NAACP's Verdict is In - Tea Party = Racism

The report released today on the racism that exists in the Tea Party movement is about what one would expect.   Basically that we are a racist front group.  Now, they did take pains to point out that it isn't true of all tea party members. 

Now, I think that the majority of the people in the Tea Party movement will acknowledge that racism exists not only in our country, but that due to the law of averages, that some of them have found their way into the tea party.  But, that is not a racist front group make. 

Here are some of things that they point to as proof:

Opposition to Amnesty: The description that they use to talk about illegal immigrants is people without proper papers.  They don't have proper papers because they are violating the law.  Again, this is the same old thing from the left.  To them this about Hispanics.  To the tea party this about illegal immigrants and the governments refusal to protect our borders.  I don't want illegal immigrants in our country and I don't care what color they are.  If you are green and not here legally then you must go.  It isn't about color, it is about the rule of law.  This isn't a whole different than the hypocrisy that Mexico espouses when it wants to join into a lawsuit on Arizona's illegal immigration law all the while building a large fence it's own southern border.  Countries have the legal and moral responsibility to protects it's citizens.  That is written in our constitution.  It isn't some far off idea that we came up with because we don't like people with brown skin.  The illegal population in our country is a suck on our resources and must be addressed.  I think that they would find if they actually secured our borders than they would be able to get worker permits for the non criminals that are working and living in the country illegally.  There will be some that won't agree even then, but the reality is that it would happen after the borders are secure.   Both parties have nefarious reasons for not securing the border, and they need to get over it and get it done.

They go onto to talk about "Anchor Babies".  Even in their own report they admit that the purpose of the 14th amendment was to give citizenship to newly freed slaves.  The amendment was never meant to give children born to illegals citizenship.  The vast majority of other industrialized nations across the world require that at least one parent be a citizen in order to be given citizenship even if you were born there.  There is no reason that we can't do the same.  Again, this isn't about race, it is about common sense. 

They talk about the birther movement as well.  I will be the first to admit that the birther movement is alive and well.  So I think that the NAACP should in turn be willing to admit that the birther movement started on the left by Hillary Clinton supporters, who were opposed to him getting the nomination for president.  My personal belief is that President Obama doesn't release his full form birth certificate just to allow this talk to continue.  It allows people to paint the right as wingnuts and works in his favor.  As an aside I was talking to my friend's boyfriend, soldier Joe, who works in military intelligence.  I asked him about security clearances and the president.  While the president would never be turned down for top secret clearance, there still is a shortened clearance done after the election.  A copy of his long form birth certificate is with the NSA, for those who want to know where it is. 

We then move into the Muslim movement.  Again, this is alive and well.  I have decided that for the people who believe this, there is no sense trying to tell them that they are wrong, so I don't even bother anymore.  It is a waste of time.  I will actually concede this to NAACP.  Now, bringing the Ground Zero mosque into the conversation is where we are going to diverge.  The two are not really connected.  The opposition to the mosque is not as easily explained away as this reports makes it sound.  The report then goes into a long diatribe about Pamela Geller that I thought was unwarranted and totally disconnected to the issue at hand. 

Now we can argue about racism in the ranks of the tea party until the cows come home.  The reality remains that if you have a group of millions of people (which the tea party is, make no mistake about that) there will be some fruits and nuts involved.  So what the entire purpose of this report is I don't understand.  The report itself says:

We know the majority of Tea Party supporters are sincere, principled people of good will

Now, I have never met someone at a tea party that was there for the sake of racism.  No one in the local tea parties that I am involved with seem to me to be racists.  We have people from different age groups and quite a few different nationalities.  Some of which whose first language is something other than English.  We have people who are in inter-racial marriages and are the parents and grand parents of bi-racial children.  So there is nothing to clean out in the ranks.  Our opposition is based on policies and core beliefs. 

The report also talks about the false claims of the word nigger being hurled at congressman during the obamacare rally back in March.  There is no proof that it happened and with the amount of cell phones, video cameras, and cameras that were at that event someone would have picked it up.  Now, I will be willing to give the Congressman the benefit of the doubt and say that he isn't outright lying about the incident, maybe he believes that he heard it, but even The New York Times, not exactly sympathetic to the tea party cause, has denounced this claim and admits that it is false.  So when the NAACP puts this in its reports it damages the credibility of it's findings.  It also fails to mention, just like almost every other news outlet, that the Hitler posters are from the La Rouche crazies who show up at every tea party and have nothing to do with our movement and do not believe in the same values as we do.  They are actually much closer to the views of the uber liberal NAACP. 

The NAACP would also be very wise to realize that state rights have nothing to do with Jim Crowe laws.  Laws about segregation have been deemed unconstitutional and the tea party is in no way looking to re-enact them.  We just want federalism to be protected as the founders envisioned, nothing for them to fear. 

The fact that the only members of the Congressional Tea Party Caucus are white is another problem for them.  I have this feeling that will be changing very soon.  If Allen West is elected to congress, I think he would feel much more at home in the Tea Party Caucus then in the CBC who has actively campaigned for his white opponent.  One of the most under-reported stories of this election cycle is how many conservative blacks are running.  This problem will take care of itself in mere weeks.