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and away we go..........
NAACP to condemn 'racism' of the Tea Parties
Posted: July 12th, 2010 02:31 PM ET
From CNN Political Producer Shannon Travis
The NAACP will offer its members a resolution condemning the Tea Party for what it calls rampant racism.
Washington (CNN) – On Tuesday the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People will offer a resolution to its members condemning what it believes to be rampant racism in the Tea Party movement.
The resolution could pass on Tuesday or later this week as the nation's oldest civil rights organization holds its 101st convention in Kansas City over six days.
NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Jealous talked to CNN about the controversial, loose-knit groups that espouse a commitment to the Constitution.
"The Tea Party movement knows that there are tens of thousands of dedicated racists and ultra nationalists in their ranks," Jealous said. Those groups "must be repudiated by the regular, law-abiding members or they must take responsibility," Jealous added, saying "they can't have it both ways."
In addition to urging people to repudiate those "racist" elements among Tea Partiers, the resolution also says that elements of the conservative movement are driving to push the nation back to the pre-civil rights era. The story about the resolution was first reported Monday in the Kansas City Star.
Other claims from the NAACP: Tea Party activists have engaged in racist behavior, for example, by waving signs that degrade African-Americans and President Obama, in particular (hence anyone against Obama is against black people); members of the movement have verbally and physically abused black members of Congress and other elected officials; and a number of Tea Party activists think that issues of importance to African-Americans get too much attention (poll everyone in America, most would agree).
The Tea Party Express, a national Tea Party organization, is angry about the resolution.
"This is indeed the kettle calling the pot black," Mark Williams, national spokesman of the conservative grassroots group, told CNN.
"We're fighting the government programs that have emasculated the black family," Williams said.
He added: "It's the Obama administration that rolled back civil rights to a pre-civil rights era with 'Obamacare' in which they removed the concept of individual rights…it's the Obama administration that put a tax on white people with a tanning salon tax. I mean, this is the kind of stuff the Tea Party movement is fighting. We are fighting for the Constitution of this country, which, by definition, makes this a human rights movement – a civil rights movement."
"It's the 21st century and their rights as humans are absolutely at risk here. And the threat doesn't come from those people who love the Constitution. It comes from those people in power in Washington right now," Williams said.
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