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If there are no racists in the Tea Party movement, then please explain the 'Abraham Lincoln letter'

What's Your Reaction:

If the tea party movement isn't racist, then at the very least, it's not necessarily bright.

And nothing displays the movement's stupidity more than its ongoing dust up with the NAACP over the civil rights group's resolution asking that the organization condemn racism in its midst.

Now rather than admitting that there are racist elements in the tea party movement and agreeing that there is no place for that sort of thing - which tea partiers have done in the past - the movement got loud and defensive, hoping that screaming charges of "reverse racism" and pulling out assorted big names like Sarah Palin and Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, and yanking the few assorted black tea party members to knock down the charges would make people forget the nasty anti-black and anti-Obama images and words they have seen and heard over the past year.

Guys, people are not stupid.

There are racist elements to the tea party movement and many of them are in leadership positions. So please stop with the phony whine about how "America is sick of phony racial accusations." Sarah Palin can't help you, Michael Steele can't help you.

Not even Fox News can help you.

But if you want to help yourself in proving that there are no racist elements in tea party movement, please justify the "Abraham Lincoln letter" written by the leader of the Tea Party Express, Mark Williams.  A letter which no one in your movement has denounced:

Dear Mr. Lincoln:

We Coloreds have taken a vote and decided that we don't cotton to that whole emancipation thing. Freedom means having to work for real, think for ourselves, and take consequences along with the rewards. That is just far too much to ask of us Colored People and we demand that it stop!

In fact we held a big meeting and took a vote in Kansas City this week. We voted to condemn a political revival of that old abolitionist spirit called the 'tea party movement'.

The tea party position to "end the bailouts" for example is just silly. Bailouts are just big money welfare and isn't that what we want all Coloreds to strive for? What kind of racist would want to end big money welfare? What they need to do is start handing the bail outs directly to us coloreds! Of course, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is the only responsible party that should be granted the right to disperse the funds.

And the ridiculous idea of "reduce[ing] the size and intrusiveness of government." What kind of massa would ever not want to control my life? As Coloreds we must have somebody care for us otherwise we would be on our own, have to think for ourselves and make decisions!

The racist tea parties also demand that the government "stop the out of control spending." Again, they directly target coloreds. That means we Coloreds would have to compete for jobs like everybody else and that is just not right.

Perhaps the most racist point of all in the tea parties is their demand that government "stop raising our taxes." That is outrageous! How will we coloreds ever get a wide screen TV in every room if non-coloreds get to keep what they earn? Totally racist! The tea party expects coloreds to be productive members of society?

Mr. Lincoln, you were the greatest racist ever. We had a great gig. Three squares, room and board, all our decisions made by the massa in the house. Please repeal the 13th and 14th Amendments and let us get back to where we belong.

Sincerely

Precious Ben Jealous, Tom's Nephew NAACP Head Colored Person

But here is the interesting thing - I doubt anyone in the tea party movement will denounce Williams. They can't because it would prove that the NAACP was right.

"Catch 22s" are always fun to watch when the right people are trapped in them.

 
 
 
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07:42 PM on 07/19/2010
The Republicans and the tea party are desperate for numbers. So desperate that they won't go against "Anyone" who's somewhat in their corner racist or not. I won't go as far as to say that all Repubs and Tea Partyers are racist. But their desperation shows when they except that BS in their ranks.
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3neuticals
09:52 PM on 07/19/2010
Speaking from experience? The same could be said about 'insert afro-centrist PAC here'.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
JohnBryansFontaine
Liberal Democrat
08:52 AM on 07/19/2010
Glenn Beck's Orwellian doublespeak continues:

Glenn Beck: NAACP Racist, Tea Party Not Racist

http://politics-and-world-5678.blogspot.com/2010/07/glenn-beck-naacp-racist-tea-party-not.html
01:27 AM on 07/19/2010
oped1961

Your right.

We could still do all these programs for everybody, as we have plenty of resources in this country.

What have you done to help the Natural Resource industries.
01:15 AM on 07/19/2010
oped1961

What are you saying. Tens of thousands of patriotic Americans risked their lives so you could be born.

Now you don't appreciate it.
01:06 AM on 07/19/2010
I am glad I have 2 fans. God bless you.

This is the most anti free speech website I have ever seen, These people claim, I will defend your right to free speech to the death. But they will not post truthful comments.
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HUFFPOST PUNDIT
EmmaJ76
Web Designer, Wife, Cat Mom, Politics Nerd
08:23 AM on 07/19/2010
Really? I guess you haven't tried to post on Fox Nation as a Liberal then - they do not like dissenting or opposing voices.
12:46 AM on 07/19/2010
Admin please post my comments
12:44 AM on 07/19/2010
3neuticals

Americans that served in Vietnam have so much more Cred than any member of this administration it is incredible. Not one member of this admin can so much as make a pimple on the ass of a True Vietnam combat veteran. This small man can only bask in the shadow of true American patriots
12:17 AM on 07/19/2010
Black Man

What is your problem

You have not suckled at the Taxpayer Tit enough.

Get a Real job
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02:16 PM on 07/18/2010
Another call out of Williams. Listen to Mary Maitlin:

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/mary-matalin-tea-party-express-mark-williams-is-a-crackpot-with-no-influence/
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3neuticals
01:51 PM on 07/18/2010
OK. So when did "The" Tea Party state that there are "NO" racists within their ranks?
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Alvin McEwen
03:19 PM on 07/18/2010
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/39745.html

a "lovely" piece by two members of the tea party and published by Politico
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
3neuticals
04:28 PM on 07/18/2010
I saw nothing in that piece where the Tea Party stated that there are "no" racists within their ranks. In fact, I read just the opposite:

"Like all movements, the tea party has its fringe. President Barack Obama’s domestic terrorist friends from the 1960’s anti-war past never represented the Americans of good conscience who opposed the Vietnam War. In a similar vein, the racist posters of a few at a Tea Party rally do not represent the feelings or behavior of Americans who believe in this movement."

And then there was this part:

"At Tea Party Patriots we will continue to condemn the fringe elements of the movement and any expression of racism or bigotry. We sincerely hope that the Obama While House, the NAACP, and the liberal left will follow our lead and do the same in their own ranks."

So, again- when did that Tea Party state that there are "no" racists within their ranks? No one representing an organization of such substantial size is going to make such a statement, which leads to another reasonable question:

"Why the insistence on such blatant smear and propaganda?" Hmmm....
07:49 PM on 07/19/2010
You people are so desperate that you don't care who you rub elbows with. Anything to increase your dwindling numbers.....The world is changing for the better and you're stuck in the past and too afraid or too racist your self to change along with it.....Well too bad, you'll just have to be left behind......LOL
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3neuticals
09:49 PM on 07/19/2010
Sure. It is "my" rhetoric that speaks to desperation, and yet here you are playing into delusions where the world is "changing for the better", which can be gleaned from your tone to be a tip of the hat to the 'perceived' demise of the ubiquitous white devil. You should familiarize yourself with two words:

1. Power 2. Hobgoblin

The desire for power is what is ultimately behind the leftists' vilification of white men. Weak as it is on its face, without the oppressor-oppressed theme being carried and enforced by government and pop culture, you have no intellectual footing to stand on. Its how you justify your shortcomings as a self-proclaimed "protected class." Some of you play the active role of aggressor/social agitator such as the NBPP and NAACP, rap "artists", social commentators, propaganda bloggers, etc. and some of you are just the dupes that jump up and down for the cameras eating the feces that these folks dump on your plate while telling you that its chocolate.

Yeah. LOL.

What REALLY gets you peoples' goat is that so many of us smell you a mile away with your nonsense.
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01:24 PM on 07/18/2010
Looks like he has just been expelled from the Tea Party Federation.....
01:03 PM on 07/18/2010
A good book is
The Cost of being African American
it is informative
01:00 PM on 07/18/2010
Typical Tea Party member grew up with parents who got their education and house cheaply thru the GI Bill and Mortgage programs in the 40s and 50s. This was a big handout that mainly benefited WASPs as colleges and subdivisions barred other people. Their parents had medical care and pensions.
We could still do all these programs for everybody, as we have plenty of resources in this country.

Now they are angry because they want to keep their privledges and deny them to others
12:51 PM on 07/18/2010
Alvin McEwen is right. Maybe he can be a new leader we need, because the old organizations are doing nothing for us
There have always been racists, tho now they are getting into Time and the mainstream.
But what is disappointing is the tepid response of the rest of the country. Where are Hilary and Bill Clinton? Where are Sharpton and Jackson?

Quotation::For evil to flourish good men need only do nothing.
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12:24 PM on 07/18/2010
My God. That letter is beyond offensive.

It's hard to swallow that, in the 21st century, there's still a rabid, bitter faction still stuck in the racist Civil War mentality. Worse, if I didn't know better, I'd think they're trying like h ell to foment a race war.