They’re having a UNI-TEA party for all communities tomorrow on Independence Mall in Philadelphia.
The Tea Party movement has been criticized for its lack of diversity. That perception may change when folks like David Webb, a founder of TeaParty365, and Janks Morton take the stage.
As for the timing, organizers write:
The UNI-TEA event was conceived in February 2010 to expose what the organization considers to be undeserved support for an administration that fosters economic hardship and dependence on government to maintain voting-bloc loyalty.
It’s a “people of color” tea party but all eyes will be on blogger Andrew Breitbart, who is among the speakers.
I plan to attend the rally and after party. I hope to get a chance to get Breitbart’s reaction to Shirley Sherrod’s planned lawsuit.
According to the White House media advisory, Obama will talk about his signature Race to the Top program:
The President’s speech will focus on the dramatic reforms that states, school districts, schools and teachers unions have undertaken over the past 18 months, including steps to improve teacher effectiveness and transform persistently low-performing schools.
During his recent appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Urban League President Marc Morial said they are “going to have a constructive discussion about race and education, race and jobs, race and health care.”
That’s nice, but a lot of folks want a constructive discussion about race and White House West Wing.
New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd dared to say what black folks are still reluctant to say in public:
The first black president should expand beyond his campaign security blanket, the smug cordon of overprotective white guys surrounding him — a long political tradition underscored by Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 when she complained about the “smart-ass white boys” from Walter Mondale’s campaign who tried to boss her around.
Otherwise, this administration will keep tripping over race rather than inspiring on race.
A correction: It was Andrew Young, not Geraldine Ferraro, who complained that Walter Mondale’s campaign was being run by “smart-ass white boys.”
It was Martin’s job to keep the presidents he served from stumbling into a race-baiting ambush like the one Andrew Breitbart sprung on the Obama administration and the NAACP. The right-wing blogger set off racial shockwaves when he released a 2-minute, 38-second video clip from a nearly hour-long speech that Shirley Sherrod, a regional USDA official, gave to a Georgia NAACP
branch in March.
[…]
For years Martin helped Democratic presidents avoid such missteps. But in an administration that believes simply repeating that Obama “is not the president of black America” keeps him from hitting the racial tripwire, there is no one in the West Wing with Martin’s portfolio.
That’s too bad — and might be politically fatal. In the multifront war Obama’s political enemies are forcing this nation’s first black president to fight, he has left his most vulnerable flank lightly guarded. From the moment he emerged from the pack to become a viable candidate for his party’s presidential nomination, the race issue has been his Achilles’ heel.
And if Obama doesn’t get someone on his staff soon who knows how to protect it, it’ll be his undoing.
BP can afford to be generous since American taxpayers will partly foot the bill for the fund established to compensate victims of the oil spill.
And let’s not forget the NAACP blasted BP for its response to the oil spill and has accused it of discriminating against “workers of color” and “contractors of color.”
They say consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds. So shoot me. I have a small mind.
UPDATE: The Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission has accused Wells Fargo of engaging in predatory lending practices in black neighborhoods in Philadelphia.
In 1999, a settlement was reached in Pigford vs. Glickman, a class action lawsuit filed against the U.S. Department of Agriculture, alleging discrimination against black farmers who had applied for USDA loans between 1981 and 1996.
In approving the consent decree, U.S. District Court Judge Paul L. Friedman acknowledged the USDA’s past discrimination. Friedman said the settlement was “a fair resolution of the claims brought in this case and a good first step towards assuring that the kind of discrimination that has been visited on black farmers will not continue into the next century.”
The consent decree was hailed as the largest civil rights settlement in U.S. history. USDA set aside $2.3 billion to settle the claims of black farmers whose loan applications were wrongly rejected. Five years later, black farmers are still waiting for compensation.
A groundbreaking investigation by the Environmental Working Group found that nearly nine out of ten claims were denied; 81,000 out of 94,000 farmers received nothing. Most claims were denied because they were filed late.
John W. Boyd, Jr., the founder and president of the National Black Farmers Association, has called on President Barack Obama to get involved:
It is clear that without pressure from the White House this funding will not make it through Congress. Recent events have demonstrated the swiftness with which government can act on civil rights.
It is clear now that without greater White House pressure, the Senate cannot manage to keep this funding, despite its widespread support, in a larger funding measure because it continues to get grouped with other controversial add-ons. This is an unacceptable situation and must be resolved immediately.
We have been told from Senate and House members, both Democrats and Republicans, that there is bipartisan support for the Black farmers settlement funding. Yet, despite commitments of support and the fact the funding has already passed the House in two bills, the Senate has been unable, or perhaps even unwilling to pass the Black farmers settlement funding. I understand the election year jockeying that occurs on funding measures, but it makes no sense that the Black farmers and Native American farmers are getting caught up in it.
Boyd’s call for White House intervention was echoed by African American reporters and radio personalities during a panel discussion on CNN.
Back in April, civil rights leaders, including the heads of the NAACP, National Urban League and the National Action Network, pledged their commitment to a 12-month action plan.
They promised to provide quarterly reports by which the African American community can hold them accountable and measure the movement.
So far, the National Action Network is the only group that appears to be doing anything worth measuring.
As for the NAACP, its actions since April show the new guard is on a treadmill going nowhere fast.
During his Saturday morning rally, the Rev. Al Sharpton leveled thinly veiled, albeit sharp, criticism at the leader of the NAACP.
Sharpton said:
The problem we got is that they’re [Tea Party] playing chess and we’re playing checkers…We cannot come to a chess game with checkers. In chess, you don’t make a move. You make one move to set you up for one or two moves...Chess is a strategy; chess is a thought game.
They have a lot of us on a political treadmill wearing ourselves out…It’s not just the signs. It’s who’s sending them out there.
Some people are just used to fighting the power, rather than using the power to win. You don’t get control of the White House and two governors and the Justice Department, and then start arguing with people carrying signs.
As is his wont, Times columnist Bob Herbert cut to the chase:
…Even the N.A.A.C.P. rushed to condemn Ms. Sherrod, calling her actions “shameful,” without bothering to seek out the facts — which, incredibly, had unfolded at an N.A.A.C.P. event!
Later, after officials at the organization had found and released a tape of Ms. Sherrod’s entire 45-minute speech, the group’s president, Ben Jealous, apologized and said the N.A.A.C.P. had been “snookered.”
Black people are in a terrible condition right now — economically, socially, educationally and otherwise — and there is no effective champion fighting for their interests. Mr. Jealous and the new edition of the N.A.A.C.P. have shown in this episode that they are not ready for prime time…
Times columnist Maureen Dowd also didn’t pull any punches:
And why does the N.A.A.C.P. exist if not to help clear a smeared champion of civil rights who gave a stirring speech about racial reconciliation at an N.A.A.C.P. banquet? Its president, Ben Jealous, shamefully following the administration’s rush to judgment, tweeted Monday night that Shirley Sherrod was a racist without even calling his Georgia chapter president or reviewing the N.A.A.C.P.’s own video of the speech.
Yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of the news conference during which President Barack Obama said a Cambridge police officer had “acted stupidly” in arresting his friend, Harvard Prof. Henry Louis Gates Jr.
The President reached Ms. Sherrod by telephone at about 12:35. They spoke for seven minutes.
The President expressed to Ms. Sherrod his regret about the events of the last several days. He emphasized that Secretary Vilsack was sincere in his apology yesterday, and in his work to rid USDA of discrimination.
The President told Ms. Sherrod that this misfortune can present an opportunity for her to continue her hard work on behalf of those in need, and he hopes that she will do so.
An invitation to the White House is not in the offing so I would like to propose a Long Island Iced Tea summit.
Sherrod told NBC’s Meredith Vieira she is not inclined to return. However, she would like to meet with President Obama:
I’d like to talk about the experiences of people like me, at the grassroots level. Let me help him a little bit.
The media circus will eventually move on. But the media will pitch its tent in Baltimore in October, when the NAACP National Board of Directors meets to adopt the resolutions passed at its 101st annual convention.
So the Tea Party resolution will be fresh on voters’ minds as they head to the polls.
Sherrod has slammed the NAACP. She said the civil rights organization is “the reason why this happened. They got into a fight with the Tea Party, and all of this came out as a result of that.”
I feel bad that they made this about her. You do see that she mentions a transformation and I’m sympathetic that they went after her and not the NAACP…For the NAACP to conspicuously play the race card for political purposes is wrong, and the goal was to show that here’s evidence of racist behavior.
And as Etta James observed, “If you gonna play cards, baby, well, you have to deal sometimes.”
Stacked Deck by Etta James
