From the left: Rev. Al Sharpton, Barbara Antwine, Ben Jealous, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson. Photo by Herb Boyd
By Ben Jealous, President and CEO, NAACP
It is unfortunate that at a time when our nation is reeling in the midst of one of the most devastating downturns in our economy since the Great Depression, when people across American are struggling to hold on to their homes, when a precious portion of our ecosystem is facing possibly irreversible damage along the Gulf Coast that the NAACP is compelled to deal with a disturbing, corrosive attack from the Tea Party.
Let me be clear from the outset that we at the NAACP are not opposed to the existence of the Tea Party; it has this Constitutional right. But we do feel it is obligated to restrain its members from using the “n” word and the “f” word, particularly when assailing our elected officials such as the venerable and courageous Congressman John Lewis. If members of our organization were observed disrespecting the rights of other Americans, verbally or physically assaulting them, it would be incumbent on us to rein them in and seriously reprimand such behavior.
This, in essence, is all we are asking of the Tea Party. They have every right to exist but not to allow its members to express themselves in ways that are both hateful and harmful to other citizens.
Our nation is caught in the throes of a sundry of potentially divisive issues, and it would only exacerbate the problems we collectively face to entertain bitter exchanges with the Tea Party or any other group that would derail us from our objective of One Nation, One Dream, a nation working together, not combating those who often forget how much we have in common.
Rather than wasting time challenging the vitriolic assertions and allegations of our detractors, we feel our mission, our purpose is better served keeping our eyes on the prize, and this prize of togetherness cannot, and should not be sidetracked by people uninterested in building bridges of cooperation and seemingly opposed to composing a narrative of hope.
It is mutually destructive for Americans to be at each others’ throats; it’s counterproductive and certainly at odds with the goals of One Nation, which by its very multiracial composition is about achieving civil and human rights for all Americans.
In fact, the very formation of One Nation embodies a communal and collective desire to forge unity, to set aside the “jangling discord” that it makes impossible to gather in concert to overcome the web of groundless, unnecessary misunderstanding.
A cursory review of our nation’s history presents more than a few moments when economic crises bred discontent and even bloody confrontation if we remember the Draft Riots in New York City in 1863 when jobs were at the core of the conflict between white and black Americans. Some of the simmering turmoil today may be the result of people unable to find decent employment. To be sure, these are desperate times but we should not let the fear-mongers and bigots among us command the moment.
What we are demanding, at last, is that this is not the hour for scoundrels, for disruptive forces to dictate or to control an important dialogue—the Tea Party must take firm steps to remove those from its ranks who are hostile to working together to revive the American dream. If we are to resurrect a movement for progressive and productive change, the change we aspired to and hoped for following the last presidential election, then there is no room in the family for racist antagonists, no room for hatred, discrimination, or white supremacy.
There are those who would drag us back to the days of Bull Connor, of Jim Crow, nightriders, and what Dr. King called times of racist “interposition and nullification.” But we must fight against this negativity, this tendency to take the downward plunge into hate rather than the upward hill toward hope. One choice is toward enlightenment the other towards darkness and ignorance.
And for those who charge that our condemnation of the Tea Party is premised on politics and the upcoming mid-term elections misread our righteous indignation, which has everything to do with finding a less toxic path to reconciliation and healing our nation.
Our choice, and it bears repeating, is One Nation Working Together, and this will, I believe lead us out of the darkness of division and into the bright light of hope and possibility. Like the “great emancipator” our appeal is to the Tea Party members and “the better angels of our nature.”
Finally, it is our fervent wish that the brewing dispute between the NAACP and the Tea Party becomes nothing more than a tempest in a teapot. As Americans seeking peace, harmony, and goodwill we have too much at stake to be derailed by rancor and impudence.
While the members of our organization have voted to repudiate the racism in the Tea Party, the final word on this matter resides with our board of directors, and that decision may come by October.
