Racial Slander of the Tea Party Movement

Over the weekend, four members of the Black Caucus of the House of Representatives told a story of being called by the n-word 15 times as they walked through Tea Party demonstrators on Saturday.  These Representatives were John Lewis, Andre Carson, Emanuel Cleaver, and James Clyburn, the House Majority Whip.  This story was repeated by much of the media, including Bill O'Reilly on Fox News.  Emanuel Cleaver said he was spit upon.  They went on to say that a demonstrator was detained by the police, but then turned loose after consultation with Rep. Cleaver.  The story also said that men encountering this ill-behavior were stretched out as they walked through the crowd and all heard the same behavior.

This does not sound like the kind of behavior I have seen when I was at three different Tea Party protests in Washington, D.C.  There were black Tea Party demonstrators in each case and there were black speakers at at least two of them.  There were also black people selling the Gadsden "Don't Tread on Me" flags at each event.  At the 4th of July event a large banner opposing the Tea Party demonstrators and chanting "Health Care Now" was carried through the crowd and no one did anything more than chant back at them.  I saw nothing but normal human respect for the black people present.  In fact, it seemed clear to me that many there were very happy that some black Americans share our American values.

There are a lot of Tea Party people and a few are a bit odd, as a few of any large group of people are.  I have met many racial bigots who are Democrats and many who are radical left Democrats.  In fact, I have often noted that there is very little respect for blacks and Hispanics among other Democrats who believe blacks and Hispanics have less ability to manage their own lives than other Americans do and hence need special favors from the government.  This is clearly a very profound disrespect for black and Hispanic Americans, based on nothing but their race.  Therefore, it is racism.  May there be, or is it probable that there are, a few racists among the Tea Party people?  The answer is likely yes.  But, the essence of the Tea Party movement is that the vast majority of Americans are capable of managing their own lives in a responsible way and that they do not want government to take over the direction of their lives.  So, not surprisingly, and very much contrary to a common claim from the left, racism is not a common characteristic of Tea Party people.

There is a video of the four black Congressmen passing by the Tea Party demonstrators.  Rather than being strung out as in their testimony, they were clumped together.  They do not give any appearance of being threatened.  I have listened to the video over and over and I cannot make out any use of the n-word.  Many others have also listened for it and say they cannot make it out, though a couple of leftist have said they could.  There is no picture of a demonstrator approaching Rep. Cleaver and spitting on him.  There is no evidence of a policeman retaining anyone or approaching Rep. Cleaver with someone.  In fact, if the event that was said to have occurred had, I am sure that the nearby police would have gathered around the Congressmen and given them an escort and probably would have pushed back the crowd and arrested people.  None of this happened.  The police did have to arrest people in the pro-ObamaCare demonstrator crowd, but they say they did not have to arrest any anti-ObamaCare demonstrators.  Many cameras were in use by the demonstrators, but no one has come forth with any visual evidence that the racial ill-behavior occurred.  Various media reporters were also around.  What is more, if someone had shouted racial slurs, other Tea Party people would have shouted him down, based on what I have seen.  The video would have picked up the shout down!

Given that the four black Congressmen are all Democrats and all voted for the extremely socialist ObamaCare bill, it would not be surprising if they all subscribed to the very venerable socialist principle that the truth is whatever advances socialism.  This principle has been richly demonstrated in the socialist arguments for ObamaCare, which clearly have been otherworldly.  Denigrating the Tea Party protesters with a racist tag has clearly been a pattern with the left.  They have made many claims which had no substance.  I suspect they had become desperate enough to try to give substance to those slanderous claims that they made up this story.  That fits the Big Picture better than their story does.