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warrior bodhisattva
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RNC's Steele, NAACP clash over alleged racism within Tea Party
(CNN) -- The organizational leader of the Republican Party dismissed claims from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People that the Tea Party movement is rife with racism.
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele also said, in a statement, "Enough with the name-calling."
Steele is responding to the NAACP's resolution, passed on Tuesday, that condemns the Tea Party movement for what the NAACP believes is rampant racism from many activists. As head of the RNC, Steele -- the organization's first African-American chairman - is essentially pitting the Republican Party against the nation's oldest civil rights group on this specific issue.
"Tea Party activists are your mom or dad, your local grocer, banker, hairdresser or doctor. They are a diverse group of passionate Americans who want to ensure that our nation returns to founding principles that honor the Constitution, limit government's role in our lives, and support policies that empower free markets and free enterprise," Steele said.
NAACP President and CEO Ben Jealous acknowledged that some Tea Party leaders have denounced racism within their ranks.
"Our concern is that we haven't seen 1/8 leaders come out and aggressively denounce people," Jealous said in an interview with CNN on Wednesday.
The NAACP passed the resolution at the organization's 101st annual convention in Kansas City, Missouri. The actual text of the resolution will not be released until the group's National Board of Directors have a full vote in October.
The NAACP claims that Tea Party activists have engaged in racist behavior, for example, by waving signs that degrade African Americans and President Obama, in particular. Also, the NAACP says, a number of Tea Party members think that issues of importance to African Americans get too much attention.
"We take issue with the Tea Party's continued tolerance for bigotry and bigoted statements. The time has come for them to accept the responsibility that comes with influence and make clear there is no space for racism and anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry in their movement," Jealous said.
In addition to Steele's response, Tea Party defenders reacted to the NAACP action with swift and angry derision.
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, a Tea Party favorite, said the charge from the NAACP is "false, appalling, and is a regressive and diversionary tactic to change the subject at hand."
"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," she wrote in a posting on her Facebook page Tuesday night.
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RNC's Steele, NAACP clash over alleged racism within Tea Party - latimes.com
Quote:
Sarah Palin attacks NAACP over 'racist' tea party motion
Sarah Palin has attacked a prominent civil-rights organisation which has officially branded the American tea party movement as racist, a day after Michelle Obama delivered the keynote speech at the organisation
The former US vice-presidential candidate urged President Obama and his wife Michelle, to "repudiate" the allegation and "set the record straight".
The National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) has passed a motion condemning the tea party movement – which is closely linked to the right wing of the Republican Party – for being racist.
In its motion, the NAACP says the movement has engaged in "explicitly racist behaviour" and calls for people to "stand in opposition to [the tea party's] drive to push our country back to the pre-civil rights era." However, Mrs Palin has hit back at the allegation.
"The charge that Tea Party Americans judge people by the colour of their skin is false, appalling, and is a regressive and diversionary tactic to change the subject at hand.," she said.
Mrs Palin added that the tea party movement was "beautiful" and full of "equality loving patriots".
However, the NAACP stood behind its motion and the issue is now set to become important in the forthcoming midterm elections.
Ben Jealous, the president of the organisation, said: "For more than a year we've watched as tea party members have called congressmen the N-word, have called congressmen the F-word. We see them carry racist signs and whenever it happens, the membership tries to shirk responsibility.
"If the tea party wants to be respected and wants to be part of the mainstream in this country, they have to take responsibility." One of America's oldest and most influential civil rights groups, the NAACP has played a central role in ending racist policies over the past century.
However, the tea party movement has quickly risen to also become an influential voice on the right.
It was initially established to campaign against high taxes and big government but its remit has increased and it now lobbies against anything perceived to be a threat against the interests of Americans.
Mrs Obama attracted attention by giving the keynote speech at the NAACP on the day they voted for the motion.
The First Lady said that her husband's presidency had been made possible by the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) and urged the group to "increase its intensity".
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Sarah Palin attacks NAACP over 'racist' tea party motion - Telegraph
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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön
Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot
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