No blacks at the RNC

African Americans lacking in Republican delegation at this year's convention | World news | guardian.co.uk

Deborah Honeycutt ardently opposes abortion rights, wants the government to give parents vouchers to pay for parochial schools, and has a hard line on illegal immigration. And she is black, one of a tiny number of African Americans at the Republican national convention being held in St Paul this week.

A glance around the Republican national convention this week shows a sea of white faces. Only 36 of its delegates are black, less than 2% of the total. At the Democratic convention in Denver last week, 1,087 delegates were black, about a quarter of the total.

The Republican party has no African Americans in the US House of Representatives and Senate, while the Democratic party has one African-American US senator -- Barack Obama -- and 42 in the House. The Joint Centre for Political and Economic Studies, a research group that studies African-American politics, has identified seven black Republican nominees for federal office this year -- out of more than 460 races -- and said none are likely to win.

The major reason for this phenomenon?

There are relatively few African-American millionaires, and those who are 'Republican-wealthy' are Democrats!

-gregg king