Naacp vs.. The Tea Party: Playing The Race Card?

Most of all, in my opinion conservative whites in the tea party – and elsewhere – refuse to understand that contrary to popular opinion, socialism does NOT mean denial of human rights and basic freedoms such as free speech and freedom of the press that characterize places like the former Soviet Union, China, Cuba, and North Korea. Socialism is, according to none other than the Bible, based on the notion of “All who believed were together and had all things in common; and they sold their possessions and goods and distributed them to all, as any had need.” (Acts, 2:44-45)

In other words, socialism is based on economic equality, not totalitarian oppression. And in this country, no group of people, with the exception of Native Americans, have suffered more under the capitalist’s society that the tea partiers hold so dear than African Americans.

That, to me, is why the NAACP sees the tea party movement as racists – not because they are KKK-style bigots, but because their preferred capitalist/free enterprise philosophies and policies, with relatively few exceptions, have hurt black people as a whole and have kept them as an underclass in U.S. society.

And I am sure that this longtime civil rights organization, which dates back to 1906, has wondered why the vast majority of tea partiers are white; I would certainly ask that if I ever encountered one of them.

I would also suggest to this movement’s leaders and participants that they take a long, hard look at themselves and answer this question:

If Barack Obama were white, would there be such a backlash as this? In fact, would there be a tea party movement at all? And if race isn’t a factor in all of this, then why are most of the people in this tea party white?

Though I reckon that a lot of those folks would say yes to those preceding questions, that race has played no part in their campaign, I can’t help thinking that for at least some whites involved in this tea party the answer would be no, that there would be less of a backlash against a white president.

Even if they don’t want to admit it to themselves, or are too ashamed to do so.

One thing is for sure: This is an issue that will not go away anytime soon.