In July 2010, the executive board of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), citing racially-motivated signs at a minuscule percentage of Tea Party rallies, passed a resolution identifying the entire movement as racist.
This is like saying all black Americans hate white Americans because of the hateful comments of a few members of the New Black Panther Party.
Nevertheless, National Tea Party Federation Leader Mark Miller responded with what he believed to be satire, but which, given the circumstances, could only be interpreted as a "racist rant." He was immediately removed from his post and dispatched from the organization.
This event aside, the reality is that blacks play a prominent role in Tea Party politics and campaigns. Free-market black conservatives have been with the Tea Party from the very beginning. The sad part of this whole thing is that, because members of their own race believe playing the race card is the only way to deal a blow to a highly populist organization with which they disagree politically, the skin color of these black Tea Party members is often the only thing being highlighted, when their support and ideas are much more important to the movement. Unfortunately, they've been put in the uncomfortable position of disproving accusations of institutional racism within the Tea Party at a time when their energy is needed elsewhere.
Although blasting the Tea Party seems to be the only way liberals can motivate their base, the movement is actually much more mainstream than its critics on the Left would like their supporters to believe, and its diversity spans not only race, but gender as well. Women play a large role in the movement, and in fact, while the Tea Party was launched by average American men and women with average jobs, it was women who helped the movement spread early on and were the primary momentum gatherers during the health care reform protests in 2009.
Outside of race and gender, most of the people involved in the Tea Party movement at the beginning, were people who had never before been involved in politics or attended political rallies.
Is the Tea Party a racist movement? No. There may be rogue racist elements searching for a place within the movement, but the majority of Tea Party members are quick to purge these elements as soon as they are discovered.
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