“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 Of course, it hasn’t helped that, since his appointment, his voice box has been replaced by a gaffe machine.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.

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