Not based on anything said or done by its most exteme members, but going by polls of Tea Partiers in general:
Now, that might not be the same portrait as we would get from a poll of actual White Nationalists, but the difference is in degree, not in kind.
I see nothing in these numbers to support the statement in your title. All they
It’s really not.
This OP merits nothing beyond
:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
This:
is contradicted by this:
If you wish to assert, (as I know a number of posters do), that conservative whites are racist per se, then you can get away with claiming Tea Party members, as typical white conservatives seem to have racist tendencies. However, if we find a poll of blacks that shows such views reversed toward whites, (that whites have privileges not accorded blacks, that political process favors whites, that hiring practices favor whites, etc.), then you should be prepared to also declare that blacks are racist.
From my perspective, the poll results shown say nothing about racism. They demonstrate a bit of ignorance and they demonstrate a certain fear of the unknown, (or fear of those they do not know), but not racism. Opposing government intervention is libertarian, not racist, particularly when it accompaies a statement that everyone is still entitled to the same rights. The only poll result that approached being “racist” was the question whether blacks were “hard working,” and nearly two thirds of Tea Party respondents answered in the affirmative. Claiming an entire organization is racist because a bare third have some racist beliefs is silly.
The Tea Party may be home to more racists than some other demographic groups, but the evidence you presented simply fails to demonstrate that the “Tea Party is racist.”
I would tend to say that asking “are blacks hardworking?” can only get racist answers. No? Oh, you’re a racist for making a blanket statement about a group of people based only on race. Yes? Oh, you’re a racist for making a blanket statement about a group of people based only on race.
It’s like asking “do your parents know you’re gay?” in high school. All answers will lead to ridicule, even if you’re so clever as to respond “I refuse to answer that because I’m not gay.”
White guy Tim Wise makes a fairly cogent argument that it is the case here (mostly that distribution of historical privilege was towards whites so as to quell class consciousness). He also points out that the stimulus bill distributed money disproportionately to industries with white ownership and membership such as the construction industry.
The Tea Party being full of racists doesn’t make it a racist organization. The Democratiic and Republican parties are full of racists, and they shouldn’t be considered racists organzations for the same reason, none of these parties are organized.
This precisely. The Tea Party is not even really one thing, but several different loose-knit organizations. Good point about the Dem/GOp as well the GOP and Democratic parties almost certainly don’t keep up to date member lists and have no real power to expel members. In most states your party registration is between you and your county clerk and all that is required to be “officially associated with the X Party” is to register as a voter under that party’s banner.
Even during the Civil Rights era I wouldn’t say the Democratic party was racist. Did many of its politicians support racist policies? Absolutely, and so did many of its voters. However a lot of Northern Democrats were no more or less racist than Republicans in the North at that time, and many Northern Democrats did not take place in the filibusters to block Civil Rights legislation and etc…so it’s hard to even call the 1960s era Democratic party a racist part.
Using the phrase “full of racists” is misleading. While there may be more racists in the Democratic party than the Tea Party, there are probably proportionally fewer. In neither instance would they form a plurality from what I’d guess, so the term “full” is suspicious.
No, but I do wish to assert that "very conservative" whites are.
Perhaps I should have said, "racist movement." A movement it certainly is. Granted, the Tea Party is not (yet) a single coherent organization.
You’re still wrong, but don’t let that stop you.
It still all depends on how you define racist.
BG will define it as a synonym for conservative. He pretty much already has.
You mean in the same way that OWS is a “stupid movement” because of their stated goal of eliminating corporate personhood?
Neatly done, the old switcheroo! But did you really think you’d get away with it?
Establish a base line for racism, according to your perspective. Mine is growing up in 1950’s Texas, where my grandfather drove a segregated bus. That sort of institutional, commonly accepted racism is gone. Racism is not socially acceptable, many of us find it hard to believe that it ever was.
Case in point: an elderly close male relative, observing a black man making a dumb traffic move. Bitches about the way “those people” drive. (Says the same thing about women drivers, but that’s a whole different kettle of piranha.) I prod, once again, and get the similar response: he’s not racist, he just doesn’t like how those people drive.
Conservative? Yes, rather, just to the left of Calvin Coolidge. Racist? By my lights, yes, suspicious and distrustful of persons of color, as a general thing. But support the suppression of black voting rights, or support unequal treatment in hiring, etc.? Nope. Not a chance.
Racism of the kind that forms my perspective is done for, no longer socially acceptable. We’ve come to an odd place of transition, where no one will admit to being racist, but not all of us are willing to confront the racism in ourselves. When we do finally succeed in getting the legal structures in place to ensure equality, that battle will still remain.
Conservatives resist change, they can’t help it, its what they are. Racial and sexual equality is change. If black people always had legal equality, they would not seek to change that, they are not racists. They are not racists, they are conservatives. Not one of them in a hundred would apply the term to themselves, but would slap that label upon, say, affirmative action in a heartbeat, because “racist” is a pejorative, even for them.
So, anyway, from my perspective, is the Tea Party racist? No, not really, not like I think of racism. And that’s not an onion on my belt, its a fanny pack, so shut up, puppy!
But, that “elderly close male relative” you speak of, who is racist by your lights, he’s the Tea Party.
This is an excellent post that I would have made myself, if I were a bit more eloquent.
The only thing I have to add is that calling the Tea Party movement racist serves absolutely no purpose at all, except to dilute the meaning of the word.