The Black Conservative: A Novel of Gripping Evil Deep Political Feelings and Courage

By Richard Val

Richard Val's riveting and explosive novel challenges the stereotyping of conservative blacks as mere "Uncle Toms".

This sensational piece of fiction is filled with heroic and sinister characters, and directly addresses the immensely volatile racial issues of our time.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stratton Press
• Release date: Nov 30, 2021
• ISBN: 9781648956621

Richard Val

Richard Val has become an author later in his life and enjoys his new career as a writer.

Book preview

Preface

The venerable civil rights leader went into a deep sleep. He dreamed the martyred hero had come down from heaven on a ladder and called out to him, I am Martin, and all I have done for you and your descendants shall carry forth. Your prosperity will be great in number and spread throughout the mighty nation. I have asked my Lord to keep you safe wherever you go. And then the martyred hero clasped the hands of the venerable civil rights leader and said, I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised.

—a passage from the Certified Official Dogma of the Great Civil Rights Movement, chapter 5, verses 8–17

The venerable civil rights leader woke from his reverie, and was so moved by the dream, he went to his bookshelf. There he took the Official Dogma of the Great Civil Rights Movement, placed his right hand on it, and, looking up, he exclaimed, Martin, your promises will be fulfilled, so help me God! Then he thumbed through the weighty book and came to the passage he wanted to read aloud: The son of your people was destined to give his life so that your descendants would be free from the bondage of slavery. Some among you will betray him. But woe to the man who betrays him. It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.

—taken from the Certified Official Dogma of the Great Civil Rights Movement, chapter 5, verses 18–25 and 34–38

Acknowledgement

I owe my special deep thanks to my wife, Ginny; my late brother, Dave, who helped me immensely with ideas and legal matters; my sister, Elaine; and her husband, Tony, who all gave me support and inspiration during the tough days in putting together this novel. A special thanks also goes to my nephew by marriage, Anthony Lugara, for the time he spent communicating by email with Stratton Press on my behalf. And finally, my salute to two Texans from Harris County, Dan Comstock and author Carl Pittman, for their welcome advice.

Prologue

The sun shone brightly on his face. He basked in the glory of it. Much farther away, beyond the horizon, was the overhead formation of ugly, drearily dark clouds that resembled soot. He couldn’t see it; it was too distant. But it began to drift his way, ever so slowly, but also ever so surely.

Chapter 1

The Black Conservative:

Who He Is and What He Believes

Before we begin this absorbing story of intrigue, intolerance, and recrimination, it is especially important to have a sense of, and an understanding of, the main protagonist of the tale, the black conservative himself—to know some things about him, especially his adamant refusal to fully accept certain dogmatic assertions regarding the race issue in America. It is also of equal importance that we give our rapt attention to his passionate thoughts about this matter, and to allow him to make his case in some considerable depth. For this the author is grateful. We should also keep uppermost in our minds that the person he most admires is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose legacy, he strongly affirms, still looms as the most significant factor in the entire civil rights movement, despite what others may think politically beyond their lip service to him. In fact, he strongly believes that some black activists have actually betrayed the great man and are attempting to reduce his legacy.

So let’s begin with some background of the black conservative. His name is Eric Graves. He is forty-three years old, of sturdy build and average height, with a shaven head and a mustache. Eric is not handsome in the best sense of the word but does have a pleasing face and an engaging personality. He is married to a Caucasian woman, Vanessa. They have three young children—two daughters, Sarah, twelve, and Courtney, nine. The youngest child is a boy, Jake, seven years old. The family lives in a lovely split level on a quiet residential street in the midsize city of Greenville, New Jersey, population of around two hundred thousand.

Eric is a decorated army war veteran. After graduating from Rutgers University in 1993, while single, he joined the army and was assigned as a second lieutenant with the twenty-fourth infantry division at Fort Stewart, Georgia. In the aftermath of the battle of Mogadishu, in Somalia, this division was dispatched there to help in the eventual withdrawal of American troops from that country while, at the same time, protecting those troops under stressful war conditions. Eric and several soldiers from his platoon were each given a bronze star for their heroism in a combat zone by helping save the lives of three troopers who lay wounded in a Bradley fighting vehicle, which was ambushed by heavy ground fire from Somali rebels. After initially being pinned down by enemy fire, Eric and his men returned fire and succeeded in getting the rebels to flee. He then radioed a medical platoon, which hurriedly came to treat and evacuate the wounded warriors.

Later, Eric was promoted to first lieutenant and given an army achievement medal for his display of leadership. When his six-year enlistment was up, Eric decided to return to civilian life. His military superiors told him that, if he had chosen to stay in the army, and, given his outstanding military record at that point, he would eventually be on the short list for promotion to captain, with the real possibility of eventually becoming a general. Thus the temptation was great for Eric to remain in the military. Instead, he decided, following a good friend’s advice, to go into real estate marketing, a move he never regretted. Eric is now the broker manager of a large branch office of a well-established company specializing in residential real estate in New Jersey. He earns a very high salary, well into six figures, and is in charge of more than eighty salespeople at that office. And, interestingly, when starting out in the business as a fledgling salesperson, he met his future wife, who was helping her parents look for a home in the area. Not only did Eric find a home for them, but he also asked Vanessa for her phone number, began dating her, and wound up marrying her.

Eric is a true leader type person, thanks, in great part, to his army experience. However, in sizing up Eric at first glance, we would consider him as just another very successful middle-class American. But on the contrary, he is more than that. He is a symbol of all those courageous conservative African Americans who had taken the bold and daunting step of bringing out their views into the open. Why bold and daunting? Well, Eric has had to brace himself from the verbal attacks by certain activists, the name-calling, the disparaging remarks. To them, he is an Uncle Tom, an Uncle Remus, a servile and house Negro, a shoeshine boy, a turncoat, a white man’s black, among other things. Primarily, his guide, his beacon that keeps him steadfast, so to speak, is Dr. King, whom Eric calls one of the greatest Americans to have ever lived. Just as Christians have made Jesus Christ the foundation of their religion, so, too, the black conservative has made Dr. King’s words, beliefs, writings, and feelings the foundation of his positions.

So what exactly are Eric’s views? Let’s start with the Black Lives Matter movement. Eric says it rightly roars against police brutality of blacks. The endeavor is moral and necessary, given the facts in a number of cases. The founders and followers of the movement are to be credited for their work. However, there are some significant things that bother him—things that jar the focus of all this activism. First, the Black Lives Matter protesters must always be cognizant of the violence that occurs during many of these protests. For instance, the looting and damaging of businesses. Not only does it tarnish the image of the movement, but it also tarnishes the legacy of Dr. King. In a sense, this violence betrays the very admonishments that Dr. King had expressed.

In his 1967 book Where Do We Go from Here, Chaos or Community? he wrote this: The American racial revolution has been the revolution to get in rather than to overthrow. We want our share in the American economy, the housing market, the educational system and the social opportunities. The goal itself indicates that a social change must be nonviolent. If one is in search of a better job, it does not help to burn down the factory. If one needs more adequate education, shooting the principal will not help. If housing is the goal, only building and construction will produce that. To destroy anything, person, or property, cannot bring us closer to the goal that we seek.

Secondly, the black conservative points out that in 1961, Dr. King spoke to a St. Louis, Missouri, African American audience. And here is what he said: Did you know that Negros are 10 percent of the population of St. Louis and are responsible for 58 percent of the crime? We’ve got to face that fact. And we’ve got to do something about our moral standards. We know there are many things wrong in the white world, but there are many things wrong in the black world too. We can’t keep blaming the white man. These are things we must do ourselves.

And so, says Eric, let’s break his last point down into several parts. First, violent crime rates are still excessively high in black neighborhoods in cities across the country, some fifty-nine years after that speech. Secondly, the great man says blacks are responsible to do something about it. The black conservative says it is vital for us to keep Dr. King’s words in our minds—namely, that blacks must take the responsibility of bringing down the persistently high rates of violent crime, attributed mainly to younger black males. Eric combines the parts and begins to lay out his case in the following manner: apparently, there are certain blacks who don’t believe in the words black lives matter. They shockingly murder and wound other blacks almost every day, according to media accounts. Eric keeps a record of these reports, and so far, this collection would fill a large room. All types of blacks are victims: from infants, to teenagers, to young adults, to older blacks. The shootings and knifings are horrible, and this brutality of blacks upon blacks always seem to have the same sorrowful results—mothers and family members in tears and in frustration, crying out for social justice. Yet, in many cases reported, the perpetrators are never apprehended.

And so, there are people in the black community who wonder whether, as a whole, civil rights leaders are really paying attention to this enormous problem. For instance, if the civil rights movement is symbolized as a dollar—$0.90 of it would be directed toward police brutality, and $0.10 toward black-on-black brutality. And yet, when we compare the number of blacks brutalized by certain cops, to the number of victims killed by other blacks, and this was a matchup, there would be no contest.

The astounding number of killings and wounding by blacks upon blacks far outnumber police killings. Eric calls it ironic and disturbing. And he exclaims that this incongruity and the relative lack of attention, given its secondary position to police brutality, are very much baffling and sad to him. And just as it would be to Dr. King if he were still alive.

Eric believes, in conjunction with this matter, that the enormous and uncontrollable proliferation of guns in urban areas—weapons carried mainly by gangs—is extremely alarming, and, just as disturbing, also carried in a number of instances by teenagers and felons. If Dr. King were alive, he would be shocked by its intensity. He would probably ask questions like, Where is this steady stream of guns coming from? Why so many? Who is accountable for this phenomenon? How are weapons getting into the hands of youths, many of whom have not yet reached the age of eighteen? He would want answers, and so would the families of the victims.

The black conservative says he reads reports about police rounding up hundreds of weapons. That’s fine, he exclaims. But it doesn’t explain or clarify why there continues to be this rampant gun violence that refuses to go away. The black conservative says the relative lack of outcry, as compared with the issue of police brutality, is mind-boggling. Eric says that gun violence is a huge specter to those living or working in black communities.

A typical example, he points out, is the arrest of a nineteen-year-old black teenager who was charged with shooting and wounding a UPS driver in Queens, New York, after flying into a rage because the victim’s truck was double parked. According to the police report, Jasheed Osbourne pulled up in a Mercedes-Benz sedan and started chewing out the driver. Then, as the car started speeding away, Osbourne fired at close range with a .22 caliber pistol, a bullet piercing the UPS driver’s stomach. The bullet damaged the driver’s large and small intestine. The victim called for an ambulance, was rushed to the hospital, where surgery was performed.

According to court records, he had not been able to return to work since the incident. Thanks to a security video, police tracked down the alleged perpetrator and found him carrying a loaded Hi-Point 9 mm semiautomatic handgun. Osbourne had nineteen prior arrests dating back to 2016. This includes ten arrests since January 2020, when New York State’s new bail law went into effect.

Eric says the bail law in itself is controversial, given its mixed results. Black activists must realize the danger of a more liberal bail policy, in that it increases the likelihood of thugs with high criminal records going into the streets and committing more violence. But that is a story for another time. Then there is a recent case of a thirty-eight-year-old black woman being arrested for involvement in the shooting death of a black hardworking Queens, New York, dad. Prosecutors charge that this woman and, get this, her son drove their car next to the victim’s car. She left her car with a metal pipe in her hands while her son approached the victim with a gun. According to the police report, the son blasted as many as fourteen rounds into the victim. The woman then allegedly slammed the metal pipe into the windshield of the victim’s car. They then took off. The victim was only twenty-seven years old and the father of two little children. And imagine, the black conservative says, a black mother who worries constantly about a possible stray bullet killing or wounding one of her children. What a dreadful way to go through motherhood. And, Eric says, how about the innocent child who becomes the victim—his or her life snuffed out by gunfire and never given a chance to lead a full life, perhaps as a nurse or fireman, doctor, lawyer, teacher, or construction worker.

By way of example, one of the most horrific incidents was a senseless shooting death of a one-year-old Brooklyn boy at a family cookout. One-year-old Davell Gardner was struck by a stray bullet as he lay in his stroller. The bullet pierced his stomach, mortally wounding him.

In another incident, a black dad who was walking with his seven-year-old daughter down a New York City street was shot and killed. Eric says, thank God the daughter was not hit. Yet in a Halloween horror incident in Harlem, New York City, a stray bullet shattered the leg of an autistic eight-year-old girl who was trick-or-treating with her dad. The girl was dressed as an astronaut. She and her six-year-old sister were about to cross the street with their dad to meet their mom in a CVS store when shots rang out. Here are some of the comments about the incident made by the distraught father to reporters: I just saw him [the perpetrator] step back, and I saw him pull his gun out and start blasting. Unfortunately, my daughter and I were in the path of where he was shooting. Then I saw a blood come through her pants, and I was so scared. I just prayed she wasn’t shot anywhere else. Do you know how sinister that is, to hope your daughter was only shot in the leg and not in her body? She’s already autistic but now she’s extremely traumatized. She’s asking me why the man shot her. She’s scared. I don’t think she will ever be able to see another gun, or have another Halloween. She has a hole in her leg from one side to the other side, and her bone is shattered, her shin. By the grace of God, it wasn’t fatal. But I don’t want my daughter to have permanent leg damage. This is senseless. An eight-year-old getting shot! Just a matter of inches left or right could have been a different ball game, me or her. My whole outlook on this gun violence thing is that it needs to stop. It’s not fair that you are walking down the street and can almost get killed. I hope people can be a little more mindful and have a little more respect for human life. They need more police presence, more reaching out to the community—we need something. The precious girl’s name is Jamie. Her leg was placed in a cast. Police are looking for two suspects, one of them a young black male.

In another case, a black mother living in one of the urban areas several years ago lost three sons to gun violence. She told a reporter how miserable she felt. She said, I don’t even have a heart right now. They killed me. They destroyed me. She described how she felt about losing her youngest son: Tyquan was a blessing. He’s a sweet, loving kid, that’s one thing I’m going to miss about him. Every night we’re in the house, talking, he’s laying across my bed. Then she had this to say about the perpetrators: Stop killing my kids. Stop hurting me because you’ve already hurt me enough. Just leave me alone.

Then, Eric relates, there was thirteen-year-old Zainee Hailey, a black girl from Newark, New Jersey. This precious child was shot and killed Christmas night, several years ago. The incident occurred when she and her seven-year-old brother were carrying trash to the street from their home. She was the victim of gunfire by a teenager who targeted two other male black teenagers who were standing on the porch of a home. They were also killed. Unfortunately, Zainee was caught in the line of fire. This innocent girl was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Police caught the perpetrator, a fifteen-year-old black male who said he fired the shots because he felt disrespected by one of the two male victims who apparently had sex with the perpetrator’s girlfriend, according to the police report. Zainee was a wonderful girl, a quiet person, a cheerleader in the middle school she attended, and was sometimes seen outside her home practicing her routines. She was also active in her church choir and portrayed the Virgin Mary the past Christmas in a youth ministry play. Her grandfather said Zainee loved to read and was especially excited about one of her Christmas gifts, a kindle fire. It was her first electronics gadget, and her grandfather described her as the happiest he ever saw her. Her father lamented, Wish it wasn’t her last day. A daughter, man, my girl. She didn’t even make her sweet sixteen. Then he commented sadly, referring to the perpetrator: That kid has three bodies on him. He was fifteen! Man, it’s a crazy world out there. All these kids just killing people, just killing each other.

A person who lived in the area told a reporter, There’s no parents paying attention. There’s no leadership. The black conservative says this remark is noteworthy because of the family breakdown in black communities—single mothers and no father figures around. This problem itself serves as a major contributor to the malaise. Yet, like gun violence, it takes a second position to police brutality.

In contrast, Dr. King was brought up by two loving and devoted parents, who made sure their child was shown the importance of ethics, virtue, and education. Again, as far as Eric can tell, this weighty subject of family dysfunction is given little attention in the media. And he hopes this is not the case with regard to civil rights and religious leaders, who are being counted on to remedy this devastating weakness. But Eric wonders whether there will be more Zainees innocently killed somewhere in the nation, unless the gun proliferation issue is mightily addressed.

Then there was the case of Radazz Hearns, a fourteen-year-old black male from Trenton, New Jersey. He was charged with aggravated assault of police officers and weapons offenses, alleging he pointed a handgun at the officers before they shot him multiple times. The attorney general’s office stated that witnesses who were at the scene reported that the juvenile had a gun in his hand—police say it turned out to be a .22 caliber handgun—and that one of the officers yelled gun before they fired. The youth survived the shooting, but the incidence raises a number of serious questions. For instance, the incidence occurred at 10:20 p.m. So why was this fourteen-year-old teenager out so late? Where was the parental supervision? And what was he doing with a weapon? Where did he get it? Who gave it to him? And the scariest question is, What was he going to use it for? Also, at a news conference shortly after the incidence, the mother of Radazz and their lawyer appeared and spoke. The child’s uncle was also there. Naturally, the mother was distraught, and we felt her pain. Her son was wounded. But where was the father? This case leads to the strong assumption that the family unit was a single mother household without a father—a case where you have a child growing up undisciplined, little motivated, unsupervised, and left to get into trouble.

Or how about a fifteen-year-old black kid, Qadar Marshall, charged with murder for the shooting death of a man in the East Village, New York City? The victim was a twenty-six-year-old black father of two children. The