Racisms and Tea Partiers

[Magic_Marker]

Imagine if the tea party was black

Let?s play a game, shall we? The name of the game is called ?Imagine.? The way it?s played is simple: we?ll envision recent happenings in the news, but then change them up a bit. Instead of envisioning white people as the main actors in the scenes we?ll conjure - the ones who are driving the action - we?ll envision black folks or other people of color instead. The object of the game is to imagine the public reaction to the events or incidents, if the main actors were of color, rather than white. Whoever gains the most insight into the workings of race in America, at the end of the game, wins.

So let?s begin.

Imagine that hundreds of black protesters were to descend upon Washington DC and Northern Virginia, just a few miles from the Capitol and White House, armed with AK-47s, assorted handguns, and ammunition. And imagine that some of these protesters ?the black protesters ? spoke of the need for political revolution, and possibly even armed conflict in the event that laws they didn?t like were enforced by the government? Would these protester ? these black protesters with guns ? be seen as brave defenders of the Second Amendment, or would they be viewed by most whites as a danger to the republic? What if they were Arab-Americans? Because, after all, that?s what happened recently when white gun enthusiasts descended upon the nation?s capital, arms in hand, and verbally announced their readiness to make war on the country?s political leaders if the need arose.

Imagine that white members of Congress, while walking to work, were surrounded by thousands of angry black people, one of whom proceeded to spit on one of those congressmen for not voting the way the black demonstrators desired. Would the protesters be seen as merely patriotic Americans voicing their opinions, or as an angry, potentially violent, and even insurrectionary mob? After all, this is what white Tea Party protesters did recently in Washington.

Imagine that a rap artist were to say, in reference to a white president: ?He?s a piece of shit and I told him to suck on my machine gun.? Because that?s what rocker Ted Nugent said recently about President Obama.


[...]

I goes on from there. I had previous thought that racism was likely just a fringe of the tea party. I was safe in thinking these people were crazy for other reasons but 'racist' was in danger of a personal insult for the sake of it. I believe the author makes a great point that once you colour in the skin, things seem very different.

Discuss.

[Krylo]

That doesn't make the Tea Partiers racist, it makes the instit...

You know what? Fuck it. Prems will come in here soon enough and save me the trouble.

[DFM]

I don't think anybody actually thinks the Teabaggers are noble patriots standing up for the real Amerika.

[Donomni]

This more or less is the major problem with our country today.

Most of the complaints about Obama and how he runs things aren't based on any actual fact, but racism or misdirection through racists(My mom isn't racist, but all the bullshit she thinks about Obama most likely came from a racist).

I don't think any of us could've predicted Obama becoming president would be taken so negatively.

Seriously, I'm still kinda surprised.

[Pip Boy]

I already think that the Tea Partiers are a bunch of stupid violent rednecks. Between the racists, the conspiracy theorists, and overall morons, that associate themselves with the Tea Party (bowel) Movement, it doesn't have all that much credibility left. People are just bitching because the majority doesn't agree with them, therefore the majority must be communist/nazi/socialist/terrorist/*insert meaningless derogatory propaganda here*.

[Fifthfiend]

The tea partiers are the same small handful of morons that went apeshit the last time a Democrat was president, as always encouraged by a media which loves to pretend their retarded antics are in any way significant or meaningful.

Literally the largest organized protests in history against Bush's fuck-stupid wars rate a passing mention on the nightly news, but maybe a hundred thousand or so well-off, corporate-backed assholes dress up in wigs and Oh! watch the jizz start to fly over the Fox/CNN newsdesks.

[Whomper]

As a rather common sensical gentleman once told me:

Haters gon' hate.

[Ecks]

Political revolution was all well and good back in the day. Y'know, when it was NECESSARY. The most these... Tea Whatevers are going to accomplish is to piss off the educated citizens (more or less explaining our reaction). This is just the Red Scare with a different scapegoat. If you don't hate Obama, you're a socialist. If you don't hate his policies, you're a socialist. Socialist, socialist, socialist.

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

Originally Posted by EckScizor

Political revolution was all well and good back in the day. Y'know, when it was NECESSARY.

Hang on a minute there... I'm pretty sure the world is going down a craphole pretty fast.

[Aerozord]

now I think according to first ammendment these people can do any crazy non-violent protest they want. I even encourage pointing out that if need be citizens will rise up and bring down the goverment.

I also think this is very extreme actions for minor issues, but hey, their right as americans to complain and make those complaints known. But what the hell does this have to do with racism. While I stand by what I said about freedom of speach I do not know how your stance would change depending on race. If someone talks about killing the president you'd either feel he should be arrested for threatening the president or allowed to vent his displeasure. Race shouldn't be the deciding factor in your reaction and it honestly suprises me that there are people that think it is even viewed as one

seriously am I missing something because I am trying this thought experiment and imagine public reaction being pretty much the same over all