We should all listen to Jay Smooth and remember that racism is not who you are, it's what you do, and that presenting it in that way is a lot more palatable.What Jay Smooth actually has to say about Rand Paul is characteristically awesome.
Dear Mr. Lincoln...and it goes on like that...
We Coloreds 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 Colored People and we demand that it stop!
They have actual, real, genuine, grievances. Things are getting worse. A medical emergency will bankrupt most people. Real wages are either stagnant or declining. If you're middle or lower class the odds are good that your children will be worse off than you. Good jobs seem to keep vanishing, and what few jobs that appear are generally shitty. Etc.The tea-partiers aren't just racist reactionaries against Obama. They are people who notice that they're getting poorer and poorer every year, and that the government and America in general are increasingly only for the rich and for corporations. On these points, I agree with them. The difference is that they've been taken in by Glenn Beck, et al, who blame these problems on government and liberals and so on. We can talk about why they're vulnerable to Glenn Beck's tactics (hint: public education + religion), but I think it's important to recognize that they have valid reasons for being disatisfied.
Oh hell no. In a century, they'll have about as much relevance as [the Know Nothings] do today.The nativist ideas of the Know Nothings are still held by a bunch of politicians in the US. Restricting immigration and naturalization, especially from Catholic countries, mandating Bible reading in public schools, restricting alcohol sales, and "English-only?" Straight outta the culture-war conservative platform.
posted by griphus at 7:45 PM on July 18 [+] [!]
Bill Randall is running for Congress here in North Carolina. As a Tea Party Republican.There were Jews in the Nazi Party, Nicky Crane was gay (as are enough anti-gay politicians to make it a cliche), anyone's who's been near a big enough university's probably met a few 'limousine communists,' and there's plenty of people on the underside of the wealth curve who vote consistently against their own interests (prev). It takes all kinds.
By the way, guess what race he is?
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 7:43 PM on July 18 [+] [!]
I thought the "Tea Party Express" was the one founded by Dick Army's PR firm.Tea Party Movement Funding (Sourcewatch)
Well, fuck it I can't keep these clowns straight.
posted by delmoi at 9:15 PM on July 18 [+] [!]
I just mean that this technique generally, which the NAACP is employing, doesn't eradicate racism, it just moves the racists from public view and makes them more fighty. Not blaming any particular group for this, just saying that it's a commonly used and (IMO) ineffective strategy.I think you're missing the point a little bit. The point here isn't to teach Tea Party members to be less racist. It's to show the rest of the country that the Tea Party members are racist, so people won't vote for them and allow them to enact their racist agenda. The Tea Party people in question are not my concern: if they reform, that's great, but I'm not exactly waiting with baited breath. What I'd like to do is ensure that ordinary, if possibly a bit clueless, voters are clear about exactly how toxic they are. And calling them racists, when they are racist, does exactly that.
I don't even know what you mean with your quip about MLK, but if you think that his primary cause wasn't civil rights for African-Americans, I don't know what to tell you.A surprising number of conservatives seem to be familiar with the phrase "one day my four little children will live in a nation where they will be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character" but unfamiliar with every single other thing MLK ever said or did.
I am also very happy to learn that we all agree that the term “Colored People” is offensive, so now would perhaps be a good time to let the National Association of Colored People know so that they may chose a more appropriate moniker.Boggles the mind.
You can’t talk about solving the economic problem of the Negro without talking about billions of dollars. You can’t talk about ending the slums without first saying profit must be taken out of slums. You’re really tampering and getting on dangerous ground because you are messing with folk then. You are messing with captains of industry… Now this means that we are treading in difficult water, because it really means that we are saying that something is wrong…with capitalism… There must be a better distribution of wealth and maybe America must move toward a Democratic Socialism.This is your faux ally, St. Alia. Please stop being disingenuous and/or willfully ignorant.
- MLK, Jr.
The tea party is up in arms because they don't like the direction the country is going. Many of you think this is racist because the President is black/biracial.
no one ever accused Bill Clinton of not being a Christian because even though they didn't like him, they had no desire to define him so explicitly as The Other.
As others have noted, there's not really any factual basis in that claim. Bill Clinton was called a murdering, lying, Anti-American drug dealer. I sat in a room with fellow Christians and watched everyone yell at the television when Clinton appeared like some low-budget five minutes of hate.
I listened to serious conversations between Christians debating the theology of placing spiritual curses on a man if he was evil -- would that be wrong? Wouldn't cursing Satan be okay?
Later, I was the webmaster for the largest church in the midwest when the pastor decided to interview Bill Clinton for one of the church's events. I got all of the email that everyone in the country decided to send us about it, and had the fun of grouping it. "Angry," "Super-angry," "Obscene," and "Schizophrenic" were the well-populated folders.
I am not exaggerating when I say that watching the North American Church's response to Bill Clinton started me on the path to atheism.
I don't think anyone's saying the right wing isn't loathsomely racist w/r/t Obama, but the point I'm making is that I don't think they're howling any louder-- they're just bringing other (racist) weapons to bear.I would agree, actually.
"The federation’s action in expelling Tea Party Express is welcome, but should not stop with Williams, as there are clearly other racist and bigoted elements trying to make inroads into the anti-tax movement."*posted by ericb at 8:27 AM on July 19, 2010
Liberals think these are all poor, angry, working-class whites, but that’s not true,” said Zeskind, who helped draft the NAACP resolution. “It’s a solid middle class. The belief that these are people hit by the economic downturn is a myth. It’s people who have what they want and don’t want it taken away. They’re defending white privilege. Their slogan is ‘We want our country back.’posted by warbaby at 8:35 AM on July 19, 2010 [2 favorites]
Read more
"For many tea partiers, racism is in the eye of the beholder.posted by ericb at 8:41 AM on July 19, 2010 [4 favorites]
Take Ron Wight, who stood with dozens of tea party activists at the J.C. Nichols Memorial Fountain in April, complaining about the Obama administration, its socialist agenda and being called a racist.
Those like him who complain about President Barack Obama are accused of racism, lamented the semi-retired music teacher from Lee’s Summit.
Then he added: 'If I was a black man, I’d get down on my knees and thank God for slavery. Otherwise, I could be dying of AIDS now in Africa.'
Wight doesn’t consider that comment to be racist.
'I wish slavery had never happened,' he said. 'But there are some black people alive today who have never suffered one day what the people who were black went through in the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s. Has somebody said something stupid or done something stupid? Yes, there have been incidents.
'But with everything that has been done in this country legally and socially for the black man, it’s almost like they’ve been given a great leg up.'
... A photo circulating on the web shows Dale Robertson, founder and president of Houston-based TeaParty.org — also called the 1776 Tea Party — at a 2009 rally carrying a sign that said: 'Congress = Slave Owner, Taxpayer = Niggar.'
...The Council of Conservative Citizens, a St. Louis-based group that promotes the preservation of the white race, has sponsored its own tea parties in some Southern states.
The council’s website has referred to blacks as 'a retrograde species of humanity' and said non-white immigration would turn the country into a 'slimy brown mass of glop.'" *
But I am trying to make the point that the Tea Party/GOP-abetted attacks on Obama, and the attempts to derail and demonize his presidency, and to declare his presidency illegitimate from the get-go, are unprecedented.Again, I think this isn't the case. Bill Clinton was declared an imposter and a fraud because he was a "draft dodger" who was not a legitimate commander in chief. Rush Limbaugh famously opened many of his broadcasts by counting down the number of days that America had been "under siege" and "occupied" by the Clintons. The narrative of real americans being tyrannized by a liberal usurper is not new.
This is just Williams’ latest go-round. He has a long history, including…:(
…calling former president Jimmy Carter a “creepy f*ggot,”
I think they simply go after targets of opportunity and I'm just not sure what you see the difference as being.Sure! What's ugly is that large swaths of the movement are revealing that they consider "having black skin" and "having ovaries" to be "targets of opportunity."
What I find interesting is that conservatives are so quick to start foaming at the mouth over the presidential illegitimacy of both Clinton and Obama, whereas liberals - who had what I consider a much stronger case after SCOTUS decided Bush v Gore along party lines - but didn't spend 8 years howling about Bush's legitimacy. Yes, some people refused to use the word "president' and whatnot, but it was on an entirely different scale.It was definitely there -- you saw bitter comments about "The president speaking" when Gore did a presentation, etc. And there were people who would still roll up a rant about how the election was stolen etc. But as you said, the difference in scale is pretty significant.
I would prefer to see this place debate facts and policies [...]As would I, and as would, I'm sure, the vast majority of those reading this thread.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 6:51 AM on July 19 [+] [!]
The ‘Tea Party’ is very real and will have a big impact on this year’s election and beyond – but it is important to correctly characterize this movement. The Tea Party is a grass-roots, intensely ideological, conservative Republican movement, fired up by Fox News and Glenn Beck. It is not remotely an independent or populist revolt against the elites or a working class revolt rooted in frustration with the recession, Wall Street and government.
“While the tea party movement is desperately trying to fight off charges of ‘racist elements’ from the NAACP, Ryan J. Murdough, a Republican candidate for New Hampshire State House, has no qualms about expressing his views on race. ‘It is time for white people in New Hampshire and across the country to take a stand,’ Murdough wrote in a letter to the Concord Monitor titled ‘We must preserve our racial identity’:posted by ericb at 1:57 PM on July 19, 2010‘For far too long white Americans have been told that diversity is something beneficial to their existence. Statistics prove that the opposite is true. New Hampshire residents must seek to preserve their racial identity if we want future generations to have to possibility to live in such a great state. Affirmative action, illegal and legal non-white immigration, anti-white public school systems, and an anti-white media have done much damage to the United States of America and especially New Hampshire. It is time for white people in New Hampshire and across the country to take a stand. We are only 8 percent of the world’s population and we need our own homeland, just like any other non-white group of people deserve their own homeland.’”
"For far too long white Americans have been told that diversity is something beneficial to their existence."He continued: "The Jew is using The Black as muscle against you. And you are left there helpless. Well, what are you going to do about it, Whitey? Just sit there? Of course not! You are going to join with us. The members of the American Socialist White Peoples' Party. An organization of decent, law abiding white folk. Just like you!"
"He hasn't been able to get a job because he's an ex-felon and nobody will hire him," she said.He's mad that nobody will hire him because he's a felon ... and he's mad at left-wing politicians?! Another American educational failure.
...
Williams watched the news on television and was upset by "the way Congress was railroading through all these left-wing agenda items," his mother said.
That's a fair statement, to be sure, although in our current political climate, I find it hard to believe that most people to whom the label "racist" or "racism" is attached will appreciate or observe the distinction between "that thing you do" and "that thing you are.""Love the sinner, hate the sin" always works so well...
Desuetude, of course I don't mean color doesn't matter. But I have seen people I respect vote for a man who stands for things they find reprehensible simply because he shares a race with them. Not to mention I have to continually have people judge me as racist because A) I am white and B) I do not support Obama. I would not have supported Obama for one reason no matter what -and that is the issue of abortion. I have voted for other black candidates and will continue to vote for candidates of any race who reflect my value system and who I believe would make good leaders.Alia, for the record I do not believe that your reasons for voting against Obama are racist. I know many others who voted Republican specifically because of the abortion issue. I believe it was a fundamentally deluded choice, one that will do nothing to reduce abortion, but that's a separate issue.
Verb, the local African American tea party candidate also let loose this week accusing the NAACP of racism. To be honest I am not paying a lot of attention to what the national Tea Parties are up to, but if a black man stands up and says the NAACP has been racist, forgive me for thinking he might actually have a reason for his opinion.Alia, just to be clear -- you're saying that an accusation of racism must be true, because a black person made it? If a black member of the NAACP accuses that tea Party member of being racist, is there a way to resolve the issue? Or must we call it a tie and go home?
Black conservatives do pay a pretty heavy price for their conservatism by the way. There is no reason they would say such a thing as the above if they didn't really believe it.This is actually a topic that's been debated heavily in a number of literary circles that my wife is a part of: in Victorian times, what was called "The Cult Of True Womanhood" reigned supreme, and among other things, women who pursued scholarly achievements were seen as violating its fundamental tenets. Unsurprisingly, it was enforced almost entirely by other women.
Among whites with above average racial resentment, only 19 percent favored fundamental health care reforms and 57 percent favored the present system. Among those who have below average racial resentment, more than twice as many (45 percent) favored government run health care and less than half as many (25 percent) favored the status quo.posted by scalefree at 10:03 PM on July 19, 2010 [2 favorites]
The Tea Party at its core is all about race but most of the Tea Partiers do not even realize it. They downplay the race issue every chance they get because they are afraid of being perceived as racist.That's not from a liberal analyst, it's a direct quote from a candidate trying to attract Tea Party voters.
sotonohito: "The so-called "pro-life" people will never be on our side WRT sex education and the availability of contraception. If all they cared about was ending or reducing abortion they would be, but the unfortunate truth is that ending or reducing abortion is somewhat lower on their priority queue than attempting to eradicate sex for non-procreation reasons....I spent a decade or so as part of the pro-life movement and I can say that this isn't the case for anyone I worked with. Pro-life convictions are not a cover for some deeper cause; the people who are active on those fronts genuinely, honestly want to save the lives of unborn fetuses. Full stop. Pretending that it's a "cover" for wanting to punish women is, in my opinion, a profound mistake.
If it were all about abortion, if that were the real focus of the so-called "pro-life" movement, they'd be with us on sex education and contraception. But it isn't. Its also about maintaining the official culture's control of who gets rewarded for what..."
I find this especially disturbing as they almost invariably claim that life qua life is supreme, and that this interest trumps any and all other interests or concerns. They typically make this point when discussing abortion and the bodily autonomy of women.Yes, this is where it definitely becomes most troubling. "Life trumps all" is fine and good, but I'd be curious to see how many Pro-Life organizations would support, say, massive increases in taxes to fund a comprehensive network of state-sponsored humane orphanages, schools, and so on for the millions of children per year who would not be aborted. Some might! Others would not; and that would be a measuring of priorities. At the end of the day, it is easy to say that something is Very, Very Important when someone else suffers to carry it through.
If they'd wake up when shown the glaring inconsistency in their beliefs, if they'd say "well heck, I've been wrong all this time, sign me up for the pro-sex education and pro-free and easily available contraception movement!" that would be one thing. But they don't, and they are becoming increasingly open about their deep seated opposition to contraception.That's fine. I have nothing against that, and believe that it's an improvement! Honesty about those priorities means that those who are sympathetic to the "life qua life" reasoning, but opposed to the anti-contraception, safe-a-life-but-only-if-I-don't-have-to-condone-nookie school of thought, will find better ways to channel their concerns than voting for pro-life candidates or donating to pro-life organizations.
If they are all deliberately self deceiving on the topic of abortion and contraception/sex ed, I don't know. That's a terrifying thought.Carefully sifting through one's own priorities -- and accepting that they're actual priorities and ethical choices -- is hard work that takes a lot of time, effort, and humility.
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posted by ericb at 5:16 PM on July 18, 2010 [5 favorites]