( CNN ) -- Herman Cain claims that brainwashing explains why so few blacks support conservative Republicans such as himself . He is wrong . The thinking , sentiments , and policy preferences he supports give good cause for rejecting him . In his new campaign manifesto , `` This is Herman Cain : My Journey to the White House , '' the candidate states repeatedly and without qualification that `` Our Founding Fathers did their job ... a great job . '' He makes no mention of the blacks who fled George Washington , James Madison and Thomas Jefferson during the Revolutionary War in search of their freedom , or the Constitution 's protection of slavery , or that the initial Constitution forbade Congress from prohibiting American participation in the international slave trade for 20 years and indeed made that provision unamendable . Cain evinces no recognition of the Founding Fathers ' role in erecting a cruel pigmentocracy that continues to poison virtually every aspect of American political , social and cultural life . This is not an abstruse or academic matter . The president nominates federal judges . An important theory of constitutional interpretation vying for ascendancy is originalism : the notion that the Constitution should be read as originally understood by its framers . Justice Clarence Thomas is the most militant originalist on the Supreme Court . A President Cain would seek to fill the federal judiciary with more Clarence Thomases -- a prospect that most blacks rightly view with dread . Asked about his impressions of the Occupy Wall Street dissidents , Cain declared : `` Do n't blame the big banks . If you do n't have a job and you 're not rich , blame yourself `` -- a statement that overlooks the desperation with which millions , a disproportionate number of whom are black , strive to stave off impoverishment and unemployment . Later , when Cain perceived the impolitic character of his comment , he tried to minimize it , asserting that he was only referring to the protesters and not to the impoverished or unemployed in general . That attempt at damage control rings false , however , especially in light of his further comment : `` It is not a person 's fault if they succeeded , it is a person 's fault if they failed . '' Largely located on the lower rungs of the American socioeconomic ladder , most black Americans appreciate sources of opportunity and power that Cain despises : unions , governmental support for the needy , a robust , government-supported full-employment policy , the public provision of health care . His worry , remarkably , is that America is too egalitarian . His signature policy -- the 9-9-9 tax reform proposal -- would institute a regressive consumption tax nationally and starve Social Security and Medicare . It would redistribute income upward . No wonder blacks overwhelmingly repudiate him and his tea party allies . Cain also recently declared : `` I do n't believe racism in this country today holds anybody back in a big way . '' If there were any doubts before that he was bereft of the knowledge and sensibility required of a significant political figure , much less president , then this egregious statement should remove them . A library full of careful , rigorous studies shows clearly that invidious racial discrimination and , perhaps even more consequentially , the perpetuation of disabilities inflicted by racial mistreatment in the past hurt blacks and other people of color in a broad array of domains : from commercial transactions like buying a car or purchasing a home , to dealing with police , to electoral politics , to wellness and life expectancy . Race still matters . Not only are people of color discriminated against with frequency . Not only are the accumulated burdens of past discrimination permitted to prey upon new generations even in the absence of racial malevolence ( complacency is deadly too ) . But studies also show that the darker you are , the more likely you are to face wrongful indifference or cruel mistreatment . ( Take a peek at the illuminating article by Jennifer Hochschild and Vesla Weaver , `` The Skin Color Paradox and the American Racial Order , '' in the December 2007 edition of Social Forces . ) Of course , there has been remarkable , positive change in American racial attitudes . But recall the miserable baseline against which we mark that progress . In 1958 , the Gallup Organization asked whether Americans would be willing to vote for a qualified black presidential candidate nominated by their own party . Three in five white Americans answered `` no . '' The election of Barack Obama is a vivid illustration of the extent to which racial attitudes have evolved . But neither Obama 's residency in the White House , nor Herman Cain 's current surge , nor the emergence of an African-American affluent class negates the fact that fresh racism and the unhealed wounds of racial injuries inflicted in the past give rise to conditions , observable everywhere , that dishonor the best of American ideals . It is because of Herman Cain 's denial of these realities that most blacks will continue , understandably , to view him as unfit for high political office . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Randall Kennedy .
Kennedy : Cain lauds founding fathers , ignoring the fact they protected slavery . Kennedy : Randall Kennedy says blame yourself if you 're jobless and dismisses documented racism . Cain would cut Medicare and Social Security , he says , and redistribute income upward . Randall Kennedy writes that Cain 's policies are anti-black and blacks reject him for that .