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Title: NAACP Resolution Condemns Tea Party Supporters For 'Explicitly Racist Behavior'
Source:
WP
URL Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy ... 204471.html?hpid=moreheadlines
Published: Jul 13, 2010
Author: Krissah Thompson
Post Date: 2010-07-13 20:10:14 by Brian S
Keywords: None
Views: 1326
Comments: 8
Members of the NAACP have overwhelmingly passed a resolution that condemns what the group calls "explicitly racist behavior" by supporters of the "tea party." The resolution has pitted the civil rights group against the conservative grass-roots movement, which has repeatedly denied allegations of racism and decried the NAACP's actions. The NAACP's action has already garnered scorn from conservatives. Sarah Palin became the latest to denounce it Tuesday, tweeting, "I'm busy today so notify me asap when NAACP renders verdict: are liberty-loving, equality-respecting patriots racist? Bated breath, waiting . . ." NAACP President Benjamin Jealous waded fully into the debate, telling his members that he wants to pour "ice on the tea party" and calling the resolution a necessary stand. The tea party statement is one of many actions the NAACP has taken this week during its annual convention, which kicked off Saturday in Kansas City, Mo. The group has also requested a meeting with oil company BP to discuss the effect that the Gulf of Mexico oil spill is having on minority workers. Meanwhile, one of the NAACP's local chapters has persuaded Alvin Greene, South Carolina's surprise Democratic Senate nominee, to speak at a meeting Sunday. The tea party resolution, which was submitted by the NAACP's Kansas City branch and was first reported by the Kansas City Star, has sparked a hot debate. It says members of the movement have "displayed signs and posters intended to degrade people of color generally and President Barack Obama specifically" and calls "the racist elements" within the tea party "a threat to progress." As an example, authors of the statement point to reports by black members of Congress that they endured spitting and racial epithets before voting for the health-care overhaul. (No charges were filed, and some tea party supporters have denied the claims.) The resolution also calls on "the leadership and members of the tea party to recognize the historic and present racist factions within it and to repudiate those factions," and says the movement has opposed government programs that help working people and people of color, according to NAACP spokeswoman Leila McDowell. Many members of the loose affiliation of groups that make up the tea party have roundly condemned the resolution. "Some of these charges have been going on for a while," said Brendan Steinhauser, director of campaigns for FreedomWorks, which organizes tea party groups. "I think there's been a concerted effort to make us look like were are extreme. . . . We're a very mainstream movement that talks about the debt, the bailouts, the spending." Steinhauser said he is "inspired by the American civil rights movement" and considered the 1963 March on Washington a model for the tea party's anti-tax march on the Mall last fall. Gina Loudon, one of the founders of the St. Louis Tea Party, told Fox News that the NAACP's charges are untrue and called the resolution a "shame."
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#1. To: Brian S (#0)
Tea Party leader Dale Robertson:
#3. To: go65 (#1)
You Democrats started the KKK.
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