Imagine if the Tea Party was comprised of predominantly African-Americans:
Imagine that hundreds of black protesters were to descend upon Washington DC and Northern Virginia, just a few miles from the Capitol and White House, armed with AK-47s, assorted handguns, and ammunition. And imagine that some of these protesters —the black protesters — spoke of the need for political revolution, and possibly even armed conflict in the event that laws they didn’t like were enforced by the government? Would these protester — these black protesters with guns — be seen as brave defenders of the Second Amendment, or would they be viewed by most whites as a danger to the republic? What if they were Arab-Americans? Because, after all, that’s what happened recently when white gun enthusiasts descended upon the nation’s capital, arms in hand, and verbally announced their readiness to make war on the country’s political leaders if the need arose.
Imagine that white members of Congress, while walking to work, were surrounded by thousands of angry black people, one of whom proceeded to spit on one of those congressmen for not voting the way the black demonstrators desired. Would the protesters be seen as merely patriotic Americans voicing their opinions, or as an angry, potentially violent, and even insurrectionary mob? After all, this is what white Tea Party protesters did recently in Washington.
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In other words, imagine that even one-third of the anger and vitriol currently being hurled at President Obama, by folks who are almost exclusively white, were being aimed, instead, at a white president, by people of color. How many whites viewing the anger, the hatred, the contempt for that white president would then wax eloquent about free speech, and the glories of democracy? And how many would be calling for further crackdowns on thuggish behavior, and investigations into the radical agendas of those same people of color?
To ask any of these questions is to answer them. Protest is only seen as fundamentally American when those who have long had the luxury of seeing themselves as prototypically American engage in it. When the dangerous and dark “other” does so, however, it isn’t viewed as normal or natural, let alone patriotic. Which is why Rush Limbaugh could say, this past week, that the Tea Parties are the first time since the Civil War that ordinary, common Americans stood up for their rights: a statement that erases the normalcy and “American-ness” of blacks in the civil rights struggle, not to mention women in the fight for suffrage and equality, working people in the fight for better working conditions, and LGBT folks as they struggle to be treated as full and equal human beings.
And this, my friends, is what white privilege is all about. The ability to threaten others, to engage in violent and incendiary rhetoric without consequence, to be viewed as patriotic and normal no matter what you do, and never to be feared and despised as people of color would be, if they tried to get away with half the shit we do, on a daily basis.
If the vast majority of Tea Party protesters were African-Americas, and if some of those Africa-Americans chose to arm themselves, I’m betting the reaction they’d get from both the government (law enforcement), the Republican Party and the mainstream media (Faux News, anyone) would be far different than what it’s been to the largely white Tea Party movement.
Via Political Heat.
If they were advocating for lower taxes and smaller government, why do you think the reaction from the Republican Party would be any different? If they were advocating in your scenario for new government programs and benefits paid for by others, you can bet my reaction would be different, regardless of color. This is a fairly racist post, only the racism is coming from you. Liberals are the ones obsessed with skin color, not most conservatives.
Of course reactions would be different based on what the group is protesting about. Just like Hillary Clinton said, “I’m sick and tired of people who say that if you debate and disagree with this administration, somehow you’re not patriotic. We need to stand up and say we’re Americans, and we have the right to debate and disagree with any administration.” She happened to say this before 2009. Think she might have a different reaction today?
“This is a fairly racist post, only the racism is coming from you.” How exactly is this post racist?
By saying that a majority race (white or black) of a movement would trump the message of the movement. Maybe that’s “playing the race card” but I consider that to be a racist argument. It’s insulting. I don’t care what the people look like, I care about what they are saying. It’s liberals who are the ones looking through the crowd and counting up who’s who, where they come from, and what they look like.
And incidentally, since Zach likes to pick out the worst elements and signs of the Tea Party rallies, I am wondering if he will post anything from the Illegal Immigration folks.
If you’ve got some examples, I’d be happy to take a look at them.
Zach, for starters, people at Tea Parties have been accused of using too strong of language against Obama, the government, etc. Yet the immigration folks are free to compare Arizona to Nazi Germany and its governor to Hitler.
And then Obama is the one to chastize conservatives for saying the government is bad, which will lead to violence. Yet no Tea Party demonstrators have been arrested during gatherings. None has thrown rocks or broken bottles at police. Meanwhile at the Chicago immigration rally, protesters blocked vehicles and 24 were arrested. A march in Santa Cruz damaged 18 businesses costing $100,000. In San Fran, 3 people were beaten by protesters. A pro-illegal protest outside the White House saw 35 arrested.
There’s an awful lot of Mexican flags waved proudly at those marches, which is odd for a group of people who claim to want to be part of America. Then there’s this — Mexican flag flow above an upside down flag at a protest: http://www.snopes.com/photos/politics/mexicoflag.asp
Perhaps a better post would have been this: Tea Partiers already get a bad rap, imagine if they acted like the pro-illegal demonstrators!
The disparity in arrests only prove the cops are racists. :[
Sort of reminds me of how diversity frequently only considers the looks of people. Have enough different shades of skin color and you’ve achieved “diversity” even if intellectually, and in terms of ideology, they’re it’s just slightly different shades of blue.
Yes Locke, so true! College campuses love to talk about diversity, as long they see a few different looking faces or languages. But if you start challenging the the “approved” set of ideas with thought and debate, they go beserk.