So Much for No Tea Party Racism: Mark Williams Expelled From National Tea Party Federation

This is an excellent exchange between the NAACP's Bejamin Jealous and African-American tea party leader David Webb.

I apologize for not having the transcript, but here are the main points:

Jealous makes a good point about the New National Black Panther Party at 2:46. It is an excellent comparison between the NNPPA and the NAACP as opposed to the racist elements in the tea party movement.

But a better point is made before that by Webb at 1:22. He says that Mark Williams (the author of "the Abraham Lincoln Letter") and his group Tea Party Express have been expelled from the National Tea Party Federation specifically because of "the Abraham Lincoln Letter."

But wouldn't that be an admittance of racist elements in the tea party movement?

And I thought Sarah Palin, Michael Steele, and Fox News said that there were no racist elements in the tea party movement.

So much for truth in politics.

 

Comments

[Helmsey]

01:07 PM on 07/20/2010

I agree with Mr. McEwen, the real tragedy here is that the Tea Party will not admit that racisim is a problem within the organization. I do not think that all Tea Party members are racist, or that the organization has officially adopted a racist position, but the complete systematic denial that the Tea Party has taken toward there being any racist elements is wrong. They have even taken steps to weed out the over racism by dissassociating with Mark Williams and the Tea Party Express. I just wish that someone with authority in the tea party would just aknowlegde that this is a problem.

[cintirich]

11:09 AM on 07/19/2010

Duh...

In any well publicized group that has no borders to entry, there's always going to be certain undesirable and in this case, repugnant, elements who attach themselves to the main. No one has denied that since it's blatantly obvious.

You folks are always asking why the Tea Party doesn't stand up to racists and racism. Well here you go.

[cave mann35]

02:06 PM on 07/19/2010

Mark Williams denied there was a racist element, as did Sarah Palin and Michael Steele. I believe Mr. Williams has been shown for the racist that he is.

[cintirich]

02:58 PM on 07/19/2010

Mark Williams *is* a racist. His words hardly hold any credibility.

As far as Sarah Palin and Michael Steele...are you kidding me? Sarah has no credibility with anyone who has a brain. She's a populist hack who's never had an original thought. Granted, there's a lot of people who don't use their brains but still... Michael Steele is about as unpopular as you can get *with* Republicans.

Neither of their opinions carry much weight with any conservatives in America once you filter out the bottom 10% of voters. Most people who vote GOP are not going to be voting "for" a Republican or TP candidate this fall as much as their going to be voting "against" the Democrats. Just look at Sharon Angle. She's clearly a whack-job, but people want Reid out and it's just as simple as that.

[Helmsey]

12:05 PM on 07/20/2010

Yes I agree with you any group that has open membership will possibly have some fringe elements operating outside of the group, but the issue a stake here is that Mark Williams was and arguably still is a leader within the tea party movement. Not some member that was operating under the radar, but a person with power. Now the Tea Party is trying to down play his role, but until recently he was very much at the fore front. Just goggle him and read all the press dating back to 2005 on this guy.

[Funhouse1970]

10:30 AM on 07/19/2010

Somehow I doubt that the NAAPC has any influence on anybody at all.

[Helmsey]

12:08 PM on 07/20/2010

Enough influence to cause an uproar in the Tea Party, and get Mark Williams splashed all over the news. I guess your right that must not be influence.

[MyNameIsJames]

10:13 AM on 07/19/2010

NAACP has dealt this organization a mortal blow. It may not be obvious now but I suspect after the 2010 elections - this movement will dissipate and its reputation will not be seen as honorable by the average American

[cintirich]

03:01 PM on 07/19/2010

There will always be people who care about limited government and responsible spending, regardless of what party name they fall under. This virtually irrelevant NAAPC statement won't have any affect on that.

[MyNameIsJames]

09:39 PM on 07/19/2010

Well lets just see about what happens to the Tea Party- limited government and responsible spending is one thing - that is legitimate.

Redneck yahoo's running around the nation falsely claiming Obama isn't a citizen, that he is a fascist,communist, muslim is outrageous- The Tea Party didn't need to be formed to force responsible government. If they had started during the Bush Administration - people would take them more seriously- but starting with Obama who hadn't been in office for 6 mos before Bubba and company started their riots

[sacklunch]

10:12 AM on 07/19/2010

I think everybody knows that there are racist elements in the Tea Party. There are racist elements everywhere in society... just like there are racist elements in the NAACP and other organizations. The Tea Party objects to being a racist organization, made up by a majority of racist individuals. The Tea Party was never about race, they are about big government and wasteful spending. They acknowledge that we have gotten out of control in our spending over the years and are concerned about creating unmanageable debt.

[OhOhSayCanYouSee]

09:25 AM on 07/19/2010

So much has been said of racism in the Tea Party (of which I am NOT a member) that I feel compelled to share my thoughts. As an organization, it is Not Racist. That some of it's members are Racist is without doubt. For the NAACP to label the Tea Party racist is undoubtedly the most ironic finger pointing yet to materialize from an organization as Racist as the NAACP. I have listened to the NAACP for decades in their attempt to discredit those that it's organization does not agree with. Built for the Black Man/Woman alone is enough to paint itself into a corner on the Racism card, let alone focus on it's statements and mission. It is the epitome of Racism in everything it does and says. Go after the Tea Party for it's stand on the issues, which is certainly enough. Sorry gents.... I can only shake my head at this hypocrisy on the part of the NAACP... So the Racist calls someone else a Racist is typical of those that would use a tactic such as this to take the focus off themselves. What's next?

[cave mann35]

02:17 PM on 07/19/2010

Ohoh, I don't think you are paying attention. The NAACP nor Mr. Jealous NEVER said or labeled the Tea Party as racist. *Sigh*, so an organization made solely for the purpose of getting rid of racism, is now believed by people like you to be "racist?" I mean really? That's your thought for today. You have watched them discredit those that it did not agree with? They didn't agree with Bull Connor, or the entire Jim Crow era, and now that era, not the NAACP has been discredited. It was built for all people of color in 1904 by former white abolitionists, runaway slaves, and free men that were having problems getting the US government to redress its grievances and were worrying that law enforcement agencies were led by the various Klans. So your first premise that it was built for the black man/woman is wrong, so every conclusion that you draw from this first erroneous statement is also wrong. The NAACP's mission statement is for the elimination of racism and discrimination in the United States, and yes that focus is hard to do. It is the epitome of racism to try to rout it out? Your flawed logic is probably why no one is your fan or friend, huh? What's next is that you actually read a book and learn a thing or two before using your First Amendment Right to look silly.

[mikeVA]

09:09 AM on 07/19/2010

Many in the tea party were flying the confederate flag a generation ago and the public and young people need to know rather than get pulled into this group's ugliness.

[sacklunch]

10:16 AM on 07/19/2010

The Confederate Flag is not a symbol of racism to many people. Many people display it to show resistance to an over-intrusive government.

[amakela]

10:36 AM on 07/19/2010

and it is a symbol of racism to many other people. Like myself.

[Nardwilly]

08:56 AM on 07/19/2010

This was a good exchange. As often the Tea Party folks are the ones that interrupt and make false comparisons. Jealous has condemned NBPP in the presence of Webb and brings it up as if he does not know better. Whatever the NAACP failings, their leaders are smart, serious, and ethical debaters.

[Carachama]

08:32 AM on 07/19/2010

Other teabaggers through gritted teeth, "Mark...ixnay ethay acismray".

[1088]

02:51 AM on 07/19/2010

Where was the tea party when Presdient Bush was in office? The tea party is the party of sore losers and want to take their country back from a black man. If they have to deny President Obama of his birth place to do so, then they will. If they have to call him every nasty name in the book, then they will do it. There nothing the tea party members wouldn't do, to destroy President Obama and his family, nothing. However, when the American people decide to rise up against the Fox propaganda network, and say no more, then this sheit will never be stop. Now CNN has joined Fox with the same chorus against President Obama.

[sacklunch]

10:19 AM on 07/19/2010

Maybe because most folks with eyes and ears can see what a joke Obama has become. Then there are the others who will follow his lead right over the cliff.

[Funhouse1970]

10:28 AM on 07/19/2010

Actually the rumblings began when the bank bail outs began during the Bush era.

[textynn]

02:28 AM on 07/19/2010

A bought off black man sent out to say the obviously racist teaparty is not racist. No, they are not so much racist as classist. They are all about preserving a desperate working class that will work for them for peanuts. That's why they are really opposed to health care for all. They don't care what color their slaves are. They like white as well as black. Just some can't unscramble it because they are using the same arguments used to justify slavery. The knuckle draggers hear the same rhetoric and just start swinging from the hip like they have all their lives. But the Elite that fund all of this will get them straightened out. White low paid Walmart workers without health care are just as good as black low paid Walmart workers without health care.

[Vernie31]

01:44 AM on 07/19/2010

Jay-bird don't rob his own nes'. - Uncle Remus

[Vernie31]

01:41 AM on 07/19/2010

We deem it a settled point that the destiny of the colored man is bound up with that of the white people of this country. ... We are here, and here we are likely to be. To imagine that we shall ever be eradicated is absurd and ridiculous. We can be remodified, changed, assimilated, but never extinguished. We repeat, therefore, that we are here; and that this is our country; and the question for the philosophers and statesmen of the land ought to be, What principles should dictate the policy of the action toward us? We shall neither die out, nor be driven out; but shall go with this people, either as a testimony against them, or as an evidence in their favor throughout their generations."
— Frederick Douglass”

[tinyrainbows]

11:12 PM on 07/18/2010

I've been a Republican my entire life. I had no inclination to have anything to do with the Tea Party movement...until today. I am so tired of the lies from the left about bigotry within the Tea Party ranks that I have to join and support them.

[Vernie31]

12:00 AM on 07/19/2010

[Y]our national greatness, swelling vanity; your denunciation of tyrants, brass-fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy
a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.”

Frederick Douglass”

[tinyrainbows]

12:19 AM on 07/19/2010

What to the slave is the Fourth of July...very fitting, but you should look in the mirror. Democrats recent history and views of God and Country would embarrass Frederick Douglas.

[GandenT]

12:29 AM on 07/19/2010

Great quotation, thanks.

[Vernie31]

12:03 AM on 07/19/2010

LIAR

[Callique]

10:32 PM on 07/18/2010

That the Tea Party has an undercurrent of racism is disturbing enough. Far more, to me, however, is the GOP's general refusal to distance itself from this mob. Their insatiable and venal "pragmatism" negates any ethics, morality or basic decency to which they lay claim.

[Aaron Zisook]

11:16 PM on 07/18/2010

The GOP holds the Tea Party at arms length in the same way the Democrats kept a lot of similar relationships with far-left groups. The problem for the GOP is that if they kick out the Tea Party, they end up splitting the vote with the Tea Party which makes the democratic majority even bigger.

It's similar to the "Blue Dog"/"Progressive" dynamic in the democratic majority; the Democrats keep people who clearly aren't walking the party line in their party in order to maintain power.

[Callique]

11:35 PM on 07/18/2010

Can you give me some examples? The "Blue Dog Democrats" may be an example -- though to the right and not to the left. For the most part, however, Progressive Leftists have always allied themselves in some opposition to the Democratic Party -- preferring to align with the Green Party, the Socialist Party and so on. I cannot think of a far-left party which allies with the Democrats, and which the Democrats, in turn, accept. Can you name a few?