NAACP vs. Tea Party: No matter who wins, we lose

[Lemur]

This story has been sort of simmering all week, and I haven't seen it mentioned here, so I thought I'd give it a kick-off.

Here's a good summary of an entire week's worth of back-and-forth between the two groups.

1. On Tuesday, the NAACP approved its resolution accusing tea party activists of tolerating racist elements in their movement. "For more than a year we've watched as Tea Party members have called congressmen the N-word, have called congressmen the F-word. We see them carry racist signs and whenever it happens, the membership tries to shirk responsibility," NAACP President Ben Jealous (pictured above) told ABC News. "If the Tea Party wants to be respected and wants to be part of the mainstream in this country, they have to take responsibility."

The resolution was spurred by an incident in March, when Reps. John Lewis, Andre Carson and Emanuel Cleaver said some tea party demonstrators yelled racial slurs at them as they walked to the Capitol for the final vote approving the controversial health-care-reform legislation. Cleaver said he was spat on. Conservative activists accused the congressmen of lying.

2. Tea Party activists quickly shot back, calling the NAACP racist and irrelevant. "It's a little ironic that an organization that has lost legitimacy through its own racism is trying to call another racist," Mark Meckler of Tea Party Patriots told the L.A. Times.

Tea Party Express' Williams went farther in an interview with NPR flagged by Talking Points Memo. "We are dealing with people who are professional race-baiters who make a very good living off this kind of thing. They make more money off of race than any slave trader, ever," he said. "It's time groups like the NAACP went to the trash heap of history where they belong along with all the other vile, racist groups that emerged in our history." On CNN, he called the group "a bunch of old fossils looking to make a buck off skin color."

Dallas Tea Party founder Phillip Dennis said on FOX that the NAACP is "irrelevant" and should have ended 50 years ago. Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said the NAACP should stop "name calling."

3. Many condemned the tea party's attack on the civil rights group as wrong-headed.

"That's the epitome of what a Tea Party patriot should not be saying," political commenter Lenny McAllister said on NPR. "They should not be saying that the NAACP is vile. The NAACP is not vile. They fought for civil rights for all types of people for years, even if they're misguided now, to use that type of language is not only inappropriate, but it does a disservice to the proud hundreds of thousands of Tea Party patriots."

Jamelle Bouie at the American Prospect wrote that the tea party's defense is based on the notion that racism only arises out of overt acts of prejudice, like racially motivated acts of violence and state-sanctioned segregation. "Now that outright racism is a rarity in the public square, it's really easy for many Americans to say that 'real racism' is a relic of the past," he said. He argued that more subtle racism is still prevalent, and a problem.

Ta-Nahesi Coates at The Atlantic wrote that the NAACP was just fulfilling its stated mission to oppose "any attempt to inject racism into American politics. " He writes the NAACP was rationally responding to several worrisome statements from tea-party-affiliated politicians and media figures.

4. Williams escalated the debate on Thursday by posting a satirical letter, under the name of NAACP President Ben Jealous to Abraham Lincoln. Among other things, the missive mocked the organization for using the term "colored." "In every one of the dozens of interviews that I have done regarding the anti-Tea Party resolution passed by the NAACP, I have brought up the absurdity of a group that calls blacks “Colored People” hurling charges of racism," he wrote before posting the letter, which is no longer available on his site:

Dear Mr. Lincoln

We [National Association for the Advancement of] Colored People have taken a vote and decided that we don’t cotton to that whole emancipation thing. Freedom means having to work for real, think for ourselves, and take consequences along with the rewards. That is just far too much to ask of us [National Association for the Advancement of] Colored People and we demand that it stop!

Williams pulled it down earlier this afternoon — after he'd encountered some objections in the post's comments section. He'd previously excised some sections of the original post that had sparked reader protests, including use of the term "massa" and a reference to black supporters of the civil rights group being reluctant to work in order to pay for "a wide screen TV in every room."

[Fragony]

Sorry for being uninformed but who are these tea guys?

'Tea drinker' is pretty much a mockery of the multicultural left here.

[Lemur]

In a nutshell: Tea Party movement/protesters are smaller-government activists with no centralized party structure. The movement emerged in 2009. Anybody who wants to call themselves a Tea Partier may do so, with equal validity. This has led to some predictable difficulties.

Major financial and organizational backers of the Tea Party: FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity.

Major media supporters: Fox News Channel, esp. Glenn Beck.

Wiki article for further reading.

[Crazed Rabbit]

"For more than a year we've watched as Tea Party members have called congressmen the N-word

Except, of course, that no such event occurred. Several black congressman claimed it happened while walking through a group of protesters. But many of them were holding video cameras, and not one provided any actual evidence of such slurs being uttered.

It also seems the Tea Party steadfastly refused to portray themselves as civil and level-headed people in response to the NAACP. That 'satire' letter was especially insulting.

CR

[Marshal Murat]

I'm just confused why everyone in the political mainstream believes that they can condemn Tea Party participants and believe that they will be answered by some "Head Tea-Partier". The NAACP is just grabbing headlines to ensure that they are still part of the debate in this "post racist/Obama" era. It seems like the same sort of commentary that I heard from Rev. Jackson about the Cleveland Cavaliers coach; his "paternalistic master-runaway slave dichotomy".

[Sasaki Kojiro]

I'm just confused why everyone in the political mainstream believes that they can condemn Tea Party participants and believe that they will be answered by some "Head Tea-Partier".

What about this david webb guy?

The National Tea Party Federation, an organization that represents the Tea Party political movement around the country, has expelled conservative commentator Mark Williams and his Tea Party Express because of an inflammatory blog post he wrote, federation spokesman David Webb said Sunday.

[CountArach]

Tea Party Express' Williams went farther in an interview with NPR flagged by Talking Points Memo. "We are dealing with people who are professional race-baiters who make a very good living off this kind of thing. They make more money off of race than any slave trader, ever," he said. "It's time groups like the NAACP went to the trash heap of history where they belong along with all the other vile, racist groups that emerged in our history." On CNN, he called the group "a bunch of old fossils looking to make a buck off skin color."

Oh wow.

[drone]

Tea Party Express' Williams went farther in an interview with NPR flagged by Talking Points Memo. "We are dealing with people who are professional race-baiters who make a very good living off this kind of thing. They make more money off of race than any slave trader, ever," he said. "It's time groups like the NAACP went to the trash heap of history where they belong along with all the other vile, racist groups that emerged in our history." On CNN, he called the group "a bunch of old fossils looking to make a buck off skin color."

Oh wow.

He's probably not adjusting slaver profits for inflation.

[Lemur]

He's probably not adjusting slaver profits for inflation.

Sure sounds like it. I expect he also has no concept of how profitable the golden triangle was at the time. Last I read, the margins were so high only one in three ships needed to make it to guarantee a profit. The only thing you can ship for that kind of margin these days is cocaine or heroin.

[Marshal Murat]

Briebart Video of NAACP racism in action.

What a world we live in, where in a matter of days a video from years ago can be pulled up and played online for thousands.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Briebart Video of NAACP racism in action.

What a world we live in, where in a matter of days a video from years ago can be pulled up and played online for thousands.

Didn't she say that her eyes were opened, it wasn't about black and white, it was about people who were poor and needed help? What did the rest of her speech say?

[Don Corleone]

This whole "tiff" has all the makings of a bunch of out-of-work lawyers. I'm all about limited government, but the pantheon of "tea-partiers" that are recognized hasn't charged my batteries. Including the Paul family, Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin in the same "grass-roots" campaign sure smacks of astro-turf to me.

By the way, once Allison is potty-trained, stay tuned for the launch of the Atlas party, based on Ayn Rand's objectivist principles by yours truly. Join me, in an effort to rail against endless kvetching.

[PanzerJaeger]

Sure sounds like it. I expect he also has no concept of how profitable the golden triangle was at the time. Last I read, the margins were so high only one in three ships needed to make it to guarantee a profit. The only thing you can ship for that kind of margin these days is cocaine or heroin.

Of course you also have to consider the fact that slave traders actually had to do something. You know, acquire ships, make deals with African tribes for their captures, navigate treacherous seas, etc. It may have been an immoral profession, but it was a job. Mr. Jealous makes six figures for doing little more than pointing his finger and playing the race card. Not a bad gig if you ask me...

Briebart Video of NAACP racism in action.

The bigot has been fired.

The whole story highlights just how virulent black racism is in contemporary America.

[Centurion1]

I want my own damn month. Why don't I get a white history month. That has legitimately bugged me for years.

[CountArach]

Of course you also have to consider the fact that slave traders actually had to do something. You know, acquire ships, make deals with African tribes for their captures, navigate treacherous seas, etc. It may have been an immoral profession, but it was a job. Mr. Jealous makes six figures for doing little more than pointing his finger and playing the race card. Not a bad gig if you ask me...

Wait... what? Could you clarify this in some detail BEFORE people say you are justifying slavery?

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Briebart Video of NAACP racism in action.

What a world we live in, where in a matter of days a video from years ago can be pulled up and played online for thousands.

The bigot has been fired.

The whole story highlights just how virulent black racism is in contemporary America.

heh...this story has blown up huge it seems. Really shows the nasty side of our current political climate/24 hour news cycle.

Roger Spooner said on CNN that Sherrod is not a racist, that Sherrod did everything she could for his family, and over twenty years later, he and Sherrod remain friends.[14] The Spooners credit Sherrod with helping them save their farm: "If it hadn't been for her, we would've never known who to see or what to do," Roger Spooner said. "She led us right to our success." His wife, Eloise Spooner, said that later, "after things kind of settled down, she brought Sherrod some tomatoes out of her garden, and they had a good visit."[11] Eloise Spooner recalled Sherrod as "nice-mannered, thoughtful, friendly; a good person."[11] The couple were surprised by the controversy. "I don't know what brought up the racist mess," Roger Spooner said. "They just want to stir up some trouble, it sounds to me in my opinion." Eloise Spooner said that on seeing the story of Sherrod's resignation, "I said, 'That ain't right. They have not treated her right.'"

It was obvious to me even from the clip

She was talking about how when she started out she had some racial bias, but she realized that in fact racism works both ways and that her job was really about helping those in poverty.

So the NAACP is having speakers tell personal stories that are a warning about how racial bias works both ways.

But in this climate even they were calling for her resignation in a hasty statement 2 hours after the video was released.

"get it first, but first get it right"