"The Blacks" isn't used much in modern vernacular, except by 70 to 80+ year-old people who grew up with that kind of talk. This isn't about being hypersensitive or making a big deal out of nothing, as many are sure to remark, but this right here raised the hairs on my neck in a sort of "Your NegroSense™ is tingling" kind of way. Hard to explain, but my suspicions were thrown into high gear behind this particular phrase.
"The Blacks" implies an out-of-touch view of black Americans as being "those people" or worse still, "those things," as though they don't warrant any more of your time than necessary, if at all. If you could really care less about those people, despite expressing a need for them to lend you support when you most need it, there ya go. "The Blacks."
As much as people claim Ron Paul supports black Americans, the mounting evidence suggests otherwise. Anyone who genuinely supports black Americans would take great pains not to piss them off by being associated with white supremacists or crankish newsletters dripping with race bait. If you support black America, your image has to reflect it. Only the most self-loathing of black conservatives or those who've just gone completely around the bend would stand behind a guy who thinks the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a bad idea.
