Activist to actor: Tea party not 'racist'

Chad Groening - OneNewsNow - 10/6/2011 10:00:00 AM

A black tea party activist is calling actor Morgan Freeman to task for labeling the tea party movement as "racist."

Recently Freeman was a guest on CNN's Piers Morgan Tonight. The Oscar-winning actor said the tea party's anti-Obama stance is rooted in racism. (View related YouTube video)

Freeman: "Their stated policy -- publicly stated -- is to do whatever it takes to see to it that Obama only serves one term. What underlines that? 'Screw the country -- we're going to do whatever we can to get this black man outta here.'"

Morgan: "But it's not necessarily a racist thing."

Freeman: "It is a racist thing."

Ali Akbar is a black tea party activist and publisher of TeaPartyBrew.com.

"It just got to my soul this time because this is a man I've looked up to," Akbar tells OneNewsnow. "I didn't grow up with a father so I looked for figures that I could find that were respectable, professional minority men -- and he was one of them.

"So it broke my heart that he said that -- and it was absolutely untrue," the activist continues. "This is a movement I personally helped birth. I was part of the TaxDayTeaParty.com staff."

Now Akbar is asking Freeman to attend a tea party event anywhere in the country. "He's got to come and see that these are some of the most loving people he's ever met, who are patriots just like him," he comments.

Akbar has created a website called YourMoveMorgan.com to allow tea party supporters to send a message and a "Don't Tread On Me" flag to Freeman.

Source: http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Defa ... id=1452370