The Tea Party is a Haven for Racists, Bigots, Anti-Semites and Islamophobs

Disclaimer: As usual, the views expressed in this article are my own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer, my associates or my advertisers.

Today, the NAACP and the Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights issued a report entitled Tea Party Nationalism: A Critical Examination of the Tea Party Movement and the Size, Scope, and Focus of its National Factions.  All people of goodwill should read the report.  The report "compiles polling data, documents significant examples of racist vitriol on the part of Tea Party leaders, shows incidents where well know anti-Semites and white supremacists have been given a platform by Tea Party and analyzes the attempt by white nationalist organizations to find new recruits in Tea Party ranks." 

Describing how the Tea Party has provided a platform for racists, anti-Semites and Islamophobs, the report states that:

"Dale Robertson, the chairman of the 1776 who displayed the infamous “n****r sign,” for example, brought Martin “Red” Beckman on as a guest to the Tea Party Radio hour ....Beckman has been known for over twenty-five years for his anti-Semitic writings and his defense of militias."

"In a separate incident, Robertson endorsed Pastor John Weaver on the 1776 Tea Party Meet Up website...Weaver, of Fitzgerald, Georgia, has a sprawling set of connections to neo-Confederates and those preaching the so-called Christian Identity doctrine. He is the former Chaplain in Chief of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.[205] He has spoken at “Christian Identity” gatherings in Branson, Missouri in 1998 and 1999.[206] According to this particular theology, Jews are considered a satanic force (or the incarnation of Satan himself), and people of color are considered less than fully human."

The notoriously Islamophobic Pamela Geller has been a featured speaker at several Tea Party events. The report notes that:

"Geller maintains a tight-knit trio of organizational fronts: Atlas Shrugs, SIOA (Stop Islamization of America), and the Freedom Defense Initiative. All are listed as official “partner” organizations of the ResistNet Tea Party faction."

With leaders like Geller, it is not surprising to find language on a ResistNet Tea Party website that denigrates an entire grouping of people because of their faith. “We are at a point of having to take a stand against all Muslims. There is no good or bad Muslim. There is [sic] only Muslims and they are embedded in our government, military and other offices...What more must we wait for to take back this country of ours...”[260]

In addition, the report details how white supremacist groups have attempted to join the Tea Party Movement:

"In preparation for Tea Party protests held on July 4, 2009, national socialists and other white supremacists created a discussion thread on Stormfront.org, the largest and most widely accessed of the many white nationalist websites...the Stormfront discussion board aimed at a highly conscious intervention. One group decided against wearing any gear with swastikas or other symbols of their actual core ideologies. They would carry Confederate battle flags and other more generic symbols of white protest."

"The Council of Conservative Citizens, headquartered in St. Louis, with its strongest chapters in the South and Mid-South, is the largest white nationalist organization in the country and the group most active in the Tea Parties. A direct lineal descendant of the white Citizens Councils that fought to defend Jim Crow segregation during the 1950s and 1960s, the Council of Conservative Citizens promotes the idea that the United States is or should be a white Christian nation; and that Barack Obama and black people generally oppress white people."

"Through its periodical tabloid, Citizens Informer, and its website, www.cofcc.org, the Council of Conservative Citizens both led and promoted Tea Party protests."

Former Klu Klux Klansman David Duke embraced the Tea Party.  As the report states, "[h]e used the Internet to broadcast a ten minute video speech, “Message to the Tea Party.” Duke began the “message” by paying homage to the Tea Parties and the “Founding Fathers,” and ended with his usual roundhouse attack on “the Zionists” (meaning Jews)." 

Mocking African Americans attending a Tea Party rally, David Duke states that there were more blacks on stage than in the crowd.  Below check out Duke's racist appeal to the Tea Party.

The Tea Party Nationalism report also cites disturbing opinion data regarding the racial attitudes of Tea Party members.  The report states:

"Partiers are more likely than white people generally to believe that “too much” has been made of the problems facing black people: 52% to 39%.  Of those who strongly approved of the Tea Party, only 18% agreed with the statement that black people were “VERY hard working.”In fact, 68% of the Tea party “approvers” believed that if only they would try harder, then black people would be as well off as white people.  Indeed, a quarter of Tea Party supporters polled on the question admit that they think that the Obama “administration favors black people over whites.”[247] When asked whether or not Barack Obama understood the “needs and problems of people like you,” almost three-fourths of Tea Partiers (73%) said “no.” A similar number (75%) said he did not “share the values most Americans try to live by.”

Basically, this report reveals that the Tea Party is a haven for racists, bigots, Anti-Semites and Islamophobs.  Why would any African American, in his right mind, join the Tea Party?  How many shoe shining, tap dancing uncle toms, sellouts, black conservatives will come before the media to defend the Tea Party now?  Many black bloggers and journalists criticized the NAACP for tracking the Tea Party.  Those critics have egg on their faces right now.

Wake up people! The Tea Party must be purged and defeated!