I wish many of my white brothers and sisters could actually witness a day in the life of a black conservative. My hope is that they understand the backlash received by Republican Senator Tim Scott after his address to the nation is a day in the life of many of us who want to rescue black families from the Democrat Plantation. Scott’s message was crystal clear: We don’t live in a racist nation. In fact, the black community today is better off than our grandparents, who had it harder but somehow were more successful at keeping the black family intact. For suggesting such optimism about the potential of black America, Scott was thrown under the bus and made out to be a “sellout.”

“Uncle Tim” is what the Twitterverse called him, to be exact. That’s a play on words from the usual derogatory term “Uncle Tom,” which is supposed to be a label for blacks who don’t subscribe to the typical progressive ideology. What’s ironic about this temporarily trending Twitter hashtag is that it was a picture-perfect example of what many black independent thinkers face — censorship from within.

The common scenario is this: A black person makes a statement that is counter to the typical urban culture endorsed by black Americans. Then another more prolific, more popular “leader” in the black community attempts to call out the “rogue” person for stepping out of line with “black groupthink.” The “rogue” black is then labeled as “not black” or “trying to be white.”

For people outside of the black community, this approach isn’t well understood.

Many white conservatives find themselves challenged by this, not understanding why some black Americans (who are against racism) don’t subscribe to the words of a leader like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who called for people to judge by the content of one’s character over the color of skin. My white friends and colleagues frequently ask why black progressives would say racist things to black conservatives at all.

To those of us who come from the black community, we understand this approach to be a method of silencing us. Terms like “coon” and “Oreo” are not just racial slurs but dog whistles to other black people who are proud of their race, calling for these people to stay far away from black conservatives who “hate their race.” This is how we are censored.

This worship of this racial cult keeps the conservative movement from reaching more ears. The mainstream media certainly doesn’t help, as newspapers and magazines enlist their most progressive black voices to “take down” Republican black Americans on sight — no different than slave catchers being assigned to hunt down plantation escapees. People like Tim Scott, the late Herman Cain, former Georgia Representative Vernon Jones, Candace Owens Farmer, and many others like them are branded and marked, forever to be ignored and disregarded. Blacklisted would be the better term.

But we are fortunate that, despite the generations of censorship from within our community, many people have successfully escaped thanks to organizations like the BLEXIT Foundation, which has formed a formidable network designed to educate and empower black Americans who feel isolated by the tactics I’ve mentioned above. This and the uncontrollable giant of the Internet has made it easier for much-needed information to infiltrate progressive strongholds on black minds, unlocking potential and possibilities like none other.

While these attacks on conservative ideas are as fierce as ever, the leftist grip on black America is finally loosening as we draw closer to the day when the black community breaks free from ideological censorship.