{"id":1425761,"date":"2022-04-08T13:14:48","date_gmt":"2022-04-08T17:14:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1425761"},"modified":"2022-04-08T13:14:56","modified_gmt":"2022-04-08T17:14:56","slug":"blue-state-blues-the-radical-black-feminist-who-became-a-trump-supporter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/blue-state-blues-the-radical-black-feminist-who-became-a-trump-supporter\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue State Blues: The Radical Black Feminist Who Became a Trump Supporter"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fblue-state-blues-the-radical-black-feminist-who-became-a-trump-supporter%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1425761&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"subheading\">Rhoda Kadalie is a black feminist who was active in the struggle against apartheid, served in President Nelson Mandela\u2019s administration on South Africa\u2019s Human Rights Commission, and worked with George Soros to fund development projects in poor communities.<\/p>\n<p>Now living in Los Angeles (she is my mother-in-law), Rhoda was also an early supporter of President Donald Trump, and remains so today. Her journey holds lessons for a nation still wrestling with race and democracy.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>Born in 1953 in Cape Town\u2019s diverse District Six (later to be destroyed by the apartheid regime), Rhoda grew up classified as \u201cColoured,\u201d or mixed-race. Her grandfather had been Clements Kadalie, a Malawian migrant who was the first black trade unionist in South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>Her father was a musician-turned-pastor who moved the family to the suburb of Mowbray to run the city\u2019s public laundry. But the area was declared \u201cwhite,\u201d and all of its black families were evicted in the early 1970s.<\/p>\n<p>Rhoda attended the University of the Western Cape, a segregated campus devoted to the Coloured population. Inspired by writer Steve Biko and his philosophy of Black Consciousness, students were beginning to protest against apartheid and to reject distinctions among its \u201cnon-white\u201d victims.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>Rhoda began speaking out for the role of women, who were overlooked and even abused by male leaders in the movement. As a faculty member, she later set up the campus\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uwc.ac.za\/news-and-announcements\/news\/gender-equity-unit-celebrates-25-years-of-radical-black-feminism-554\">Gender Equity Unit<\/a>.\u00a0As a result of her efforts, women at the university won benefits such as equal pay, maternity leave, and protections from sexual harassment.<\/p>\n<p>Rhoda also participated in discussions about the inclusion of women\u2019s rights in South Africa\u2019s new constitution. Her efforts gained nationwide attention, and following the first multi-racial democratic elections in 1994, she was appointed by Mandela to the Human Rights Commission. She became its most active member and most recognized public face.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_20545175\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/media.breitbart.com\/media\/2022\/04\/29-Mandela-and-Rhoda-3.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Rhoda Kadalie and Nelson Mandela at the University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa, 1990s (Courtesy Rhoda Kadalie)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Rhoda demanded that South Africa live up to the standards of its new democratic order. Having studied at The Hague in the 1980s with women from around the world who were activists in their own country\u2019s liberation struggles, she knew that post-colonial governments were prone to corruption and institutional failure. When the ruling African National Congress (ANC) began to falter in its commitment to human rights, she resigned her position in protest, urging Mandela to adopt reforms.<\/p>\n<p>She then launched Impumelelo, an organization that supported successful private-public partnerships in poor communities. With funding from Soros and other donors, she also created a database of best practices she hoped the government would use to expand upon local successes.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B3\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>At the same time, Rhoda began writing regular columns in local newspapers, often excoriating the government for its growing corruption \u2014 and, increasingly, its exploitation of race.<\/p>\n<p>While she supported affirmative action and the idea of redistribution, known as \u201cblack economic empowerment,\u201d Rhoda opposed those policies when they meant lowering standards, or giving big deals to \u201cdisadvantaged\u201d ruling party insiders.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>When Mandela\u2019s successor, Thabo Mbeki, embraced racist conspiracy theories about HIV\/Aids and backed Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe in his anti-white fulminations, Rhoda was among the first South Africans to speak out in protest.<\/p>\n<p>She remained a member of the ANC, but criticized it from within, and supported the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) during several elections \u2014 although she was also critical of the DA, too, especially its hurried promotion of black leaders to counter the party\u2019s \u201cwhite\u201d image.<\/p>\n<p>Rhoda rejected political correctness, and was at her sharpest when criticizing the South African media, academia, and corporate leaders for their acquiescence in what we would now call \u201cwoke\u201d racial ideology.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B4\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>Rhoda eventually <a href=\"https:\/\/www.citizen.co.za\/news\/opinion\/1687391\/a-government-that-refuses-to-be-controlled-is-treated-like-the-enemy-by-the-rich\/\">broke<\/a> with Soros, and\u00a0also spoke out in defense of Israel, defying the pro-Palestinian consensus on the left and speaking out against the antisemitism that often crept into anti-Israel activism. She infuriated her critics, but earned a wide base of readers and fans.<\/p>\n<p>A close observer of American politics, Rhoda was skeptical of the rise of Barack Obama, seeing him as largely an empty shell. When then-Sen. Obama (D-IL) visited Cape Town and delivered a speech, she declined to attend, on principle. Few foresaw, as she did, that his presidency would end in disappointment.<\/p>\n<p>Conversely, Rhoda took an interest in Donald Trump, seeing him as a\u00a0<em>skollie<\/em> \u2014 a \u201cruffian,\u201d in South African slang \u2014 who would shake up a complacent American establishment.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_20545256\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/71-Rhoda-MAGA-.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-20545256\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/71-Rhoda-MAGA-.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"1280\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Courtesy Rhoda Kadalie<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Trump was not the only candidate who impressed Rhoda. She enjoyed watching Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) take aim at Hillary Clinton, and cheered when businesswoman Carly Fiorina confronted Trump over his past rhetoric about women.<\/p>\n<p>Today, Rhoda continues to argue for a more open American political debate, one less constrained by the same rules of political correctness and identity politics she believes have prevented South African democracy from achieving its potential.<\/p>\n<p>The chaos of the 2020 election left her disillusioned about American democracy, but she sees hope in the ongoing anti-\u201cwoke\u201d backlash.<\/p>\n<p>A committed Christian, Rhoda has also spoken out throughout her life for gay and lesbian rights. She has always been pro-choice, though she also opposes partial-birth abortion and has spoken out against the extremism of Planned Parenthood.<\/p>\n<p>Rhoda has a unique ability to embrace political contradictions. Her approach to democracy is pragmatic, not ideological: she favors a diversity of views, even ones she dislikes, because it gives citizens the most leverage to hold politicians accountable.<\/p>\n<p>Her remarkable journey teaches that a true love of liberty transcends the categories that often confine our political thinking.<\/p>\n<p><em>Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of <\/em>Breitbart News Sunday<em> on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the forthcoming biography,\u00a0<\/em>Rhoda: Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order!.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.centerstreet.com\/titles\/joel-b-pollak\/red-november\/9781546099840\/\">RED NOVEMBER<\/a><em>, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at <a class=\"x5l\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/joelpollak\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\">@joelpollak<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rhoda Kadalie is a black feminist who was active in the struggle against apartheid, served in President Nelson Mandela\u2019s administration on South Africa\u2019s Human Rights Commission, and worked with George<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1425761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1425761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1425761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1425761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1425761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1425761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1425761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}