The Tea Party blames photos like this one of
President Obama on outsiders, denying racist
elements exist within the party. However, it
was recently forced to kick out Mark Williams,
who had been part of the group’s public face,
for writing an offensive letter.

On the night the healthcare reform bill passed, a man posted this statement on Craigslist.com, “People, the time has come for revolution. … It is time for Obama to die. I am dedicating my life to the death of Obama and every employee of the federal government. As I promised in a previous post, if the health care reform bill passed I would become a terrorist. Today, I became a terrorist.”

The threat, reported to the Secret Service, was traced back to Brian Dean Miller, 43, of Dallas, who has since plead guilty.
Some conservatives, like Miller, are proving they will go to any length to achieve their political goals. Among those is a growing group called the Tea Party. The group is comprised of over 85 member and affiliate organizations representing over 1,000,000 individuals and activists. As stated on their web site, the group’s objectives are allegedly to promote fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government and free markets. But a newsletter, Dale Robertson, Tea Party/Teaparty.org, reveals a much different agenda. In the newsletter aimed at promoting recruitment, Robertson accused President Barack Obama of “thuggery” and declared, “At the polls, we will win back our nation. It may not be a pretty sight, in fact, it might very well be a bloody one, but we must win and win big! …. We are at WAR!”

Overtly racist acts have leaders in the Black community concerned, openly denouncing the behavior. Among those have been the Congressional Black Caucus and the NAACP.

On July 15, during the recent NAACP convention, Ben Jealous criticized Tea Partyists for tolerating the racist elements among them and passed a resolution calling on them to condemn such behavior. While Tea Party leaders have been silent regarding overtly racist acts by some of its members, it has been quite outspoken in response to the NAACP’s criticism. The National Tea Party Federation stated it “flatly rejects” claims of “racist elements” in their organization, calling them “outrageous and untrue.” Minority Tea Party members throughout the country have also chimed in to express their disagreement with the NAACP’s position. Among those outspoken minorities is Dallas resident, Katrina Pierson. Implying that the NAACP is guilty of the same behavior for which they condemn the Tea Party, Pierson states, “The existence of the NAACP, and others like it, is threatened by the existence of the Tea Party. The reality is that we Colored people no longer require the assistance from other Negros for advancement in 2010.”

In response to the NAACP’s resolution, Mark Williams, leader of the Tea Party Express and a California radio host posted a letter on his web site supposedly from Jealous, on July 15, stating, “Dear Mr. Lincoln, We Coloreds have taken a vote and decided that we don’t cotton to that whole emancipation thing. Freedom means having to work for real, think for ourselves, and take consequences along with the rewards. That is just far too much to ask of us Colored People and we demand that it stop.”

The letter, which Williams’ denied was racist during an televised interview, goes on to say, if out of control spending, which he says directly targets “coloreds,” were to stop, “…we Coloreds would have to compete for jobs like everybody else and that is just not right.” It also calls President Lincoln the greatest racist ever, adding, “We had a great gig. Three squares, room and board, all our decisions made by the massa in the house.”

Also mentioned during an interview with Williams and Jealous were racist signs portrayed during Tea Party rallies. Williams called the signs, plants. “It would have been nice if the ‘Crash the Tea Party group’ and people from the NAACP hadn’t shown up this past spring on purpose with exactly those signs for this reason so they could come back later and do this,” Williams said, accusing the group of planting the racist signs at the rallys in his interview with MSNBC. 

“It’s impossible for there to be a racist element in the Tea Party. You don’t get it. The Tea Party is about human rights according to the United States Constitution,” Williams said.

However, it seems National Tea Party Federation failed to agree with Williams’ satirical letter to President Lincoln. On July 17, after demands that Williams be publicly ousted from the Tea Party Express were ignored, the Federation revoked the chapter’s membership.

Tensions between the NAACP and the Tea Party heated up once more when a damning video clip was released by Fox News and Tea Party conservative Andrew Breitbart, July 19. The video portrays USDA official Shirley Sherrod, at an NAACP event, making what appears to be an admission of discriminatory behavior when charged with helping a White farmer keep his farm. After the airing, she was immediately condemned by the NAACP and asked to pull over to the side of the road and send in her letter of resignation immediately by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. Sherrod had been denied the benefit of doubt given General Stanley McChrystal, who was flown in from Afghanistan for a face to face with his boss following his scathing interview with Rolling Stone magazine.

Media later uncovered the full video, revealing the fact that Sherrod was sharing a moment of growth. During her speech, she encouraged audience members to realize the larger issue was not race, but poverty.

The NAACP openly apologized for their rush to judgment. “Next time we are confronted by a racial controversy broken by Fox News or their allies in the Tea Party like Mr. Breitbart, we will consider the source and be more deliberate in responding,” Jealous said. “The tape of Ms. Sherrod’s speech at an NAACP banquet was deliberately edited to create a false impression of racial bias, and to create a controversy where none existed.  This just shows the lengths to which extremist elements will go to discredit legitimate opposition.”

Sherrod was also offered a new job within the USDA, dealing with discrimination and open access to President Obama, who called her twice before finally reaching her. She will meet with Obama within the week.

Republicans have also been quiet regarding the Party actions. Until now. On the same day the Sherrod controversy began, the House Administration Committee approved an official Tea Party Caucus at the request of Republican conservatives.  While some have called for Tea Party members to tone down their antics, it appears they have only just begun.

Tea Partyists, who have long accused Blacks of using race
for their own gains, are being accused of using their own
race-baiting tactics to recruit disgruntled, White, conservative
voters.