Thank you again, Zandar, for posting while I was gone -- even if just about everything you posted reaffirms my sense that we're doomed as a nation. (Paved roads reverting to gravel? Holy infrastructure de-evolution, Batman.)
Meanwhile, I'm catching up on this story about Mark Williams of the Tea Party Express being kicked out of the National Tea Party Federation after posting a racist fake letter on his blog, and I can't help thinking that Williams believed he was making a pro-black statement. No, really. Here's the letter (click to enlarge):
The letter describes the tea party movement as "a political revival of that old abolitionist spirit." Williams thinks being "pro-abolition" is a good thing -- or he thinks he thinks that. This is in keeping with his assertion (on CNN a couple of days ago) that when racists come to tea party rallies "they find out quickly that they're in the middle of a group of people agitating for civil rights and for adherence to the United States Constitution and its promise of equality for all," and as a result "They leave." It's also in keeping with his whiny complaint, in this blog post, that he has sought nothing but "spirited yet friendly discussions" with black leaders, "in order to facilitate real discussion and a united front against the enemy that faces our country" (the Obama administration, presumably).
The guy thinks he's the African American community's biggest friend. Really.
Oh, sure, his mock letter did say,
Freedom means having to work for real, think for ourselves, and take consequences along with the rewards. That is just far too much to ask of us Colored People and we demand that it stop!
But that wasn't Mark Williams talking! Heavens no! That wasn't a racist stereotype of blacks crawling up out of the fetid subconscious of Mark Williams! He was ascribing that racism to the NAACP's Ben Jealous, because -- obviously -- Jealous is the real racist! His organization's name has the word "Colored" in it! What could possibly be more racist than that! A group keeping a name it's had for decades? Absurdly racist!
What, you think Williams is projecting? You think he believes statements like the following, rather than the obvious truth, that he believes the racist Ben Jealous believes them? Boy, are you a bad reader!
Perhaps the most racist point of all in the tea parties is their demand that government "stop raising our taxes." That is outrageous! How will we coloreds ever get a wide screen TV in every room if non-coloreds get to keep what they earn?
That's not Mark Williams talking! That's him mocking a group that obviously wants to keep blacks on the liberal plantation!
All right, enough. But I do believe I'm characterizing Williams's thinking accurately. He's not a classic racist -- a guy in a sheet from 1963 who'll look you in the eye and tell you honestly that he believes blacks are inferior. He's a neo-racist, and the worst kind: he doesn't just believe that the ugly, racist stuff he thinks and says is harmless, he thinks his racial attitudes are actually better than yours. He thinks you're the racist. That kind of thinking is extremely common on the right these days.
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