THE OTHER GUY BLINKED

By Lois-Ann Clark,
Publisher AABoomers.com

Congratulations to the NAACP for taking a stand on the venom being spewed by some members of the Tea Party movement.  Of course,  everyone knows that “all” of the members of the group do not subscribe to the views of some of the more radical members, but, as the Edmund Burke quote made famous by  Dr. King says,  “All that  is necessary for evil to triumph  is  for good  men to do  nothing.”   In this case, The NAACP did something: It saw bigotry for what it was, and called it out.

It is very disconcerting  that the leaders of the Tea Party  stood idly by, as its members called the venerable John Lewis (D,.GA)., a member of Congress, and a Civil Rights  icon the “N -word”, and as another member of the group spat on Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver (D,MO)  also a  member of Congress   Looking at those menacing mobs, I was transported back to the 1950’s and ‘60’s when equally hate filled protesters lashed out at children who simply wanted an education.  

I was sickened when I first saw the photographs of the sign comparing President Obama to Stalin and Hitler.   Although we know what it said, we also knew what it meant.  As African Americans, we know how to read between the lines and know what the code words mean.  The actions of the Tea Party set the climate for the disrespectful statements by Rep. Joe Wilson (R, SC), a member of Congress who called out,” You Lie” to the President of the United States during a joint session of Congress, and for another member to apologize to BP, a company who’s lack of safety practices have crippled the economy of an entire region, during a Senate hearing  

Who can forget Tea Party candidate Rand Paul’s statements earlier this year about the Civil Rights Act and public accommodations?  He was opposed to that component of the Act, stating that business owners should be able to determine who they serve.

Equally as reprehensible are comments by Tea Party members such as, “we want our country back “, or “we’re taking our country back”.  Back from whom?   Although the Tea Party may deny that these words had a double entendre, we know what they said, but more importantly, we know what they meant.  As Rep. Clyburn (D, SC) said in response to the comments made by former President Clinton about President Obama’s win in South Carolina during the Presidential primaries, “Everybody knows that tone.”

What was surprising was that although the leaders of the party claim not to agree with such egregious behavior, no one has seemed to take the responsibility of chastising members for their inappropriate behavior or even distancing themselves from them until recently.  In fact, the person responsible for now infamous sign said this week that he “didn’t realize it was offensive.”  Really?

This summer in Georgia, the primaries for the November elections have taken on a decidedly bitter tone among Republican candidates.  What is frightening is the fallout from The Tea Party movement which is evident in the candidates’ televised ads. From referring to President Obama, as simply Barak Obama, and stating that President Obama and the Democrats are “out of control “  to “getting back to what the founding fathers had in mind ‘, the ads are replete with code words that are a throwback to another time. The latter statement  is of particular concern to me as an African American; since the founding fathers had in mind that African Americans were only 3/5’s of a man.  

Another equally offensive comment from a Republican candidate for governor stated that his opponents weren’t the enemy; the enemy was, as he stated, “Barak Obama and the Democrats in Washington”.

The African American co-founder of the New York Tea Party has called the NAACP “irrelevant”.   I suggest that today, when we may have be lulled into a false sense of security, with words of a ‘color blind “society, It (the NAACP) is more relevant than ever.

Lest We Forget.

Lois-Ann Clark   is the Publisher of AABoomers.com.   She has Master’s degrees in Education and Public Administration from Wheelock College and the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government, respectively