Click here to go to the Home Page
Click to send us your comments and suggestions.
Click to learn about the publishers of BlackCommentator.com and our mission.
Click to search for any word or phrase on our Website.
Click to sign up for an e-Mail notification only whenever we publish something new.
Click to remove your e-Mail address from our list immediately and permanently.
Click to read our pledge to never give or sell your e-Mail address to anyone.
Click to read our policy on re-prints and permissions.
Click for the demographics of the BlackCommentator.com audience and our rates.
Click to view the patrons list and learn now to become a patron and support BlackCommentator.com.
Click to see job postings or post a job.
Click for links to Websites we recommend.
Click to see every cartoon we have published.
Click to read any past issue.
Click to read any think piece we have published.
Click to read any guest commentary we have published.
Click to view any of the art forms we have published.
Comment and read the comments of others at Readers' Corner
Road Scholar - the world leader in educational travel for adults. Top ten travel destinations for African-Americans. Fascinating history, welcoming locals, astounding sights, hidden gems, mouth-watering food or all of the above - our list of the world’s top ten "must-see" learning destinations for African-Americans has a little something for everyone.

The Black Tea Partier… The American Pageant By Syreeta McFadden, BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board

 
 
 

Note: BlackCommentator.com welcomes Syreeta McFadden as a columnist and member of the Editorial Board.

At last year�s Tax Day Rally in New Dorp, Staten Island, I did in fact, meet ONE black Tea Party supporter and took his picture (above). I�m not sure if he�s still kickin� it with them today. He was a curious oddity to me. I don�t remember his name, but I do remember that he was a Cuban immigrant, naturalized American. And after a year of vitriol and obfuscation, I wonder if he is still aligned with this movement. A movement that at its heart invalidates his right to claim America as his home.

UPDATE:

So I got this comment on my rather benign commentary:

This man integrated, joined America � as proven by his being a Tea Partier � and no other Tea Party supporter would gainsay his status as a right and proper American.

Get over your racism and your hatred of all things White and all things truly American and maybe, just maybe, you�ll earn the same privilege.

I won�t hold my breath though.

I can accept a critique, but if this commenter were a regular reader of mine, he�d recognize that my supposed hatred of �all things White� is unfounded. I mean, seriously, who blogs about Procul Harum, Foo Fighters, and Bartleby, the Scrivener??? I don�t even need to unpack all the things wrong with that premise. Perhaps I do? I don�t know.

Yet, I had missed the findings of a recent poll from Quinnipiac University that breaks down the demographics of the Tea Party Movement:

� 74 percent are Republicans or independent voters leaning Republican;
� 16 percent are Democrats or independent voters leaning Democratic;
� 5 percent are solidly independent;
� 45 percent are men;
� 55 percent are women;
� 88 percent are white;
� 77 percent voted for Sen. John McCain in 2008

I don�t doubt that there are people of color who are part of the conservative movement, or the tea party movement. They�re entitled to their opinion and have the right to associate with an organization that compliments those beliefs. More power to them, even if it confuses me. However, I do have to question a movement that argues that my right to claim my American-ness is contingent upon my embracing white culture exclusively. I do have a right to question the intentions of a movement that failed to condone those who yelled racial and homophobic epithets at elected officials. We can disagree on the policy, even the politics, but again, from this commenter and the protesters, that�s not really the conversation or debate they want to have with someone like me.

On Meet the Press, Doris Kearns Goodwin said something that struck me. �The tone of recent time is troubling� But in the last 30 years or so to hear the racial epithets, the homophobia, when we thought were becoming a more tolerant society shows we have far way to go� People worrying the country is becoming un-homogeneous. There�s a lot of minorities out there. And that whites are fearful something going on.� She was referring also to Frank Rich�s column on March 27, 2010.

It also reminded me of something Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote awhile back during his close reading of Civil War history the following:

It makes sense when you think on the deep promise of white supremacy. Black equality is the promise of mortality for everyone. I ask it again, what are you in a world where a black man is president? Who knows what depths a man might go to cling to those last vestiges of Godhood? He would claim Obama�s Muslim. He would claim he isn�t a citizen. He would claim that Obama was not �really black� or not black in the �usual way. Anything to differentiate themselves from the teeming masses, anything to get away from he undying fact that in the hearts of all men, there is a Harlem.

White racism and fear have historically been used as wedge issues against social and economic reformation. This is not a new tactic. It�s old, trite even, like the cartoon circulating on the internet this weekend suggesting Obama raped the Statue of Liberty by signing health reform into law. A black man defiling Liberty; that pure, and iconic image of white culture. Smarter bloggers than me have written their analysis of that, so I don�t feel a need to rehash. Still, I can�t clearly articulate the policy objection from these people. There�s no entry point to find a middle ground. It�s all or nothing. I�m holding my ground.

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board Member Syreeta McFadden is a freelance writer and photographer living in Brooklyn, NY.  She is a graduate of Columbia University and Sarah Lawrence College. Her blog is bellewetherstate.com. You may find her photographs at syreetamcfadden.com. You can also visit her on twitter and facebook. Click here to contact Ms. McFadden.

 
 

Click here for facebook - Click here for twitter

 
 

If you would like to comment on this article, please do so below. There is a 400 character limit. You do not need a FaceBook account. Your comment will be posted here on BC instantly. Thanks.

Entering your email address is not mandatory. You may also choose to enter only your first name and your location.

 

e-Mail re-print notice
If you send us an emaill message we may publish all or part of it, unless you tell us it is not for publication. You may also request that we withhold your name.

Thank you very much for your readership.

Any BlackCommentator.com article may be re-printed so long as it is re-printed in its entirety and full credit given to the author and www.BlackCommentator.com. If the re-print is on the Internet we additionally request a link back to the original piece on our Website.

 

April 15, 2010
Issue 371

is published every Thursday
Executive Editor:
David A. Love, JD
Managing Editor:
Nancy Littlefield
Publisher:
Peter Gamble
Est. April 5, 2002
Printer Friendly Version in resizeable plain text format
Comment and read the comments of others at Readers' Corner
click here to buy & benefit BC