The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) recently issued a resolution which essentially called upon the Tea Party Movement to denounce its racist elements. This is no idle “race card” being played by the NAACP.
Item #1: Signs which call for the lynching of the President, claim that “Obamacare” is white slavery, and even those repudiating the President with sayings like “Whatchoo talkin’ ’bout, Willis?” and “Homey don’t play dat.”
Item #2: The racial epithets hurled at U.S. Representative John Lewis as he walked to work through a Tea Party demonstration. (For those who don’t know, Rep. Lewis is a Civil Rights hero who deserves our respect, not the taunts of bigots.)
Item #3: The incredibly over-beaten dead horse known as the Birther movement, that Tea Party subculture of those who insist the President is a Kenyan and doesn’t even have an American birth certificate. (Do you think anyone would have questioned the citizenship status of a President McCain, who by the way was born in Panama while his father served at the naval station in the Panama Canal Zone?)
There are other items, starting with the flags flying at half-mast after the election, but this post really isn’t about delineating every admissible piece of evidence in the claim that there is a racist element in the Tea Party.
This post is really about Item #4. The spokesperson for the Tea Party Express, Mark Williams, responded to the NAACP’s resolution by placing the following letter on his organization’s web site. It is a fake letter to President Abraham Lincoln from NAACP President Ben Jealous. Summarizing it would not do it justice, so here it is in its entirety:
Dear Mr. Lincoln:
We Colored People 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’.
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 Colored People 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 National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Head Colored Person
Case closed. The evidence is in. This movement has a racist element that it not only refuses to condemn but which it apparently chooses to place in positions of leadership.
For the Tea Apartheid to claim ANY proprietary position regarding ideals this nation holds dear is an affront to every freedom-loving American. For the Tea Apartheid to claim any understanding of the Constitution or the intents of the Founders is ludicrous. For the Tea Apartheid to claim they have any concept of the essence of liberty and justice for all is the pinnacle of hypocrisy.
The Tea Apartheid Movement is no longer just a radical faction of the political right. Until their leadership absolutely and unequivocally condemns, denounces, and abolishes this element of their organization, they are the official face of Racist America.
(In the interest of full disclosure, the Tea Party Express has since removed the above letter from their web site. But, that is nowhere near enough. Nowhere. Near. Enough.)
Deb Moore 
Thank you for being the conscious and keeper of the scales on what is enough! Aside from exagerrated claims of hurting somebody’s feelings, nobody has been terrorized, intimidated, or physically harmed by TEA people. However, it does seem NAACP don’t care about Black Panther nonsense since it’s only a few crazy kids anyhow hassling some folks trying to vote. Sick and tired of this feeling guilty for slavery 150 years ago. How about the illegal immigrant slaves of hispanics and Chinese shackled, locked, and mistreated. We have come a long way from enslaving people from Africa, to enslaving people from China and Mexico. Of course, NAACP don’t care about those slaves.
As a firm believer in the First Amendment, I will approve all comments to this post, even those I strongly disagree with. And by the way, it’s “doesn’t.” The NAACP “doesn’t” care is what you meant. And I also think you meant to use the word “conscience” in your opening sentence.
You’re right that saying you are conscious is incorrect. Thanks. I don’t think “don’t” matters as much as the lack of interest by NAACP on more pressing issues than looking for KKK robes in TEA groups. Senator Byrd and his Dixiecrats blocked and voted against all civil rights legislation. Don’t know of any TEA group approaching that level of racism.