History Main / BlackRepublican

->''"There are certain things in life that are just true. Fact: the Earth revolves around the sun. Fact: two times two is four. And fact: black people aren't Republicans. We just aren't! We vote for Democrats. And it's not just an [[UsefulNotes/BarackObama Obama]] thing. He could've dropkicked [a] baby and I ''still'' would've voted for him!"''

This trope is a black character that leans to the right politically and often thrown into conflict with other black characters over their views.

Some historical background: African-Americans voted for the Republican Party since [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar the American Civil War]] and Reconstruction until the 1930s when they became a reliable voting bloc for the Democratic Party since [[TheGreatDepression the Great Depression]]. This was solidified in TheSixties during the UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement, when the Democrats finally added civil rights to their platform and [[UsefulNotes/LyndonJohnson Lyndon B. Johnson]], a Democratic president, and Congress passed the Civil and Voting Rights Acts. The fact that many white pro-segregation Democrats from the South, the so-called "Dixiecrats", decided to protest this move by switching to the GOP also greatly contributed to this change. Despite wildly divergent points of view amongst black Americans, including a strong tradition of social conservatism, those that do vote overwhelmingly vote Democrat. No Democratic nominee for president has gotten less than 82 percent of the black vote since UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy with 68 percent in 1960. As of 2023, there are only five black Republicans in federal elected office, Representative Byron Donalds of Florida, Representative Wesley Hunt of Texas, Representative John James of Michigan, Representative Burgess Owens of Utah[[note]]One of his predecessors, Mia Love, was the first black Republican woman elected to Congress[[/note]], and Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina[[note]]Appointed in 2013, Scott served as the only black U.S. Senator from January to February and again from July until the end of October when Democrat Cory Booker was sworn in[[/note]]. Outside of political office, other notable black Republicans/conservatives include author Thomas Sowell, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, renowned neurosurgeon and Housing Secretary Ben Carson, Secretary of State Condolezza Rice, radio host Larry Elder and football legend Herschel Walker.

So, naturally, whenever a black character makes his/her conservative views known, this brings a lot of discord, especially with other black characters. They're often marked as "sellouts", uppity or selfish for not caring about the rights of black people. Typically, the dissension is resolved in AnAesop about being respectful of one's political leanings and embracing different points of view, though not always, as they can also be used as a StrawCharacter.

While the shock factor of being Republican isn't as intense when it comes to other racial/ethnic minorities in America, this trope still sometimes comes into play for them as well. Hispanic Americans and Asian-Americans vote overwhelmingly Democrat/liberal, though their Republican vote percentage is higher than that of black Americans (and Republicans get overwhelming support from some specific ethnic groups in these categories, such as Cuban-Americans and Vietnamese-Americans, who often are or are descended from emigrants/refugees from leftist nations). Jewish Americans also tend to lean left, though some are more conservative especially Orthodox voters.

Related to TheWhitestBlackGuy and CategoryTraitor. Can overlap with BoomerangBigot if the work portrays conservatives as racist or a black Republican character is likely to be accused of being racist. Compare StrawAffiliation. See also GayConservative. Contrast MalcolmXerox, for the most part.

!!Examples with black Republicans:

* ComicBook/{{Icon}} is explicitly a black Republican, in contrast with his liberal partner Rocket. This ended up creating some headaches for Creator/DwayneMcDuffie, as Icon developed a MisaimedFandom among actual black conservatives like Clarence Thomas who didn't understand that Icon was supposed to be wrong sometimes.

* In ''ComicStrip/{{Candorville}}'', there's a black StrawmanPolitical guy who sits at the same bus stop as Lemont and immediately launches into conservative ranting or conspiracy theories. Lemont tries his best to ignore him, but it's not like that makes him stop talking.

* ''Film/{{Bottoms}}'': Annie is black and says some pro-religious and anti-government comments. Josie, who is also black, laments that she might be a black Republican, but Annie is one of the smartest members of the club.

* ''Film/TalesFromTheHood2'': In "The Sacrifice", black councilman Henry Bradley is a Republican. His mother regards him as a CategoryTraitor for supporting Republican gubernatorial candidate William Cotton, who is targeting voting locations in predominantly black districts for closure. Henry himself doesn't ''like'' Cotton, but he's banking on getting support for his own political ambitions in exchange for his support now.
* In ''Film/LongShot'', [[spoiler:Lance]] is revealed to be a black Republican, forcing Fred to reevaluate some of his own political biases.

* ''Film/TheBlackening'': When the group discusses who's the blackest among them for a sacrifice, Clifton admits to voting for Trump. Twice. To the absolute disgust of the rest of the group, leading to them voting for him as the sacrifice.

* The black "Mother" Abigail Freemantle of Stephen King's ''Literature/TheStand'' received a thank you letter from Ronald Reagan acknowledging her as the oldest living Republican. Her political identity is largely tied to her powerful religious convictions. An especially notable example, as not only is Abigail black, she's old enough that her parents were ''freed slaves'' before she was born.
* ''Literature/TriggerWarning'': Pierce, a black student who's one of the few people on campus Jake becomes friendly with. Pierce is more conservative than most of the other students, and admits to being from a very wealthy family. This puts him at odds with many of his peers, who begin calling him an "Uncle Tom".

** This is played for laughs when Jack announces to a group of Republicans that he's dating a Democratic politician, prompting others to stand up and reveal secret things about themselves that are viewed as liberal such as donating to NPR, being gay, or being [[CaptainObviousReveal black.]]
** The idea is explored and discussed in an episode where Jack convinces Tracey to become the celebrity face of the Republican party. They eventually come to the conclusion that trying to convince black people to vote Republican is a losing battle, and decide to shoot an ad in which Tracey tries to convince black Americans to just not vote (paid for by the Committee to Re-Invade Vietnam).
** One episode features a political ad with [[AsHimself Don Cheadle]] and [[UncleTomfoolery Jazz, the "black Transformer"]] endorsing UsefulNotes/MittRomney over UsefulNotes/BarackObama in the 2012 US presidential election. Cheadle is visibly nauseated over his lines, and straight up says he's only doing it because he was paid $10,000,000.

** [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] when George Sr. spends several minutes talking to a man he believes to be a Republican Party strategist, because he is black, wears a nice suit, and is found at a Republican Party fundraiser. The man is a waiter.

* The last season of ''Series/BostonPublic'' had black teacher Marilyn Sudor reveal that she was not only Republican, but against [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affirmative_action_in_the_United_States affirmative action]], after a white student protested publicly against it (which, it turns out, was for a petty reason, a black student was admitted into Harvard with a GPA a ''tenth of a point'' lower than his, and the white student had already been admitted into Yale). The principal (and her boyfriend) Steven Harper and especially teacher Marla Hendricks aren't sympathetic (Marla basically calls her a traitor), but during a debate, she explains her point of view concisely, bringing more understanding. She also reveals that despite being Republican, she's for a three-day waiting period for gun purchases, against the death penalty, and regarding prayer in schools, she says "I'm a Republican, not Pat Robertson."
* ''Series/TheColbertReport'' had a recurring character of black Republican P.K. Winsome, who was played by Creator/TimMeadows.
* The series ''Series/DearWhitePeople'' features a side character named Rikki Barnes, a black Republican pundit [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed in the vein of]] real-life black conservative pundit [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candace_Owens Candace Owens]]. Bonus points for the CastingGag of her being played by Creator/TessaThompson, who played the main character Sam (whose political views are the polar opposite) in [[Film/DearWhitePeople the film]]. This is then subverted as Rikki reveals to Sam that she doesn't ''really'' believe these things; she's [[MoneyDearBoy only in it for the money and notoriety]].

* William Dent in ''Series/{{Girlfriends|2000}}'' is one; and is portrayed as somewhat of a mama's boy and BlackAndNerdy. It comes to a head when he and Joan get into an argument about him not having her back during a case discussion despite them being the only two black attorneys at the firm.
* PlayedForLaughs in ''Series/TheGoodFight'', where the main law firm is almost entirely made up of black employees, and the few white employees are all also extremely liberal. In one episode, when asked if they're "politically diverse," they realize they don't actually know if ''any'' of their employees voted for UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump -- nor do they know any other black people who did, for that matter. For the sake of having a Republican lawyer to show to potential clients, they ask around and find ''one'' attorney who did. The attorney in question, Julius, is black and doesn't want to admit he voted for Trump because he knows most of his coworkers would give him hell for it. (When it does get out, it's mostly restricted to "what the hell were you thinking?" comments.) To his credit, he tries not to let his politics interfere with his job, even though many of the firm's clients have views that diametrically oppose his, and he's not a bigot. He also later admits that, while he's still a proud conservative, he's grown disillusioned with Trump.
* A recurring sketch from ''Series/KeyAndPeele'' deals with [[https://youtu.be/99PR2mWDb9w black Republicans]], whose meetings mostly consist of them complaining to each other about how they are pissed (''royally'' pissed!) that most African-Americans vote Democratic and insisting that black Republicans are actually quite diverse and "NOT a monolith", despite their appearances and personalities being almost cookie-cutter in style.

* ''Theatre/TheGreatWhiteHope'': It's 1910 and various authorities in Chicago are casting about for an excuse to arrest Jack Jefferson, who is a black heavyweight boxing champion (in the eyes of 1910 racists, bad) who is also dating a white woman (for the racists, worse). A character identified only as "A Distinguished Negro" meets with the Chicago DA, and others and collaborates with them, saying of Jefferson that "the majority of Negroes do not approve of this man or his doings. He personifies all that should be suppressed by law, and I trust that such suppression is forthcoming." This is Booker T. Washington, who said very similar things about Jack Johnson in RealLife.

* ''VideoGame/Payday2'' has John Henry Simmons, known across the criminal world as the Elephant. He's a US senator who is black and is willing to offer the Payday Gang lucrative contracts, often against his opponents.

* Uncle Ruckus from ''WesternAnimation/TheBoondocks'' is this trope intentionally taken to absurd extremes and played for satire. Ruckus is both a black man and an incredibly loyal supporter of the Republican Party. The majority of his screentime is spent expressing his [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain extremely reactionary and prejudiced beliefs]], disparaging everyone who aren't (straight) white people. He has a particular hatred of other black people, to the point that being a BoomerangBigot is his primary character trait.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}'': The Landons, Jodie's family, is one of the only black families in the city, and they're actually much more conservative than the Caucasian Morgendorffers. This is used on a gag in "Gifted" when they're talking with each other and Helen assumes Michelle would agree with her support for welfare, and she turns out to be against it. Jodie's own politics, however, are more ambiguous.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': The Springfield Republican Party are a group representing various stereotypical archetypes of Republicans, with Julius Hibbert representing the black Republican.

* ''Series/GrownIsh'' has Ana, a Latina conservative. She credits her Cuban upbringing for informing her views, and she only really comes into conflict with Aaron, a militant upperclassman all about uplifting other black people. She did support Barack Obama, however.

->''"There are certain things in life that are just true. Fact: the Earth revolves around the sun. Fact: two times two is four. And fact: Black people aren't Republicans. We just aren't! We vote for Democrats. And it's not just an [[UsefulNotes/BarackObama Obama]] thing. He could've dropkicked [a] baby and I ''still'' would've voted for him!"''

This trope is a Black character that leans to the right politically and often thrown into conflict with other Black characters over their views.

Some historical background: African-Americans voted for the Republican Party since [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar the American Civil War]] and Reconstruction until the 1930s when they became a reliable voting bloc for the Democratic Party since [[TheGreatDepression the Great Depression]]. This was solidified in TheSixties during the UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement, when the Democrats finally added civil rights to their platform and [[UsefulNotes/LyndonJohnson Lyndon B. Johnson]], a Democratic president, and Congress passed the Civil and Voting Rights Acts. The fact that many White pro-segregation Democrats from the South, the so-called "Dixiecrats", decided to protest this move by switching to the GOP also greatly contributed to this change. Despite wildly divergent points of view amongst Black Americans, including a strong tradition of social conservatism, those that do vote overwhelmingly vote Democrat. No Democratic nominee for president has gotten less than 82 percent of the Black vote since UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy with 68 percent in 1960. As of 2023, there are only five black Republicans in federal elected office, Representative Byron Donalds of Florida, Representative Wesley Hunt of Texas, Representative John James of Michigan, Representative Burgess Owens of Utah[[note]]One of his predecessors, Mia Love, was the first black Republican woman elected to Congress[[/note]], and Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina[[note]]Appointed in 2013, Scott served as the only black U.S. Senator from January to February and again from July until the end of October when Democrat Cory Booker was sworn in[[/note]]. Outside of political office, other notable black Republicans/conservatives include author Thomas Sowell, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, renowned neurosurgeon and Housing Secretary Ben Carson, Secretary of State Condolezza Rice, radio host Larry Elder and football legend Herschel Walker.

So, naturally, whenever a Black character makes his/her conservative views known, this brings a lot of discord, especially with other Black characters. They're often marked as "sellouts", uppity or selfish for not caring about the rights of Black people. Typically, the dissension is resolved in AnAesop about being respectful of one's political leanings and embracing different points of view, though not always, as they can also be used as a StrawCharacter.

While the shock factor of being Republican isn't as intense when it comes to other racial/ethnic minorities in America, this trope still sometimes comes into play for them as well. Hispanic Americans and Asian-Americans vote overwhelmingly Democrat/liberal, though their Republican vote percentage is higher than that of Black Americans (and Republicans get overwhelming support from some specific ethnic groups in these categories, such as Cuban-Americans and Vietnamese-Americans, who often are or are descended from emigrants/refugees from leftist nations). Jewish Americans also tend to lean left, though some are more conservative especially Orthodox voters.

Related to TheWhitestBlackGuy and CategoryTraitor. Can overlap with BoomerangBigot if the work portrays conservatives as racist or a Black Republican character is likely to be accused of being racist. Compare StrawAffiliation. See also GayConservative. Contrast MalcolmXerox, for the most part.

!!Examples with Black Republicans:

* ComicBook/{{Icon}} is explicitly a Black Republican, in contrast with his liberal partner Rocket. This ended up creating some headaches for Creator/DwayneMcDuffie, as Icon developed a MisaimedFandom among actual Black conservatives like Clarence Thomas who didn't understand that Icon was supposed to be wrong sometimes.

* ''Film/TalesFromTheHood2'': In "The Sacrifice", Black councilman Henry Bradley is a Republican. His mother regards him as a CategoryTraitor for supporting Republican gubernatorial candidate William Cotton, who is targeting voting locations in predominantly Black districts for closure. Henry himself doesn't ''like'' Cotton, but he's banking on getting support for his own political ambitions in exchange for his support now.
* In ''Film/LongShot'', [[spoiler:Lance]] is revealed to be a Black Republican, forcing Fred to reevaluate some of his own political biases.

* The Black "Mother" Abigail Freemantle of Stephen King's ''Literature/TheStand'' received a thank you letter from Ronald Reagan acknowledging her as the oldest living Republican. Her political identity is largely tied to her powerful religious convictions. An especially notable example, as not only is Abigail black, she's old enough that her parents were ''freed slaves'' before she was born.
* ''Literature/TriggerWarning'': Pierce, a Black student who's one of the few people on campus Jake becomes friendly with. Pierce is more conservative than most of the other students, and admits to being from a very wealthy family. This puts him at odds with many of his peers, who begin calling him an "Uncle Tom".

** This is played for laughs when Jack announces to a group of Republicans that he's dating a Democratic politician, prompting others to stand up and reveal secret things about themselves that are viewed as liberal such as donating to NPR, being gay, or being [[CaptainObviousReveal Black.]]

* The last season of ''Series/BostonPublic'' had Black teacher Marilyn Sudor reveal that she was not only Republican, but against [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affirmative_action_in_the_United_States affirmative action]], after a white student protested publicly against it (which, it turns out, was for a petty reason, a Black student was admitted into Harvard with a GPA a ''tenth of a point'' lower than his, and the white student had already been admitted into Yale). The principal (and her boyfriend) Steven Harper and especially teacher Marla Hendricks aren't sympathetic (Marla basically calls her a traitor), but during a debate, she explains her point of view concisely, bringing more understanding. She also reveals that despite being Republican, she's for a three-day waiting period for gun purchases, against the death penalty, and regarding prayer in schools, she says "I'm a Republican, not Pat Robertson."
* ''Series/TheColbertReport'' had a recurring character of Black Republican P.K. Winsome, who was played by Creator/TimMeadows.
* The series ''Series/DearWhitePeople'' features a side character named Rikki Barnes, a Black Republican pundit [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed in the vein of]] real-life Black conservative pundit [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candace_Owens Candace Owens]]. Bonus points for the CastingGag of her being played by Creator/TessaThompson, who played the main character Sam (whose political views are the polar opposite) in [[Film/DearWhitePeople the film]]. This is then subverted as Rikki reveals to Sam that she doesn't ''really'' believe these things; she's [[MoneyDearBoy only in it for the money and notoriety]].

* PlayedForLaughs in ''Series/TheGoodFight'', where the main law firm is almost entirely made up of Black employees, and the few white employees are all also extremely liberal. In one episode, when asked if they're "politically diverse," they realize they don't actually know if ''any'' of their employees voted for UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump -- nor do they know any other Black people who did, for that matter. For the sake of having a Republican lawyer to show to potential clients, they ask around and find ''one'' attorney who did. The attorney in question, Julius, is Black and doesn't want to admit he voted for Trump because he knows most of his coworkers would give him hell for it. (When it does get out, it's mostly restricted to "what the hell were you thinking?" comments.) To his credit, he tries not to let his politics interfere with his job, even though many of the firm's clients have views that diametrically oppose his, and he's not a bigot. He also later admits that, while he's still a proud conservative, he's grown disillusioned with Trump.
* A recurring sketch from ''Series/KeyAndPeele'' deals with [[https://youtu.be/99PR2mWDb9w Black Republicans]], whose meetings mostly consist of them complaining to each other about how they are pissed (''royally'' pissed!) that most African-Americans vote Democratic and insisting that Black Republicans are actually quite diverse and "NOT a monolith", despite their appearances and personalities being almost cookie-cutter in style.

* ''VideoGame/Payday2'' has John Henry Simmons, known across the criminal world as the Elephant. He's a US senator who is Black and is willing to offer the Payday Gang lucrative contracts, often against his opponents.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}'': The Landons, Jodie's family, is one of the only Black families in the city, and they're actually much more conservative than the Caucasian Morgendorffers. This is used on a gag in "Gifted" when they're talking with each other and Helen assumes Michelle would agree with her support for welfare, and she turns out to be against it. Jodie's own politics, however, are more ambiguous.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': The Springfield Republican Party are a group representing various stereotypical archetypes of Republicans, with Julius Hibbert representing the Black Republican.

* ''Series/GrownIsh'' has Ana, a Latina conservative. She credits her Cuban upbringing for informing her views, and she only really comes into conflict with Aaron, a militant upperclassman all about uplifting other Black people. She did support Barack Obama, however.

* In ''Series/ThirtyRock'' this is played for laughs when Jack announces to a group of Republicans that he's dating a Democratic politician, prompting others to stand up and reveal secret things about themselves that are viewed as liberal such as donating to NPR, being gay, or being [[CaptainObviousReveal Black.]]