The media has done their best to portray Tea Parties as racist. CBS Sunday Morning did a piece on the Tea Parties and included a poll question that said that 52% of Tea Party attendees think there's too much attention given to the plight of black Americans. The only possible reason for asking and reporting that question was to taint the Tea Parties with a whiff of racism.
NBC reporterette Kelly O'Donnell questioned a black Tea Party attendee to ask him if he "felt uncomfortable" at the gathering. His reply:
No, these are my people. Americans.Exactly.
It's not the fault of the Tea Party organizers that black Americans aren't choosing to be involved. A community which votes more than 90% for Democrat candidates clearly isn't going to be interested in something that promotes self-reliance and smaller government. Sadly, a huge majority of the black community has been convinced that they cannot make it in this world without the benevolent hand of big government tossing money their way. Not enough to improve their lives, but just enough to stagger along at the same poor standard of living. Freedom and liberty sound great to most of us, but to people who have become dependent on government freedom is a scary thing.
It's sad to think that a people that only 150 years ago experienced physical slavery in many parts of this country now is subject to economic slavery at the hands of the Democrat party. If they can ever break free from that, they'll find the Tea Party movement a very welcoming place.
UPDATE: Just a random follow-up thought: Did the media ever ask anyone why there were no white people at Louie Farrakhan's Million Man March?
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4 comments:
I disagree, Rick. Blacks are not avoiding the Tea Parties because they are getting government money. The relationship is cultural. There's (at present) tremendous pressure on blacks to support the Democrat party and to step outside that takes enormous courage.
Or at least I think so. I generally do not discuss politics where I live because doing so would make my life miserable, living as I do in a place where my views are out-numbered two to one. You wouldn't believe things I've heard from my friends -- let alone from total strangers.
I can sympathize with blacks on this issue totally, and I admire so much those brave souls willing to face ostracism by attending the Tea Parties. Indeed, they embolden me. I've been speaking my mind more of late, inspired by their example.
I worked in the Long Beach area and dealt with a large number of those in the Black race. A large number of these people were on Welfare programs, now tell me why they would be interested in joining up with a Tea Party which just might be able to shrink Big Government and possibly reduce Welfare benefits. They don't want to bite the hand which has been feeding them.
Ann - I agree there's cultural pressure on blacks to support Democrats, but that gets back to the question of why that pressure exists. I'm firmly of the opinion that Democrats have been telling black America for decades that they are their financial lifeline and therefore voting against Democrats is voting against their own pocketbook.
The amazing thing is Democrats can continue to get away with that despite promising much and delivering little.
Note that in the following I DON'T KNOW WHAT THE FACTS ARE, but I wonder what the ratios of the "races" at Tea Party meetings is in comparison to the ratios in the general population in the area is.
I recall seeing an analysis that showed that the mix of other qualities (age, income, gender, etc) was about the same, meeting to general population.
I mean blacks are said to be a minority in the general population so it isn't surprising that they are a minority in the meetings.
And as test of the theory proposed here, what are the comparative populations of food-stamp recipients?
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