Still Think the Tea Party Isn’t Racist?
There was a bit of an uproar this week over a parody letter written by Mark Williams, a right-wing talk show-host and Tea Party Express organizer. It’s a mock-letter from the head of the NAACP to Abraham Lincoln, and it was so offensive that Williams has since removed it from his website.
I’m not normally one to cry ‘racist’ at every turn, and I often think liberal groups go too far in condemning relatively benign things (like the Chimp Cartoon, for example) but the racism in this letter is so blatant that not even other conservatives could legitimately defend it. It doesn’t merely cross a line—it rips the line to shreds and shits all over it. The only more blatant form of racism than this is that of the Ku Klux Klan variety that claims blacks are genetically inferior to whites. This doesn’t go quite that far, but it comes close.
I’m going to post the whole letter and respond to each section because I believe it provides invaluable insight into how these Tea Partiers think, but first a bit of context. Last week, Ben Jealous, the head of the NAACP called on Tea Party leaders to denounce racism within their ranks. He wasn’t asking for much—merely for the Tea Party to admonish people who carry racist signs and shout racial slurs at rallies. You’d think the Tea Party would welcome this opportunity to push back against the Big Bad Liberal Media’s incessant charges of racism, but instead they dove in head first.
Here’s how Mark Williams imagines Ben Jealous would have addressed President Lincoln:
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!
Remember, this is a leader of the Tea Party Movement, attempting to cater to his Tea Party base. As such, it provides non-Tea Partiers with insight into how Tea Partiers think. And one of the things that many of them think is that black people were better off under slavery. I’ve talked to people who genuinely believe that. Mark Williams wouldn’t be writing this if he hadn’t had that conversation too.
In fact we held a big meeting and took a vote in Kansas City this week. We voted to condemn a political revival of that old abolitionist spirit called the ‘tea party movement’.
And one paragraph later we get this completely contradictory and laughably absurd claim that the Tea Party Movement would have been on the side of the abolitionists!
The tea party position to “end the bailouts” for example is just silly. Bailouts are just big money welfare and isn’t that what we want all Coloreds to strive for? What kind of racist would want to end big money welfare? What they need to do is start handing the bail outs directly to us coloreds! Of course, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is the only responsible party that should be granted the right to disperse the funds.
Again, this is valuable insight into Tea Party thinking. They associate the bailouts with welfare—with handouts to lazy black people.
And the ridiculous idea of “reduce[ing] the size and intrusiveness of government.” What kind of massa would ever not want to control my life? As Coloreds we must have somebody care for us otherwise we would be on our own, have to think for ourselves and make decisions!
Their opposition to Big Government also has a racial element. Apparently liberals want to expand the size of government in order to tell everyone what to do, and since blacks long for the good old days of slavery when they could just relax and let “massa” make all the decisions, they’re totally in favor of a more intrusive government.
The racist tea parties also demand that the government “stop the out of control spending.” Again, they directly target coloreds. That means we Coloreds would have to compete for jobs like everybody else and that is just not right.
In the mind of a Tea Partier, no black person could possibly have earned his or her position due to merit. It was all affirmative action, from Barack Obama to Al Roker—these people just sat on their asses their entire lives while success was handed to them by guilt-ridden liberals trying to make up for slavery.
Perhaps the most racist point of all in the tea parties is their demand that government “stop raising our taxes.” That is outrageous! How will we coloreds ever get a wide screen TV in every room if non-coloreds get to keep what they earn? Totally racist! The tea party expects coloreds to be productive members of society?
One—black people pay taxes too, moron. Two—not all black people are obsessed with bling. Many spend their money wisely, asshole. Three—you want to talk about who is and who is not a “productive member of society”? Look in the mirror, you despicable worm. Your job is to spout propaganda that misdirects the anger of white people away from the system of corporate dominance that harms them and towards progressive organizations that are actually advocating reforms that would help them. At a time when this country desperately needs well-informed Economic Warriors, you deliberately-divisive Culture Warriors are the least productive members of society around!
Mr. Lincoln, you were the greatest racist ever. We had a great gig. Three squares, room and board, all our decisions made by the massa in the house. Please repeal the 13th and 14th Amendments and let us get back to where we belong.
Sincerely
Precious Ben Jealous, Tom’s Nephew NAACP Head Colored Person
America can be neatly divided into two categories or people—those who read this and laugh, and those who read this and want to go out and punch someone. “Tom’s Nephew”—I mean, seriously. This unbelievable piece of shit Mark Williams claims in no uncertain terms that blacks were happier as slaves, and has the audacity to suggest that they are the ones being racist!
Even after removing the letter from his site, his explanation clearly shows that he still doesn’t have a fucking clue what people were so upset about. He seems to think it was over his use of the word “colored”. But it was just satire, he cries in his defense. He was highlighting the irony of how an organization so concerned with political correctness—the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People—uses the word “Colored” in its acronym:
I would suggest to those offended by the term “Colored People” (the phrase that made my article so controversial) please contact the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and join me in calling for an end to their use of the racial slur
Mark Williams, you are a fucking idiot. Your letter wasn’t racist because you used the word “colored”. It was racist because you suggested that black people were better off as slaves, that any successful Africa-Americans didn’t earn their success but were given it by affirmative action, and that they’re all lazy, unproductive members of society who leech off white people’s tax money.
In one regard, at least, Mark Williams has done Tea Party-opponents a favor. As long as the Tea Party Express refuses to fire him and publicly condemn what he said, it can no longer pretend that it’s not a racist organization. You can let them know by going here.
