Some members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People think the Tea Party is racist. At the NAACP convention in Kansas City this week, NAACP members will vote Tuesday on a resolution that condemns the Tea Party for racism. Some Tea Party members said the NAACP is calling the kettle black. In the mean time, a black community leader in Atlanta said the NAACP convention could use its time better by following the grass roots example of the Tea Party movement.
News images suggest Tea Party racism
Many suspect the Tea Party of racism, especially after seeing news coverage of angry protesters holding posters that mock President Obama. Reports of black congressmen being spit on by Tea Party members during the health care reform debate haven’t helped the movement's image either. The Washington Post reports that the NAACP Tea Party resolution says members of the movement have “displayed signs and posters intended to degrade people of color typically and President Barack Obama specifically” and calls “the racist elements” within the Tea Party “a threat to progress ".
Tea Party retaliates, calling NAACP racist
The NAACP Tea Party resolution also calls on “the leadership and members of the Tea Party to recognize the historic and present racist factions within it and to repudiate those factions". It also says the Tea Party opposes government programs that help working individuals and people of color. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Tea Party leaders said a few individual members, not the movement itself, have conveyed the image of Tea Party racism. Racism won't be tolerated at Tea Party rallies, said Jenny Beth Martin of the online network Tea Party Patriots, but she also admitted that racism had been evident at past Tea Party protests. Accusing the movement of racism is ironic according to Tea Party Patriot Mary Meckler, who said the NAACP is racist.
NAACP – Tea Party a role model?
Whether the debate is about Tea Party racism or NAACP racism, Charing Ball, a black media personality in Atlanta, says the NAACP is missing the point. Ball understands the emotions behind the NAACP Tea Party resolution. But he wonders why, writing within the Atlanta Post, the NAACP is spinning its wheels on meaningless gestures instead of getting its hands dirty for real racial justice. Ball points out that the NAACP could ensure more progress on racial justice by adopting Tea Party methods. The NAACP could better meet the needs of the black community today at the grass roots by rallying voters and training and nurturing young candidates.
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