protect us from harm. It was not meant to be a provider and it was not meant to be a charity. That’s something that happens at the individual level, the family level, and with communities and churches and other institutions that are closer to the problem than the government could ever be.

NEXT: Miller expounds on what he sees as the harm that has befallen the black church
9.) In your book, you speak about some of the harm that’s come to the black church. What do you think are the main forces of harm that have befallen the black church, have been?

I think the black church, to use the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., is to be a thermostat and, instead, it’s become a thermometer. Rather than standing for a set of principles that transcend the world in which we live — principles that are timeless — they have basically adapted to whatever the political climate is and whatever they can do to advance themselves in the current environment, in the current world. That’s not how the church was meant to be in the days of old. The church was not only a cultural center or a place for social congregating; it was a place that set the standard for how we were to live our lives and that standard was supposed to be something greater than what the world offered. Now, I see the black church basically selling its soul and I think that does a great disservice to the black community, as a result of it.

10.) Will you explain a little bit more about the disconnect between the African-American community and the idea of individualism.

Well, in the past, when the black community had to depend on its own abilities it couldn’t depend on others, I can see where that banding together was necessary. But, within that banding together, we still had people who were willing and able to exercise their individuality. Now that we don’t have all of the pressures of slavery and institutionalized segregation, we still have this idea that we have to band together and we have to have, not only unity in terms of our race, but unity in terms of how we think and how we act.

I think that that goes completely counter to, what I think, is one of the more fundamental aspects of the American character, and that is: individual liberty. More than any other place in the world, America is built on the concept of the individual — the dignity and the worth of the individual and the supremacy of the individual over government. And, we are exactly on the other side of that divide. Some of the things I’ve seen in history about black leadership embracing progressive mindsets and progressive agendas really puts us on the other side of the American Dream. And, I think in order for us to become equal heirs in that Dream, we need to adopt the American character. We need to adopt those things that make America unique. If we do that, then I think we will find ourselves rising, ascending, as a group.

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