PALIN, THE NAACP & PERCEPTION

2010-07-16
By DeAngelo Starnes

If you’re gonna have a party, you might as well make some noise, right? The NAACP did just that this week when it voted to approve a resolution condemning racist elements within the burgeoning Tea Party Movement.  Essentially, the NAACP called on Tea Party leaders to repudiate racist elements that seem to be prominent at various Tea Party public rallies across the country.   

To what racism is the NAACP is referring?  Try these photos posted on the NAACP's website.  Or how about someone from the Tea Party calling Congressman John Lewis(D-GA)  – John Lewis, a student leader from the Civil Rights Movement, a “nigger.” Or spitting on Congressman Emanual Cleaver (D-MO).  Or faxing nooses to the office of Representative James Clyburn (D-SC), the highest ranking African American in Congress.  Or T-shirts for sale at a July 4 tea party rally in Charlotte that showed Obama standing in front of the White House, labeled "da Crib.”  Or a sign being held at a tax rally last week telling the President to “go back to Kenya”.  And these are just the incidents launched against national political leaders. 

Now, you have to wonder what goes on in the mind of someone who took the time to go to an arts and crafts store in order to buy sign boards, used a magic marker to draft these comments, draw caricatures, and then show up in public holding these signs for the world to see (and photograph).  So was the NAACP wrong to call upon Tea Party leaders to reject these kinds of comments? 

Apparently, Sarah Palin thinks so.  Palin took to Facebook to announce she was “saddened by the NAACP’s claim that patriotic Americans who stand up for … Constitutional rights are somehow ‘racists.’”  She goes on to invoke Ronald Reagan into her criticism as she claimed that “honest, freedom-loving patriots” don’t deserve to be labeled as racists.” 

Sarah, did you know that the full text of the resolution hasn’t been released to the public?  That NAACP President Benjamin Jealous merely issued a statement summarizing the essence of the resolution?  Better yet, did you read or understand his statement?   Here’s a portion of it for you: “It's time for the tea party to be responsible members of this democracy and make sure they don't tolerate bigots or bigotry among their members.  We don't have a problem with the tea party's existence. We have an issue with their acceptance and welcoming of white supremacists into their organizations."  Now, where did he call the Tea Party movement racist?  He correctly called upon Tea Party leaders to renounce racist statements and elements of its collective expression of their agenda.  Last I checked, Sarah ,you fashioned yourself as a supporter and leader of the Tea Party movement.  So when are you going to accept the NAACP’s challenge? 

Problem is folks like Sarah Palin treat African Americans like the kid from that movie who said he sees dead people. “I see and hear racism.”  As if the expressions Black persons perceive as racist are just a figment of their collective imaginations.  Because what they see and hear really isn’t racism but someone exercising their Constitutional right of free speech.  Believe it or not, there are limits to free speech, like uttering “fighting words,” “incitement to violence,” “defamation,” and “threats.”  Arguably, racist speech fits into all of these categories.   

The next excuse you hear is that the statements didn’t carry racist intent.  What exactly was the intent underlying, for example, sending a noose to a person of color’s office?  Moreover, what does that say about how ingrained racism is in our society that buried deep within certain folks’ subconscious are these thoughts and ways of expressing themselves? 

We’re often told slavery was a long time ago and “my ancestors didn’t own slaves”. Or Jim Crow has been outlawed. Or that we have civil rights laws.  Or that we elected a Black President.    

Excuse me, Sarah, but neither you nor folks like Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, or Michelle Bachmann get to tell Black folks that what they see and hear are not racism.  See when you’ve been enslaved, lynched, lampooned for your skin color, and otherwise victimized by discrimination, you know racism when you see and hear it.  You don’t have to hear the words “coon” or “nigger” to understand that you are being subjected to racism.  Because it’s not necessarily or solely the terminology or statement but the spirit underlying it.   

Malcolm X once said that when you throw a rock into a pack of dogs, the one that yelps is the one the rock hit.  Observe who’s distorting the NAACP’s statement.  Fox News “Why Does the NAACP Hate the Tea Party Movement?”   Peter Roff of U.S. News and World Report calling the NAACP’s resolution “cheap, cynical politics.”  Kentucky Senate candidate Rand Paul (surprise) condemning the resolution.  The Kansas City Star editorial page, and of course, Sarah Palin to name a few.  Indeed, the St. Louis Tea Party launched its own resolution asking the IRS re-consider the tax-exempt status of the NAACP. 

The double-standard here is evident throughout history.  It’s okay for a two-year old matter involving allegations of voter intimidation by the New Black Panther Party to be resurrected right now, right?  Or for various politicians and groups to ask groups like the NAACP to repudiate Minister Louis Farrakhan whenever he thinks about speaking publicly? It’s even okay for people like Michelle Bachmann to co-opt history and reverse the imagery by saying Obama is creating a “nation of slaves.”  But it’s cheap, cynical, and outdated for a Black person or organization to label racism as racism, right?  

The fairer argument might be that the NAACP may be taking a shot at the Tea Party because the Tea Party is doing what the NAACP used to do, albeit without the racial slurs – be visibly politically active.  Over the last 20 years, the NAACP may have been more well-known for its in-fighting more than for any significant political, legal, social, or economic accomplishments.  And let’s be clear, we’re not talking about a course of action or even an agenda.  We’re talking about a resolution.  As anyone knows, a resolution can be characterized as a mere statement.  Here, the statement is one of disapproval.   

But anyone and any organization is capable of a comeback.  Sometimes you just need the inspiration towards new goals or new ways of attacking old goals.  The NAACP’s been around since 1909, the Tea Party 2009.  The NAACP may be finding that taking to the streets isn’t so outdated after all.  It might be finding inspiration from the Tea Party movement.  In fact, I suggest that it should. 

Sarah makes nice fashion statements with her clothing, but she is ignorant to history.  She speaks in sound-bites and talking points.  The next time she utters an original statement, wake me. 

Problem is there are many who think like she does.  And that seems to be the point of the NAACP resolution.  Recall that not long ago, America patted itself on the back claiming it had gone beyond racism because it had elected a Black President.  Went so far as to declare itself a “post-racial” society.  But it’s only “post-racial” whenever Black persons call out racism for what it is.  Otherwise, it’s business as usual.