Racism is one of the worst attributes that can be shown and espoused today. Just as hurtful is falsely being accused of being racist when you’re not. This issue comes to a head due to the NAACP’s proclamation that condemns supposed ‘Tea Party racism’.
First, let me speak for myself: I would like to think that I don’t have a racist bone in my body. I don’t know any racists. I don’t have any friends that are racists. If I saw a racist, I wouldn’t associate with them. I tend to think that a very large majority of my fellow Americans thinks like I do. When I judge a person, I use Dr. Martin Luther King’s way, I judge on the content of one’s character.
Next, let me explain the Tea Parties I’ve been to. I’ve attended numerous and spoken at one. I personally haven’t seen any racial signs when I’ve been to Tea Party rallies. I’m honored to know personally the organizers here in St. Louis, none of which harbor racial animus.
Beyond that, I must speak extremely broadly. The Tea Party movement is a broad and open movement. We don’t have ID cards, stamp entrances, or private/secret meetings. Like many other public demonstrations, people are free to come and go as they please. The likelihood of uninvited or unwanted guests exists here as it does everywhere in America. Legally, it’s difficult for Tea Parties to expel these people because more often than not, the event is on public land.
Furthermore, I would argue that it is unfair to judge any movement based on individual acts like single signs. So to be fair you can’t say that the Tea Party is racist because there’s a nut with a racist sign. Even if you find 100 examples of this around the country, it pales in comparison to the millions who are at Tea Parties for the right reasons. It would be slightly fairer to judge the organizers of Tea Parties and whom they themselves invite to speak. That’s fair to judge. If it’s sponsored by the official organization, then talk about it. I must also point out that the hierarchy of Tea Party groups is very fractured. There are local town groups, citywide groups, and national sponsors. Not every group thinks the same or endorses every one of each other’s actions.
To take an example, the Northern Iowa Tea Party placed a sign off a road that has a picture of Adolf Hitler, Vladmir Lenin, and President Barack Obama. This was in reference to the three variations of socialism. Personally, I wouldn’t characterize Obama in such a way. He is the most left wing President in history, but not quite socialist in my opinion. But on another level, I think plastering Hitler and Obama together is just not politically smart. It’s easy to marginalize you when you do that. Just as we rightfully dismissed the Bush-Hitler signs by the left. But in terms of criticizing the sign, I think it’s fair. The sign was put up by a Tea Party organization. I would condemn such a reference, as did some national sponsors.
On the whole, this Hitler comparison or racist displays are extremely rare on the individual nut level and from an organizational level. By no means should these small incidents be taken to indict an entire movement. If people still are fuzzy about what Tea Parties actually stand for, it’s fiscal conservatism and individual freedom at its core. Race doesn’t now nor ever did play a part. The rhetoric can get heated, but above it all, it’s fiscal issues that drive the movement.
The above points were intended to inform and sway open minded, level headed people who had questions about racism in the Tea Party. But to be honest, I know why members of the media and elements of the left are driving the racial narrative, fear. For the better part of four decades, the left has been using freedom of assembly quite well. They can mobilize on a street corner at a moment’s notice. Only in the last 18 months has the right waded into this zone. The threat is being treated with vicious hate and bitter division. And the easiest way to smear and divide is racially. I doubt that the left really cares about supposed racial rhetoric as much as discrediting a legitimate movement that has garnered majority support across the nation. It is the vilest of smears to be called racist when false. And I encourage people on the left who hurl it to be careful about the broadness of your brush (unless you intend to insult and smear patriotic Americans).
I would hope the truth prevails in the end. Instead of smearing, why don’t liberals defend the disastrous policies of the Obama Administration? I’d much rather be posting on it, rather than defending against ugly smears.
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