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Tim Wise: 'Imagine if the Tea Party was Black' (yet another TP thread, apologies)

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YoungHav said:
LOL @ DennisK4. Please stop embarrassing white people. Everything will be alright buddy.
Someone should really photshop a, "White people stop embarrassing me" T-Shirt for posters like that.
 
JoeBoy101 said:
But are we certain of this? Please correct me if wrong but the best most recent analogy, and the one be used in the thread here, is the Black Panthers. Well, the height of that activity was during the sixties into the seventies. So we are talking 40-50 years ago. I'm not saying racism is gone at all (is anyone arguing in here that whites are oppressed, like that stupid thread a day or so ago?), but I think its equally naive' to expect the same exact result after that time period.

Why shouldn't we expect the same exact result when to this day large groups of blacks are seen as threatening by whites? Add guns and violent rhetoric into the mix and you honestly expect it to be covered similarly to how the tea party is covered, especially when towards the beginning of the movement? Outside of Chris Matthews, who exactly was slamming them for bringing guns to that Arizona rally during the health care debate.

Hell, look at how the Million Man March was covered by the media.
 
JoeBoy101 said:
but I think its equally naive' to expect the same exact result after that time period.


Just idling in the voice comms of your favorite video/computer FPS, looking at Youtube comments of pretty much anything involving black people, or the comments of your favorite newspaper or news site discussing something even quasi-negative about a colored person (like a crime or something) will let you know precisely why it would be naive to *not* expect that the reaction to black people in general - not just large and organized groups of agitated and possibly armed black people would be considered as threatening and worthy of namecalling/slurs and fear.

Let's not get hung up on the semantics of "expect". In your heart of hearts, we know how such an event would be portrayed - unless it was the most impossibly innocuous gathering ever (like a gathering of school kids marching peacefully for some sort of gov't exercise testing day or something)...and even then, there are more than enough places in the news media - mainstream and otherwise - that would just say that the president was "indoctrinating" children into something nefarious anyway.
 

JoeBoy101

Member
PhoenixDark said:
Why shouldn't we expect the same exact result when to this day large groups of blacks are seen as threatening by whites? Add guns and violent rhetoric into the mix and you honestly expect it to be covered similarly to how the tea party is covered, especially when towards the beginning of the movement? Outside of Chris Matthews, who exactly was slamming them for bringing guns to that Arizona rally during the health care debate.

Hell, look at how the Million Man March was covered by the media.

I seem to recall that the first shot of a guy with a gun in the Tea Party protests prompted calls on rhetoric and whether second amendment was too much for a full news cycle. But as to the Million Man March, I recalled that being covered fairly positively by the media. Though at the time, I was hardly paying attention to tone in the media, so I have to plead a bit of ignorance in that regard, but am surprised that it was considered negative.

captmcblack said:
Just idling in the voice comms of your favorite video/computer FPS, looking at Youtube comments of pretty much anything involving black people, or the comments of your favorite newspaper or news site discussing something even quasi-negative about a colored person (like a crime or something) will let you know precisely why it would be naive to *not* expect that the reaction to black people in general - not just large and organized groups of agitated and possibly armed black people would be considered as threatening and worthy of namecalling/slurs and fear.

Not to repost John Gabriels Greater Internet Dickwad theory but using those comments as a measure to what their actions and reactions would be are a bit of a stretch. Will people lose their shit? I'm sure. I just question it being the same or worse reaction that what we saw even 40 years ago.
 

Zeliard

Member
SmokyDave said:
But who isn't recognizing them for the scum they are?

All I see is criticism of the Tea Party from outsiders, regardless of colour or creed. Nobody has a good word to say about them. Is anyone really describing them as 'everyday Americans' aside from the members themselves and the politicians that seek to court them?

Edit: Actually, I'm in no way qualified to judge this. I only hear about the Tea Party on GAF, which skews away from that sort of thing. For all I know they may well be embraced by mainstream America.

They pretty much are embraced, or if not that, at least heavily publicized (they certainly are embraced and practically sponsored by Fox News). You've even had people like Jon Stewart attempting false equivalences (which he got lambasted for) by likening the Tea Party to some members on the left. As so many have pointed out, it just doesn't work - the Tea Party is far more pervasive and influential (sadly) both with the Republicans and with U.S. politics as a whole than any similar group you'd find on the left. And the vitriolic hate, as well-documented in Tim Wise's fine article, is coming in most part from one side.
 
JoeBoy101 said:
Not to repost John Gabriels Greater Internet Dickwad theory but using those comments as a measure to what their actions and reactions would be are a bit of a stretch. Will people lose their shit? I'm sure. I just question it being the same or worse reaction that what we saw even 40 years ago.


So what's your argument here? That if it was as "good" or slightly better than it was during the civil rights era then that's a positive?
 

LosDaddie

Banned
I hate these "What Would The Happen If X Group was Black/White" discussions since it's all hypothetical guesswork. It's so easy to pull random examples to fit a narrative someone wants to build.

But yes, I do believe TBers would be viewed/covered differently if the group was mostly black and shouting the same violent rhetoric and carrying weapons to rallies against a white Repub prez. Mainly because the group wouldn't have Fox News promoting it non-stop like the TBers have now.
 

Dude Abides

Banned
JoeBoy101 said:
I seem to recall that the first shot of a guy with a gun in the Tea Party protests prompted calls on rhetoric and whether second amendment was too much for a full news cycle. But as to the Million Man March, I recalled that being covered fairly positively by the media. Though at the time, I was hardly paying attention to tone in the media, so I have to plead a bit of ignorance in that regard, but am surprised that it was considered negative..

I don't think the Million Man March was covered positively. At best it was ambivalent, and rightly so because Farrakhan is a loon.
 
MWS Natural said:
It would be the only thing to remove that smug look off his face :)



White kids riot and destroy thousands of dollars in property after sports events every single year with very little reaction from the police.


uh, no. not JUST white kids. don't even try it.
 
A) This article is like 10 months old.

B) I guess the imagined situation in the argument is interesting, but I don't think that it's really adding anything to political discourse. What is gained from crying racism on a hypothetical?
 
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