For once my iGoogle page led me to some interesting content: this discussion regarding race and the Tea Party on CNN.
I’ve never found myself so vehemently agreeing with a middle aged white dude, in fact, it was kind of scary. On the one hand, I’m really glad the topic of what the reaction would be to the Tea Party if it was comprised of people of color was brought up and discussed, but on the other — why did it take a middle aged white dude with a book coming out for the topic to be relevant? Because regular every day people of color have been noticing and saying that shit for a while now. There is NO WAY a black man could EVER spit on a white Congressman and yell a racial slur at them without being taken down by like 10 security guards in 0.5 seconds. Hell, they might have already had him preemptively handcuffed seeing as how he was that close to the good white people. If Latinos took to the streets with guns and signs talking about overthrowing the government in response to the AZ immigration law, white people would shut up about that law being racist QUICK. It’d just be the perfect way to quash those revolutionary minded immigrants. Congress would make it federal law. Being of color means you have to be angry nicely. Gently point out where Whitey has gone wrong and offer your assistance to guide him along the anti-racist path. Because if you start carrying signs talking about the government being socialist, or yelling, or basically not just staying IN YOUR PLACE there are serious consequences to that and they’re not just getting clowned by a middle aged white dude on CNN.
White people are in so much denial about why the teabaggers are able to act like this towards the government, why it’s apparently OK for someone to shout “You lie” at the PRESIDENT during a fucking Congressional address, why Obama is so demonized by the right. He is OUT of his place and white people, whether they want to admit it deep deep down are fundamentally disturbed by this. So you have a resurgence in racism when racism was supposed to be over because we black people finally hit the jackpot. I honestly can’t imagine being blind to this fact, that racism is on the rise, but apparently white people just don’t notice because they don’t have to. It’s inconvenient to notice.
In short I don’t think a lot of white people are interested in really thinking about what would happen if the teabaggers were black. Or willing to unpack that privilege at all. In some ways I do wish Obama would weigh in on the blatant shit but I understand the line he has to toe. People of color toe that line every day so I know what happens when you cross it. That’s what the guns at the rallies are about. That’s what the signs and spit are about. That’s what 400% more death threats is about.
So yeah, what would happen if the tea was black? Leave those questions to the white translators.
