It's funny that so many teabaggers get angry about the accusations of racism and say things like, "just because I disagree with the policies of a Black president doesn't make me a racist." Why is this funny to me? because 1) Actually, no, it's not that idiotically simple at all. Nobody is calling you a racist because you disagree with Obama; and 2) Instead of getting angry when someone accuses you or your movement of being racist, race-baiting, or inciting racial fears; wouldn't it make more sense to find out WHY your movement has been accused of something that serious? Wouldn't it make more sense to call out the extremists in your party and try to ameliorate the problem?
But, no, it's easier to just blame the "lib'rul media" and "progressive socialists" who are just out to make you look bad and silence da truth. Riiiight. (Hint: You don't actually know what socialism is, do you? It's just a scary, scary buzzword.)
I don't know about you, but accusing someone (or a group of people) of being racist is a pretty serious claim and certainly NOT something that I throw around lightly. And because of my societal privileges as a "white" person, I am probably not as sensitive to picking up undercurrents of racism as, say, a woman of color who has personally dealt with it all of her life. It's pretty sad that the tea party won't listen when not only the NAACP* accuses the movement of racism, but now you even have the naive, privileged white kids cringing about it, too. I take it pretty fucking seriously when a woman like Peg Luksik thinks it's a-okay to compare immigration to a vermin infestation.
Am I saying that every single teabagger is individually guilty of being a racist? NO. But if they want to continue to associate with an inherently racist movement, it's about time that they seriously address the problem and try to ameliorate their party by finding new leaders and taking their inspiration from different sources.
Extraordinary claims** require extraordinary evidence.
*The NAACP was responsible for starting the goldmine Tea Party Tracker website, which "monitors racism and other forms of extremism within the Tea Party movement."
**in this case, the accusation of racism.
Who is the Tea Party?
From here:
"CBS News and the New York Times surveyed 1,580 adults, including 881 self-identified Tea Party supporters...
...The vast majority of them -- 89 percent -- are white. Just one percent is black...
...They are also more likely to be men (59 percent) than women (41 percent)...
...They are more likely than American adults overall to attend religious services weekly (38 percent do so) and to call themselves evangelical (39 percent). Sixty-one percent are Protestant, and another 22 percent are Catholic...
...Sixty-three percent say they get the majority of their political and current events news on television from the Fox News Channel, compared to 23 percent of Americans overall..."
What do they believe?
From the same source,
"Tea Party supporters are more concerned with economic than social issues. Seventy-eight percent say economic issues are a bigger concern, while 14 percent point to social issues..."
HOWEVER,
"They are more likely than Republicans and Americans overall to see illegal immigration as a serious problem (82 percent), doubt the impact of global warming (66 percent)...
...Fifty-three percent say the Roe v. Wade decision was a bad thing (compared to 34 percent of Americans overall), 40 percent oppose same-sex marriage and civil unions (compared to 30 percent overall)...
...Just 16 percent of Tea Party supporters say whites have more opportunities to get ahead, compared to 31 percent of all Americans. Seventy-three percent say both have equal opportunity, compared to 60 percent of Americans overall.
...Fifty-two percent believe too much has been made of the problems facing black people. Far fewer Americans overall -- 28 percent -- believe as much. Among non-Tea Party whites, the percentage who say too much attention has been paid to the problems of black people is 23 percent..."
The leaders of the Tea Party and 9/12 movement
Glenn Beck: As a member of the Church of Latter-Day Saints (Mormonism), Beck already has a mark against him. The LDS Church didn't fully allow Black people into their congregations until 1978. Brigham Young University also had a policy that was strictly against interracial dating. It's not surprising to me why Beck was so attracted to Mormonism in the first place or why he continues to stay with the church.
It would take me months to catalogue all of the racial fear-mongering and racist remarks that Beck has made. Fortunately, Media Matters for America has been keeping tabs on all of the outrageous bullshit that Beck spews. I suggest you start reading!
The following list highlights some of his most news-worthy gems:
"[Barack Obama] has exposed himself as a guy ... who has a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture... This guy is a racist."
(As a result, over 100 sponsors dropped him with help from concerned activist organizing by Color of Change.)
Can someone please tell Beck that racism - by definition - does not and can NOT cut both ways?
"On the May 24 edition of his radio program, he described himself and his conservative-activist legions as 'the inheritors and the protectors of the civil rights movement'; liberals, he claimed, 'are perverting it.' He said he 'wouldn’t be surprised if in our lifetime dogs and fire hoses are released or opened on us. I wouldn’t be surprised if a few of us get a billy club to the head. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of us go to jail — just like Martin Luther King did — on trumped-up charges. Tough times are coming.' Two days later, he reiterated his intent to 'reclaim the civil rights movement,' since 'we were the people that did it in the first place.' More recently, he has described the alleged scheduling coincidence as 'divine providence'—as God’s way of telling Beck he walks in King’s footsteps."
- from alternet
There you go. Racism and dangerous Christian nationalism, walking hand-in-hand.
Speaking of white supremacists and racial hated, that brings me to Ezra Taft Benson: a hero and source of inspiration for Glenn Beck. For those not in the know, Benson was the thirteenth president of the LDS (Mormon) Church. He wrote a pamphlet entitled Civil Rights, Tool of Communist Deception and wrote the foreword in a violent book of race hate (The Black Hammer) whose cover featured an illustration of a severed, bloody head of an African American man. (You can easily find the cover illustration online, but I absolutely refuse to post a link to it here because it is disgustingly hateful, graphically violent, and sickening on multiple levels.) Beck has played Ezra Taft Benson audio on his own radio program. In one clip from the Glenn Beck Program, on October 31st 2008, Beck plays a tape of Benson lecturing people about the dangers of communism. Interestingly enough, Beck stops the tape before Benson could continue lecturing people about his hatred of the Civil Rights movement. In the same lecture, he asks, "When are we going to wake up? What do you know about the dangerous Civil Rights agitation in Mississippi?"
Another
Fortunately, there are Real conservatives with common sense & common decency who stand against Glenn Beck and Skousen. They have a list there of Skousen's racist bullshit, mostly collected from a ""textbook"" he authored entitled The Making of America. You can read more research on Skousen's paranoid conspiracy theories, racism, and revisionist history here.
Let them speak for themselves
I think it's easiest to let various leaders/activists associated with the Tea Party to speak for themselves.
First, we have Mark Williams (a spokesperson for the Tea Party Express), who launched a hate campaign against the NAACP in saying,
"You’re 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. It’s time groups like the NAACP went to the trash heap of history where they belong with all the other vile racist groups that emerged in our history."
- From Think Progress
I don't think I need to remind anybody that the NAACP was originally formed by W.E.B. Du Bois (among other notable activists) in response to race riots and to prevent lynching and violence against Black people. It now serves as an organization "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination."
Aaaand Mark fucking Williams of Teabagger Express thinks that the NAACP should go into "the trash heap of history...with other vile racist groups."
Next, we have Carl Paladino, a NY gubernatorial candidate and Tea Party favorite... about as batshit insane as Sharron Angle or Christine O'Donnell, but strangely, hasn't been getting nearly enough media attention. He enjoys forwarding hideously racist e-mails, hardcore porn videos, and bestiality videos to friends and co-workers while on the job. I am not effing kidding. You can view many of the actual e-mails for yourself. (NWS!)
No further comments necessary.
In closing, I invite you to watch these interviews with participants at Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" Rally (and feel free to read the ignorant youtube comments)...
UPDATE 9/23/10: At the Values Voters Summit, Mike Huckabee compares people with pre-existing conditions to "burnt-down houses."
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