BlackPerspective.net
Discussing the Diaspora as seen through an internal Black lens
Mark Williams Proves The Tea Party Is Not Racist…by Penning A Racist Post
July 19th, 2010
As twitter user Inkognegro tweeted last week: “like all bigotry, the most potent component of racism is frame-flipping–positioning the bigot as the actual victim. (@tanehisi)”
This is the deflective approach of the Tea Party, and in specific Mark Williams.
Last Thursday, Tea Party Express spokesmen Mark Williams was apparently still feeling salty about the NAACP having passed a resolution the day before calling on Tea Party officials to denounce racism amongst their ranks. Williams wanted to show how not racist he and the rest of the Tea Party temper tantrum throwers “movement” are…by being racist.
Williams wrote a blog post on his website where the character writing the letter refers repeatedly to “us Coloreds”, and depicts Blacks as lazy lay-a-bouts who are not upset with the Tea Party for the blatant racism that this mock letter demonstrates; but because they’re upset that the Tea Party calls for reigning in government spending, which would end the government hands out and government cheese (do they still produce that stuff) that blacks love so much.
Here’s an example passage:
“The tea party position to “end the bailouts” for example is just silly. Bailouts are just big money welfare and isn’t that what we want all Coloreds to strive for? What kind of racist would want to end big money welfare? What they need to do is start handing the bail outs directly to us coloreds!”
You can read that tripe in full here if you want.
The letter ends by being singed
“Precious Ben Jealous, Tom’s Nephew
NAACP Head Colored Person”
Ben Jealous is actually the President of the NAACP.
Like a coward, Williams wasn’t man enough to stand behind his racist mocking; and took the post down as soon as he caught some flack; but of course this being internet 2.0 and it had already been copied, as people know to copy something while it is available.
Mark Williams and his Tea Party Express where, nonetheless, kicked out of Tea Party Federation; an umbrella organization that claims to represent 85 Tea Party groups. On CBS’s “Face the Nation.” Sunday, federation spokesman David Webb said “We have expelled Tea Party Express and Mark Williams from the National Tea Party Federation because of the letter that he wrote.”
Looks like the NAACP’s resolution actually did some good, because this is exactly what the resolution called for. Williams, in the previous year had labeled Manhattan Boro Pesident Scott Stringer a “Jewish Uncle Tom” and President Obama an “Indonesian Muslim turned welfare thug.”
In his article, A Final Thought, Ta-Nehisi Coates captures the essence of issue surrounding the NAACP having put forth the resolution in the first place:
It’s been asked in comments, a few times, what good has come of the NAACP’s resolution…When engaging your adversaries, that approach has its place. But it’s worth saying that there are other approaches and other places. Among them–respectfully administering the occasional reminder as to the precise nature of the motherfuckers you are dealing with. It strikes me that this is a most appropriate role for the nation’s oldest civil rights organization.
I also like what commentor Cynic posted; which is as follows:
We’re not used to seeing that sort of rhetoric. But it’s the same stuff that Michael Steele had posted on his website targeting minority voters. The notion that the Republican Party stands for modern day abolition, and the Democrats continue to wish to enslave voters, is common cant in extreme right-wing circles.
I wouldn’t impute these views to most of those sympathetic to the Tea Party. But the underlying issue here is that the Tea Party has no actual coherent platform. It’s a channel for the particular resentments its members and sympathizers harbor, and they project their views on to it. It’s not a movement so much as a mood - a tantrum, to be precise. And as the maelstrom whirls, it has sucked in the malcontents and misanthropes - the greater the resentment, the more intense the commitment to the cause.
The Republican Party chose to tie its fortunes to the Tea Party Movement, knowing all of this, but placing its bets on frustration and resentment. I hope it inherits the wind.
posted in News & Events, Politics, Racial Injustice | | | View blog reactions |
6 Responses to “Mark Williams Proves The Tea Party Is Not Racist…by Penning A Racist Post”
Leave a Reply
About The Blog
Yobachi Boswell is creator and publisher of BlackPerspecitve.net. I’m a writer, activist and political watcher based in Nashville, Tennessee. I’ve also been know to do some spoken word and MCing in my day.
I created this site to give new voice to socio-political issues that are in need of thoughtful consideration and redress.
Click the "More About The Blog" link for rest of this statement.
Also, if you like what you see, subscribe for a once a day email to be sent on days when we post by entering your email address in the feed burner subscription box below.
- More About The Blog...
Subscribe via email
Blogroll
- Abagond
- AfroSpear Blogs & Info
- All About Race
- All Africa
- BlackPerspectivenet @ Youtube
- BlackPressUSA.com
- From My Brown Eyed View
- Redding News Review
- Sojourner’s Place
- Tasiaxm.com
- Trini Gourmet
- UltravioletUnderground
Site Meter
Meta
Subscribe Via RSS
My Twitter
Recent Posts
- African Women Win Nobel Peace Prize
- How Black Colleges Are Turning White – The Ethnic Cleansing Of African Americans in the Age of Obama
- Social and Cultural Causes Also on Display At African Street Fest
- Video of Obama’s Jobs Speech
- Eric Cantor Two-Faced on Offsetting Disaster Relief
It’s difficult to suppose Mark Williams believes he’s not racist. That old trope that if you’re certain you’re not–then indeed you certainly are applies here.
But in this case it’s especially sickening; perhaps because he’s a “spokesmen.”
As tea party member and someone who blogs about the tea party I can say as well that the movement is not racist and anyone involved can tell you the same thing.
Lloyd Marcus a black spokesmen for the tea party also stated that this was much ado about nothing. Sure Williams letter was unacceptable, but is it as bad as the black panther comments, or what about the Shirley Sherrod comment that came out.
I’m not saying it was justifiable on either side, but to say that the whole tea party is racist because of one poorly written satire, is to say that the whole liberal movement is racist because of the black panthers and Shirley sherrod.
Kathleen,
Mark Williams knows what he is, and his utter arrogance and belligerents demonstrates it.
He knows in order to attempt to maintain any legitimacy he can’t come out and say it Alabama Governor George Wallace could in the 60s; but he doesn’t spare a lot in showing it.
John Harrington,
Trotting out your token Blacks doesn’t impress anyone. From the plantation to the Civil Rights Era protest of Jim Crow, whites could always get a Black mouth piece to do their bidding. During the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955 the white establishment went and got together an alternative bunch of Black ministers to come out and say this ‘back of the bus’ thing was “much ado about nothing,” and tried to declare the bus boycott over when MLK and the SCLC were still in full swing..
The people perpetrating racism always say racism is “much ado about nothing,” claiming it either doesn’t exist or at best is just a few fringe individuals in the backwoods somewhere. This same line has been fed for hundreds of years no matter how subtle or blatant the racism is. Makes no difference; new day, same line.
“but to say that the whole tea party is racist”
Who said that? The Tea Party is certainly very tolerent of it’s members/participants who are, though.
And if you want to stand behind the comments of Mark Williams as simply just “poorly written”, you go ahead and do that. You’re telling us everything about yourself and you’re view of racial treatment right there.
You make a good point about the fact that any movement will have a token “minority” (whatever that minority may be) to speak up as a spokesperson. I have seen that in several movements.
To answer your question about who said the whole tea party is racist, isn’t that what the whole NAACP condemnation signifies. Even if they say that only a certain element is racist, the condemned the “tea party” as racist.
Anyway, I take back my words, Williams words were not just poorly written they were inexcusable. His attempts at satire were not funny (though I can think of satire pointed at conservatives and tea party members that aren’t funny either and no one condemns those), and about a topic that should not be satirized. I am fully supportive of the fact the Williams was fired from the tea party express.
Thanks for taking the time to respond to my post! Keep up the good blog you do good work here.
John Harrington
Exactly WHY was the Black Panthers at the polls that day ? To make sure blacks weren’t disenfranchised as previously in 2000. How many chapters of the Black Panthers are there in this country since Hoover’s COINTELPRO program wiped them out in the 60’s through the 70’s ? Like Fox news you’re trying to discuss them like they’re some major force in American politics to scare white people. And the Tea Party must be the party to oppose them ,and bring back America’s virtues, which never existed. Keep trying to clean up the image. Any right minded black, gay or latino knows the Tea Party is the respectable party of the klan. join it at your own risk.