Finding herself in the spotlight in the wake of tragedy, Candace Owens chooses demagoguery over empathy, solidifying her role as Political Bed Wench.
Believe it or not, there’s nothing wrong with being a conservative; there’s also nothing wrong, on its face, with being a black conservative.
Having said that, in 2019, in the age of Donald J. Trump—a man who treats racial demagoguery as a contact sport—it is wholly illogical for any person of color to identify publicly with conservatives in power, or to say that aligning with right-wing politics is somehow a better alternative, because a good number of those who align with said right-wing are also openly bigoted, particularly against people of just about any color other than white.
Enter Candace Owens.
A relatively still-recent addition to the political gasbag collective, Owens made quite a name for herself over the course of the last two years.
From her early beginnings as an anti-Trump blogger in 2015 to branching out as a tech entrepreneur pushing her never-created site SocialAutopsy.com in 2016, Owens burst into the virtual consciousness by somehow turning herself into one of Trump’s biggest online cheerleaders, which, as a black woman, made her an instant lightning rod.
Since her political belching-out party, Owens spared no expense or found no depth she was willing to sink to in order to become a newly-anointed conservative darling.
In other words, she’s happily become a Political Bed Wench for fun and profit.
Candace Owens isn’t a detestable person because she chooses to be a conservative… the alternative that she’s selling by aligning with filthy racists for fun and profit not only makes her detestable, it makes her dangerous, regardless how much she plays the very sort of victim she decries.
According to Very Smart Brothas’ Damon Young, calling a black woman a Bed Wench is one of the more egregious insults one can lob, largely because it comes from a time and place where black women were assumed to enjoy the company of the slave owners who raped them.
That the insult is used at all is to somehow castigate black women for having interracial relationships, a knock that black men rarely endure when they do the exact same thing.
While I agree with Young in principle, particularly when it comes to interracial relationships, I do think the title is more than apt when referring to women like Owens, who not only chooses to cozy up politically and professionally to white men with really bad views, she does so for financial gain.
Since folding herself in with the MAGA chuds, Owens created a large presence for herself, using social media to create narratives where black Americans were somehow being conned by liberals, flipping canards of racism on its ear by insinuating that Democrats are far more responsible than Republicans in holding black people down, an oft-mentioned slice of rhetoric from right-wingers who try (and fail) to recruit more diverse audiences despite the taint of bigoted hordes in MAGA hats who stand out in plain sight.
To further her own cause, Owens had no problem aligning herself with fringe right-wing sites like Alex Jones’ InfoWars, sites that had no problem embracing a woman of color who said the same batshit crazy things they said, because that meant they instantly had “the black friend” they could readily use as a sword and shield defending them from well-deserved accusations of racism and bigotry, while using her as a mouthpiece to codify their views.
Once earning her place in the pantheon of putrid punditry known as Fox News, she turned her back on the more conspiracy-driven sites, setting her sights on a wider audience largely consisting of the same people who inhaled the hateful rhetoric that seeped its way from sites like InfoWars to the “Fair and Balanced” network.
By the time she caught the eye of self-centered head case Kanye West–who for reasons still unknown, took a seat on the Trump Train—Owens was anointed, and she clearly loves every minute.
Today came the news that Brenton Tarrant, an Australian citizen, descended on a pair of mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, murdering more than 40 innocent people. The act was clearly one of extremist terrorism, and presented along with the shootings was a manifesto, which, you guessed it, included Owens as one of his inspirations, saying, “Each time she spoke I was stunned by her insights and her own views helped push me further and further into the belief of violence over meekness. Though I will have to disavow some of her beliefs, the extreme actions she calls for are too much, even for my tastes.”
Owens, never sparing a moment that could be used for self-aggrandizement, issued the sort of denial almost geared exclusively towards eliciting just the sort of reaction meant to make her just as much a victim as any of the actual victims whose murder prevents them any voice at all.
Of course the instant problem with Owens’ denial is that the internet always has receipts, and for Owens, there are many. Whether it’s her positioning of organizations like Black Lives Matter as having a “victim mentality” or embracing canards such as Western civilization being imperiled by Muslims and their supposed adherence to Sharia law, Owens pours gas on a fire did not start, yet profits from keeping that divisive fire alive all the same.
Candace Owens isn’t a detestable person because she chooses to be a conservative. For all her purposely divisive rhetoric, one of the things that does ring true is that black people in America have been used more than once as a political tool of the left, and it would be ignorant to think otherwise. But make no mistake, the alternative that she’s selling by aligning with filthy racists for fun and profit not only makes her detestable, it makes her dangerous, regardless how much she plays the very sort of victim she decries.
The easiest thing a demagogue can say is, “I didn’t force anyone to do anything wrong.”
It’s simple enough to say, and it’s largely true, except for one thing: by contributing to a climate of actual hate, you are willfully placing metaphorical bullets in a gun that is just as easily replaced by real ones by any individual motivated/deluded enough to follow through on the hateful fantasies sold to them by gasbag pundits who only want to turn a buck in the economy of fear.
This is why sellouts—and they are, by definition, sellouts—like Owens and fellow shuck-and-jive artists like the ever-classy Diamond and Silk are absolutely Political Bed Wenches who live only to live at the feet of bigots who skillfully use them as attack dogs and human shields whenever some lunatic buys into their rhetoric as a green-light for violence.
In her mind, Candace Owens will never be a victim, even as she’s ridden like a Georgia mule by true victimizers, something that she’s perfectly fine with so long as the checks clear and her name builds cache. That may not make her a victim, but it certainly makes her uncommon trash.
Hashim R. Hathaway (Shimbo) is the host of the Never Daunted Radio Network, and proud father to NeverDaunted.Net. You can reach him on Twitter @NeverDauntedNet