# "If the Tea Party Was Black" music video... do you think they're right or wrong? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 30, 2010, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-tea-party-was-black-music-video-do-you-think-theyre-right-or-wrong/555635 "2010-09-30T18:07:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Le\_Jacquelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Le\_Jacquelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Jacquelope)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2010, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-tea-party-was-black-music-video-do-you-think-theyre-right-or-wrong/555635/1 "2010-09-30T18:07:16Z")
[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/ZtH7vH4yRcY/maxresdefault.jpg "What if the Tea Party was Black? - Jasiri X") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtH7vH4yRcY) The lyrics can be found on that page. True? Not true? ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2010, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-tea-party-was-black-music-video-do-you-think-theyre-right-or-wrong/555635/2 "2010-09-30T18:10:03Z")
You’re the OP. Tell us what you think, and if anyone deems it worthy of rebuttal, a debate may break out. Pretty much anytime I see a link and the equivalent of “tell me what to think about this”, I move on to the next thread. If it is worth starting a thread about, it’s worth taking 5 minutes to compose some actual content. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2010, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-tea-party-was-black-music-video-do-you-think-theyre-right-or-wrong/555635/3 "2010-09-30T18:12:26Z")
Iall know if the tea party was black The government would _not_ have been had the army attack. I can’t speak for the actions of local police in certain areas, though. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2010, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-tea-party-was-black-music-video-do-you-think-theyre-right-or-wrong/555635/4 "2010-09-30T18:15:25Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > You’re the OP. Tell us what you think, and if anyone deems it worthy of rebuttal, a debate may break out. Pretty much anytime I see a link and the equivalent of “tell me what to think about this”, I move on to the next thread. If it is worth starting a thread about, it’s worth taking 5 minutes to compose some actual content. **Oakminster** is correct-If it isn’t worth writing about, well…it isn’t worth writing about. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Understander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3da27b/32.png) [@The\_Understander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Understander)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2010, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-tea-party-was-black-music-video-do-you-think-theyre-right-or-wrong/555635/5 "2010-09-30T18:46:54Z")
I think that if the Tea Party took place on the Left to protest a Republican president, the army would not have attacked, because the media would never have ever paid attention to it. You would not have had the bankroll from the PTB to fund the astroturf movements. It would have been dismissed by the mainstream in the same breath that Farrakhan or Sharpton are dismissed and died a quick and quiet death. ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Jacquelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Le\_Jacquelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Jacquelope)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2010, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-tea-party-was-black-music-video-do-you-think-theyre-right-or-wrong/555635/6 "2010-09-30T19:11:27Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > You’re the OP. Tell us what you think, and if anyone deems it worthy of rebuttal, a debate may break out. Pretty much anytime I see a link and the equivalent of “tell me what to think about this”, I move on to the next thread. If it is worth starting a thread about, it’s worth taking 5 minutes to compose some actual content. I think that if blacks had posted about praying for the President’s death on Facebook and ran around carrying rifles to townhall meetings and all that, the FBI would have taken them out. COINTELPRO, anyone? ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2010, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-tea-party-was-black-music-video-do-you-think-theyre-right-or-wrong/555635/7 "2010-09-30T19:15:52Z")
I may be marking myself as a naive white boy, but I don’t think the troops would have been called against a black political movement in the last few years. Other than that, yeah, a lot of people’s attitudes would be different. The anti-terror groups might have them on a watchlist, for one thing, & that doesn’t seem to be happening with the Tea Party. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Smashy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2bfe46/32.png) [@Mr\_Smashy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Smashy)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2010, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-tea-party-was-black-music-video-do-you-think-theyre-right-or-wrong/555635/8 "2010-09-30T19:39:11Z")
Typical racist claptrap. Plus a couple months [too late](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/16/AR2010071602730.html). Finally, I’m pretty sure some of the tea party [is](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38558455/) black. I’m reasonably sure Alan Keyes calls himself a member, for example. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2010, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-tea-party-was-black-music-video-do-you-think-theyre-right-or-wrong/555635/9 "2010-09-30T19:51:27Z")
> [@Mr\_Smashy](#): > > Typical racist claptrap. But what do you think about the _song_? ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Smashy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2bfe46/32.png) [@Mr\_Smashy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Smashy)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2010, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-tea-party-was-black-music-video-do-you-think-theyre-right-or-wrong/555635/10 "2010-09-30T20:01:45Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > > [@Mr\_Smashy](#): > > > > Typical racist claptrap. > > But what do you think about the _song_? 😃 Actually, the kid has some talent. But like too many blacks (and liberals, for that matter), he sees everything through a prism of race. PS I like how he seems to be holding up Rev Wright and Cynthia “Truther” McKinney as paragons of his hypothetical movement. Real brain surgeons there. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2010, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-tea-party-was-black-music-video-do-you-think-theyre-right-or-wrong/555635/11 "2010-09-30T20:05:04Z")
I agree that it’s too race-focused, but I can’t tell if they actually mean all of it or if they are just using pre-existing hip-hop memes in order to make a song that has somewhat of a point. And I agree with the basic point, although it is overplayed (but again, is it due to simply mimicing what other rap groups do in order to make it seem more authentic? I’m not sure). It isn’t the 60s anymore. But we’d still have more investigation into the Tea Party-style group of black people than the current one. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2010, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-tea-party-was-black-music-video-do-you-think-theyre-right-or-wrong/555635/12 "2010-09-30T20:14:31Z")
> [@Le\_Jacquelope](#): > > … do you think they’re right or wrong? I think they need to learn to use the subjunctive. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2010, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-tea-party-was-black-music-video-do-you-think-theyre-right-or-wrong/555635/13 "2010-09-30T20:23:51Z")
> [@Mr\_Smashy](#): > > Finally, I’m pretty sure some of the tea party [is](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38558455/) black. I’m reasonably sure Alan Keyes calls himself a member, for example. A minuscule amount. I hear the claim that they aren’t racists, aren’t almost all white yet never see any evidence of this, but do see plenty of evidence of their whiteness and racism. I recall a certain recent poster (now banned so no names) kept trying to claim they weren’t overwhelming white, claimed that he’d seen TP rallies with plenty of black people, yet refused even to acknowledge requests for evidence of that. They are overwhelmingly a movement composed of white racists, regardless of your desire to pretend they are something they are not. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Smashy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2bfe46/32.png) [@Mr\_Smashy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Smashy)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2010, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-tea-party-was-black-music-video-do-you-think-theyre-right-or-wrong/555635/14 "2010-09-30T20:32:36Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > But we’d still have more investigation into the Tea Party-style group of black people than the current one. Perhaps, but based on the [incident](http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20100924/ts_csm/328058) with the New Black Panther voter intimidation case that has been debated elsewhere on this board, it appears that this administration is very friendly to black-oriented groups and reluctant to take them to the woodshed (what with slavery, Jim Crowe, the incredibly condescending [Rooney Rule](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rooney_Rule), etc I guess they’ve suffered enough and get a mulligan 😛 ). And that was a case of a far more militant nature, in my opinion, than anything the Tea Party has done. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2010, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-tea-party-was-black-music-video-do-you-think-theyre-right-or-wrong/555635/15 "2010-09-30T20:44:39Z")
> [@Mr\_Smashy](#): > > And that was a case of a far more militant nature, in my opinion, than anything the Tea Party has done. Oh? It’s not like they don’t threaten people on a regular basis, and there was a fair amount of actual violence after the health care “reform” was passed. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2010, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-tea-party-was-black-music-video-do-you-think-theyre-right-or-wrong/555635/16 "2010-09-30T20:46:38Z")
> [@Mr\_Smashy](#): > > > [@Ludovic](#): > > > > But we’d still have more investigation into the Tea Party-style group of black people than the current one. > > Perhaps, but based on the [incident](http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20100924/ts_csm/328058) with the New Black Panther voter intimidation case that has been debated elsewhere on this board, it appears that this administration is very friendly to black-oriented groups and reluctant to take them to the woodshed (what with slavery, Jim Crowe, the incredibly condescending [Rooney Rule](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rooney_Rule), etc I guess they’ve suffered enough and get a mulligan 😛 ). > > And that was a case of a far more militant nature, in my opinion, than anything the Tea Party has done. Oh fuck me, not this New Black Panther horseshit again. Yes, they behaved stupidly, and yes they deserved to punished. But that’s one incident. Show me cases of liberal and/or black organizations consistently showing up at Bush rallies with guns in hand or talking about “Second Amendment” solutions to perceived political slights. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Smashy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2bfe46/32.png) [@Mr\_Smashy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Smashy)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2010, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-tea-party-was-black-music-video-do-you-think-theyre-right-or-wrong/555635/17 "2010-09-30T21:18:50Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > Oh fuck me, not this New Black Panther horseshit again. Yes, they behaved stupidly, and yes they deserved to punished. But that’s one incident. Show me cases of liberal and/or black organizations consistently showing up at Bush rallies with guns in hand or talking about “Second Amendment” solutions to perceived political slights. If you agree that they deserve to be punished (your words), and this administration ‘whitewashed’ it, so to speak… then tell me again how someone could draw a different conclusion than the one I drew? You ask for something that’s impossible to deliver, of course - there are no more Bush rallies, at least none that I’m aware of. In fact, you could argue (and I will) that Bush, especially during the last two years (ie, with a Dem congress) was far more mainstream and bipartisan of a politician than this administration has been. That is why you didn’t see such anger towards government back then, like you hear today from the Tea Party folks. If you have evidence that the Tea Party folks practice voter intimidation _ **as a policy** _, then I’m all ears. Here’s some pretty damning [evidence](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JunrpGf5QRc) that your buddies in the NBPP were pulling that shit intentionally. Even a hardcore liberal must admit that if Obama were more up-the-middle with his policies, then the Tea Party would either not exist or be a rounding error - they certainly wouldn’t be on the national stage with candidates in Alaska, KY, DE. ---
**Author:** ![Trepa\_Mayfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@Trepa\_Mayfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trepa_Mayfield)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2010, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-tea-party-was-black-music-video-do-you-think-theyre-right-or-wrong/555635/18 "2010-09-30T21:35:09Z")
> [@Mr\_Smashy](#): > > Even a hardcore liberal must admit that if Obama were more up-the-middle with his policies, then the Tea Party would either not exist or be a rounding error - they certainly wouldn’t be on the national stage with candidates in Alaska, KY, DE. If he were any more up the middle, he’d be a republican. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2010, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-tea-party-was-black-music-video-do-you-think-theyre-right-or-wrong/555635/19 "2010-09-30T21:45:02Z")
> [@Mr\_Smashy](#): > > If you have evidence that the Tea Party folks practice voter intimidation _ **as a policy** _, then I’m all ears. Why should anyone care if it’s a “policy” or not if they actually do it? > [@Mr\_Smashy](#): > > Even a hardcore liberal must admit that if Obama were more up-the-middle with his policies, then the Tea Party would either not exist or be a rounding error - they certainly wouldn’t be on the national stage with candidates in Alaska, KY, DE. Don’t be ridiculous. He is if anything right wing, not some leftist; if he was “straight up the middle” he’d be more left wing than he is now and enrage the Right even more. He’s also black and a Democrat, two things they won’t tolerate. He’s not a “secret Muslim” either, nor is he a Communist or a Satanist or the Antichrist or a terrorist. Tea Partier beliefs about Obama have little to do with reality, and they’d exist regardless of what he did or didn’t do. They are the ignorant, insane fringe of the Right. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2010, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-tea-party-was-black-music-video-do-you-think-theyre-right-or-wrong/555635/20 "2010-09-30T21:55:06Z")
Ronald Reagan passed new gun control laws in California in order to combat the black panthers who, like the tea party, would show up in public with guns. Of course that was 40 years ago. But yeah, it would be treated different if black men were the ones showing up armed, threatening congressmen and calling for civil war and domestic terrorism like some members of the tea party do. I really don’t think that is a controversial opinion for those not in denial about how our culture works. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-tea-party-was-black-music-video-do-you-think-theyre-right-or-wrong/555635.md?page=2)