Thread: Residents take Issue with NAACP stance on Tea Party

As the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People debated a resolution denouncing alleged racism in the Tea Party movement Tuesday, North Texas Tea Party members -- and a local civil-rights leader -- spoke against the NAACP's actions.

Konni Burton, with the NE Tarrant Tea Party, said the NAACP resolution is simply a diversion.

"The NAACP wants to make the narrative about race so that everyone starts arguing about that and takes their eyes off of the real issues, thus preventing a landslide of conservatives being elected in November," she said. "It won't work."

The Rev. Kyev Tatum, a local organizer for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference who fights for civil rights, said he doesn't agree with the position the Tea Party takes on some public policy issues. But he said he doesn't believe that its members are racist.

He said he has been a Democrat and a Republican -- even serving as a GOP precinct chairman about five years ago -- but now he is an avowed independent who casts votes for candidates, not their parties.

"Some of my friends are members of the Tea Party, and we have decided to agree to disagree on many issues and many positions," said Tatum, a member of the NAACP since 1999. "However, I know without a doubt that they are not racist. They wouldn't be friends with me if they were. ... This is a dangerous position for the NAACP to take."

But state Rep. Marc Veasey said he supports the NAACP's efforts to address what some believe is racism within the grassroots conservative movement.

Veasey, D-Fort Worth, said he does not think all Tea Party members are racist. But he believes that the group's growing frustration and recurring themes -- such as "take our country back" -- are directed toward the nation's first black president.

"The Tea Party is so angry, so furious ... because Barack Obama is black," said Veasey, an African-American. "I think the Tea Party definitely embodies racist values and I think the Tea Party ... is disrespectful to Barack Obama.

"At some point, they are going to have to come to terms with the fact that he's our president."

Clara Faulkner, an African-American woman who heads the Fort Worth NAACP chapter's political action committee, said the resolution includes a list of racist incidents two pages long. She said that she personally hasn't seen racism within the Tea Party but that others have. And because of that, she planned to support the resolution.

"This is to repudiate the racism of the Tea Parties and to stand in opposition of their drive to push us back to the pre-civil-rights era," she said.

Veasey said he's glad the NAACP is addressing the Tea Party issue. But he doesn't believe that a resolution will make a difference, and he thinks that the negativity will spill over into this year's election season.

"It's going to be over the top. People will try to push the envelope ... and get away with as much as they can," Veasey said. ANNA M. TINSLEY, 817-390-7610



Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/07/13 ... z0tchQaP6a

This artlcle makes me so mad. For years, whites have been bending over backward, getting screwed, and the thanks we get are that we are racist for not liking Nobamas policies. The blacks don't have to worry about whites pushing them back, they are doing a find job on their own. This country has gone insane. We finally have our first black president had he has divided the country more than any other. I guess we whites are finally getting what we deserve.

Originally Posted by agrneydgrl

This artlcle makes me so mad. For years, whites have been bending over backward, getting screwed, and the thanks we get are that we are racist for not liking Nobamas policies. The blacks don't have to worry about whites pushing them back, they are doing a find job on their own. This country has gone insane. We finally have our first black president had he has divided the country more than any other. I guess we whites are finally getting what we drserve.

You are absolutely right about that. If so many whites had not voted for him there would Not be a Black President. They will never get the fact that it is not about his race but rather about his policies because they want to make it all about race. So does this President!

I have found out something about myself in the past few years. I do not hate black people, I do not hate Hispanic people, I do not hate Asians nor do I hate any other race or ethnicity, what I DO hate is ignorant people who talk out their......well, you know, and am sure you all feel the same. It just had to be said.

They seem to get predjudice mixed up with racist. You can be predjudice against Blacks and say Mexican's without being racist.

I call my predjudice against these groups as learned predjudice. I know I was not born predjudice, but have developed them over the years by treatment and attitudes I have experienced.

I am sorry, but until I hear these groups start taking responsibility for their racist and predjudice toward's white Americans I don't care to hear anything they have to say.

I am sick of minority groups calling everyone they do not agree with Racist !

Instead of discussing the Tea Party why aren't they going after the Black Panthers ?? It was not only white people the Panthers were intimidating.

Shame on the NAACP I am soo disappointed and,if he were here Martin Luther would back me up.Martin hated this type of nonsense.

RNC's Steele, NAACP clash over alleged racism within Tea Party (CNN) -- The organizational leader of the Republican Party dismissed claims from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People that the Tea Party movement is rife with racism.

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele also said, in a statement, "Enough with the name-calling."

Steele is responding to the NAACP's resolution, passed on Tuesday, that condemns the Tea Party movement for what the NAACP believes is rampant racism from many activists. As head of the RNC, Steele -- the organization's first African-American chairman - is essentially pitting the Republican Party against the nation's oldest civil rights group on this specific Issue.


"Tea Party activists are your mom or dad, your local grocer, banker, hairdresser or doctor. They are a diverse group of passionate Americans who want to ensure that our nation returns to founding principles that honor the Constitution, limit government's role in our lives, and support policies that empower free markets and free enterprise," Steele said.

NAACP President and CEO Ben Jealous acknowledged that some Tea Party leaders have denounced racism within their ranks.

"Our concern is that we haven't seen 1/8 leaders come out and aggressively denounce people," Jealous said in an interview with CNN on Wednesday.

The NAACP passed the resolution at the organization's 101st annual convention in Kansas City, Missouri. The actual text of the resolution will not be released until the group's National Board of Directors have a full vote in October.

The NAACP claims that Tea Party activists have engaged in racist behavior, for example, by waving signs that degrade African Americans and President Obama, in particular. Also, the NAACP says, a number of Tea Party members think that issues of importance to African Americans get too much attention.

"We take issue with the Tea Party's continued tolerance for bigotry and bigoted statements. The time has come for them to accept the responsibility that comes with influence and make clear there is no space for racism and anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry in their movement," Jealous said.

In addition to Steele's response, Tea Party defenders reacted to the NAACP action with swift and angry derision.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, a Tea Party favorite, said the charge from the NAACP is "false, appalling, and is a regressive and diversionary tactic to change the subject at hand."

"To be unjustly accused of association with what Reagan so aptly called that 'legacy of evil' is a traumatizing experience, and one of which the honest, freedom-loving patriots of the Tea Party movement are truly undeserving," she wrote in a posting on her Facebook page Tuesday night. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld ... 2425.story[/u]

I believe that this is all part of a template to set up folks in the future. There will be more difficult decisions to made in the future that will involve both race and religion. Should we as Americans allow ourselves to be kowtoed into a corner then the enemy will waltz right in. The black community is being divided along the lines of religion and Islam and Christianity, and they have the race baiters trying their best to keep the racial hatred embers burning.

We will be seeing an influx of Arabs and black moslems entering the country in the near future. JMO As we are in a war and we always open our door as the war countinues to show our support for that group. This will create tensions, tensions that will be solved with the usual, "are you a racist?" Are you religiously tolerant? Or are you a religious bigot? More hiring laws are coming and that will open doors to a religion that is not tolerant of our way of life. Sharia is headed to America. Are you a bigot?

For those that do not subscribe to religion and therefor think that you are the most tolerant, perhaps you might wish to think again. There is free will, the same free will that forms the freedom and liberty that our founders bestowed upon us in the form of a few documents, then there is subjugation, no room for freedom of the individual and sacrifice for the collective. Because you think you need not participate will not matter, as you still suck air in the same space and your choices will be a few.

"The Tea Party is so angry, so furious ... because Barack Obama is black," said Veasey, an African-American. "I think the Tea Party definitely embodies racist values and I think the Tea Party ... is disrespectful to Barack Obama.

"At some point, they are going to have to come to terms with the fact that he's our president."

Simple minded and totally childish. At this point, kid, BO doesn't deserve any respect. He is destroying this country and you my dear are too racially blinded to see that.

"We take issue with the Tea Party's continued tolerance for bigotry and bigoted statements

Ah, but the tolerance for bigotry and racism in their ranks, as in the new black panthers? Why don't they make a public declaration to denounce them, since at least one of their members was videotaped making highly racist remarks and inciting hate crimes against whites? Was there any evidence againt Tea Party members of racism, oh, except that of the word of one black politician who was already angry at the Tea Party members simply protesting them pushing through the health care debacle?