Here's my issue with Congressional candidate @BurgessOwens. It's always 'tricky' for Black conservatives to acknowledge anything remotely race-related without fearing backlash from the anti-black base they need to appeal to. It's this same base that will always say 1/ #utpol

All Lives Matter in response to Black Lives Matter, share debunked memes that the Democratic Party is in fact the racist party and started the KKK, declare kneeling during the National Anthem disrespects The Flag, and simultaneously argue waving the Confederate Battle Flag is 2/

preserving culture and history and has nothing to do with with racism. Mr. Owens, a Black man if you were unaware, will undoubtedly appease these sentiments. Feel free to check his Twitter page and see for yourself. I primarily checked his page to see if he had issued a 3/

statement regarding the recent passing of Civil Rights icon, @repjohnlewis. I saw none. Instead, there's a post calling presidential candidate and former V.P Joe Biden a segregationist. I saw nothing regarding revelations by Mr Trump's niece that the President regularly used 4/

the n-word and antisemitic slurs. I'm sure if that revelation had been made by a Biden family member, there'd be a post. The next post is a retweet by former Congresswoman Mia Love. Not at all surprising, considering we went through this same thing when Ms. Love, also a 5/

Black conservative represented CD-4. As Congress woman, Ms. Love often frustrated us by her silence around issues of race that inevitably came up during the presidency of the country's first black president Barack Obama, and his successor, Donald Trump. 6/

She offered criticism of the current president's anti-black and racist statements when he included the country of her ancestors as a shithole and after the President's comments regarding the White Supremacist march in Charlottsville. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/07/15/why-its-unsurprising-that-republicans-are-staying-quiet-after-trumps-go-back-tweet/ 7/

Like Ms. Love, Mr Owen's comments regarding racism are viewed through the lens of Black Americans embracing 'victimhood' if racism or anti-blackness is used as the reason that stymies upward-mobility or even police brutality. This viewpoint bodes well for racists who does 8/

not want to accept their own implicit bias and racism as being part of the problem. It bodes even better when it's said by a person of color. Ms. Love was a member of the Congressional Black Caucus with Rep. Lewis as well as served with him in Congress. Although she tweeted a 9/

statement to his memory, it failed to mention the former fact. Yes, there's a reason for that and it has everything to do with the Party's base. Mr. Owens did not retweet Ms. Love's statement regarding John Lewis. In fact, he's still not acknowledged Mr. Lewis. Why does 10/

that matter? It is because of men like Mr. Lewis and Mr. Vivan, another civil rights legend who passed away hours before Mr. Lewis, that Mr. Owens can even ask the constitutes of CD-4 to vote for him. Yes, the 15A gave Black men the right to vote, that actually was not 11/

realized until men like Medgar Evers gave his life registering Black voters and John Lewis shed blood on the Edmund Pettus Bridge on Bloody Sunday that awakened the conscience of this nation that propelled President Lyndon Johnson to sign the Voting Rights Act of 1965. 12/

For Mr Owens to not acknowledge that is a fatal flaw and one that I cannot support in someone who wants to represents me in Congress. END/