I laughed my ass off when I saw this. That being said, obviously not everyone in the Tea Party is there because they are racist – smaller and more efficient government has nothing at all to do with race. However, due to its stubborn opposition to any program designed to level the playing field or correct for historical injustices, it tends to attract the racist fringe with open, monochromatic arms. In the same way that supporting a larger role for the federal government isn’t a gay thing, but homosexuals tend to fall on the left side of the political spectrum (because that’s where all the equal rights are).
A commenter pointed out something that didn’t occur to me right away: how racist do you have to be to print out signs and go looking for a black person? I’m trying to imagine their thought process:
“Okay, so we’re going to print out these signs and take them to the rally, right?”
“Yeah, that’ll show all those liberals that the Tea Party is about state’s rights and small government, not a thin veneer of politics hastily brushed over a rotten core of deep-seated xenophobia, unwarranted entitlement and good old-fashioned ignorance!”
“Wow, that was deep.”
“Thanks. I read the New York Times today, and just said the opposite of what was written there.”
“I wish I could read.”
“Hey Steve?”
“Yeah Larry?”
“Wouldn’t it be easier to just take these signs over to the houses of one of our many black friends and/or work colleagues and/or neighbours, rather than having to sleuth around at a rally to find the token fanny-pack-wearing dark-skinned guy at a rally of thousands of white people?”
“We don’t have any black friends and/or work colleagues and/or neighbours, Larry.”
“How come?”
“Uh… because of LIBERALS!”
“Yeah! Fuck those racist asshole liberal faggot commie Muslim terrorist Mexicans!”
“You said it, Steve.”
“obviously not everyone in the Tea Party is there because they are racist”
It’s not obvious at all.
If there’s a single person at these bashes who is not racist-to-the-bone, I’ll give you a nice shiny new dime.
I have been hankering for a fuzzy peach slice and 4 cents in change…
I’d imagine that the majority of those who attend Tea Party rallies at least imagine that race doesn’t matter to them at all. If you want to go for my definition of racism, then you’re going to find people who are “racist to the bone” at pretty much any political event. I know a number of people who identify with the Tea Party’s platform, and I haven’t found them to be any more racist than other people.
That being said, I think there are a higher proportion of people in the Tea Party who a) are actively, classically racist, and b) enable or tolerate active, classic racism, than there are in the general population. I say this based on the large proportion of ludicrously racist signs, the usurping of the civil rights movement, and the periodic hyper-racist rhetoric that comes from leaders within the movement.
Also, I found some data.
Ah, yes, the Tea Party. The new embarassment of the conservatives of the USA. First we had 8 years of the poster boy for the failing American edukashun system, and when Prez Obama isn’t able to make right the failed policies of the past 30 years of GOP presidents and/or GOP majorities in the House and/or Senate, in what amounts to a commercial break of 19 months, well golly gee-willikers, we need to get the-their words not mine-Kenyan, Muslim, (imagine any racist slur for African-American) out of office and *take our country back*. Honey, I’ll tell you how they want to take it back- 1) make this a Christian Nation-which none of these people who can read(?) know that despite what THEY tell you, the founding fathers DID NOT want. The same people who if they studied Jefferson would know he and the founders wanted a secular country are the same ones who are rewriting Texas textbooks to take out contributions to American History by Jefferson and other *liberal* historical figures and replace them with questionable conservative Republican history. 2) The Tea Party has members who want to change everything from the 14th amendment that they think will stop the practice that their paranoid minds see as illegal immigrants having babies to make them instant US citizens, which is just not happening on a massive level. This is like the Arizona Governor Jan *I can see dead people* Brewer saying there were many headless dead bodies in the desert that even the coroner and forensic pathologists couldn’t find! And it’s not only Hispanics in their sights. Candidate Rand Paul caught Hell for wanting to change and weaken the Civil Rights Act so that if he *wanted to refuse a minority at a lunch counter he could* Really.
And 3) Some of the Tea Party candidates want to end Medicaid-health care for poverty-stricken, Medicare-senior citizen health care program, Social Security-federal retirement income program based on past income on a point system. What they don’t want to understand in their non-existent to miniscule consciences is likely most of the elderly members are dependent on Medicare and Social Security to live. Many seniors live at the poverty level and that seems to be true in any states. Many widows raised their own children as their husbands were the lone breadwinner, which many of these Tea Partiers want to see done now as a Leave It To Beaver-Christian ideal. So if they end Medicare and Social Security, you know where these widows will end up. While the Tea Party is funded by the billionaire Koch brothers, notorious anti-environment, pro-corporate business owners. And 4) The Tea Party and GOP are all ready to repeal the albeit not perfect Health Care Reform, but at least it gives patients protection from being turned down for coverage because of pre-existent conditions. Of course many of us who voted for Prez Obama did so because a campaign promise was to have universal health care, but he had to give into the obstructionist GOP and even drop a public option to make that a choice. And now man of the cloth GOPer Huckabee doesn’t want pre-existent protection for people. Nice. But that bastard gets his coverage paid for by the American taxpayer. And some Canadian citizens want a Canadian Christian Right? And a Fox News North? Y’all want a religion telling you what you can and can’t do? Didn’t the Pilgrims leave England because of religion? Well, not that the GOP/Tea Party remember much history. Especially the ones who think the world is 6,000 years old and Adam and Eve cavorted with dinosaurs. Yeah. Welcome to the USA. Land of embarassment. Soon to be the Third World superpower passed by China!
“Tea Partiers Think Blacks are Poor Because They’re Lazy” ???
And that’s evidence that they’re no more racist than other people?
I agree that racism is endemic. Tea Partiers are not thee only racists around.
However, theeir racism isn’t subtle or hidden. They arose for ONE REASON only. The president of the US is Black. That’s the origin of their oft-repeated “We want to take our country back!”
The obvious question is back from who exactly?
That’s why the persistence of the ridiculous birtherism and he’s-a-secret-Muslim. He’s The Other. He’s not likr us!
If the TP was about small government, you’d see at least SOME blacks and Hispanics at their rallies. (Other than reporters.)
I say my dime is safe. ;-]
I guess if you only read the headline, that link wouldn’t appear to support my conjecture that not everyone in the Tea Party is there out of racist feelings. Many are, as I said in the body of my post, and that particular political ideology does appeal to those who are of the opinion that inequalities are caused by individual traits, not situational. However, I’m sure you’ll find a lot of ‘polite racism’ in a group of elite left-wing political activists – people who believe in their bones that it is the duty of white people to “fix” problems in minority communities, rather than simply getting out of the way and allowing those communities to build themselves up. This ideology still places white people as the stewards of all mankind, and many of these types of people perform poorly on racial attitudes tests.