# Reformed Black Pastors/Theologians



## A.Joseph (Jun 6, 2019)

I’m trying to research and promote black pastors, teachers, theologians and/or bloggers/pundits who have not bought into woke theology. I know a few off the top of my head: D. Harrison, Pastor Voddie, Choc. Knox... any others? The BarPodcast group.... they are very important voices today

What about Anthony Carter? He seems pretty solid, no? I don’t know much about him... thanks!


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## Reformed Covenanter (Jun 6, 2019)

A.Joseph said:


> What about Anthony Carter? He seems pretty solid, no?



Have a look at his Twitter feed and see what you think. He is actually a friend of a friend of mine, but seems pretty far gone into Wokeism.


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## alexandermsmith (Jun 6, 2019)

Probably not quite what you're thinking of, and perhaps "controversial", but the first name that comes to mind is Jesse Lee Peterson. His stuff is mostly political but his conversation is very wholesome and focused on the transforming power of the Gospel.

Reactions: Like 2


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## Reformed Covenanter (Jun 6, 2019)

alexandermsmith said:


> Probably not quite what you're thinking of, and perhaps "controversial", but the first name that comes to mind is Jesse Lee Peterson. His stuff is mostly political but his conversation is very wholesome and focused on the transforming power of the Gospel.



I have heard a couple of his interviews with Stefan Molyneux, which were good. Does he claim to be Reformed?


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## alexandermsmith (Jun 6, 2019)

Reformed Covenanter said:


> I have heard a couple of his interviews with Stefan Molyneux, which were good. Does he claim to be Reformed?



I don't believe so, no. Alas.


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## Romans678 (Jun 6, 2019)

*Ahem* 

Me 

HA! All jokes aside, take a look at the Statement Against Social Justice online. It's website has a signature list from every signer since its inception. I found it encouraging that a plethora of African churches have signed it too. Be blessed and encouraged brother. The Gospel is the power of God for salvation for every tribe and tongue! Christ's church is alive and well in all corners of the earth!

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## Puritan Sailor (Jun 6, 2019)

Dr. Carl Ellis Jr. is excellent in dealing with racial issues from biblical and historical points of view. 

I've also enjoyed reading some pastoral works by HB Charles Jr. I have not read anything where he deals specifically with racism. But in everything I've read so far, he does well at keeping things biblical. I think he would fall into the broad category of reformed baptist. I have heard some of his conference talks online that do deal with racism and his approach seems more biblical rather than following critical race theory.


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## Hamalas (Jun 6, 2019)

Puritan Sailor said:


> Dr. Carl Ellis Jr. is excellent in dealing with racial issues from biblical and historical points of view.
> 
> I've also enjoyed reading some pastoral works by HB Charles Jr. I have not read anything where he deals specifically with racism. But in everything I've read so far, he does well at keeping things biblical. I think he would fall into the broad category of reformed baptist. I have heard some of his conference talks online that do deal with racism and his approach seems more biblical rather than following critical race theory.



There's no doubting the fact that Dr. Ellis is an important voice today, but I've had a more mixed response to some of his comments.


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## Blueridge Believer (Jun 6, 2019)

alexandermsmith said:


> Probably not quite what you're thinking of, and perhaps "controversial", but the first name that comes to mind is Jesse Lee Peterson. His stuff is mostly political but his conversation is very wholesome and focused on the transforming power of the Gospel.


While Jesse is a conservative and a common sense man, he is not a Christian. He is a modalist.

Reactions: Sad 4


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## J.L. Allen (Jun 6, 2019)

He’s not Reformed, but James Ford Jr. has had insightful, biblical teaching on various topics. 

I haven’t heard him talk about race stuff hardly. When he has, it’s been good and even with a tinge of humor with it.


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## Romans678 (Jun 6, 2019)

Blueridge Believer said:


> While Jesse is a conservative and a common sense man, he is not a Christian. He is a modalist.


Modalist? Like Penecostal Apostasy...er... I mean Apostolics?

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## Blueridge Believer (Jun 6, 2019)

I’m not sure what group he belongs to but he denies the Trinity.


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## Blueridge Believer (Jun 6, 2019)

I was wrong. Jesse is not a modalist. He denies the deity of Christ and the Holy Spirit. I found this YouTube video. Not sure who the guy is who did it but you can hear it straight from Jesse’ Mouth

Reactions: Informative 2


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## A.Joseph (Jun 6, 2019)

What about Shai Linne ?


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## Kinghezy (Jun 6, 2019)

A.Joseph said:


> View attachment 6135What about Shai Linne ?



At first I was thinking of Lecrea (who has seemed to be into that stuff based on Twitter). Do you have certain requirements? You title has pastors/theologians, which I would have assumed you are looking for a seminary education, but with pundits/bloggers [in body of the post], it seems that may not be a requirement.


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## A.Joseph (Jun 6, 2019)

Kinghezy said:


> At first I was thinking of Lecrea (who has seemed to be into that stuff based on Twitter). Do you have certain requirements? You title has pastors/theologians, which I would have assumed you are looking for a seminary education, but with pundits/bloggers [in body of the post], it seems that may not be a requirement.


Good question! I blog at a site called American Thinker, check it out! And I’ve been writing so much about CRT & woke theology that I have a bit of a case of ‘white guilt’ which I would like to make up for if I could....

So I wanted to throw a few Reformed guys into the mix ....


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## A.Joseph (Jun 6, 2019)

Here’s my list, I think I will probably leave it as it....

Lecrae- good guy, I’ve written on him in the past, but I’m raising the bar bit in my focus. He’s pretty mainstream now, which is fine. I’m still a big fan of his

Ben Carson
Candace Owens
Chocolate Knox
Shai Linne
Darrell Harrison
Voddie Baucham
Thomas Sowell 
Alan Keyes
Clarence Thomas

1 more?


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## Stephen L Smith (Jun 6, 2019)

Conrad Mbewe

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## Kinghezy (Jun 6, 2019)

http://thebarpodcast.com/index.php/about/

I cannot personally vouch, but have heard good things. Paging through the guest list, I may need to check them out.


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## A.Joseph (Jun 6, 2019)

This would be a good link to feature....LoL


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## A.Joseph (Jun 6, 2019)

Thanks guys I will do a few honorable mentions...


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## ZackF (Jun 6, 2019)

alexandermsmith said:


> I don't believe so, no. Alas.


He’s an atheist and white as a ghost.


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## ZackF (Jun 6, 2019)

A.Joseph said:


> Here’s my list, I think I will probably leave it as it....
> 
> Lecrae- good guy, I’ve written on him in the past, but I’m raising the bar bit in my focus. He’s pretty mainstream now, which is fine. I’m still a big fan of his
> 
> ...


Keyes and Thomas are Roman Catholic. I think Sowell is agnostic. You’re crossing categories of Christian, Reformed and politically conservative.

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## Edward (Jun 6, 2019)

A.Joseph said:


> Clarence Thomas



Are you joking?

The headline is "Reformed Black Pastors/Theologians. 

1) He's not reformed - he's Roman Catholic. 
2) He's not a pastor or theologian. Or for that matter with reference to the top post, a blogger or pundit. 

Looking for a Black Reformed preacher? Try Julian Russell.


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## A.Joseph (Jun 6, 2019)

Sorry for the confusion, I was looking for Reformed Christians to add to my list of black conservatives, hopefully Christian, but at least social conservative. But from you guys I was looking for Reformed Black Christians with a bit of a social media presence but most have seemingly gone woke


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## A.Joseph (Jun 6, 2019)

that African Spurgeon guy was a great find!


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## Edward (Jun 7, 2019)

A.Joseph said:


> black conservatives



If skin color and politics are your considerations, I'm surprised that Herman Cain isn't on your list.


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## J.L. Allen (Jun 7, 2019)

Anthony W. Brown II said:


> *Ahem*
> 
> Me


Sir, with all due respect, you look an awful lot like John Calvin.

Reactions: Funny 1


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## alexandermsmith (Jun 7, 2019)

Blueridge Believer said:


> While Jesse is a conservative and a common sense man, he is not a Christian. He is a modalist.



Really? Yikes didn't know that.


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## A.Joseph (Jun 7, 2019)

Edward said:


> If skin color and politics are your considerations, I'm surprised that Herman Cain isn't on your list.


I thought of him, he just missed the cut... I also dropped Sowell. Not they aren’t worthy of general consideration due to their contributions to society and free market ideology. I’m focusing on social conservatives/believers and not being too discriminatory about their denomination. I’m trying to stick with areas I’m a little more knowledgeable, like religion, faith and value/cultural issues with a political overlap, unfortunately not much is not political and the site is primarily political while touching on all other areas


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## A.Joseph (Jun 7, 2019)

Anthony W. Brown II said:


> *Ahem*
> 
> Me
> 
> HA! All jokes aside, take a look at the Statement Against Social Justice online. It's website has a signature list from every signer since its inception. I found it encouraging that a plethora of African churches have signed it too. Be blessed and encouraged brother. The Gospel is the power of God for salvation for every tribe and tongue! Christ's church is alive and well in all corners of the earth!


Do you have a blog? I’ll look you up...


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## Romans678 (Jun 7, 2019)

A.Joseph said:


> Do you have a blog? I’ll look you up...


I don't boss. I'm a novice in the faith to be honest. Maybe one day if the Lord is willing!

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Reactions: Like 1 | Rejoicing 1


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## Timotheos (Jun 7, 2019)

Stephen L Smith said:


> Conrad Mbewe


This is the one I was thinking of... and Voddie B!


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## A.Joseph (Jun 8, 2019)

Thanks again guys! ....

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/06/honoring_black_conservatives.html


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## Reformed Covenanter (Jun 8, 2019)

If you are looking for political conservatives, do not forget about The Doctor of Common Sense (E. T. Williams). He also does some religious stuff; I am not sure about his denominational affiliation, but I think that he is an evangelical Baptist.


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## Pilgrim (Jun 9, 2019)

Blueridge Believer said:


> While Jesse is a conservative and a common sense man, he is not a Christian. He is a modalist.



That's not surprising given his association (at least in the past--I don't know about currently) with Roy Masters. If Jesse is a modalist, that's actually an improvement over Masters who denies the deity of Christ outright.

EDIT: Saw the update, sadly not surprised. I first heard Jesse Lee Peterson on Masters' program over 20 years ago. I listened to Masters once a few years ago and can't believe I used to be into that nonsense. Another black associate of Masters' who likewise denies the deity of Christ is Emmanuel McLittle if he is still around. (David Kupelian is another one of much lighter pigmentation. I don't know his beliefs about Christ, but he's been more closely associated with Masters than Peterson or McLittle.)

Sadly, some "Christian conservatives" who should know better have a tendency to give black conservatives a pass on theology. If black person says that MLK was a communist and talks about the Democratic welfare plantation, he is considered a prophet and is lauded to no end. The soft bigotry of low expectations?

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## Pilgrim (Jun 9, 2019)

I haven't heard him preach, but Mark Robinson has been strong against SJWism on Facebook. He seems to be an "old school" PCA minister.

In the SBC, Craig Mitchell was formerly at SWBTS and Criswell College. He signed the Statement on Social Justice. He is now the President of the Ethics and Political Economy Center. (Other than those facts, I'm really not that familiar with him.)

Others include Samuel Sey, who has written a good deal over the past few years.

Kofi Adu-Boahen has posted here in the past and is solid. He grew up in London but is in the USA now. But he and Sey are of Ghanaian heritage and aren't the descendants of slaves, so according to Anthony Bradley, they don't count as "regular blacks." But where does that leave Ekemini Uwan? An uber "Woke" ally but still not a "regular black?"

On the political side, some of you may remember the old "Black Avenger," Ken Hamblin, who was a very popular conservative radio talk show host in the 1990s. (He described himself as a lapsed Catholic and as far as I know that's still the case.) His show really took off after he was featured on C-SPAN for a few days or weeks, if not longer. Eventually, he followed Rush Limbaugh in many markets. He left the air abruptly about 15 years ago in a contract dispute and basically dropped out of sight. (I don't know whether or not the fact that he was being supplanted by Hannity in many markets had anything to do with it.) He's been on Twitter for a good while but for some reason despite his former popularity, he does not have many followers. I wondered if it was really him, but he's posted some YouTube videos that reveal that it's really him. His heritage is at least partly from Barbados, so maybe he flunks the "regular black" test too even though he used to look favorably upon the Black Panthers before his turn to conservatism. For the most part, I really enjoyed his show in the 90s. But as a Christian now, I can't endorse some of the antics that he was known for.

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## A.Joseph (Jun 9, 2019)

I don’t know much about Bradley’s past but does he claim to be a Reformed Christian?

Does Bradley know who Karl Barth is? Does he know who James Cone is? What is his opinion of these men? Is his politics his religion? Where does his politics end and his faith begin? Does he have any credibility as a reformed theologian?

See this is the thing, you can write off Edwards or Whitfield or Machen, but you can’t kill systematic theology, this transcends race. This Anthony needs saving as much as that Anthony.

Is this a trump thing? Cause I’m not sure how he is a racist? Is this a republican thing? Well what are us white men and women to do when the Democratic Party has become so antiGod in their platform. We can still attempt to hold republicans to a moral standard, not true with the other party. I supported Rand Paul and Ted Cruz. Are they racist? Who determines who is a racist? Was Trump a racist before he ran for president or only when it became politically expedient to deem him one? I did not want to vote for trump. But there are legitimate links that tie the Clintons to a whole lot of evils.

What does Bradley have to say about Owens or Carson? They don’t count?

What did Obama even do for the black community?
http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/castellitto/190609



Pilgrim said:


> I haven't heard him preach, but Mark Robinson has been strong against SJWism on Facebook. He seems to be an "old school" PCA minister.
> 
> In the SBC, Craig Mitchell was formerly at SWBTS and Criswell College. He signed the Statement on Social Justice. He is now the President of the Ethics and Political Economy Center. (Other than those facts, I'm really not that familiar with him.)
> 
> ...





Pilgrim said:


> I haven't heard him preach, but Mark Robinson has been strong against SJWism on Facebook. He seems to be an "old school" PCA minister.
> 
> In the SBC, Craig Mitchell was formerly at SWBTS and Criswell College. He signed the Statement on Social Justice. He is now the President of the Ethics and Political Economy Center. (Other than those facts, I'm really not that familiar with him.)
> 
> ...


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## Pilgrim (Jun 10, 2019)

A.Joseph said:


> I don’t know much about Bradley’s past but does he claim to be a Reformed Christian?
> 
> Does Bradley know who Karl Barth is? Does he know who James Cone is? What is his opinion of these men? Is his politics his religion? Where does his politics end and his faith begin? Does he have any credibility as a reformed theologian?
> 
> ...



Dr. Bradley had a degree from WTS and used to head up the Francis Schaeffer Institute at Covenant Seminary. So he does have a background in Reformed theology, even if it is not of the strict confessional variety. (Francis Schaeffer certainly wasn't a strict confessionalist himself. According to some, he was not even a 5 point Calvinist.) He says that Bavinck is a big influence these days. I don't know whether or not he is still in the PCA. He's not some SJW all down the line, although Statement on Social Justice fans don't like much of what he says about race. (But Statement on Social Justice fans would disagree with what even Sproul wrote on involvement in society.) But he infuriates people on the left too, depending on what the subject is. If you follow his Twitter feed, you may find that you think that some of the content is helpful and that some of it is not helpful at all. At least that's my take on it.

in my opinion, he does have something of a point about "regular blacks" if I may opine on the subject, although one shouldn't just discount an opinion based solely on the origin of the person giving it. An immigrant from Africa wasn't the descendant of slaves and didn't have to deal with Jim Crow, and at least until recently is going to tend to be highly educated, so that may impact the way they view things. While an immigrant from the Caribbean is generally the descendant of slaves, someone from Haiti, Jamaica or Trinidad is probably more likely to view the USA as the land of opportunity compared to where they came from, even if they think there is continuing discrimination, etc. So that's not quite the same as someone from Alabama who grew up under Jim Crow or who has parents who did. White people from different geographical areas are going to tend to see some things differently as well.

Years ago, Bradley was subjected to sustained racist attacks by a neo-Confederate website ("Little Geneva") that was at that time anonymous. He has said that PCA leaders didn't do enough to publicly denounce it, etc. Obviously I'm not privy to all that went on. But you don't have to agree with apologizing for the sins of your Great-great-great grandfather to recognize that there are PCA, SBC and other churches that committed offenses against blacks in recent years that do need to be repented of. I'm referring to things like barring blacks from attending church, much less joining. The most recent cases of that in most churches may have been in the 60s or 70s, but in some cases the offenses have continued up to almost the present day if its not still going on somewhere.

As for Carson, the only people who benefited from his Presidential campaign were fundraising grifters who made big $$ from his campaign. (And I guess him, if you don't think he would have been appointed to the Cabinet otherwise.) I don't think one can argue that he definitely cost Cruz the nomination, but without Carson in the race, things might have been much closer. (I'm assuming that a Carson voter would be more prone to vote for Trump than Cruz. Those who really liked Trump tended to simply vote Trump from the start.) For example, I concluded at the time that Cruz would have won Louisiana without Carson in the race, and that may have been the case in other states as well.

As others have noted, you need to decide if you're really interested in theology, politics, or both. You asked for pastors and theologians, but many of the names you listed are non-evangelical and some are not even Christian by profession. And it wouldn't have taken much research to find that out about most of them. I'm not saying this is the case for you, but don't give the likes of Carson a pass if you wouldn't do that with a white conservative who is SDA. The same goes for the Catholics, agnostics, etc. In other words, don't put black Conservatives who aren't Christian in a list of solid "Pastors and Theologians" if you wouldn't do that with white conservatives who aren't orthodox Christians.


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## A.Joseph (Jun 10, 2019)

Pilgrim said:


> Dr. Bradley had a degree from WTS and used to head up the Francis Schaeffer Institute at Covenant Seminary. So he does have a background in Reformed theology, even if it is not of the strict confessional variety. (Francis Schaeffer certainly wasn't a strict confessionalist himself. According to some, he was not even a 5 point Calvinist.) He says that Bavinck is a big influence these days. I don't know whether or not he is still in the PCA. He's not some SJW all down the line, although Statement on Social Justice fans don't like much of what he says about race. (But Statement on Social Justice fans would disagree with what even Sproul wrote on involvement in society.) But he infuriates people on the left too, depending on what the subject is. If you follow his Twitter feed, you may find that you think that some of the content is helpful and that some of it is not helpful at all. At least that's my take on it.
> 
> in my opinion, he does have something of a point about "regular blacks" if I may opine on the subject, although one shouldn't just discount an opinion based solely on the origin of the person giving it. An immigrant from Africa wasn't the descendant of slaves and didn't have to deal with Jim Crow, and at least until recently is going to tend to be highly educated, so that may impact the way they view things. While an immigrant from the Caribbean is generally the descendant of slaves, someone from Haiti, Jamaica or Trinidad is probably more likely to view the USA as the land of opportunity compared to where they came from, even if they think there is continuing discrimination, etc. So that's not quite the same as someone from Alabama who grew up under Jim Crow or who has parents who did. White people from different geographical areas are going to tend to see some things differently as well.
> 
> ...


Good stuff, thanks for the info. I blog for a political site so I was mixing it up and like to plant seeds of Reformed theology to the conservative masses, so that was my agenda all along... I think I understand intellectually the black experience, ones who were persecuted are not going to want much to do with white people and that is unfortunate reality. I don’t have a problem if some black reformed churches feel they need to maintain some type of separation, but would still be supported by the larger denomination. And we should protect them as needed. I just don’t want them to go woke as I don’t like to see Reformed white guys go social justice, or toxic masculinity like a Mark Driscoll(or whatever his deal was) or white nationalism which I sometimes think the P&P guys are headed etc, etc.... some of it is worse than others so I’m not making a false equivalency. At the end of the day, I’m nobody’s judge. I’ve been blessed beyond what I deserve and I still stumble daily. 

Thanks for the response and the clarity brother, and the patience. I appreciate it!


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## Pilgrim (Jun 11, 2019)

A.Joseph said:


> Good stuff, thanks for the info. I blog for a political site so I was mixing it up and like to plant seeds of Reformed theology to the conservative masses, so that was my agenda all along... I think I understand intellectually the black experience, ones who were persecuted are not going to want much to do with white people and that is unfortunate reality. I don’t have a problem if some black reformed churches feel they need to maintain some type of separation, but would still be supported by the larger denomination. And we should protect them as needed. I just don’t want them to go woke as I don’t like to see Reformed white guys go social justice, or toxic masculinity like a Mark Driscoll(or whatever his deal was) or white nationalism which I sometimes think the P&P guys are headed etc, etc.... some of it is worse than others so I’m not making a false equivalency. At the end of the day, I’m nobody’s judge. I’ve been blessed beyond what I deserve and I still stumble daily.
> 
> Thanks for the response and the clarity brother, and the patience. I appreciate it!



No problem. I could respond more to this, but I'll have to leave it be for now.

But, one more to add to your list on the secular side: Another notable black conservative is economics professor Dr. Walter E Williams, (wiki) although he's really more of a classical liberal or libertarian. Like Thomas Sowell, he has had a long running syndicated column, although perhaps somewhat less widely distributed. He was the regular guest host in the early days of the Rush Limbaugh show. On that show and elsewhere, he has offered a "Certificate of Amnesty and Pardon" to whites so that they are not "obliged to act like damn fools in their relationships with Americans of African ancestry."

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