There is no mention in the article that he is viewed as a conservative by everyone. According to the article, Maxwell's "Friends have regularly encouraged me to set the record straight," so those who know him probably don't see him as a conservative, right?
Maxwell is a columnist for the St. Petersburg Times. (
http://www.tampabay.com/writers/article380406.ece) He often argues that there is a greater need for blacks to assume responsible parenting, to support and be involved with education, and to take responsibility for the conditions of the communities in which they live. Readers often assume he is conservative because of those views.
The article's conclusion:
So what is the source of this nonsense that I am a conservative? My race. When it comes to race in the United States, we practice a cruel double standard in matters related to so-called values, the area in which we are judged most quickly to be either liberal or conservative.
When my white liberal friends believe that education is essential to success and insist on their children doing well in school, they are called good, normal parents. When I, a black man, believe and do the same, I am dismissed as a conservative freak.
My white friends seek to rear their children in crime-free neighborhoods. I want black kids to grow up the same way. For wanting what is normal, I am condemned as a conservative and an enemy of black people.
Liberal whites I know read to their children and grandchildren and take them to museums and other venues of culture. Blacks should do the same for their children. For this belief, I am condemned as conservative.
My white acquaintances enjoy the benefits of nice homes and clean streets. I want the same for blacks. I want blacks to stop destroying their own neighborhoods and slaughtering one another. I want them to become zero-tolerant of crime, a normal sentiment.
Why do whites escape negative judgment for desiring normalcy while I am excoriated as being a conservative? The answer lies in America's double standard — practiced by both blacks and whites — when race and values converge.