A few days ago, Rep. Andre Carson (D-IN) told a Miami crowd that people from the Tea Party wanted to see black people hanging from a tree.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/08/31/rep-carson-tea-party-wants-to-see-black-americans-hanging-on-tree/
Carson is another member of the Congressional Black Caucus, that anachronistic group in Congress that is always playing racial politics. This is the third incident of nasty rhetoric coming from the CBC in the past couple of weeks. At what point do we say to the Carsons, Maxine Waters' and Frederica Wilsons that is they who are the racists? And where is our leader,Ppresident Obama, speaking out on this garbage? He is The One who was going to bring us together. Remember after the Giffords shooting in Arizona when certain voices were calling for a return to civility in our political discourse?
The reason the Tea Party movement sprang up has nothing to do with race; it has everything to do with the out-of-control size and abuses of power of our government. Allen West, who is mentioned in this article, is one of the favorite elected officials of the Tea Party movement as are Marco Rubio and Herman Cain.
These accusations are just plain sickening.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Anonymous,
Thank you for making my case.
Anonymous has expressed an opinion, without adding much factual argument, but he or she has hardly made your case.
As it happens, I have recently completed and submitted an article on the Tea Party for a reference work slated for publication early next year. One thing I noticed in trying to find appropriate source material for a neutral, balanced, factual, well-documented general reference article is that there are no neutral primary or even secondary sources. Everything in print is either a denunciation (some rather sophisticate and still researched, but still, with an ax to grind), or else it is a triumphal celebration of the movement.
In fact, there are as many reasons for individuals identifying themelves as "Tea Party" as there are individuals who choose that identity.
Santelli's original broadcast calling for a "Chicago Tea Party in July" was all about the alleged impropriety of aiding homeowners who had underwater mortgages and/or had lost the jobs on which their ability to make monthly payments depended. Many in the Tea Party no doubt need, or rely on, such aid, or are sympathetic to neighbors who do.
Santelli made his broadcast from the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade, from the offices of CME Group, a derivative trading firm. Many joined the Tea Party because they despised such outfits, and strenuously objected to taxpayer money being put on the line to bail out reckless financial institutions. That started on the watch of George W. Bush, but Obama didn't do much to change course, unfortunately.
But, many of the political insider "conservatives" who rushed to tell the inchoate movement "we've come to be your leader" are quite cozy with such financial circles.
Then, the "Tea Party" label was adopted by a general cacophony of those who simply didn't like Obama, didn't vote for him, were mad he got elected, and among those, there are SOME who undoubtedly ARE racist.
No doubt this latest speech is a bit simplistic, not unlike many of the speeches made in the name of the Tea Party, including those comparing Obama to Hitler because Hitler took over the banks (even though many joined the Tea Party because they wanted the banks to suffer MORE, not less).
The Tea Party as a political force will die the usual death of centrifugal causes. It has no defined platform, no recognized leadership, several organized contingents claiming to have "started it all," and some are even profiting by their work for the cause.
The real wonder is that members of the Cnogressional Black Caucus bother to mention the fad.
Siarlys,
The point anonymous helped me make was the racism coming from the left. Look at what he said about Rubio, West and Cain. It's the same old Uncle Tom, Taco Tio crap that certain activists have been throwing around for years. It leads one to question who the worst racists in this country are.
There you go with your meetooism again. People who continue to choose to think of themselves as "white" are just aching to scream that they have been discriminated against. It's like Christians living in the comfort of American homes who want to feel just a little bit of martyrdom, so they complain that the laws discriminate against their faith. Bronx cheer for all.
Marco Rubio is of Cuban exile descent, which means his family came here with money, skills and connections, rather than coming here broke, destitute and desperate for any job they could get. To the extent that there IS a "Hispanic" cause, Cuban exiles have never been part of it, nor have they tried to be.
Having clerked for the census, I would agree that the notion of trying to classify people is getting absurd. The "Hispanic" category showed that. The forms call for Hispanics who are white, black, etc. Ever meet a woman of Chinese descent from Mexico whose only language is Spanish? The darkest man I ever met was from Nicaragua, and he spoke only Spanish too. And some Guatemalans don't even speak Spanish at all.
I don't know much about Herman Cain, but you've highlighted Allen West a few times. He doesn't want to be anyone's slave. But he's not statistically typical for those who experience how American culture treats people with a dark complexion. He doesn't have to be, but he's not the leading edge of a trend either. For now, people of your persuasion like to hold him up as something of a token "Negro conservative" just to show you've got a couple on your side.
If there were NO racism in any of this, you wouldn't even bother to highlight him. Remember the results when the Republican Party of Illinois decided the way to respond to a Harvard-educated man of African descent running as the Democratic candidate for the U.S. senate was to import their own Harvard-educated candidate of African descent from out of state? It was a disaster.
Post a Comment