O.K., So Tea Party Members Aren't "Racist" - They're Just Prejudiced and Bigoted

Thursday 22 July 2010

by: Dr. Wilmer J. Leon III, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed

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(Photo: M.V. Jantzen; Edited: Jared Rodriguez / t r u t h o u t)

On Tuesday, NAACP delegates passed a resolution to condemn extremist elements within the Tea Party, calling on the party's leaders to repudiate those in their ranks who use racist language in their signs and speeches. Good for the NAACP.

Now, Tea Party members are calling on the NAACP to denounce its racist members and supporters. Racism has no color and it's a two-way street for anyone wanting to go down that road, said Mike Graham, founder of United Native America and a Tea Party member.

I guess the best defense for the Tea Party is a good offense, but counterclaiming that the NAACP is racist is beyond ridiculous. Maybe the problem is only that the NAACP has used the wrong adjective. If Tea Party members don't like being called racist, fine. How about bigoted and prejudiced? "Too many members of the Tea Party are bigoted, prejudiced people" - if that tweak in vocabulary helps them sleep better at night, fine.

T-shirts bearing a look alike of cartoon chimp Curious George peeling a banana with "Obama in '08? lettered underneath is not racist? Fine: it's ignorant, bigoted and prejudiced. For too many years, comparisons of Africans and African-Americans to primates of all shapes and sizes have aimed to dehumanize people of color to the level of animals.

Tea Party members spitting upon Congressmen Lewis and Cleaver and calling them niggers is not hate filled and racist? Then how about vile, bigoted and prejudiced?

Former Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo opened the Tea Party convention in February by calling for a reinstatement of Jim-Crow-type literacy tests for voters, saying, "This is our country ... Let's take it back." Take it back from whom? At the Tea Party's "Code Red" rally against health care reform in Washington, protesters carried signs that read: "Warning: If Brown can't stop it, a Browning can," referring to newly elected Sen. Scott Brown's (R-Massachusetts) potentially ineffectual health care vote and to a less democratic alternative - a Browning firearm. Sarah Palin posted a map on her Facebook page that used gunsights to indicate Congressional seats that her PAC was "targeting" for the midterm elections and calls for supporters to "Reload!" during her speeches.

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Republican leaders - RNC Chairman Michael Steele, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) - are failing to hold their spokespeople accountable for the hatred they espouse. Instead, they seek to improve their political position by riding the wave of anger caused by fear and prejudice. They have been conspicuously silent for too long. Through their silence, they are betraying America. They refuse to repudiate and disassociate themselves from the dangerous and incendiary comments of surrogates such as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Michael Savage. They are allowing threats of violence to become an accepted form of political persuasion. As Dr. King once said, "We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people."

Racism has nothing at all to do with the reactionary politics of many members of the Tea Party? Fine: it's prejudiced and bigoted.

http://www.truth-out.org/ok-so-tea-party-members-arent-racist-theyre-just-prejudiced-and-bigoted61551

there's bound to be biggots in any national group (like Robert Byrd )

Never making it acceptable.

Byrd is dead and cannot harm anyone anymore.

But these individuals are showing how far we still need to go to get racial equality in this country.

A black president only pisses off the racists in this country. It sure doesn't make them realize the folly of their ways.

Have you ever been to a tea party rally? You are only baseing your judgement by what you've heard from biased points of view. Until you've been to one you should refrain from calling them names.

I have seen enough to know that they are prejudice and biased to say the least.

And the ones who aren't allow the racists to be part of their group with no complaints so they are condoning it.

if you would go to one you would see that when someone has a sign or starts saying something like that they are not welcome and asked to leave. Like I said your only seeing a biased point of view of the tea party from those that want to portray them as racist. You should go to one I think you would be surprised at what you see.

I love the Tea party. They stand against a president and his cronies who will nto stop raising taxes with bail outs and expanding government and bureaucracy. If they lwoered taxes and cut spending jobs would be created.

That is not what happened at the ones I have seen.

Did you see the one where they were abusing a crippled man at a healthcare rally?

It was sickening.

do some research on how racist the NAACP has always been. Thats what their society is based, on the advancement of one RACE...get it? Another thing, for all the people that sit on front of the TV and swear they are getting all the needed information,do more research on what the tea party is ACTUALLY AB0UT. It doesnt mention ONE thing about race.rights as americans being taken away and stolen by our beloved government.REASEARCH...as in read a book or blog that wasnt created by the government or people trying to control weak minds. FYI Their will always be people in all groups of everything that are jerks. the few jerks dont speak for the entire movement.

And you saw that on what biased news channel or web site?
Like I said before unless you go to one you will never know what the tea party is all about.

Naacp is not racist. They are for the equality of all people so that "rumor" isn't true at all.

As for the tea party, too bad they allow these people to represent them.

There are too many of the racist folks at the rallies for the tea partiers to be claiming a few bad apples.

Hilarious..

The left wingers are coming unhinged...

I hate to point this out, but anyone makes comments that the President is black is actually being racist. You see racism at it's core takes at least two people: The racist fool that says something derogatory, and the racist fool that becomes offended. Without offense, no racism occurs.

If you add an adjective before "The President," you're being just as bad as the Tea Partiers and Birthers. Whether you voted for him or not, the majority of the country voted for this man and he is just "The President." In our Republic, that's what it usually takes (unless your George H. W. Bush or Benjamin Harrison). If, even in his defense, you acknowledge that he has color, you're part of the problem too.

He is just The President of the United States. To steal a line from the Republicans (which is cool because I am registered as a Republican) "If you don't like it, get out!!!"

Although this would be true in a perfect world, which we do not have, it is a wonderful sentiment.

As long as the predominant race in this country, white, continues to abuse those not like them, we will have this problem.

As for getting out, I will not leave a country that has been my home for a long time and if you don't like that you can get out.

My gauge on racism in this country is a pretty good one.
Ignorance in white folks runs rampant. I deal with white folks all the time so I do know what I am talking about. Some of the ignorance is not their fault others are blatant.

jeesh people, do RESEARCH,,,,NAACP is not racist,,


its like calling the American Foundation for the Blind bigoted because it helps the blind instead of the seeing

yes, NAACP was started out of an OBVIOUS and BLATANT need for racial injustice to be corrected and once corrected, kept in check

this is quite different than being racist or ANTI anyone

is the national organization for women sexist against men for trying to help women

is the anti defamation league racist for trying to fight anti semitism???

no , no, and no,,, and here is the BIG problem with the mentality here

there is no question that WHITE americans were and have been the PREDOMINANT race in this country, that our CONSTITUTION was written by white men and probably mostly with a concern for white americans ,,,and as a consequence, NON whites were often discriminated against if aknowledged at all and when many of these non whites asked to be included they were met with the sentiment that they should 'pull themselves up',,,,,so many of these non white groups did just that, formed groups of their own to address issues that didnt affect the MAJORITY enough for the MAJORITY to address them

now all these years later, some of those same folks are screaming that any non whites helping themself are guilty of the same type of racism that those REFUSING to help others were?.....ya gotta give it a rest,,, use common sense, think of things in context,,,,with honesty,, and you may come to a different conclusion

although NAACP was rooted in a need for colored people to be heard, it is not racist(anti white or anyone else),,there is a HUGE difference

I hate to point this out, but anyone makes comments that the President is black is actually being racist. You see racism at it's core takes at least two people: The racist fool that says something derogatory, and the racist fool that becomes offended. Without offense, no racism occurs.

If you add an adjective before "The President," you're being just as bad as the Tea Partiers and Birthers. Whether you voted for him or not, the majority of the country voted for this man and he is just "The President." In our Republic, that's what it usually takes (unless your George H. W. Bush or Benjamin Harrison). If, even in his defense, you acknowledge that he has color, you're part of the problem too.

He is just The President of the United States. To steal a line from the Republicans (which is cool because I am registered as a Republican) "If you don't like it, get out!!!"



Although this would be true in a perfect world, which we do not have, it is a wonderful sentiment.

As long as the predominant race in this country, white, continues to abuse those not like them, we will have this problem.

As for getting out, I will not leave a country that has been my home for a long time and if you don't like that you can get out.

My gauge on racism in this country is a pretty good one.
Ignorance in white folks runs rampant. I deal with white folks all the time so I do know what I am talking about. Some of the ignorance is not their fault others are blatant.


In actuality, there is no predominate race in this country. No race has more than half the populace. The largest is white with 39%, but even then, it won't be by 2025 (Hispanics will be the largest population by then at the longest estimate). The only segment of America that has a clear majority is women, who make up 53% of our population.

I'll admit it, I voted for Obama, and while I'm not pleased with quite a few of his programs (especially the health care bill), to me he is just the President, no more. Try to add a racial debate to every issue is something both sides are doing, and the main reason I will not vote for either party come November. Quite frankly until we can establish some third party, this nation will continue to head down the toilet.

To say that my original statement would only be true in a perfect world only perpetuates racist sentiment and such statements are only part of the problem. And to say that I don't know about white folks, look at my skin, I have a damn good idea about white people. I think maybe your gauge on racism in your neighborhood might be good, but to say you understand the sentiments of all whites around the country is just ludicrous. Not all whites are racist, just as all blacks, asians, etc. are above racism.

But to end the practice, it has to start with small things, so it can build to something larger. Give up your adjectives, and be part of the solution. Drop your white guilt, and move on.

79 percent white population in 2008

http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2010/ranks/rank05.html

note: hispanic is not a RACE but an ethnicity, there are WHITE hispanics and black hispanics

If I remember my 2010 census form correctly, it had a category for Hispanic broken down by where they originated, either Cuban, Puerto Rican, Mexican and it seem like one more I think just a broad Latin American. They do the same for Native Americans, breaking it down into smaller categories such as Inuit, and other tribes. Therefor, it skews the census.


Of course if there was really no discrimination, race wouldn't be a category on a census form would it? It would just be number of occupants.

yes, but fortunately or unfortunately our culture does recognize a certain ASTHETIC racial categorization,,, the reason suspects usually arent just described as pale or brown skinned, but caucasian and black ....although in reality there is no way any of us TRULY knows where someone else's ancestors were from,, we have been taught to associate certain asthetic combinations with a race,,and as such that has become another category by which to discriminate...instead of something to respect about each other(individual heritage) its something else used to DIVIDE us into superior, inferior, deserving, or undeserving

most americans, who supposedly DO know their ancestors, will still categorize themself as WHITE in this country

I wish it was as ideal as your example, but reality is much sadder and harsher