The Tea Parties Are Racist? How Silly.

23 Nov, 2009 by John Hawkins

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Bill Berkowitz, a liberal who once did a pretty good interview with me, did a piece that made reference to Tea Party racism that I wanted to address. Here’s Berkowitz:

The documentary appears to have a lot of explaining to do: Given the overtly racist sentiments expressed on many of the signs carried by Tea Partiers since the advent of the movement, and the nearly all-white makeup of the crowds, the press release claimed that the documentary will deal with the “allegations of racism.”

…In a follow-up e-mail I asked a few more question including: “Many Tea Party critics have alleged that this is a movement tinged by racism, maintaining that some of the signs that are carried at the demos cross the line. At the rallies there are a small number of African Americans and even a lesser number of Latinos in attendance. How do you respond to these perceptions?

First off, there aren’t “overtly racist sentiments expressed on many of the signs carried by Tea Partiers.” A teeny, tiny percentage of people who’ve gone to hundreds of events across the country have taken signs that could fairly be called racist. Those people are embarassments and pretty much everyone else at the rallies would prefer that those idiots left their stupid racist signs at home if they came at all.

As to the allegations of racism, they’re so silly that they’re one step away from alleging that the Tea Parties are run by the Illuminati. When you have a crowd full of conservatives who have for decades loathed out-of-control spending, socialism, and exploding government and the most radical left-wing President this country has ever had is trying to transform the nature of our nation in a year, only a moron could think the protests are about his being black.

Last but not least, noting that the tea parties must be racist because a lot of minorities don’t come to the rallies is a ridiculous concept. I once went with my cousin to a Bobby Brown concert when I was a teenager. I think we saw 4 white people at the concert total, including us. Now, does that mean Bobby Brown hates white people because more of us didn’t show up? Hell no. He probably would have loved for more white people to show up because he would have made more money.

Well, guess what? The people at the Tea Parties would also love for more blacks and Hispanics to show up at the Tea Parties. The more people the better — and if blacks and Hispanics don’t show up, it doesn’t make the Tea Parties racist any more than it made Bobby Brown racist because there were almost no white people at his concert. If people choose not to come to a rally that’s dedicated to patriotism, fiscal responsibility, and protecting this country’s legacy for our kids, it says more about them than it does about the nature of the Tea Parties.