Tea Party: Racist or Victims of Racism?

[Troll]

Let's dive right into it, shall we?

The Tea Party is in some hot water at the moment over a controversal blog post where a member referred to the head of the NAACP as "Tom's nephew and NAACP head colored person."

In response, a coalition of the Tea Party expelled the guy and his particular branch of the movement. Many have called the Tea Party racist in the past, and they can't seem to escape the criticism due to regular screw ups by their members. Of course, the Tea Party is also trying to fight back by claiming people who call them racist are racist themselves, which is complete and utter bullshit IMO.

Basically it's ugly and doesn't look to get any better in the near future.

So, is the Tea Party racist? Is anyone who claims they are racist actually racist themselves? Is the Tea Party helping or hurting conservatives? Are they ever going to gain legitimacy as a political movement, or will they turn out to be a fad?

 

[Matt²]

No I don't believe the good ones are at heart racist (and no I am not a member). It's probably a short lasting fad.

 

[Element 117]

troll discussing racism. how racist.

 

[Sparhawk]

No, not racist. Just like any movement, you have "members" that don't toe the line. They are doing the right thing, by expelling those that are spreading a message that goes against what the movement as a whole is stating. Both Dems and Reps have had people that they have tried to distance themselves from, and members that they should have.

People that speak against them, not sure, depends on how those individuals or groups address their concerns. When they are using language that implies that all the members are backwood rednecks without any education... maybe, but it depends on the context.

 

[Charlie Don't Surf]

The Tea Party has a lot of racists in it. I haven't seen any laws yet that take civil rights away from white people, so I have a really hard time giving half a fuck about any racists in the Democratic party.

 

[AshburnerX]

Is the Tea Party actively trying to use hate and intimidation to oppress minorities in it's rallies as a matter of design and intent? No. The Tea Party's only real concern at this point is to create a TRUE financially conservative party in the US that doesn't alienate many of the people it would appeal to. If anything its trying desperately to not fall into the same pit trap the Libertarian Party fell into, by doing it's damnedest to portray an image that says all are welcome (As opposed to the Libertarian's image of wealthy, affluent whites attempting to sequester themselves AWAY from everyone else).

Does the Tea Party CONTAIN Racists? Oh hell yeah... but the party is still in it's infancy. It hasn't clearly cemented the party's purpose in the American Subconscious, so right now everyone is flocking to it in an attempt to make it their own. By throwing out these people, it's making a clear stance that it does stand for equality and that it wants to expand it's base to include anyone who is financially conservative, no matter where they are from or who they are related to. This is a smart move on their part, as right now it's predominantly white like the Republican Party.

I still won't vote for them though.

 

[sixpackshaker]

The Tea Party is going to stir the pot because they want the Wing-nuts of America to join in droves. A lot of the rhetoric used against Obama's tenure has come off as rather racist.

 

[Charlie Don't Surf]

The Tea Party was the major driving force behind the racist AZ legislation. They literally had a part in drafting it. I don't know how you can say they don't have a racist element.

 

[Jay]

Is that considered racist? Really? Does something so... trivial really spark such a debate? I mean, seriously though, does this warrant to be discussed on a global level?

Political parties aside, we're all racist. We just have different abilities being able to show it. You can claim you the most non-racism person but if you were stuck somewhere and surrounded by uncertainty deep down you'll still feel it. Emotions will bring it out. It's all about on how well can you keep it in. This applies to people on an individual level. Does the Tea Party truly warrant to be called racism? Then all Republicans should warrant to be called dimwitted rednecks, democratics be called etc...

An entire party cannot be judged on an action of specific individuals.

Here's another question to reply back to your question :

If Barack Obama was named Jack Reynolds and was a white guy from Tennessee... would he really have been elected president?

 

[Philosopher B.]

we're all racist.

 

[JONJONAUG]

This is how you prove that your movement is not racist:

Dear Mr. Lincoln

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!

In fact we held a big meeting and took a vote in Kansas City this week. We voted to condemn a political revival of that old abolitionist spirit called the ‘tea party movement’.

The tea party position to “end the bailouts” for example is just silly. Bailouts are just big money welfare and isn’t that what we want all Coloreds to strive for? What kind of racist would want to end big money welfare? What they need to do is start handing the bail outs directly to us coloreds! Of course, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is the only responsible party that should be granted the right to disperse the funds.

And the ridiculous idea of “reduce[ing] the size and intrusiveness of government.” What kind of massa would ever not want to control my life? As Coloreds we must have somebody care for us otherwise we would be on our own, have to think for ourselves and make decisions!

The racist tea parties also demand that the government “stop the out of control spending.” Again, they directly target coloreds. That means we Coloreds would have to compete for jobs like everybody else and that is just not right.

Perhaps the most racist point of all in the tea parties is their demand that government “stop raising our taxes.” That is outrageous! How will we coloreds ever get a wide screen TV in every room if non-coloreds get to keep what they earn? Totally racist! The tea party expects coloreds to be productive members of society?

Mr. Lincoln, you were the greatest racist ever. We had a great gig. Three squares, room and board, all our decisions made by the massa in the house. Please repeal the 13th and 14th Amendments and let us get back to where we belong.

Sincerely

Precious Ben Jealous, Tom’s Nephew NAACP Head Colored Person

Honestly with all the shit going on I don't think the Tea Party is ever going to get out of this phase.

 

[Soliloquy]

I covered a tea party rally for the news agency I interned for. Here's my thoughts on the matter.

1) is the tea party racist?

There was certainly some racism -- or what certainly seemed to be racism -- among crowd members. Some were holding signs telling Obama to "go back to Kenya" or calling his policies a "Jihad." In fact, one of the candidates for governor started spouting on about how Obama hadn't produced a valid birth certificate (I mentioned this in the story, and provided a link to a website showing that he had, in fact, produced this certificate. Journalism can be quite satisfying sometimes.)

But these people were very much in the minority. Most of the people with signs were complaining about one of our (very white) U.S. Senators, who will be up for election this November, and everyone I interviewed was concerned about big government, states' rights, too much spending, etc. -- then again, I stayed away from interviewing the nutjobs with crazy signs.

Granted, most of the protesters were very uninformed about what it is they were talking about... but so is the vast majority of Americans, no matter what side of the issue they stand on.


2) is the tea party a victim of racism?

I walked the grounds a few hours after the rally was over, and saw scrawled on the ground the words "Scared white people were here" -- essentially dismissing the protesters' concerns because of their skin color. This isn't the first time I've seen people mocking the protesters for this. I believe I've seen MSNBC and The Daily Show segments that have said similar things.

And i must say, the general sentiment of "these people are white, and therefore must be racist" rings of irony.

My mind initially protests such as the million-man march, and what it would mean to dismiss their concerns simply because they were black.

But I realize that's not an entirely fair comparison. The million-man march was specifically about race, so it would make sense for the aggrieved race to appear en masse. The tea party protests, however, seem mostly to be about the middle class wanting to be able to go their own way about life with minimal government interference. And, while white people make up the largest part of the middle class, they certainly don't make up all of it, making the absence of minorities rather... suspect.

So I guess this does lead to the question: why does the tea party have almost no minorities in it? Is it because of the perceived (and occasionally real) racism in the group? Is it because most minorities tend to be left-leaning anyway? Is it because there's a feeling of loyalty to the first black president?

Beats me. I'm a white middle-class male. And this stuff's friggin' confusing.

 

[Dubyamn]

I think so. I mean where were they for the last 8 years of the Bush administration? No rumblings against Bush's stimulus package. But once Obama is in office they got very loud very quickly and suddenly government spending and deficiets are the #1 concern.

Could be that the discontented republicans would have formed the party no matter which democrat beat McCain but somehow the positioning of the Tea Party strongholds makes me think that it would be a much weaker movement if the president was the same color.

 

[AshburnerX]

I think so. I mean where were they for the last 8 years of the Bush administration? No rumblings against Bush's stimulus package. But once Obama is in office they got very loud very quickly and suddenly government spending and deficiets are the #1 concern.

Could be that the discontented republicans would have formed the party no matter which democrat beat McCain but somehow the positioning of the Tea Party strongholds makes me think that it would be a much weaker movement if the president was the same color.

Why would the Republicans WANT another Conservative party though? It splits the Conservative vote, thus helping ensure more Liberals get elected. It's the same problem the Left had with the Green Party.

 

[crono1224]

*Snip*

Weren't you the one that posted about koreans?

 

[bhamv3]

That would be the more serious version of Jay, I think.

 

[Dubyamn]

Why would the Republicans WANT another Conservative party though? It splits the Conservative vote, thus helping ensure more Liberals get elected. It's the same problem the Left had with the Green Party.

You ever hear the term Tea party supported candidate? You know why the term isn't Teabagger nominee?

It's because the Tea party isn't a party. They don't run their candidates during the main election. No the Tea party supported candidates all run during the Republican primaries. Meaning that if they are elected the Tea party supported candidates will be caucusing with Republicans and will all have little Rs next to their state.

And what has happened in the states where the Tea party backed candidate lost? Well the candidate isn't running under a Tea party flag.

TLDR: The Tea party is a group within the republicans they vote republican and honor republican figures, They won't split the conservative vote.

 

[AshburnerX]

So it's acting as more of a special interest group and less of a political party all on it's own. I suppose that makes a bit more sense.

 

[Ravenpoe]

The tea party isn't a political party. They're an anti-party. They are a party organized around opposing things, with no real centralized idea of what they want. They know what they don't want.

Because they are based on opposition rather than solution, they are going to draw every nut job wacko out there, which greatly inflates their numbers. That isn't to say they're all wacko, but the crazy ones are the loud ones, and to the general population, it's the loud ones that get heard.

 

[Krisken]

Not to mention, there isn't just one Tea Party. Each state has two or three different "Tea Party" groups, all with slightly different rules and goals. So saying "Is the Tea Party racist?", what you have to ask is "Which Tea Party?".

 

[Espy]

Oh, totally racist.

 

[GasBandit]

Just about everything I would have wanted to say has already been said here by one person or another.

1) The Tea Party is not, in and of itself, a racist organization.
2) There are racist bigots IN the Tea Party, much like there are racist bigots in the NAACP (though unlike the Tea Party, the NAACP is inherently racist, but not necessarily bigoted)
3) The Tea Party isn't an actual political party, and it isn't run by one central authority. It's rather anarchist/populist in nature, except when somebody decides to organize something and sell tickets to it, trying to make a profit and undermining the entire point of it.

 

[sixpackshaker]

The over-arching organization that is leading the Tea-Party is Fox News. Some people that are tagging along with this movement my believe that they are a grassroots movement, but they have been Astro-Turfed by Rupert Murdock.

 

[Krisken]

The over-arching organization that is leading the Tea-Party is Fox News. Some people that are tagging along with this movement my believe that they are a grassroots movement, but they have been Astro-Turfed by Rupert Murdock.

Well, sure. The GOP and Fox News have used the Tea party groups to make money and further their own agendas. That only works for so long though. Eventually they will splinter and turn on eachother. That is the strength and weakness of uncompromising views.

 

[JONJONAUG]

2) There are racist bigots IN the Tea Party, much like there are racist bigots in the NAACP (though unlike the Tea Party, the NAACP is inherently racist, but not necessarily bigoted)

You're kidding me, right?

 

[Charlie Don't Surf]

2) There are racist bigots IN the Tea Party, much like there are racist bigots in the NAACP (though unlike the Tea Party, the NAACP is inherently racist, but not necessarily bigoted)

You're kidding me, right?[/QUOTE]
He's not.

 

[Chazwozel]

2) There are racist bigots IN the Tea Party, much like there are racist bigots in the NAACP (though unlike the Tea Party, the NAACP is inherently racist, but not necessarily bigoted)

You're kidding me, right?[/QUOTE]

Truthiness: Gas has got it.

Racism:
1 : a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race
2 : racial prejudice or discrimination

The NAACP isn't inherently racist, Gas. It was founded as a reaction to racism. Same goes for the Black Panthers.

 

[Necronic]

For everyone towing the "we're all racist" line, I hear you, on a semantical level, but there's racist and then there's RACIST. The problem is that there is only one word. Well actually there's also Supremacist but that's too much. We really need an additional level.

There are no inherently racist policies or positions in the Tea Party movement, in as much as you can call it an organized block, so the movement itself isn't racist. However, if it's a matter of whether the movement is comprised of a higher percentage of racists...

Is that really a different question? If there was no official stand taken by a group, yet a disproportionate number of it's members held racist ideologies, would it make the group racist? I don't know. If it did then Republican's as a whole would probably be considered a racist party, which it's not. Well....on the other hand...

 

[GasBandit]

2) There are racist bigots IN the Tea Party, much like there are racist bigots in the NAACP (though unlike the Tea Party, the NAACP is inherently racist, but not necessarily bigoted)

You're kidding me, right?[/QUOTE]

Truthiness: Gas has got it.

Racism:
1 : a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race
2 : racial prejudice or discrimination

The NAACP isn't inherently racist, Gas. It was founded as a reaction to racism. Same goes for the Black Panthers.[/QUOTE]

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples. It's "fighting racism with racism," thus inherently racist. You can argue if you want that it's "good racism" (or if you want to really be appropriate, "it's not racism when WE do it"), but it's still racism.

 

[Krisken]

Yeah, fighting monsters makes you a monster!

 

[Chazwozel]

2) There are racist bigots IN the Tea Party, much like there are racist bigots in the NAACP (though unlike the Tea Party, the NAACP is inherently racist, but not necessarily bigoted)

You're kidding me, right?[/QUOTE]

Truthiness: Gas has got it.

Racism:
1 : a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race
2 : racial prejudice or discrimination

The NAACP isn't inherently racist, Gas. It was founded as a reaction to racism. Same goes for the Black Panthers.[/QUOTE]

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples. It's "fighting racism with racism," thus inherently racist. You can argue if you want that it's "good racism" (or if you want to really be appropriate, "it's not racism when WE do it"), but it's still racism.[/QUOTE]

How is the NAACP fighting racism with racism? How is fighting for civil rights and equality a racist thing? Your argument that the NAACP is racist is akin to calling the Gay and Lesbian alliance a hate group because it promotes giving homosexuals equal rights. They're not promoting anything in regards to persecutions towards whites or any other race, unlike for instance the KKK. The NAACP exists as a front to protect the civil rights of black people. That's all. They don't make any claims that black people are better than everyone else.

 

[GasBandit]

2) There are racist bigots IN the Tea Party, much like there are racist bigots in the NAACP (though unlike the Tea Party, the NAACP is inherently racist, but not necessarily bigoted)

You're kidding me, right?[/QUOTE]

Truthiness: Gas has got it.

Racism:
1 : a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race
2 : racial prejudice or discrimination

The NAACP isn't inherently racist, Gas. It was founded as a reaction to racism. Same goes for the Black Panthers.[/QUOTE]

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples. It's "fighting racism with racism," thus inherently racist. You can argue if you want that it's "good racism" (or if you want to really be appropriate, "it's not racism when WE do it"), but it's still racism.[/QUOTE]

How is the NAACP fighting racism with racism? How is fighting for civil rights and equality a racist thing? Your argument that the NAACP is racist is akin to calling the Gay and Lesbian alliance a hate group because it promotes giving homosexuals equal rights. They're not promoting anything in regards to persecutions towards whites or any other race, unlike for instance the KKK. The NAACP exists as a front to protect the civil rights of black people. That's all. They don't make any claims that black people are better than everyone else.[/QUOTE]

Racism doesn't JUST mean "we think this race is better than that race," it means discrimination on the basis of race. The NAACP favors discrimination in favor of a race. For example - Affirmative Action.

If something isn't racist, it would call for all judgements and decisions to be made regardless of skin color, not because of it. You know, kind of like Martin Luther King thought would be nice.

 

[Chazwozel]

2) There are racist bigots IN the Tea Party, much like there are racist bigots in the NAACP (though unlike the Tea Party, the NAACP is inherently racist, but not necessarily bigoted)

You're kidding me, right?[/QUOTE]

Truthiness: Gas has got it.

Racism:
1 : a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race
2 : racial prejudice or discrimination

The NAACP isn't inherently racist, Gas. It was founded as a reaction to racism. Same goes for the Black Panthers.[/QUOTE]

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples. It's "fighting racism with racism," thus inherently racist. You can argue if you want that it's "good racism" (or if you want to really be appropriate, "it's not racism when WE do it"), but it's still racism.[/QUOTE]

How is the NAACP fighting racism with racism? How is fighting for civil rights and equality a racist thing? Your argument that the NAACP is racist is akin to calling the Gay and Lesbian alliance a hate group because it promotes giving homosexuals equal rights. They're not promoting anything in regards to persecutions towards whites or any other race, unlike for instance the KKK. The NAACP exists as a front to protect the civil rights of black people. That's all. They don't make any claims that black people are better than everyone else.[/QUOTE]

Racism doesn't JUST mean "we think this race is better than that race," it means discrimination on the basis of race. The NAACP favors discrimination in favor of a race. For example - Affirmative Action.

If something isn't racist, it would call for all judgements and decisions to be made regardless of skin color, not because of it. You know, kind of like Martin Luther King thought would be nice.[/QUOTE]


Affirmative Action isn't racist.

 

[GasBandit]

2) There are racist bigots IN the Tea Party, much like there are racist bigots in the NAACP (though unlike the Tea Party, the NAACP is inherently racist, but not necessarily bigoted)

You're kidding me, right?[/QUOTE]

Truthiness: Gas has got it.

Racism:
1 : a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race
2 : racial prejudice or discrimination

The NAACP isn't inherently racist, Gas. It was founded as a reaction to racism. Same goes for the Black Panthers.[/QUOTE]

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples. It's "fighting racism with racism," thus inherently racist. You can argue if you want that it's "good racism" (or if you want to really be appropriate, "it's not racism when WE do it"), but it's still racism.[/QUOTE]

How is the NAACP fighting racism with racism? How is fighting for civil rights and equality a racist thing? Your argument that the NAACP is racist is akin to calling the Gay and Lesbian alliance a hate group because it promotes giving homosexuals equal rights. They're not promoting anything in regards to persecutions towards whites or any other race, unlike for instance the KKK. The NAACP exists as a front to protect the civil rights of black people. That's all. They don't make any claims that black people are better than everyone else.[/QUOTE]

Racism doesn't JUST mean "we think this race is better than that race," it means discrimination on the basis of race. The NAACP favors discrimination in favor of a race. For example - Affirmative Action.

If something isn't racist, it would call for all judgements and decisions to be made regardless of skin color, not because of it. You know, kind of like Martin Luther King thought would be nice.[/QUOTE]


Affirmative Action isn't racist.[/QUOTE]

A requirement that demands you must hire so many people of a certain skin color, regardless of their ability or the availability of a better suited candidate of another ethnicity is the very definition of racist.

Here's a simple test... if you can take any given sentence, swap the words "black" and "white" and suddenly it sounds racist... it was racist to begin with.

If you don't agree with that, you fail at brain use.

 

[sixpackshaker]

The sky at night is white.

Frackin' racists.