“I feel like a black Republican, Money I got commin’ in/ Can’t turn my back on the hood, I got love for them”- Nas ft. Jay-Z, from “Black Republican”

As the first African-American Chairman of the Republican National Committee, Michael Steele has a thankless job. Unlike Barack Obama’s historical first-black presidential break-through, which was celebrated as a “post racial” moment for all Americans, Steele has been mocked by blacks and kicked around by his fellow Republicans. Of course, it hasn’t helped that, since his appointment, his voice box has been replaced by a gaffe machine. He’s been beat down by his own party for calling the Afghanistan war one “of Obama’s choosing.” The establishment dissed him for promising to set the Republican party in more “urban-suburban hip-hop settings.” And he was smacked down by the GOP pro-lifers when he called abortion an “individual choice.” To be sure, there are many other instances in which Steele’s words caused a stir and based on his desire to speak his mind (see below), there will surely be more to come.

Ask Steele what part of his woes can be attributed to race and he’ll laugh it off with the familiar guffaw that precedes many of his answers when talking to the press.

“[laugh] I don’t know what motivates people,” he begins. “I know what part of the noise is, that I do represent a different direction for this party. My style, which is something the 168 members who voted for me took into account, is very different it is very personal, I’m very emotional about my politics. My mother taught me as a young boy, if you want people to know what you think, tell them what you think.”

Despite his reputation for speaking his mind, however inartfully, Steele seems to take a less direct route when giving his take on the role race plays in his GOP disputes. Instead, he attempts to place his first-black status in context. “There is a wall that has a picture of every chairman of the RNC outside my office,” he says. “It’s a very interesting wall because I’ll be the first black face on it. That does have an impact on how people look at this job and the role of the chairman. But I can’t really speak to what motivates people or does not motivate them. I know that my style of being chairman is very different than what people are used to. Stuff that my predecessors weren’t criticized for, I am being criticized for because no one seen it that way, which is fine. I’m fine with that.”

However, it’s easy to get the impression that Steele is not okay with the criticism. He tries hopelessly to paint himself as the hip politician, an alternative to Obama’s easy cool. He gesticulates, he injects terms like “off the hook” into his political speak. He projects his black into a party where blacks are marginal actors. To the inside he’s an unstable black man thrashing against the establishment. Meanwhile, the outside sees him as a yelling black face, a Party tool with no real ability to fix anything. To further illustrate the chasm, president Obama famously mocked the chairman at the White House Correspondents Association dinner to great effect when he stated that Steele was in the house “or as he would say, in the heezy.”

But hip-hop pandering aside, J.C. Watts thinks Steele is onto something when it comes to the GOP and its shady relationship to African-Americans within the party. Watts, a former Sooner quarterback is the last black Republican to serve in congress, which gives him a unique experience as a sole black face under the Republican tent.

“I am disappointed with the way the establishment has handled Michael Steele,” Watts told me. “Even this silly trumped up charge of him filing an expense report with a strip club in LA. Now, that was so stupid that there is no way anyone can convince me that that wasn’t a set-up. You don’t have people at the RNC or the DNC that are that stupid, unless it is a setup. [laugh]”

Watts stands by his claim that some in his party have plotted to keep Steele in the dark. But some of today’s black Republican candidates dismiss Watts’ implied claim that race plays a role in the intra-party criticism.

One outspoken candidate is Allen West, the decorated retired army officer running for Florida’s 22^nd district. He is one of three black GOP congressional candidates who have grabbed national headlines for winning their party’s nomination and for running competitive races against their respective Democrats. West, along with Tim Scott (of South Carolina’s 1rst congressional district), and Ryan Frazier (of Colorado’s 7^th congressional district) are poised to break the color barrier in GOP politics by running competitive campaigns.

The new black Republicans rail against the federal government for its meddling in state affairs, much like their white counterparts. Allen West may be the most vocal. He preaches a tough-love bootstraps message that earned him the respect of the Tea Party. At 49, with his salt and pepper hair and drill sergeant demeanor, he fires up audiences with calls to “take this country back.” In one video linked on his website, he drums up images of the American Revolution to great applause. “The United States of America was founded by the original insurgents,” he says, implying that the heavy hand of the British government of 1700s is akin to the America’s overreaching federal government today. “If you are here to stand up, to get your musket, to fix your bayonet, you are my brother and sister in this fight.”

Allen West is a take-no-prisoners Tea Party friendly candidate. He dismisses the claims that race is responsible for Steele’s image as an erratic leader. “Its not race-based,” West says. “I think that there are legit criticism when you misspeak. We have to stop falling back to race.”

When I ask West what role Steele plays in clearing the way for African-American candidates, he pushes the Chairman’s efforts aside.

“Well, as far as I’m concerned, none. I volunteered myself,” he says, taking care to drive the point home. “We should have the duty and the calling to stand up for the country and get it on the right track.”

Despite the hoopla around the record number of black candidates running in Republican races, J.C. Watts does not believe the GOP has demonstrated a serious effort to include African-Americans. The treatment of Steele is only part of the story. Exhibit B has to do with the lack of diversity all-around.

“Look across the board, look at the congressional staff, look at the leadership staff. There are no black people,” he says, excluding Mike Pence, with whom he attends church. “Am I saying they need to have quotas? No. We don’t need quotas, they are illegal. But I am saying that if you are telling me you can’t find qualified black conservative staff, god help us. I know a whole lot of them, do I need to send you some resumes?”

All of this talk of race surrounding Steele’s tenure makes him an intriguing figure in American politics. Here, he explains why being a black Republican is more complicated than Nas or Jay-z could ever imagine.

PARKER REPORT: I talked to Tim Scott and Ryan Frazier. They Seem like something different than the stereotypical black Republican.

MICHAEL STEELE: I find your turn of phrase to be rather amusing from this standpoint: There isn’t anything different about this, it’s just that you are looking at them differently. These guys are the same guys they’ve always been and they reflect generations of black Republicanism. In terms of their views on the issues, it’s just that the national perception in the black community has been formed by caricatures that have been created by our friends on the left that are threatened by determined consistent conservative African-American Republicans who reflect back the values of our communities. I think they are not so much as different as it is the way we approached them allowed them to emerge on their own without the hands of the party dictating their outcome and shaping their image.

How do you combat the caricature of black GOP candidates, which is often depicted as being out of touch with the black community, always portrayed with white wives and… What was that. White what?

White wives. The caricature or stereotype is a black man living with a white wife in a white community which is supposed to depict them being out of touch with the black community. Hahahahah I’m sorry. [more laughter]

You’ve never heard this one? This is new to you? I’ve heard it. When I ran for the US senate it’s the same crap the Democrats threw out about my black wife. I didn’t want to go there. The only way I can answer that is to say one word. STUPID. It’s just stupid. It’s the thing that Democrats throw out there about black Republican candidates because they can’t beat us on the issues. They can’t beat us on wealth creation vs. wealth redistribution…

You’ve talked about your “style” of leadership. How much of that style has to do with being an African-American man? It’s absolutely a factor. My experience, Tim Scott’s experience, our experience is very different coming from the parts of the country we came from and how we were raised. The things that were emphasized vs. the things that were not emphasized in our upbringing. How we look at questions relating to poverty vs. wealth. How we look at having a job vs. not having a job. How we look at getting an education vs. not getting an education. We all come to that table with experiences that help define the leadership in the time. And that’s just different. I think it’s healthy, I think it’s necessary.

What does the future hold for the GOP when it comes to supporting black Republican candidates and in recruiting black Republicans in general? When we are talking about health care why didn’t the democrats talk about health care disparities in the black community when we know that is a major issue when it comes to AIDS, heart, lung and all types of diseases that affect the body and the mind, and the disparity and the care we get. Why wasn’t that part of the discussion? Where was all the black leadership on the hill fighting for that? When I raised the question I got poo-pooed. Everyone said ‘Steel is off the reservation, you don’t do policy, be quiet.’ I said, If we are going to talk about health care let’s talk about the disparity in delivery, disparity in reception, the disparity in the cost. The disparity in access.

But Republicans didn’t make any of that an issue when it came to health care. Ahhhhh. Therein lies the rub. You’re absolutely right. That’s my point. That’s where you begin to leverage the party. You want my vote in November? Ok, here is my list of six things that are important to me right now, what are you going to do about it. Don’t fall into the trap of accepting the lie that is a promise to do for me after you vote for me or the lie that well, you don’t vote for us anyway so were not even going to bother. Vote is a very powerful tool that the community needs to leverage. Just like other communities leverage, just like all other communities out there leverage. We need to do a better job of that. On our end as witnessed by the candidates we are putting forth on this cycle, we need to do a better job of making sure we have our best foot forward, of having individuals who can fight that cause and carry that message across the board.

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