What if the Tea Party were Black? by Tim Wise

A colleague of mine reminded me of this short article by Tim Wise.  It's a really good way of demonstrating white privilege, especially in the everyday, "normal" issues on the intersections of comfort and race.  Now I'm sure there are plenty of people who will argue that the tea party, especially its more radical, gun-toting arm makes them uncomfortable, but that's not the point.  The point is, imagine if instead of being mostly white, they were mostly black? I think anyone who thinks about this seriously and honestly will come away with the same conclusion. Imagine if a number of black men showed up at a state capital or city hall, or even a bar legally carrying firearms? There's no way that would be allowed.  People would be shitting their pants, the tea party would be cast as a crazy, radical, terrorist organization, many would be thrown in jail and some might even be shot.  We'd be seeing random video clips taken completely out of context that reveal the "real danger these people pose to the safety and security of "normal" Americans.  White folks left and right would be falling in line with the political and media constructed narratives.  Here's the link to the pdf.  Or, you can read it below.

Tim Wise: Imagine If the Tea Party Was Black

By Tim Wise  Ephphata Poetry

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.

Imagine that a prominent mainstream black political commentator had long

employed an overt bigot as Executive Director of his organization, and that

this bigot regularly participated in black separatist conferences, and once

assaulted a white person while calling them by a racial slur. When that

prominent black commentator and his sister — who also works for the

organization — defended the bigot as a good guy who was misunderstood and

“going through a tough time in his life” would anyone accept their excuse2

making? Would that commentator still have a place on a mainstream

network? Because that’s what happened in the real world, when Pat

Buchanan employed as Executive Director of his group, America’s Cause, a

blatant racist who did all these things, or at least their white equivalents:

attending white separatist conferences and attacking a black woman while

calling her the n-word.

Imagine that a black radio host were to suggest that the only way to get

promoted in the administration of a white president is by “hating black

people,” or that a prominent white person had only endorsed a white

presidential candidate as an act of racial bonding, or blamed a white president

for a fight on a school bus in which a black kid was jumped by two white kids,

or said that he wouldn’t want to kill all conservatives, but rather, would like to

leave just enough—“living fossils” as he called them—“so we will never forget

what these people stood for.” After all, these are things that Rush Limbaugh

has said, about Barack Obama’s administration, Colin Powell’s endorsement

of Barack Obama, a fight on a school bus in Belleville, Illinois in which two

black kids beat up a white kid, and about liberals, generally.

Imagine that a black pastor, formerly a member of the U.S. military, were to

declare, as part of his opposition to a white president’s policies, that he was

ready to “suit up, get my gun, go to Washington, and do what they trained me

to do.” This is, after all, what Pastor Stan Craig said recently at a Tea Party

rally in Greenville, South Carolina.

Imagine a black radio talk show host gleefully predicting a revolution by

people of color if the government continues to be dominated by the rich white

men who have been “destroying” the country, or if said radio personality were

to call Christians or Jews non-humans, or say that when it came to

conservatives, the best solution would be to “hang ‘em high.” And what would

happen to any congressional representative who praised that commentator for

“speaking common sense” and likened his hate talk to “American values?”

After all, those are among the things said by radio host and best-selling author

Michael Savage, predicting white revolution in the face of multiculturalism, or

said by Savage about Muslims and liberals, respectively. And it was

Congressman Culbertson, from Texas, who praised Savage in that way,

despite his hateful rhetoric.

Imagine a black political commentator suggesting that the only thing the guy

who flew his plane into the Austin, Texas IRS building did wrong was not

blowing up Fox News instead. This is, after all, what Anne Coulter said about

Tim McVeigh, when she noted that his only mistake was not blowing up the

New York Times.

Imagine that a popular black liberal website posted comments about the

daughter of a white president, calling her “typical redneck trash,” or a “whore”

whose mother entertains her by “making monkey sounds.” After all that’s

comparable to what conservatives posted about Malia Obama on

freerepublic.com last year, when they referred to her as “ghetto trash.”

Imagine that black protesters at a large political rally were walking around

with signs calling for the lynching of their congressional enemies. Because

that’s what white conservatives did last year, in reference to Democratic party

leaders in Congress.

In other words, imagine that even one-third of the anger and vitriol currently

being hurled at President Obama, by folks who are almost exclusively white,

were being aimed, instead, at a white president, by people of color. How many

whites viewing the anger, the hatred, the contempt for that white president

would then wax eloquent about free speech, and the glories of democracy?

And how many would be calling for further crackdowns on thuggish behavior,

and investigations into the radical agendas of those same people of color?

To ask any of these questions is to answer them. Protest is only seen as

fundamentally American when those who have long had the luxury of seeing

themselves as prototypically American engage in it. When the dangerous and

dark “other” does so, however, it isn’t viewed as normal or natural, let alone

patriotic. Which is why Rush Limbaugh could say, this past week, that the

Tea Parties are the first time since the Civil War that ordinary, common

Americans stood up for their rights: a statement that erases the normalcy and

“American-ness” of blacks in the civil rights struggle, not to mention women in

the fight for suffrage and equality, working people in the fight for better

working conditions, and LGBT folks as they struggle to be treated as full and

equal human beings.

And this, my friends, is what white privilege is all about. The ability to

threaten others, to engage in violent and incendiary rhetoric without

consequence, to be viewed as patriotic and normal no matter what you do, and

never to be feared and despised as people of color would be, if they tried to get

away with half the shit we do, on a daily basis.