African-Americans who believe that Mitt Romney represents the best opportunity for black America.

Travel to any Black-owned barbershop or beauty salon on a Saturday afternoon, and you will hear some of the most outlandish, unsubstantiated and unverifiable (statistical) claims about the state of today’s African-American Male. I sit in barber chairs across this country and hear “you know half of em’ been locked up, most of em’ dropped out of high school, and all of em’ are marrying white women.” I sit mostly in silence, because the truth about the great economic and educational strides of today’s Black Male usually starts an emotional and fiery debate. And mostly, the barbershop is a place where truth, statistics and evidence gets trumped by whoever shouts the loudest.

If I can give Black America one teachable lesson, it would be this “Never trust a man (or woman) who quotes a statistic that ends in either a five or a zero.” “25% of this, 50% of that, 75% of these” are usually opinion or conjecture, and seldom if ever valid. Fives and zeros are the numbers of men and are usually flawed (look at your fingers).

This “fives-and-zeros” rule is what led me to my initial research into carving out positive statistics about African-Americans in 2005. Former NPR correspondent Juan Williams in a debate with Dr. Michael Eric Dyson blurted out a statistic that 70% of African-American children were being born out-of-wedlock. Of course I cried foul, and headed to the census.gov to fact-check Mr. William’s claim. That initial research is what has motivated me to look for positive data about Blacks, and attempt to offset the constant negative messaging etched into our minds. Be it graduation rates, enrollment rates, income or social data, I believe that in our hearts, we all need to hear more “good news” about Blacks in this country.

Why didn’t Pelosi force Hoyer to drop out of the race? She could have created a “new” leadership position for him. This is the same party that, in September, tried to force current Congressman from Florida, Kendrick Meek, to drop out of his race to become the first Black elected U.S. senator from Florida. The White House asked Bill Clinton to pressure Meek to withdraw from the race and support the governor of Florida, Charlie Crist. Mind you that Crist is a white Republican turned Independent. Meek resisted the pressure and said no.

So, the Democrats care so much for the Black community that they wanted Meek to drop out of the race and endorse a de facto Republican. Again, where were the voices of the most loyal voting block within the Democratic Party?

What makes me most angry is the total silence of those in the Black community. Clyburn has spent 4 years as Majority Whip. During this time, Clyburn has done favors for many Democratic groups that have come to him for help. Where were the voices of outrage from these groups? Why didn’t they promise holy hell if the Democrats didn’t keep Clyburn in his leadership position?

Officer Ziplock came to my house a few months ago and asked me to drop the term “urban” because it was synonymous with “black”. He informed me now that I live on the Conservative side of town, I don’t need to self identify as “urban” or talk about race under any circumstances whatsoever. I showed him a Wikipedia article that defined “urban” as being “of or related to the city” – to no avail.

Officer Ziplock warned me he’d be keeping his eyes on me and I noticed he had been following me around town the last few months. He even emailed me on facebook, but I never responded. I remember an incident in the supermarket where I noticed some eyes staring back at me through the cracks in the aisle right by the Apple Jack’s boxes. It kind of creeped me out, but I figured, since he was the self-identified “conservative police”, he was just doing his job. I always wondered how a public sector employee was busy stalking me and my urban conservative brethren instead of fighting crime and spreading the ‘conservative’ message to areas with very few conservatives.

It seems as though every time a shot for progress is made for the Republican Party, a salvo is returned in the culture war within the GOP

It is our sincere pleasure to share this very special announcement with you. The debut book, Silence Makes the Loudest Sound: A Conversation between African Americans and the Republican Party

“Tavis said it right: if Black America’s recognized leaders are unwilling to push President Obama on these issues now, how can they expect to hold the moral authority to question any other president henceforth about issue directly pertaining to Black America? The answer would be that they couldn’t.

For decades, social conservatives have relentlessly targeted Black Churches as a way to bring more African-Americans into the Republican Party. Despite many sincere efforts, the numbers of church going African-Americans who vote Republican is smaller now than ever before.

While there has been much debate and talk about the Religious Right within the Republican Party, one could equally and strongly argue that African-Americans make up one of the largest socially conservative voting blocs in the Democrat Party. Earlier this year, the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life released a detailed study on the religious views of most African-Americans. The research was unique in that the new analysis found blacks to be the most religious group of people in the United States population as a whole.

According to the research, when compared to other racial and ethnic groups, African-Americans are among the most likely to report a formal religious affiliation with 87% of African-Americans describing themselves as belonging to one religious group or another. The analysis also finds that nearly eight-in-ten African-Americans (79%) say religion is very important in their lives compared with 56% among all U.S. adults.

Why don’t black people listen to or produce Rock music?

Apparently, the music died on February 3rd, 1959 when Buddy Holly, Richie Valenz, and the Big Bopper died in a plane crash following a concert. Apparently, Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Howlin’ Wolf, and Big Mamma Thornton were also on that plane, if in fact, the music had died. Oh they were not. Then what the Hell was that song about? Oh that song was about the day white music died. Got It.

In short, Black people don’t subscribe to conservatism or listen to rock music because they gave it away. Many of their reasons were valid but for the most part they are outdated. As long as we as a people limit our political perspective and our artistic tastes we’ll lock ourselves out of the mainstream and all the opportunities therein.

HIV/AIDS is a leading killer in the African-American Community not only because of the rate at which African-American people engage in sexual activities and participate in the drug culture but also because they are not using preventative measures which are available to them.

Since President Obama rammed through Congress his reckless $787 billion stimulus bill the number of unemployed Americans has been steadily increasing, especially among African-Americans. For months that the president’s stimulus bill has failed to create the jobs he promised, and now the NAACP recognizes it, too.

Black Republicans running for various offices this election cycle seem to be running from race while running their race. This is one of the most asinine things I have every seen, but not unexpected. This is why Black Republicans have no credibility within their own community

When people think of South Carolina, they think of . . . I know, Comedy Central. Given the state’s generosity in providing punch lines, Jon Stewart really ought to consider taking a pay cut. What people do not typically think of is black Republicans, a perception that could change soon if a young man named Marvin Rogers has his way.

I will never vote for a Democrat again. My relationship with the DNC has been troubled from the beginning . Much to the dismay of my family and friends I came out as a conservative in 2008. This shift in my political ideology was more complex than I had anticipated. The strongest challenges relate to my gender and ethnicity such as societal perceptions of what makes a good African American feminist. I had to break free of the labels and look at my values not as a Democrat or a Republican, but as Afrocity.

Too close to home is all I think of in learning of the death of another one of my nearest and dearest friends from breast cancer this morning. The latest victim entered the hospital in July and is dead today less than six weeks from initial presentation. Of the six of us who hung together in high school and for class reunions, three are dead of breast cancer.