Yesterday, the NAACP passed a resolution condemning the racist acts of Tea Party protesters. The backlash from the Tea Party has been furious.
But we are not an organization that shies away from controversy. The NAACP was founded on hope, not hate — and we will not stand idly by as racists work to divide our nation.
— Letter from Ben Jealous, President/CEO of the NAACP
To be unjustly accused of association with what Reagan so aptly called that “legacy of evil” is a traumatizing experience, and one of which the honest, freedom-loving patriots of the Tea Party movement are truly undeserving.
–Facebook post by Sarah Palin, fmr. Gov. of Alaska and Republican VP candidate
Since I’ve been among the Tea Party throngs here in DC during the height of the healthcare debate, I can say from that experience there’s enough to support the NAACP’s argument on face value. Not everyone would fit the bill, but just enough to make the “R” word stand out.
This music video “What If the Tea Party Was Black” by Pittsburgh’s Jasiri X is part of his weekly hip hop news updates on the Real Talk Xpress website. Anyone familiar with the timeline of African American social and political activism in the United States (check out “Eyes On the Prize ” and bios/writings of Ida B. Wells, Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. DuBois, Marcus Garvey, Martin Luther King, Jr., Al Hajj Malik El Shabazz/Malcolm X among others), will get this. Also fans of Tim Wise, whose antiracist writings are the basis for Jasiri X’s video, will give a nod. Will Aries Petra Consulting Sarah Palin respond to Jasiri X by busting a rainbow tribe rhyme on her Facebook page? You betcha!
Hat tip to Todd McFadden at WVU.