CNN Reports here about e new Essence Magazine Article about how White Supremacist have begun to infiltrate the Tea Party after sending a reporter to get inside their movement for six months.
Their reporter didn't work her way into the Tea Party, she worked her way over the six months into various White Supremacy Groups and found they had intentions to enter and push the Tea Party more toward their agenda.
Angela Burt-Murray - Editor-In-Chief for Essence: Washington University Institute did a study this year that shows that Member of the Tea Party of 25% more likely to have feelings about race that African-Americans are untrustworthy, are more lazy, more likely to be involved in criminal activity. White Supremacist groups are seeing that as an entry point to allow them to be part of that conversation.
They have to tone down their rhetoric, and it's a delicate dance because members of the Tea Party don't want to be painted with a Hate Brush.
Just taking a quick peek I see that the StormFront has taken up the "Defend Juan Williams" cause - which begs the question if what he had to say wasn't inherently racist, why are people who pride themselves on being racists rising to his support?
Similarly with the Tea Party - it's not really a case of the Tea Party itself being racist, but instead it's more like they are somewhat Racist Adjacent.
But they do realize, that even the association is dangerous to them. Many Tea Party leaders have indeed verbally denounced this type of thing, and openly said "If you're a racist, we don't want you" including the expulsion of Mark Williams and the Tea Party Express from the National Tea Party - but the problem is that much of the Tea Parties rhetoric is exactly the same thing that White Supremacist would say.
Certainly the Tea Party has harshly criticized for signs that are out-and-out racist, particularly by the NAACP and activist like Janeane Garafalo, and they've espouse views that are clearly bigoted - but they seem to be completely blind to it. In fact, they think they're the ones who are the Anti-Racists (case in point Andrew Breitbart's attack on Shirley Sherrod). They've argued that they've been singled out and had the "Race Card" played against them for speaking their minds. They simply think they're providing criticism of the President and his policies, when in fact they're perpetuating vicious stereotypes, ugly rumors and conspiracy theories. The difference between them and people on Stormfront is that Stormfront people have no pretense in place, they aren't lying to themselves about their own rationale, they admit to being bigots openly - Tea Partiers Don't.
They're living in denial. And now they have some Deliberate Stealth Racists adding themselves to the mix.
Burt-Murray: If you look at the White Supremacists sites like Stormfront.org, they actually give tips on how to tone down their message in order to infiltrate the Tea Party and then bring in more recruits
Not that I consider Essence the best source for hard news, there is still the recent NAACP report on the links between the Tea Party and Racist Groups and they confirm much of what Essence has discovered.
Soon after the first set of April 15, 2009 events, Tea Party protests attracted members of white nationalist organizations and networks. As a movement, white nationalism has projected two slightly different visions of white supremacy. One goal is a United States of America in which white and black and other people of color are all resident, but white domination is complete and un-complicated by civil rights laws and voting rights for people of color. An alternative white nationalist vision is a whites-only republic carved out of the remains of a collapsed and dissected United States of America. Hard core white nationalists use terms such as "racial realist" and "self-conscious whites" to distinguish themselves from the majority of white people in this country, including those that simply exhibit racist or prejudiced opinions.
In preparation for Tea Party protests held on July 4, 2009, national socialists and other white supremacists created a discussion thread on Stormfront.org, the largest and most widely accessed of the many white nationalist websites.[216] While highlighting the distinction between themselves and the majority of Tea Partiers who were not self-conscious about their own racism, one person argued, "We need a relevant transitional envelop-pushing flyer for the masses. Take these Tea Party Americans by the hand and help them go from crawling to standing independently and then walking towards racialism."[217]
If the Tea Party wants to keep any kind of credibility at all, (not that they ever had any IMO) they need to recognize this threat and respond to it seriously rather than whine that they've been unfairly accused or racial feelings and expressions.
Anyone want to put money on how they'll respond? I'm thinking they'll double-down on the head-in-the-sand-it's-not-my-fault-I-didn't-do-it-nobody-saw-me-do-it strategy.
Vyan