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Jesse Jackson, Al Shapton downplay NAACP’s tea-party criticism

The Rev. Jesse Jackson (left) listened as the Rev. Al Sharpton spoke to reporters about the tea party movement Wednesday at the NAACP’s national convention at Bartle Hall.

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Two prominent African-American leaders on Wednesday downplayed criticism of the tea-party movement after conservatives nationwide took aim at an NAACP resolution alleging “elements” of tea-party racism.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson told reporters in Kansas City that the focus on the tea party was a “diversion” from more important issues, while NAACP President Ben Jealous said the resolution was just a small part of a bigger agenda and blamed the media for focusing too much on the tea party.

“I give a 42-page speech. Half a page is focused on the tea party,” Jealous said. “We need the media to pay attention to the issues that are most important to this country” such as jobs, education and crime.

Conservatives reacted angrily after learning of the resolution, approved by delegates at the NAACP’s national convention this week in Kansas City.

“The charge that Tea Party Americans judge people by the color of their skin is false, appalling, and is a regressive and diversionary tactic to change the subject at hand,” former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin said in a statement on a Facebook page.

Columnist Cynthia Tucker, who is black, called the resolution “inappropriate, narrow-minded and divisive,” while Timothy Johnson of the Frederick Douglass Foundation said “the NAACP no longer speaks for the average African-American … the Tea Party movement has nothing to do with race.”

An NAACP spokesman said the exact words of the tea-party resolution were not available Wednesday evening, and might not be available until October, when the NAACP board meets to consider ratifying the language.

But spokesman Chris Fleming said: “We’re not condemning the tea party at all…. We’re condemning some racist elements within the movement.”

The Rev. Al Sharpton of the National Action Network said tea partiers emphasized states’ rights, which he said would lead to more discrimination against minorities. But he said the civil rights community should respond to the tea-party movement with its own activities and marches. “I’m not mad at the tea party for rallying,” Sharpton said. “I’m mad that we’re not rallying .…We’ve given them center stage.”

Sharpton and others at a news conference urged supporters to participate in a march in Washington in October. And they said they would organize protests around a march in August by conservative talk show host Glenn Beck.

Beck’s march is meant in part to commemorate the August 1963 March on Washington involving the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

To reach Dave Helling, call 816-234-4656 or send e-mail to dhelling@kcstar.com.

Rev. Al Sharpton denounces New York Post editorial cartoon as racistCivil rights leader says chimpanzee-stimulus bill depiction is a clear insult at President Barack Obama
18Share TopicsWashingtonDemocratic PartyAl SharptonSee more topics »
—James JanegaFebruary 19, 2009
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The New York Post on Wednesday defended an editorial cartoon by Sean Delonas that depicted two gun-toting police officers and the caption “They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill” as they stood over a dead chimpanzee.
The Post said it referenced a pet chimp named Travis who was shot to death Monday after attacking a houseguest in Connecticut. But civil rights organizers—prominently including Rev. Al Sharpton—denounced it as a racist insult aimed at President Barack Obama.
“The cartoon is a clear parody of a current news event, to wit the shooting of a violent chimpanzee in Connecticut. It broadly mocks Washington’s efforts to revive the economy,” said Post Editor in Chief Col Allan.
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Nevertheless, the cartoon underscored powerful and well-studied stereotypes of African-Americans, said Andrew Rojecki, an associate professor of communication at the University of Illinois at Chicago and co-author of “The Black Image in the White Mind.”
“The cops are saying, ‘Someone’s going to have to write the next stimulus bill.’ Well, who wrote the last stimulus bill? It’s Obama and the Democratic Party, but really it’s associated with one person—and that’s Obama,” Rojecki said. “It’s a crude joke. … It’s pretty transparent to me.”
All day, the cartoon and response to it chewed up comment boards and phone banks. A switchboard operator at the Post referred calls to an outside public relations firm. On his Web site, Sharpton called the cartoon racially charged and troubling. He asked for a clarification from the Post and a reprimand for Delonas.
“Being that the stimulus bill has been the first legislative victory of President Barack Obama [the first African-American president] and has become synonymous with him, it is not a reach to wonder whether the Post cartoonist was inferring that a monkey wrote it?” Sharpton said in his statement.
Allan dismissed the criticism.
“Again, Al Sharpton reveals himself as nothing more than a publicity opportunist,” Allan said.Get news, sports, and entertainment alerts on your mobile phone >>Copyright © 2010, Chicago Tribune
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NAACP Says Tea Party Tolerates Racism

Tea Party Members Counter That There’s No Support for Racists in Their Ranks; Palin Blasts Charge on Facebook

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Tea Party vs. NAACP

A showdown of sorts has emerged between the politically conservative Tea Party and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. John Dickerson reports on this growing feud.

Tea Party supporters have been accused of shouting racial slurs at rallies.  (CBS)

PHOTO ESSAY

Tea Party Protests

Tea Party supporters gather in Washington on Tax Day to protest government spending and taxation

STORIES

Billboard Linking Obama to Hitler, Lenin Removed

Liberals Join Forces to Counter Tea Party

(CBS)  The Tea Party tolerates racists, says the NAACP, and they point to signs allegedly made by Tea Party supporters are proof. Members of the civil rights organization passed a resolution at their annual convention calling on Tea Party leaders to “repudiate those in their ranks who use racist language in their signs and speeches.”

“The Tea Party as a political philosophy is to reverse what civil rights did, and that is say the federal government must help people,” said National Action Netwook president Al Sharpton.

The NAACP also claims activists shouted a racial slur at congressman John Lewis during a health care protest last march, reports CBS News political analyst John Dickerson.

NAACP Passes Tea Party Racism Resolution

On her Facebook page, Sarah Palin, a supporter of the movement, called the charge “false, appalling” and a “regressive and diversionary tactic.”

Organizers of the anti-tax and anti-government Tea Party movement such as Freedomworks president Matt Kibbe say they have already made it clear they do not tolerate racism.

“We will not tolerate any kind of hate in our groups and that if you see it in the community you need to call them out,” he said.

Sometimes it’s the community’s leaders who go too far. The Iowa Tea Party purchased a billboard in downtown Mason City comparing Barack Obama to Hitler and Vladmir Lenin. The group has since covered it up, saying it was “counterproductive.”

Partisans comparing a president to Hitler is not unique to the current president – George W. Bush has been compared to Hitler – and Tea Party activists say the NAACP is making this incendiary charge for political reasons.

“They’re trying to mobilize voters in an election that looks very bad for Democrats,” said Kibbe.

The core supporters of both political parties are now in a battle with each other over one of the country’s most sensitive subjects: race. Now an already contentious election year has now gotten more contentious.

More on the Tea Party:

Rep.: Protesters Yelled Racial Slurs

NAACP to Vote on Resolution Condemning “Racist Elements” of the Tea Party

Tea Party Supporters: Who They Are and What They Believe

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