Well, the NAACP's report on how just awful the Tea Party movement is out, and it's even more entertaining than I could have hoped. I have an idea of just how this came about:
"Mr. Jealous? It's the massas from the DNC. They're getting worried about those teabaggers, and are telling us to do a hit piece on them."
"Well, when massa says jump, we jump. Get right on a report calling them all racists."
"Sir, I've been looking into it, and the Tea Party isn't that concerned with race, one way or another."
"What? Unheard of. Everyone's always thinking about race, every moment of the day -- at least, everyone I know."
"Not these people. Oh, yeah, a few, but they're a real fringe."
Hmph. Well, then, get out a report calling them all bigots."
"That's pretty much the same thing as 'racist,' sir."
"Fine. Then call them white supremacists."
"Still the same, sir."
"How about 'racial separatists?'"
"That's what they call the racists on our side, sir. You know -- people like Reverend Jeremiah Wright, the New Black Panthers, and those folks."
"I thought I called them my 'Thursday night poker buddies?'"
"That's only in private, sir. We've talked about that."
"Whatever. Oh, I've got it! We'll call them 'nationalists!'"
"'Nationalists,' sir? What do you mean by that?"
"It's a bad word for 'patriotism,' but will remind folks of the Nazis -- the National Socialists. Plus, it's another word for racism."
"What isn't?"
"I beg your pardon?"
"Nothing, sir. I'll get right on it."
The report hack job starts off with suitably mealy-mouthed platitudes:
We know the majority of Tea Party supporters are sincere, principled people of good will. That is why the NAACP--an organization that has worked to expose and combat racism in all its forms for more than 100 years--is thankful Devin Burghart, Leonard Zeskind and the Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights prepared this report that exposes the links between certain Tea Party factions and acknowledged racist hate groups in the United States. These links should give all patriotic Americans pause.I hope the leadership and members of the Tea Party movement will read this report and take additional steps to distance themselves from those Tea Party leaders who espouse racist ideas, advocate violence, or are formally affiliated with white supremacist organizations. In our effort to strengthen our democracy and ensure rights for all, it is important that we have a reasoned political debate without the use of epithets, the threat of violence, or the resurrection of long discredited racial hierarchies.
Or, as Winston Churchill once said, "when you have to kill a man it costs nothing to be polite."
OK, the niceties have been observed. Now for the meat of their report. And it's pretty slim pickings -- what isn't rancid meat is poorly-disguised tofu.
Let's start off with a part that has a bit of both.
On March 20, 2010 a Tea Party protest grew ugly as a small group of congressmen walked through them to the Capitol to vote on health care reform. Chants of "Kill the Bill" turned to racist slurs and name calling. Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) was called a "faggot." Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) was called a "n...er," and Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D. Mo.) was spit upon. Cleaver described the name calling as a "chorus."[235] The meanness and racism of that particular event was compounded later by Tea Party leaders and others who claimed no such racist and bigoted name calling occurred.
The rancid part is that the opposition to ObamaCare is NOT inherently racist. There are a lot of reasons for opposing it, and damned few revolve around race. Simply because something is backed by Obama doesn't make opposition to it automatically racist. There's a hell of a lot more to him than half his genetic makeup, and to reduce him to "a black man" is racism in and of itself.
The artificial, tofu part? The part where John Lewis was called a nigger. It. Never. Happened.
I know it's impossible to prove a negative, but I'm comfortable going out on a limb on this one. The Congressional Black Caucus' march across the grounds of the Capitol was planned well in advance. There were about 2.7 zillion video cameras covering the event, from both the CBC and protesters -- and not one of them caught the word. Further,not one of them caught anyone reacting to hearing the word. Andrew Breitbart has put up a $100,000 reward for video showing that it happened, and he's still got his money.
Another member of the CBC, Emanuel Cleaver, also claimed to have been spat upon during the perp walk. This claim was walked back, and Cleaver later said that he was accidentally struck by spittle from a shouting protester, but you'd never know that from the NAACP's report.
I've both been struck by spittle, and spat upon. There is a huge difference. In the former case, I was irritated and mildly grossed out. In the latter, I was ready to kill. (I was also a teenager at the time.) The difference is intent, and can readily be distinguished by... well, it's somewhat disgusting, but you can figure it out.
Elsewhere in the report, the NAACP demonstrates how it simply doesn't grasp the fundamental nature of the Tea Party movement, and instead projects what it sees as the "proper" way for organizing such groups. They identify a few leaders (usually folks that the NAACP doesn't like and have, in some cases, earned universal contempt), takes those people's claims of being "leaders" at face value, and runs with that.
The NAACP also calls the Tea Party "anti-immigrant," but I've already dealt with that canard.
Here's the NAACP's report, in a nutshell:
"There are some bad people in the Tea Party. Here are some of them, who call themselves leaders of the movement. We call on the other leaders of the movement to stop what they're doing RIGHT NOW and say bad things about these bad people, or they're just as bad as the bad people."
There is absolutely no point in addressing the NAACP's report on a point-by-point basis, because to do so would be to accept that the entire report is flawed at its very root. It is literally rotten to the core, and quibbling over the details of rot on the surface is meaningless.
The Tea Party movement leadership is not racist. Nor is it obligated to prove it's not racist.
That's because the leadership -- as the NAACP thinks of "leadership" -- is nonexistent.
There is no national hierarchy to the Tea Party movement. No national structure. No charter, no code of conduct, no membership rolls, no Robert's Rules Of Order. And that is deliberate.
Want to be part of the Tea Party? Just say so, and you are. Want to get out? Just say so, and you are. Want to kick someone else out? Forget it.
There is no central authority in the Tea Party to remove members. I understand that the NAACP is more familiar with structures like the Congressional Black Caucus, which has chosen to exclude black Republicans from membership, or the National Organization for Women, which has declared that women who are not sufficiently pro-choice are not really women who deserve the protection other "real" women get, but there's no such Central Commissar Of Tea to enforce -- or even make -- such rulings.
And there's a second blind spot that the NAACP is demonstrating here. They don't grasp that the vast majority of people in the Tea Party movement are embodying -- at least in this part of their lives -- have achieved Dr. Martin Luther King's dream. They are -- unlike the NAACP -- not only not obsessed with race, but utterly apathetic to the subject in this context.
The issues that unite the Tea Party are simple, and all boil down to "get the government off our backs." Tax us less, spend less, spend more responsibly, and stop trying to control so much of our lives. Individual members and factions have other parts to their agenda, and the NAACP is correct on a few of them (if only under the "blind pig" principle if nothing else), but they are not representative of the whole -- no matter how much they'd like to make them.
To the majority of Tea Partiers, race is utterly irrelevant to the unifying issues. And that is utterly incomprehensible to the professional race-obsessed drones at the NAACP.
Which is why they, too, are becoming utterly irrelevant.
And good riddance.
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Comments (24)
"That is why the NAACP--an ... (Below threshold)1. Posted by GarandFan | October 21, 2010 1:58 PM | Score: 10 (12 votes cast)
"That is why the NAACP--an organization that has worked to expose and combat racism in all its forms for more than 100 years-"
EXCEPT WHEN PERPETRATED BY BLACKS.
FIFY
The NAACP today is as relevant as the KKK and the MSM. Shows what happens when you become a whore for the DNC.
The word WHORE was specifically chosen, seeing as how Democrats like to use it so much.
1. Posted by GarandFan | October 21, 2010 1:58 PM |
Score: 10 (12 votes cast)
Posted on October 21, 2010 13:58
2. Posted by Gmac | October 21, 2010 2:37 PM | Score: 10 (10 votes cast)
Irrelevance, thy new definition is the NAACP.
If ever there was a greater collection of has been's, misfits 'ner do wells and out right bigots the only other place to find more of them would be the Democrat party.
As GF stated, being a wholly owned subsidiary of the Democrat party does make them a subsidiary of a parliament of whores, hence they too would be.
2. Posted by Gmac | October 21, 2010 2:37 PM |
Score: 10 (10 votes cast)
Posted on October 21, 2010 14:37
3. Posted by Jim Addison | October 21, 2010 3:21 PM | Score: 10 (12 votes cast)
The organization's primary reason for continuing to exist is to have an excuse to throw parties with the money they extract from guilty white liberals, and to defend and cover for members of the CBC (Criminal Black Caucus) when their corruption is exposed.
3. Posted by Jim Addison | October 21, 2010 3:21 PM |
Score: 10 (12 votes cast)
Posted on October 21, 2010 15:21
4. Posted by 914 | October 21, 2010 3:53 PM | Score: 6 (6 votes cast)
"If ever there was a greater collection of has been's, misfits 'ner do wells and out right bigots the only other place to find more of them would be the Democrat party."
Or the U.N. Its a toss up for most corrupt low lifes. I think the UN takes it by a whore.
4. Posted by 914 | October 21, 2010 3:53 PM |
Score: 6 (6 votes cast)
Posted on October 21, 2010 15:53
5. Posted by Oyster | October 21, 2010 3:57 PM | Score: 3 (7 votes cast)
Mr. Jealous, glass houses and all that....
5. Posted by Oyster | October 21, 2010 3:57 PM |
Score: 3 (7 votes cast)
Posted on October 21, 2010 15:57
6. Posted by WildWillie | October 21, 2010 4:07 PM | Score: 6 (8 votes cast)
Yawn! Twenty five years ago, a report like this would have very serious repercussions for the subject of the report. But now, thanks to the abuse and political games the race hustlers have used, this report isn't even good enough for a bird cage liner. Shame on this one time even tempered organization selling it's soul for political gain. As did NOW, the MSM, and the like. The only racists I know who think color all the time is the democratic party. ww
6. Posted by WildWillie | October 21, 2010 4:07 PM |
Score: 6 (8 votes cast)
Posted on October 21, 2010 16:07
7. Posted by Kevin McGehee | October 21, 2010 4:50 PM | Score: 5 (5 votes cast)
7. Posted by Kevin McGehee | October 21, 2010 4:50 PM |
Score: 5 (5 votes cast)
Posted on October 21, 2010 16:50
8. Posted by Steve Crickmore | October 21, 2010 7:05 PM | Score: -8 (10 votes cast)
Publicly vocied racist comments may not be commonplace by teapartiers or other political pressure groups today, but liberals still feel, rightly or wrongly, that a proportion of teapartiers could be, or must be, secretive bigots, considering the foolish public utterances of so many leading tea party advocates. This is why liberals fail to take the tea partiers seriously, even if racism among all hues of people may be drying up..but not ignorance.
Jay approvingly quotes Winston Churchill but not this quote, "I hate Indians. They are a beastly people with a beastly religion." Churchill was a worst racist that the average remaining bigot in America, tea partier or Republican or Democrat.
But evidently, knowledge of basic science is still a dark continent to many teaparties who want to disband the federal Department of Education. No wonder? It is unbelievable that tea partiers and their pundit sympathizers, such as agnostics like Jay in encouraging Americans to vote for teapartiers, will empower morons like Glenn Beck, to have more standing in America.
Listen to Beck, in his program yesterday, deny evolution:"I haven't seen a half-monkey, half-person yet"
8. Posted by Steve Crickmore | October 21, 2010 7:05 PM |
Score: -8 (10 votes cast)
Posted on October 21, 2010 19:05
9. Posted by jim m | October 21, 2010 7:18 PM | Score: 5 (5 votes cast)
Let's be honest here.
The NAACP is founded on dealing with discrimination against blacks. Their problem is that this country has been largely successful in eliminating racism from the public square. So they have no recourse but to go out and try to stir up racism themselves or failing that to simply declare its existance despite the lack of evidence.
The NAACP is an organization that has no reason to exist. But they see that millions of dollars are out there to be made if they can just stir up enough racial trouble.
Ironicly, once upon a time people fighting against racism were tagged as "troublemakers". Today the successors of those people actually are troublemakers as the problem of racism is not even remotely what it once was.
9. Posted by jim m | October 21, 2010 7:18 PM |
Score: 5 (5 votes cast)
Posted on October 21, 2010 19:18
10. Posted by GarandFan | October 21, 2010 7:36 PM | Score: 6 (6 votes cast)
No wonder Stevie likes Barry, they speak the same language.
"Publicly vocied racist comments may not be commonplace by teapartiers or other political pressure groups today, but liberals still feel, rightly or wrongly, that a proportion of teapartiers could be, or must be, secretive bigots, considering the foolish public utterances of so many leading tea party advocates."
Translation: Racist comments by Tea Party people may not be commonplace. But they must be, given the foolish utterances OF SO MANY leading Tea Party advocates.
So which way is it Stevie? How's that fence sitting coming along? You know, straddle both sides of an issue.
The Tea Party wants to dismantle the Dept of Education? Where'd you get that news flash? Daily Kos?
As for Bec's point, let me explain so even you can understand. IF animals are still EVOLVING, why aren't chimps becoming more human-line in appearance?
10. Posted by GarandFan | October 21, 2010 7:36 PM |
Score: 6 (6 votes cast)
Posted on October 21, 2010 19:36
11. Posted by iwogisdead | October 21, 2010 7:38 PM | Score: 5 (7 votes cast)
Steve Crickmore wrote:
Wow. I suggest that this be put in some textbook, somewhere, of the perfect example of a non sequitur.
In any event, it's three great sentence diagramming challenges. Assuming that students are challenged to diagram sentences anymore.
11. Posted by iwogisdead | October 21, 2010 7:38 PM |
Score: 5 (7 votes cast)
Posted on October 21, 2010 19:38
12. Posted by 914 | October 21, 2010 7:58 PM | Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
Lets be honest here,
The NAACP is made up of a bunch of je$$e jack$on wannabes. Theres one chump at the top that is the best at jive hustling funds for a self enriching organization and a bunch of lower class hoods trying to shake down taxpayers for their cut.
I met the same type of jive hustlers when I use to shop in the cities as a kid. "gimme fifty cent for some fries", "gimme a dime so I can use the phone". Same actors just not as polished as the big time hoaxers.
12. Posted by 914 | October 21, 2010 7:58 PM |
Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
Posted on October 21, 2010 19:58
13. Posted by Jay Tea | October 21, 2010 8:01 PM | Score: 6 (8 votes cast)
Not to play along with Steve's attempt to change the subject, but here's an idea I had a while ago:
1) Disband the Department of Education.
2) Take half its funding and apply it directly to the national debt.
3) Take the other half and divide it, on a per capita basis, to each and every school district in the country to use at it sees fit to improve the students' education.
Does anyone NOT think that it would improve education in this country?
The Department of Education does not educate one single student. Why is education a federal concern? Why not let the states and locals handle it?
J.
13. Posted by Jay Tea | October 21, 2010 8:01 PM |
Score: 6 (8 votes cast)
Posted on October 21, 2010 20:01
14. Posted by iwogisdead | October 21, 2010 8:11 PM | Score: 6 (6 votes cast)
Indoctrination.
14. Posted by iwogisdead | October 21, 2010 8:11 PM |
Score: 6 (6 votes cast)
Posted on October 21, 2010 20:11
15. Posted by retired military | October 21, 2010 8:17 PM | Score: 4 (4 votes cast)
Steve "This is why liberals fail to take the tea partiers seriously, "
It isnt that. it is that the tea party folks are so against what liberals stand for. They use racism as an attack against them because they know they dont have to back it up and their friends in the MSM will help them in every way possible.
15. Posted by retired military | October 21, 2010 8:17 PM |
Score: 4 (4 votes cast)
Posted on October 21, 2010 20:17
16. Posted by Steve Crickmore | October 21, 2010 8:28 PM | Score: -5 (5 votes cast)
Jay, the Department of Education does quite a bit: coordinates 'No Child Left Behind', the National Science Foundation; the National Endowment for the Humanities; student loans etc. The US is well down in the international schooling tables, and the budget is minimal in comparison to other departments. I should google it I know.
Sorry to have deflected attention but with few exceptions, racism isn't the problem of the Tea partiers. Yes, I agree with most of the commenters the NACCP is looking in large measure for something that is in the past. I would rather have the NACCP disband than the Department of Education.
16. Posted by Steve Crickmore | October 21, 2010 8:28 PM |
Score: -5 (5 votes cast)
Posted on October 21, 2010 20:28
17. Posted by Steve Crickmore | October 21, 2010 8:56 PM | Score: -7 (7 votes cast)
GrandFan. With some apologies, I was a social science major, it takes millions of years to evolve or 'off shoots' from chimpanzees(Pan troglodytes) to another species, to homo sapiens. For the last two thousand years is like one milimetre of a second, in comparison. It is not linear-Neantheral man was a a dead run from chimpanzees. We are finding all the time that our DNA`s to primates are closer than expected and chimps, our closest relative species have language, even used primitive tools in short has more in common with ous than we would expect. Evolution or 'natural selection' like the theory, laws of gravity, has provided the blueprint. Darwin didn't publish his theory for about 25 years, after his voyage of the Beagle, because he was afraid of the conservative religious reaction and it seems to be getting stronger, but not significantly for scientists, especially with the discovery of genetics, that provides the transmission of evolutionary change, which Darwin didn't have or know at the time.
17. Posted by Steve Crickmore | October 21, 2010 8:56 PM |
Score: -7 (7 votes cast)
Posted on October 21, 2010 20:56
18. Posted by OregonMuse | October 21, 2010 9:13 PM | Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
(*raises hand*)
Giving money to the teachers' unions will not improve education.
18. Posted by OregonMuse | October 21, 2010 9:13 PM |
Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
Posted on October 21, 2010 21:13
19. Posted by Jay Tea | October 21, 2010 9:36 PM | Score: 1 (3 votes cast)
Steve, no reason why the few useful elements of the Ed can't be parceled out elsewhere. And I repeat: why should education be the responsibility/concern of the feds?
iwog nailed it.
J.
19. Posted by Jay Tea | October 21, 2010 9:36 PM |
Score: 1 (3 votes cast)
Posted on October 21, 2010 21:36
20. Posted by epador | October 21, 2010 10:44 PM | Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
Oh hell, since we're now debating evolution and creationism, lets throw in anti-vaccine woo and abortion too.
20. Posted by epador | October 21, 2010 10:44 PM |
Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
Posted on October 21, 2010 22:44
21. Posted by Gmac | October 21, 2010 11:51 PM | Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
"For the last two thousand years is like one milimetre of a second"
Not one to point out the glaring obscenity of your irrationality Steve, but since when did a measure of distance become a unit of time?
21. Posted by Gmac | October 21, 2010 11:51 PM |
Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
Posted on October 21, 2010 23:51
22. Posted by Kevin McGehee | October 22, 2010 1:05 AM | Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Gmac, he just got distracted by my "Star Wars" reference above and was finishing the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs.
22. Posted by Kevin McGehee | October 22, 2010 1:05 AM |
Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Posted on October 22, 2010 01:05
23. Posted by BlueNight | October 22, 2010 2:28 AM | Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
I have had a black supervisor, several asian supervisors, most of my supervisors and managers have been women, my COBOL teacher was a black woman, and my very first national vote in 1996 was for Alan Keyes, who (you may recall) is black.
I grew up in the 80's, when every TV show had to have an inclusion episode and a token minority, and The Cosby Show was a Thursday night staple in our white home. I am from Albuquerque, New Mexico, where Hispanic is not a minority, and the high school had a well respected step dance troupe, all black.
My Toastmasters club is racially diverse, but I don't even remember most of the time.
23. Posted by BlueNight | October 22, 2010 2:28 AM |
Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
Posted on October 22, 2010 02:28
24. Posted by hcddbz | October 22, 2010 1:38 PM | Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
Once the NAACP could focus on policy. Like go the president and ask what your doing? Ex when Wilson Segregated Federal Government and Military. Now they have to invent things to support a Political party.
They have not only become irrelevant they are now pathetic.
All of the Social Programs to help Black Americans have been complete disasters.
ED is the same way start in 1980 has Americas Educational standards raised in the last 30 years infact it declined.
24. Posted by hcddbz | October 22, 2010 1:38 PM |
Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
Posted on October 22, 2010 13:38