“What Shall We Do with the Negro?”

By Kelvin D. King 

Kelvin D. King is a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy, a proud veteran, a successful business owner, and a Black Republican running for U.S. Senate in Georgia.

President Biden and Vice President Harris will be visiting Atlanta, Georgia as a launchpad to push so-called “voting rights'' legislation. While I can only imagine the societal guilt they will place on the people of Georgia, our own U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock has already been hard at work using dangerous, racially-divisive rhetoric to promote these bills. To quickly summarize his sentiment, if you are an American who believes in states' rights, then you are no friend to the Black community.

This is a classic part of the liberal left’s long-term strategy. If you support their agenda, you are a progressive champion. If you dissent, you are shamed, silenced, and labeled intolerant. This scheme has worked so well that we now see white liberal voters, mesmerized by the illusion they are acting as heroes to minority communities, tricked into supporting bad legislation that blatantly hurts ALL Americans, oftentimes the people they are claiming to help. 

As a Black man in America today, it is now clear that Democrats have managed to create the very thing they claim to be saving us from: Racism.

While the color of skin may be used to play a role in the political pendulum of which party achieves the majority of votes in Congress, it plays no role in whether one can achieve success in this country. The hatred that stems from racism seems to come along every two or four years, based on election cycles, and is rooted in the desire to achieve or maintain control. We hear that being a Republican is reserved for white people only; the liberals, who believe this, never waste an opportunity to remind me of this divisive narrative. 

Let me be clear: I am a conservative American who votes Republican and is proud of my Black heritage in America. I will not allow Democrats to dictate our ugly past for the sake of winning elections or gaining power. My ancestors gave their blood, sweat, tears and sometimes lives to ensure that the future generations of Black families won't have to do the same. Black Americans went from being sold by their own people, to being enslaved by mostly white liberals, to being freed by conservatives (Republicans, by the way), then entered American society en masse, uneducated but full of grit and determination.

As a result, we have made our mark on society. Although we have experienced knock downs and setbacks I, and many others from my ethnic background, stand here today successful, educated, whole, and with limitless possibilities in the greatest country on earth. My abilities are no less or greater than anyone else’s in America…so yes, I am already equal.

I will honor my legacy by standing up against any ideology that says somehow in 2022 that Black people are incapable of obtaining an I.D. or pulling themselves out of poverty by taking advantage of the many opportunities America, and ONLY America, affords us. 

So “no” President Biden we do not need your “savior” mentality here in Georgia or anywhere else in this country. We don’t need your handouts or federalized elections in the name of “civil rights.” I don't care whose name is on the bill.  

What’s needed is for you to stop haphazard spending all of our tax dollars, and to get out of our way. We want leaders who will oppose vaccine mandates, prevent school closures, halt the rising cost of groceries and gas, and get the federal government off the necks of our small businesses. As a Black Republican, these are the issues I will focus on to serve Georgians in the U.S. Senate because these are things that truly hamper upward mobility for my community, not federalizing our elections. 

Senator Warnock said to “find yourself on the right side of history” and I, too, will make this plea. But I challenge each and every one of you to consider this quote by Frederick Douglass when deliberating which position is truly moral. Douglass was asked at the conclusion of slavery “What shall we do with the Negro?” and to this, he said "I have had but one answer from the beginning. Do nothing with us! Your doing with us has already played the mischief with us. Do nothing with us!" 

Why? Because we, proud Americans, can stand on our own two feet, participate, thrive, and VOTE just like everyone else!