July 16, 2010

Tea Party leader posts racist "satire"

A Final ThoughtHere is former head and current spokesperson for the Tea Party Express Mark Williams satirically responding to the NAACP:

Dear Mr. Lincoln

We Coloreds have taken a vote and decided that we don't cotton to that whole emancipation thing. Freedom means having to work for real, think for ourselves, and take consequences along with the rewards. That is just far too much to ask of us Colored People and we demand that it stop!

In fact we held a big meeting and took a vote in Kansas City this week. We voted to condemn a political revival of that old abolitionist spirit called the 'tea party movement'.

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! Of course, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is the only responsible party that should be granted the right to disperse the funds.

And the ridiculous idea of "reduce[ing] the size and intrusiveness of government." What kind of massa would ever not want to control my life? As Coloreds we must have somebody care for us otherwise we would be on our own, have to think for ourselves and make decisions!

The racist tea parties also demand that the government "stop the out of control spending." Again, they directly target coloreds. That means we Coloreds would have to compete for jobs like everybody else and that is just not right.

Perhaps the most racist point of all in the tea parties is their demand that government "stop raising our taxes." That is outrageous! How will we coloreds ever get a wide screen TV in every room if non-coloreds get to keep what they earn? Totally racist! The tea party expects coloreds to be productive members of society?

Mr. Lincoln, you were the greatest racist ever. We had a great gig. Three squares, room and board, all our decisions made by the massa in the house. Please repeal the 13th and 14th Amendments and let us get back to where we belong.

Sincerely

Precious Ben Jealous, Tom's Nephew
NAACP Head Colored Person

Williams has since taken the original down and posted a half-hearted justification. Mark Williams is the same man who has denounced Barack Obama as "Indonesian Muslim" and a "welfare thug." If Mark Williams is not a racist, then there are no racists in American society--a position which many, some liberals among them, no doubt find plausible.
Tea Partier's posting slammed as 'feeble,' 'offensive'

Comment:  Here we see a teabagger revealing what teabaggers in general think. "Coloreds" don't want to "work for real, think for ourselves, and take consequences along with the rewards." They want government to take care of them, to give them free handouts.

"Coloreds" might as well refer to anyone who's nonwhite. This is what conservatives think about blacks, Latinos, Indians, and anyone else with brown skin. They're all lazy, shiftless bums who are leeching off the hard work of white, Christian Euro-Americans.

If there's any doubt this is what many conservatives believe, here's more evidence:

It's Unanimous!  GOP Says No To Unemployment Benefits, Yes To Tax Cuts For The Rich

Republicans To Unemployed:  Why Won't You All Just Get Some Jobs Already?South Carolina Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer compared the unemployed to stray animals back in January, saying that unemployment insurance is a lot like helping out strays. One is "facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply," he said. "They will reproduce, especially ones that don't think too much further than that. And so what you've got to do is you've got to curtail that type of behavior. They don't know any better." Though he later backtracked, saying this probably "wasn't the best metaphor," he has since said that "flat-out lazy" people "would rather sit home and do nothing than do these jobs."

Rep. Dean Heller (R-NV) said in February that he thinks that though "there should be a federal safety net," extending unemployment benefits yet again raises the question: "Is the government now creating hobos?"
"Satire" = real beliefs

And let's not waste a minute on Williams's pathetic "satire" defense. He wasn't satirizing the NAACP, he was "satirizing" blacks. In other words, he was savagely attacking blacks under the guise of satire. He was venting his ugly beliefs and hoping the "satire" label would excuse his blatant racism.

If you need any other evidence, look at his "Indonesian Muslim" and "welfare thug" remarks. Were those "satirical" too, or were they his actual beliefs? The latter, obviously. Whether Williams is saying what he means or pretending to be joking, he's bigoted against blacks. Like New Hampshire's Ryan Murdough, he's a racist.

Again, Williams is a leader of the Tea Party movement. He posted his "satire" precisely because he knew his followers would agree with it. If this wasn't a common belief within the Tea Party, he wouldn't have dared to post it. And other party leaders would've expelled him rather than defend and excuse his racism.

For more on teabagger racism, see Poll Proves Teabaggers Are Racists and The Evidence for Teabagger Racism. For more on conservative attitudes toward minorities, see Why Americans Hate Welfare and White Conservatives "Angry About Racism."

Below:  An earlier "satire" about lazy blacks.

2 comments:

Rob said...

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/07/tea_party_express_mark_williams_king_of_accidental.php?ref=fpblg

Tea Party Express' Mark Williams:  King Of 'Accidental' Racism

Is the Tea Party Express' Mark Williams a racist? He certainly says he's not. But Williams--the spokesman for one of the tea party movement's most Republican establishment-connected groups--has shown himself to be a virtuoso when it comes to, I guess accidentally, writing and saying racist things. (Two quick examples: There was that time he called Muslims "animals of Allah" in an email and that other time he called President Obama an "Indonesian Muslim turned welfare thug" on camera.)

Williams, a former conservative talk show host and blogger, was the highest-profile public face of the group. But his propensity to stumble--I guess accidentally--into racism on his personal blog and in TV appearances has led to him being disavowed by his colleagues at TPE. One such disavowal came after his classic "Allah is a monkey god" email back in May. And now, in the wake of the NAACP calling on tea party leaders like Williams to disavow rhetoric of the sort Williams has been using, Williams says other colleagues have again called on him to cool it with all the--I guess accidental--racism stuff.

Rob said...

The national federation kicked Williams out only after a firestorm of protests on national TV. And not because they sincerely believe he did anything wrong.

Williams continues to operate an influential Tea Party group. It's more evidence that teabaggers don't mind the racists in their midst.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2010/07/18/2010-07-18_tea_party_express_leader_mark_williams_expelled_over_colored_people_letter.html

Tea Party Express leader Mark Williams kicked out over 'Colored People' letter

In a press release, the National Tea Party Federation says it ordered the Tea Party Express to kick Williams out and say so "prominently" on their Website. They did not.

Williams' response: who's the National Tea Party Federation anyway?

"There are internal political dramas amongst the various self-anointed tea party 'leaders' and some of the minor players on the fringes see the Tea Party Express and Mark Williams as tickets to a booking on Face the Nation," he said.

"There is no tea party leadership; every tea partier is a tea party leader."

The federation says it represents more than a million activists in 85 groups.

Williams' Tea Party Express is one of the most influential in the conservative movement. It has reportedly raised $2.3 million this year, helped elect Sen. Scott Brown in Massachusetts and organized a rally in Nevada that featured a rare Sarah Palin speech.