Paul LePage

LePage Spox Defends Governor's Referencing Of Black 'Son'

David Taintor | January 20, 2011, 8:40AM

Gov. Paul LePage (R-ME)

Ken Altshuler of WGAN radio in Maine grilled Gov. Paul LePage spokesperson Dan Demerrit on Wednesday over the governor's claim that he has an adopted black son.

It turns out that Devon Raymond Jr. is not technically LePage's adopted son, but he moved in with the LePage family in 2002.

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Paul LePage

Did Maine Gov. LePage Even Speak To NAACP About Visiting Only Black Prisoners?

David Taintor | January 20, 2011, 8:38AM

Maine Governor Paul LePage (R)

Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) apparently never spoke with local NAACP organizers over visiting black prisoners in jail, the Portland Press Herald reports. That conversation had served as the supposed justification for LePage's eventual "kiss my butt" diss to the NAACP.

LePage says the NAACP invited him to meet with black prisoners at a state prison on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, an offer he declined. He said he would only go if he could meet with all prisoners, but that it wasn't acceptable to them. When the NAACP criticized his non-participation, he told them to "kiss my butt."

But Maine NAACP director Rachel Talbot Ross told the Press Herald that the invitation fiasco never even happened.

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Paul LePage

LePage Attends MLK Day Event Despite 'Kiss My Butt' Remark

Jillian Rayfield | January 17, 2011, 11:38AM

Gov. Paul LePage (R-ME)

Maine Gov. Paul LePage made a surprise visit to a Martin Luther King Day event today despite his earlier refusal to attend an event hosted by the NAACP and his assertion that they can "kiss my butt."

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Maine

Maine Gov. LePage: NAACP Can 'Kiss My Butt'

Jillian Rayfield | January 14, 2011, 2:15PM

Gov. Paul LePage (R-ME)

Maine Gov. Paul LePage said that the NAACP can "kiss my butt" for criticizing his non-participation in Martin Luther King Day events.

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Tea Party Nation

Tea Party Nation Names DHS, NAACP Among 2010's 'Liberal Hate Groups'

Jillian Rayfield | December 30, 2010, 8:26AM

Judson Phillips, leader of Tea Party Nation.

Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips put out a list yesterday of the "top five liberal hate groups," because "while the Left loves to accuse the Tea Party and Conservatives to be members of hate groups [sic], the simple fact is, there are a lot of liberal hate groups." And who made the cut for the top five? The NAACP, the Department of Homeland Security, the ACLU, the SEIU, and of course, the Southern Poverty Law Center.

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Dick Armey

Tea Party Group Wants Jews, African Americans And Hispanics

Evan McMorris-Santoro | September 14, 2010, 8:30AM

Former Rep. Dick Armey (R-TX)

FreedomWorks, the big daddy of the tea party-sponsoring organizations, is the latest to make an attempt at shedding the movement's all-white image. The group recently announced DiverseTea, a targeted advertising and outreach campaign aimed at extending the tea party's reach into minority communities. After a summer of attacks on the tea party (most notably from the NAACP, which accused the tea party movement of harboring racist elements -- a criticism tea partiers reject out of hand), FreedomWorks is the latest to get on the diversity train.

"We do need to reach out," FreedomWorks president Matt Kibbe told me at a meeting sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor Monday. Kibbe said the new initiative will "build a platform" for tea party leaders from across the spectrum, including "African Americans, Jews, Hispanics," and others. Kibbe said that though it's important the group reach out, the talk of diversifying the tea party is more about changing the perception of the movement rather than the reality.

"There is this nagging perception that we are not diverse, and I disagree with that," he said. Kibbe told me after the meeting that the plethora of diverse voices on stage at rallies like Sunday's 9/12 meeting in Washington (where a virtually all-white crowd was regaled by numerous African American and Latino speakers) was part of a concerted effort to show minorities that they're welcome at tea party events.

[TPM SLIDESHOW: Tea Partiers Storm DC For Second (And Smaller) 9/12 Rally]

FreedomWorks chair Dick Armey -- the former congressman and bombastic public face of the organization -- was a bit more grumpy when it came to discussing the racial makeup of tea party crowds.

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Tea Party Express

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

Evan McMorris-Santoro | July 15, 2010, 6:43PM

Tea Party Express spokesperson Mark Williams.

The Tea Party Express' Mark Williams -- fresh off his claim that the NAACP makes "more money off of race than any slave trader, ever" -- took to his personal blog today to offer an at least racist-ish screed calling out the NAACP for continuing to use the word "Colored" in its name.

In the post, Williams calls NAACP President Ben Jealous "Tom's Nephew" and ties tea party calls for smaller government to "emancipation" (which, of course, is just steps away from the standard tea party line that Democratic policies amount to "tyranny.")

But the central theme centers around, as Williams writes, the "absurdity of a group that calls blacks 'Colored People' hurling charges of racism."

Here's a sample (the post is written in the form of a mock letter to President Abraham Lincoln from Jealous):

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Tea Party

Muslim Civil Rights Group Endorses NAACP Condemnation Of Tea Party For Harboring Racists

Evan McMorris-Santoro | July 15, 2010, 5:33PM

CAIR, the national group focused on protecting civil rights for the nation's Muslim population, is standing in support of the NAACP's resolution calling on Tea Party leaders to repudiate racism in their ranks. In a strongly-worded statement released this afternoon, CAIR spokesperson Ibrahim Hooper said that his group shares the NAACP's concerns about racist rhetoric found among tea partiers.

"If the Tea Party wishes to be taken seriously by mainstream Americans, it must repudiate all those who express or promote extremist, racist or bigoted views while claiming to be affiliated with the movement," he said.

The statement comes as the debate over building a Muslim community center and mosque near Ground Zero in Manhattan has fired up many groups on the right, some of whom have suggested letting Muslims worship near the site of the World Trade Center attacks is tantamount to letting the terrorists win.

For it's part, the NAACP resolution has produced a fair amount of outrage on the right with some tea party leaders suggesting it shows that the NAACP is itself a racist organization.

NAACP

Tea Party Leaders: We're Not Racist! The NAACP Is! (AUDIO)

Evan McMorris-Santoro | July 14, 2010, 2:16PM

Tea Party Express spokesperson Mark Williams.

Be prepared to be simply shocked: the fallout from yesterday's NAACP resolution condemning tea party racism has produced rhetoric from at least one tea partier that could be construed as racist.

Asked to respond to the NAACP resolution, which calls on national tea party leaders to repudiate the racism everyone has seen at some tea party rallies, Tea Party Express national spokesperson Mark Williams told NPR that NAACP leaders "make more money off of race than any slave trader ever."

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Tea Party

Right Wing Rallies Around Tea Party After NAACP Condemns Movement For Harboring Racists

Evan McMorris-Santoro | July 14, 2010, 8:38AM

Tea Party protesters on Capitol Hill

Conservative political groups and the NAACP have rarely been friendly. But their already cool relationship has taken a turn for the frosty in the past several days, as the NACCP took direct aim at the tea party movement at its national convention in Kansas City. Last night, delegates at the convention unanimously passed a resolution calling on the tea party movement to "repudiate the racist elements and activities" of its membership in the past.

The reaction from the right is as you'd imagine it.

Scattered incidents of bigotry at tea party rallies have been well documented over the last year, and even tea party leaders have admitted that racism -- among other nasty -isms and -obias -- can be found at tea party demonstrations. So to critics of the NAACP then, the argument essentially comes down this: tea party bigotry is tangential to the movement, not central to it.

NAACP president Benjamin Jealous agrees with that, and rejects the idea that the NAACP is taking on the ideals of all tea partiers.

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Economy

Progressives Warn Of Coming Crisis Unless More Is Done To Create Jobs

Evan McMorris-Santoro | November 17, 2009, 6:13PM

NAACP President Benjamin Jealous, National Council of La Raza President Janet Murguia, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka

Progressive groups representing millions of workers and minorities across the country assembled today to send a message to President Obama and Congress -- it's time to do more to create new jobs. The AFL-CIO, the NAACP and the National Council Of La Raza held a joint event today on what the groups called the "worst crisis in America today" -- unemployment. Leaders of each group called on Washington to put other priorities aside and immediately begin pumping billions into job creation programs the groups say will target the worst-hit in the economic downturn.

Overall unemployment stands at around 10%, according to the most recent numbers. In minority communities, the groups say, that number is far higher reaching as high as 16% for African Americans. The effects of the jobless rate are far-reaching in minority communities, the speakers said -- and could be a sign of things to come for the rest of the nation.

"Black people in this country are the canaries in the economic coal mine," said Benjamin Jealous, president of the NAACP. "In this country, we act like what's happening in one room doesn't affect what's happening in another. But what is happening in the black community is happening everywhere."

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