Tea Party Express' Mark Williams: NAACP's Use Of 'Colored' Makes It Racist

Because nothing says "not racist" quite like white folks making fun of black folks and their primary civil rights organization.

Mark Williams must own a shovel factory.

Sweet Jesus! This is one of the things that I knew was going to happen when these Tea Party folks started talking about the NAACP. To them, the NAACP sprang into existence in 2008 and before that, I doubt that 90% of them knew that august organization existed.

Since there are some Tea Party people who are going to post in defense of this statement and try to argue that the NAACP is racist because it uses the term 'colored'.

That was the term that was in common use in 1909 when the organization was founded. Since then we have gone through a number of iterations (pretty much one a generation) used for blacks...colored-->negro--black--afro-american--african american. Given this historical fact, one can see that the NAACP isn't going to rebrand itself. Just as 20th century Fox didn't rebrand itself 21st century Fox in 2001.

The fake letter to Lincoln says far more about the Tea Party than all of their press releases.

And to the Tea Partiers who like to troll here...

Half of all black people in America are middle-class. We earned our way there in spite of opposition from people with the mindset on display in the fake letter above.

Black people aren't looking for a handout unless you define a handout as knocking it off with the stereotypes, assumptions and outright hostile behavior.

Your assumption that black people don't want to work is a long-standing stereotype and is racist at its core.

Your assumption that black people just want a handout is a long-standing steroetype and is racist at its core.

Your assumption that black people don't pay taxes, don't work hard, don't contribute to society or if we do we are the 'exception' in a race of free riders and sloths is racist at its core.

Your assumption that black people do not and cannot think for ourselves or do not want to is a stereotype and racist to its core.

There is NOTHING in that 'letter' that has not been said about black people since the very first of us set foot on these shores.

And one more thing, since I'm in a truth-telling mood. The following are all true, since the Tea Party likes to pretend that 1960 was the pre-Cambrian era.

1) I am the first member of my family (immediate or extended) to *never* spend a day in a segregated classroom.
2) I am the first member of my family to have only ever lived in integrated neighborhoods.
3) I am the first member of my family to have never known a day I couldn't go to the library or the public pool because blacks weren't allowed on that day.
4) I am the first member of my family to have no memory of using a 'colored only' restroom or taking a drink of water from a 'colored only' water fountain.
5) I was born in 1967

So, you really going to say that 1967--a mere 43 years, just two generations--is ancient history beyond the living memory of any person who isn't senile and so what's the big deal? More than half the people at Tea Party rallies--from what I can tell both from media and locally--are more than 10 years my senior. Which means, depending upon where they grew up, they *do* remember the water fountains, the colored only restrooms, and all the other accouterments of segregation. You going to tell me that it's all water under the bridge and something no living person remembers? Really?

Was there a single non-white person in that crowd?

This is getting a bit frightening, these people are like a powder keg with a wet fuse and a box of old matches.

Here's hoping that fuse stays wet.

I know I'm gonna catch alot of heat for what im about to say but i don't see anything wrong with what he(mark) said. it seems to me that The Naacp only wants to promote a socialist agenda and will label whoever disagrees with the as racists! The Naacp should be ashamed of themselves

Wow. These remarks are simply unbelievable.

And even more so, since the Tea Party Express is a creature of the establishment (it's a FreedomWorks creation). It's not one of the grassroots Tea Party groups.

This should be running on every TV news show. Will it be?

Interesting that even most of the comments on his blog are against him. It's also been posted to the Tea Party Nation forum where there are several anti-NAACP threads, we'll see what they say.

I'm surprised that they aren't saying that the "C" in NAACP is spelled 'Coloured' and claiming that they not only does that word being used imply racism, but unAmericanism as well.

Martin Luther King is rolling in his grave. Why?
Benjamin Todd Jealous is president and CEO of the NAACP and says Anthony “Van” Jones is a “National Treasure." While Van Jones may have left the White House under a cloud, the NAACP says that’s not his whole story. The group considers him a pioneering hero for the environment and civil rights — so much so that it awarded him one of its highest honors: an NAACP Image Award. It’s a move that stoked the fire from Jones critics. Jones resigned in September 2009 from his position on the Council on Environmental Quality, under a firestorm of criticism over a petition he had signed. The NAACP keeps saying he is the most misunderstood man. I'm trying to figure out exactly where he's misunderstood. Is he misunderstood because he's a 9/11 Truther? Is he misunderstood because he's a self avowed communist? Is he misunderstood because he is a guy who defended Mumia Abu Jamal, the cop killer? Let's see. Is he understood because he wants a revolution? I'm trying to figure out how he's misunderstood. How is he misunderstood? We know where Van Jones stands on Marx. The question I have now is: Where does the NAACP stand on Marx?Where does the "NEW" NAACP stand on the Black Panther party? Does the NAACP's timing seem strange considering the November election is just around the corner? The NAACP would never use "the race card" would they?

Well it has finally happened and I am glad. The racists have finally come out of the closet after being relieved of their "freedoms" by the civil rights laws of the sixties. It must have been so painful to see the country "taken away" since and blacks got the "right" get welfare? How does a program that funds more poor white people than the entire black population of this country become the equivalent of affirmative action for lazy Negroes who don't have a nice dialect?

Older African American have told me in some ways social interactions with whites easy because the civil rights era since you knew 9/10s times you would be seen as subhuman. The percentage of those who feel that way has definitely dropped, but the people who still do say are very,very loud and those of you of good conscience are very, very quiet. Calling out the folks who still yearn for Dixie on a blog is fine but where are the politicians when it comes to denouncing this rhetoric? Where are the Democrats or God forbid Republicans politicians who will tell the fools that there is no place left for this in America? Where are the other groups of conscious who condemn this rhetoric? As I said I am glad they have finally come out of hiding and the question is are you going to let them speak for all of you or is anyone going to stand for the fact that blacks became full citizens of this country and an injury to American is an injury to all?

Today the University of Texas(Texas Gosh Darn It!) voted to remove the name of dorm which had been named after a former law professor who was an active member of the KKK. It should be remembered that the KKK hated not only Blacks, but Jews and Roman Catholics(Papists!). Today's haters focus on Muslims and immigrants. They tell the Big Lies, just like the Nazis: Obama is a Socialist/Obama isn't and American. All America's problems are the fault of immigrants or affirmative action or a Jewish conspiricy or fill in the blanks. The Right Wing Reactionaries, who flock to the Tea Party, don't believe in the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution. They believe in lies, hatred(blame some minority for all our problems), and their own power. Nazis. Haters. Liars.

As far as I know, "colored" is not a racist word, never has been. Neither is "negro". They may be a little out-dated, but not offensive.

Of course tea-party is racist. They are just more clever now and know how to disquise thier "real" intentions, but only for awhile. People catch on sooner or later. You will know them by their fruit!

This whole thing is stupid and so negative. Our country has drifted away from our founding principles and the Constitution. That is the purpose behind the True Tea Party Movement. I'm NOT a racist and i dont agree with the comments that Mr. William made, nor do I believe for a moment that they describe the Tea Party or its memebers. It seems that everybody is lying in wait to spring the racism card, instead of concentrating on the real areas that we need to work on to get our country back on her feet! We are ALL Americans, and shouldnt separate ourselves with a prefex/suffix. Interesting how the enemies of our great Republic don't care what race or creed we are, they are out to kill us all and look at us all as Americans! Why is it that our enemies can just lump us all together as one people, and we can't? They dont differentiate between killing African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, Irish-Americans...et all...Time for intelligent thought and conversation. Time to not get into the same predicament and have people represent us that do not truly represent us. Time to stand up as Americans and roll up our sleeves and get things fixed. so many of these other problems that are important will heal as well once we get the important Principles back into play and steer clear of the current socialistic course that will puposely attempt to pit us all against each other, be it with racism or any other issue,to take our time and focus and distract us with these idiotic rhetorics and squabbles while our freedoms are taken away

Oh, brothers! We have all gathered here, to preserve our hallowed culture and heritage! We aim to pull evil up by the root, before it chokes out the flower of our culture and heritage! And our women, let's not forget those ladies, y'all. Looking to us for protection! From darkies, from Jews, from papists, and from all those smart-ass folks say we come descended from monkeys!

Soooo, he basically responds to being called a racist by mocking the NAACP and explicitly accusing the entire population of "colored" people of being lazy low-life societal parasites...and does it in a fake letter to the man who freed them, using an insulting and stereotypical approximation of "slave speak" english that sounds like a hackneyed actor in a bad stage rendition of Roots? And on top of that, 61% of people receiving welfare and other forms of social assistance are neither "colored" nor illegal aliens...they're white. Of course, alot of them still vote for the people spouting this nonsense. Sigh...it's like standing between two mirrors reflecting irony back at one another...it goes on and on and on to infinity.

Welcome to the bizzaro world of the Tea Baggers and the Republican party.

Up is down, torture is humane, and racist slogans are fodder for humor.

It's a magical land where a 50 cent US flag pin made in Communist China transforms you into a patriot.

It's a country where the US Constitution is supreme, except for those parts that we don't like.

It's a place of Biblical rebirth where the US Supreme Court can turn legal incorporation documents into real human beings.

Say the Tea Baggers: "We're not racists, because we say so. Just ignore our signs, our words, and our deeds."

Since I will be burned at the stake for claiming to be part of the "tea party" movement (which is 50% Republican background, 30% Democrat background and 20% independent background), I will just say that the ideals of small, limited government is common sense and an over-extending government is tyrannical indeed.

But the stereotype on racism is that whites are hating on blacks. Racism occurs every day, through different mediums. I am a white man and let me tell you, I have suffered racism first hand. It's degrading, it's pure hatred and if we keep playing the blame game, nothing will get better.

So we can all cry a river about the tea party or NAACP, or some other entity, but these conclusions I see people jump to are ridiculous. Tea Party people are not some people living in a cabin out in the woods. People know what the NAACP is. Also, as much as the liberal leaning meaning likes to label, and as much as Fox likes to claim, the tea party is a discombobulated group not affiliated with the Republican party.

Go outside and talk to your family, friends and neighbors. Start the dialogue and quit hating...no matter where you lie on the political spectrum.

I graduated high school in 1965. I went to all white schools all my life. My school was finally integrated in 1966 with one black student. I remember the white/black only signs, the one day a week that blacks were allowed to patronize some businesses and the sections of town they were relegated to. Blacks in Hillsborough County, FL were given the least funds for their schools which were far too few to cover the numbers, and textbook hand-me-downs among other things. Was I a racist when growing up? Yes, I was. I learned it from the society that raised me. After the 1964 Civil Rights Act segregation continued for years.

I'm in my 60's now and must confess that I didn't move away from racist attitudes at the speed of light but I did move away.

Suffice to say I was there in the days of segregation and know racism's ugly banner is flying high with the TP. Most all my friends are white and some really like the TP. I've had some frank conversations and I can quarantee you that a lot White folks still have a problem with race, primarily with blacks. Here in Hillsborough, County, the dark skinned Hispanics went to white schools. It was the blacks that were segregated, at least in Tampa. Light skinned blacks were segregated, also.

I've heard all the rhetoric of race since I was kid. With the TP, if you're a racist, you have your best chance of getting "respectability" for being ignorant, IMHO.

BTW, the NAACP was created in response to all the lynchings of black people that occured around the turn of the 20th century.

Some advice to the TP folks out there: study at least something of black history in America before you dismiss the black experience in America. It's fascinating and disturbing because as you learn something about black Americans you will also learn something about white America. Most whites don't have the courage to face that truth. And that explains the dismissive, ignorant remarks the TP followers are posting on this board.

The letter is just a meaner version of the phony Welfare Cadillac story that Reagan used. There's nothing new about the Tea Party other than that they are Republicans in costume with big mouths and small brains.

There have been so many closeted racists for so long it must be a terrible shock to them to have the closet door suddenly flung open and the light turned on. There they are, scurrying about like cockroaches in a New York kitcne when the kitchen light goes on at 1a.m.

Unlike cockroaches, who, I doubt have any sense of guilt, there they are- citizens who have hidden in plain sight suddenly finding themselves center stage, in the brightest spotlight. It has to be terribly awkward for them poor babies. I'm simply oozing schadenfreude.

I would like to see all the media join together in reducing the tea bangers to appropriate news commentary:

The local Tea Baggers in (wherever) staged a demonstration...
They carried signs and milled around...

They went home...

It's amazing!! I thought the teabaggers were all about making sure we had "less" government and 'getting their America back'. So, if this is so important to them, why are they worried about what another black grassroots organization is saying or doing?

What truly baffles me is that we don't see how we're recycling history. It's like we're caught in a loop and everyone is afraid to just break the circle. Remember the gay beatings of the early 1900's, or the Suffrage Movement? Then there was the Migrant Worker Deportation, then Civil Rights. Shortly after, Hippies, war, wiretappings, and once again we're at the beginning. Prop8, AZ Illegal Law, with all of the previously mentioned scattered about in the shadows of the current media freak shows, and now, some TEA-NUT is worried about what some other organization is doing instead of focusing on their mission.

Racism is real in this country and yes people are affected by it. I, too was one of the first in my family in my generation to attend an intergrated school. And my grandparents, great-grands and great-great grandparents could ALL read and write and sign their names with the actual name and NOT a damn "X". But, the people administering the voter's registration test when I was a baby in my grandparents' arms couldn't read the paragraph they demanded the blacks to read and couldn't sign their own names. You'll find plenty of "X's" in the archives of many registrar's offices all throughout the south.

We're recycling history and this time, the Klan have decided to just come out open faced. We need to stop feeding into their madness and ignore them. They will say enough and insert the proverbial foot enough times that whatever potential followers they could've had, will finally see they are CERTIFIABLE.

Conservatism should be applied to the economy and liberalism should be applied to social issues, IMHO. Certainly there is an overlap of those two approaches. The GOP rode the TP crest of the wave to their disadvantage and some Republicans who have lost elections are now crying foul about the TP.

Populism is giving the people what they want at the time they want it. The Constitution structured government in order to avoid this.

Let's be adult enough to dialogue above contorted, however imaginative, discourse. If we, in this supposed forum for engaging political debate, do not uphold a suitable standard, then each of us participates in a form of traitorous behavior. Those whose alliances share grips with a separationist corporate entity and mindset that values capitalism and free market ethics are not wrong or right w/o qualification. Indeed the qualification to such views beckons back to that overarching, majestic, and supreme ethos that both gave birth to America and then was used to allow less savory forces to undermine a democratic project awaiting its day in the sun. That ethos is of, for, and by the people. "The People" is made a shallow idea when the nation's entire populace is abandoned for exclusionary definitions, however mystifying, deceptive, and difficult to deconstruct. The "Tea Party" assumes just another of the many definitions that attempt to gain~by~exclusion; so too is the NAACP's concept, for that matter, a low and offensive interpretation of who its Charter was dedicated to represent. The vilified New Black Panther Party is equally wrong for its partisan politic but not any more so than the others. President 0bama's failure has been a flagrant loss of visionary, unimpeded, undiluted. uncompromised focus on what should be an "Indivisible" polity.

Let me speak to this failure. America is a large family and at present President B. H. 0bama is the symbolic and elected 'Father' of this nation. Like any big family, there are Cain and Able children whose directions chart almost predictable and opposite paths. I tend to see these factions as the Can't and Can twins. But this family is larger than those two alone. The Family Tree is nearly infinite except for the finite and amalgamating force and VISI0N of the Father. This view can be sabbotaged with compelling and distractive gender commentary that begs a Mother figure but we are adults speaking about Leadership in its highest form and more importantly Followship at the lowest stations in society and should not be distracted by mimetically descending reification of symbolism and interpretive abstraction. Too easily we forget that our nation was formed by the valued efforts of folks that were, for the most part, rejects and expendible in their homeland. Nevertheless, the 1st Founding Fathers appealed to these lowly citizens and attempted unity of purpose and vision, of reason, and most importantly, the appeal stressed "of, for, and by, THE PE0PLE." I believe the president has this in mind but his communication of the vision is sorely lacking ~~ We're dividing again! Maybe Mother's voice is needed, maybe children will always disunite and fight, maybe there is a favorate son or daughter corrupting the family, but our national identity is on the global stage and we as a people are making fools of ourselves. I think FATHER needs to speak up!

Father needs to not be the "racial coward" his appointee so eloquently spoke of when describing 0UR nation. Why not simply tell (or inform) the important Tea Party that they masquerade and hide Whiteness as their secret identity and that this charade hinders their Democratic message and purpose. Why not let Republicans know in fearless assistance, that capitalism and free market posturing has failed so terribly that economic theory has undermined Democracy. Why not challenge the nation to own~up to an age old obligation to retify the 400 year trick played on Black people. This is the problem Democrats face.

Alethic is the word for speaking truth to power and 0UR Father must be courageous if the nation is to be set strait. Absent his determination, the next years will be filled with the downfall of America and other countries will feast at the carcass of a polity, like organs of a sick body, feasting on itself. I suggest Michael Parenti's "Democracy of the Few" be declared a national gift and sent to every household so we As a People can elevate our national consciousness against that which will soon fall as a Plague on this nation's future ~~ GREED.

WE ARE A NATI0N 0F TRAIT0RS AND C0WARDS T0 HUMANITY AND THE SURVIVAL 0F EARTH AND ALL G0D HAS BEST0WED UP0N HUMANKIND. I suggest that all the hopes of humanity, in my prophetic Declaration, lies first with HAITI ~~ THE FIRST PLAGUE IGN0RED BY GREAT AMERICA!

It is obvious that freerider is not interested in debating an issue, but is more determined to provoke some sort of emotional response. There is a simple solution to being confronted with a lengthy post. It you think it is too long, Don’t Read It.

To pile on free rider because of his need for brevity, is foolish. He has not taken issue with the lady’s position, but rather ridiculed her for lengthy posts.

If the post is too long then I may assume free rider did not read it. If he read it then he must have found it interesting enough to capture his attention, which would tend to disprove his position. If he did not read it then he would have no way to effectively take a position either pro or con.

I find it a waste of time to engage in an argument, that cannot possible arrive at a conclusion. If I were the lady, I would just ignore his comments. They in no way diminish the lady’s position, consequently, why prolong a senseless war of meaningless words.

0wen & BigJim both deserve a reply.
BigJim's comments continues a result even while appearing to be rational about FreedomRider's (dis)position. The result is a (dis)traction to the issues at hand ~~ P0PULAR RACISM versus CRITICAL RACE.

I add the parentheticals above to highlight a constrasting figure of speech that is frequently hidden so the reader can ask;
(A) Does FreeRider actually have a position or the opposite, i.e., a disposition? and,
(B) Does 0wen's remarks give traction to the Tea Party behavior or to the NAACP reaction?

Allow me to focus a bit, and say, that neither Colored nor colored, in historical context or not, is the paramount issue. What I think most salient is our ability to sit by and see behaviors that are condoned or not. These forums go that extra mile by giving voice to some in either camp. It is my sense that not only are the reading audience members basically signing the relaxed racism petition, but A0L and most posters do the same, i.e., there is too little condemnation of what I and many others consider patently RACIST.