What if the Tea Party were Black?

I didn’t know there were coloured tea parties.
I thought it was just scones, strawberries, cream and tea.
With a tad bit of croquet.

They wouldn’t vote ~

Dammit you guys! lol Don’t make me move this to general…

I’m not a “Tea Partier” (or conservative at all) but my parents went to one and said there were quite a few black people in attendance. Everyone was civil and literate. There were no idiot rednecks yelling about homosexuals and pushing the Bible in people’s faces, just saying…

I think they’d get about as much attention as those Black Panthers did who were intimidating people at polling places.

For starters, they wouldn’t be called racists

A lot of them would be shot, cuffed or jailed on the spot.

@josie LOL!

GQ.

When the Tea Party first came on the scene I was very interested. I care a lot about fiscal responsibility, hate the deficit (I hated it back during Reagan, I was a teen at the time, and just starting to pay attention to politics, although not very interested) and didn’t care if the Tea Party movement was mostly Republicans. The name indicated not wanting to pay taxes, which is not my mantra, but I hoped they would wake up the country to the out of control spending and the debts we owed to other countries. Then it became associated with the super right wing, and I was out. I was never in really, but willing to listen, and hopeful.

I think if the movement started among black people most of the right wingers would have ignored it altogether, or said things like, “what a joke, the blacks complaining about taxes when they barely pay any.” I don’t think politicans would say that, but I think more than a few people would be thinking it. I guess maybe if the movement was black Republicans, maybe the Republicans would have latched on? Not sure.

I think the media coverage would be far less and it would be somewhat portrayed as the Million Man March was. If you recall, the media kept saying something to the effect of..“There aren’t really a million there” to diminish the overall movement.

I just read the article, and I wanted to say a crowd of white people armed scares me as much as a crowd of black people. But, that’s me.

What tea party? Ha.

A black tea party would be referred to as a mob, not a crowd @JLeslie ;)

@josie – No, just “Uncle Toms”, slavering to win the affection of white people. Even a nominal Republican like Clarence Thomas is mos def considered a racist against his own.

What gets me is that, in all seriousness, most of the black people I grew up with were seriously socially conservative (my grandfather was a Republican!). Even my surrogate family now is “there are certain subjects aprilsimnel had better not discuss with them because it WILL get extremely heated” conservative.

For a lot of the Tea Party positions on many social issues, I think many black Americans would probably agree with them – were it not for the that group’s media image of being filled with redneck racists who loathe black folks.

It’s a great article that’s spot on.

And this, my friends, is what white privilege is all about. The ability to threaten others, to engage in violent and incendiary rhetoric without consequence, to be viewed as patriotic and normal no matter what you do, and never to be feared and despised as people of color would be, if they tried to get away with half the shit we do, on a daily basis.

I do not think it is that much of a stretch that in the US there is a functioning denial. Race issues is somewhat like sex, and around sex Uncle Sam is like a man in the mirror who when he walks away forgets what he looks like. I have great white friends, some are even better than many family members, as well as friends in other nationalities. Many people will avoid racial overtones because they feel they have to or it is in their best interest not to. If thousands of people of color descended upon Washington, or even much smaller government venues, with weapons in hand saying things like was in that article, the SWAT team would have been mobilized if not the national guard.

Any representative of magazines or radio that made incendiary remarks about white people would be label a radical and maybe planted with a FBI mole or something. I can expect they would be under surveillance.

In spite of the melting pot affect, there is still a very real under current of Jim Crow, and bigotry going on. Think of the last 5 times you heard of a suspect being shot, and killed by the cops, how many were white executive types? Most I have remembered where people considered minorities. Could be because they were unlucky to live in the areas they did, or maybe it is perceived that they are more dangerous thus a cop is likely to shoot quicker, but the numbers do make one think.

In the past how many times were you stopped while driving, because of where you were driving, what you were driving, and the time of day? I can remember 7 times I was stopped DWB.

I think if Rush was Black, Hispanic, or Middle Eastern a lot of what he says would be fodder for white people to label him an extremist, dangerous, suspicious and more. He would certainly be maligned, or they would try to, by most media. I think Don Imus got canned for his ”chicken head” remark only because it went viral and embarrassed the radio station or whoever handles its show. Had he said that and only a small market heard it or it was before YouTube or the Internet I doubt anyone would have paid it much mind.

What if the Tea Party was Black would be like saying would Bernhard Goetz have gotten a slap on the wrist if he was Black and shot four white skateboarders he thought were robbing him?

Personally, I think that bat-shit insane people come in a variety of colors, so it wouldn’t affect my opinion of them. Of course, I would then be called a racist :/

That said, I don’t think America as a whole would take them nearly as seriously, if for no reason other than black people are still a minority in this country, and thus the Tea Party would be a lot smaller.

I think they’d be playing cooler music.

Also, Sarah Palin would be an MSNBC pundit.

@SpatzieLover That might be the case in the media, and how some people even outside of the media might characterize the black group of armed people – mob. Good point. For me, a group of gun toting white people, my stereotype is right wing Christian, wanting their country back, hateful, fearful people. I do not fit in their version of the country, and so they really scare me. I support the right to bear arms, but my impression of who would gather in a mob of white guys are a certain type of person sporting their firearms. So, they are not like me, I don’t identify with them, and that is probably the problem in general with racism, fear, stereotyping, is that we view the people as “them.” My overall point is my biggest enemies have been white in history, from what I have studied and observed. For others black men are the boogie man I guess. I am not saying a bunch of angry black men do not scare me, I am only saying both groups make me really really nervous.

Foolishness doesn’t correlate with skin color.

Tea party’s over. Foolishness never lasts.