Black Conservative Activist Calls the Democratic Party Racist

Earlier this week at a Houston rally, conservative activist Apostle Claver Kamau-Imani called the Democrats a racist party of the KKK. The words were spoken at an event sponsored by the Clear Lake Tea Party where GOP presidential hopeful Herman Cain was the keynote speaker. Kamau-Imani is the chairman of the right wing blog RagingElephants.org. The name of organization may ring a bell because it was responsible for this foolishness.

Cain took the stage after Kamau-Imani and has not condoned nor condemned the comments. "Our campaign is all about promoting civil dialogue -- while there may be differences of opinion on a wide variety of topics, we believe in never being disagreeable," Cain's spokesman told NBC News. Cain was not on stage while Kamau-Imani was speaking and his spokesman said he does not think Cain was aware of Kamau-Imani's contentious remarks.



In his speech, Kamau-Imani resorted to one of the oldest tricks in the GOP playbook. Just as I said in a post earlier this year, Republicans/conservatives will often go back in time to prove their "theory" that today's version of the Democratic party is racist. You'd have to be stupid on multiple levels to buy into that line of thinking. Does Kamau-Imani really expect to lure blacks to the GOP with his distorted, inflammatory rhetoric?!

Conservatives crack me up when they relive the glory days of the GOP's history of civil rights. It would be like a Miami Dolphins fan talking about the franchise's distant past as if that has anything to do with the 2011 team. The Dolphins were great at one time. However, they flat out suck right now with no signs of improving. Sadly, the GOP is the political version of the Miami Dolphins.

Conservative Ad Smears OWS Protesters As Anti-Semitic

A Republican group by the name of The Emergency Committee for Israel has put together an ad claiming the "Occupy Wall Street" protest in lower Manhattan is anti-Semitic. Cenk Uygur of TYT breaks it down in the following clip:



In addition to the ad being straight up bullshit, it also ironic. The irony also applies to how a majority of conservatives have reacted to the OWS protesters. For the last couple of years, they've complained about the Tea Party movement being unfairly portrayed as racist. I agree with the TP'ers to a point on the racism accusation. However, I also heard many conservatives misinterpret valid criticism of the Tea Party. When it was accurately pointed out that there is an element of racism within the Tea Party, conservatives distorted that criticism by accusing these same critics of painting the entire movement as racist.

Many conservatives have a short memory because now they are guilty of the same thing they accused the left of doing. We've heard the detractors label all the protesters as lazy, filthy, confused, etc. and now we have this anti-Semitic smear. Here's my message to the Tea Party and its supporters. Feel free to disagree with the OWS protesters. However, when you smear the entire movement, you've simply become what you detest.

Martin Bashir and Andrew Breitbart Go Head-to-Head

Although MSNBC host Martin Bashir's interview of conservative blogger/author Andrew Breitbart took place late last month, I still wanted to share it with you in case you missed it when it first aired like I did. The tough questions by Bashir had Breitbart ducking, dodging, and running for cover. Now this is how you interview someone who's a proven liar with highly questionable journalist ethics. Bashir's handling of Breitbart was the antithesis of his MSNBC colleague Dylan Ratigan, who just a day earlier lobbed softball after softball at the Tea Party darling.

Conservatives Post the Funniest Things!

 For the most part, the posts at Diversity Ink are of a serious nature. However, I like to lighten things up here whenever possible. As you may know, I read political blogs (regardless of whether or not I agree with the blogger's point of view). One of my favorites is Teresamerica. Although I disagree with pretty much everything Teresa writes, she does provide me with a healthy amount of unintentional humor. While checking out Teresa's blog early Saturday morning, I came across her latest post in which she provides "proof" that violence, rage and racism exists on The Left by posting clips from the Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear" (which took place on 10/30/10). The photo above is a screenshot of Teresa's post.  Please note the title. Was that a Freudian slip?!  Just to be clear, I have seen no evidence of rage and violence at Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor Rally".  As for ignorance, religious bigotry and solid proof that we live in the Misinformation Age, that's another story:

http://diversityink.blogspot.com/2010/09/new-left-media-talks-to-attendees-at.html

I was considering notifying Teresa of her minor (but funny) error. However, I think I'll wait to see how long it takes Teresa or any of her loyal readers to catch this slip. Tick tock... tick tock...

Shirley Sherrod: The Real Story and Its Aftermath

As you probably know by now, Andrew Breitbart posted a video on his website BigGovernment.com on 7/19/10 "exposing" the racism tolerated by the NAACP. In a speech she gave at an NAACP dinner on March 27, 2010, it appeared that Shirley Sherrod (the then-USDA director of Rural Development in Georgia) was admitting to once taking the race of a white farmer (Roger Spooner) into consideration when ultimately deciding how to respond to his request for assistance. The fallout was quick for Ms. Sherrod after the truncated video made the rounds. Not only did the NAACP come down hard on Ms. Sherrod, but she was pressured to resign from her USDA position. I hope the bus tire tracks on Ms. Sherrod's backside aren't permanent.

To many familiar with the sleazy tactics of Breitbart (the infamous ACORN nonsense), it came as no surprise that the video he originally posted on his site didn't tell the whole story.

The video suggested that Sherrod was retelling an incident that took place while she worked for the USDA

FALSE: The incident Sherrod was recounting took place in 1986, when she worked for an advocacy firm in GA.

The video made it look as if Sherrod didn't help Mr. Spooner

FALSE: Not only did Sherrod help the Spooners save their farm, she became friends with the couple.

What’s actually a story of racial healing was distorted into something ugly by Breitbart. Because of his beef with the NAACP over their legitimate claims of elements of racism within the tea party movement, Breitbart deceptively tried to show that it’s the NAACP whose racist. Unfortunately, his tactics did damage to an innocent bystander in the process.

If you're interested in watching the full video, please visit the following link:

http://www.naacp.org/news/entry/video_sherrod/

On Wednesday, Tom Vilsack (the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture) held a press conference in which he manned up and took the blame for asking Ms. Sherrod to resign so quickly. Vilsack said he also apologized to Ms. Sherrod and offered her a new position in the department. Also, the NAACP has apologized to Ms. Sherrod for their initial reaction (see below).

In light of the Breitbart “exposé” falling down like a house of cards, the reactions have been fascinating. There's been a mix of back pedaling, blaming, and B.S. throughout the blogosphere, The White House and the MSM (which does include Fox "News"). To their credit, some conservative bloggers posted retractions in which they apologized for rushing to judgment. Predictably, these posts also included jabs directed at three of their favorite targets: The Obama administration, The NAACP, and the non-Fox "News" portion of the MSM. Of course, no matter what these three entities did, the right would have found a reason to bitch about it. In a shameful sidebar, Breitbart made the rounds of various media outlets in which he told his side of the story. Amazingly, he even had the nerve to suggest that the Spooners were "plants" who fabricated a story in an effort to save Ms. Sherrod. Note to Breitbart: when you're in a hole, stop digging!

The left has also had their say too by blaming the aforementioned entities as well as Fox "News". Note to the Obama administration: don’t jump every time the likes of Andrew Breitbart and Fox "News" say “boo!” All it does is give them the power to be more reckless and irresponsible than in the past. Having said that, I do understand President Obama's predicament. As the first black President of the United States, he is held to a different standard than his predecessors when it comes to matters involving race. Although diplomacy is one of Obama's best assets, I wish he would sometimes go into MISTER Tibbs mode and figuratively slap down the right-wing noise machine when they get out of order.

The Shirley Sherrod story shows once again that we still have a lot of distance to cover when it comes to race relations in America. I also hope that it has made crystal clear to everyone that Andrew Breitbart and his ilk won't let a little thing like integrity get in the way when it comes to taking down those who have the guts to stand up to them. When Breitbart and his enablers claim to have any evidence exposing wrongdoing/corruption by their opposition, remember the words of Chuck D. and company: “Don’t believe the hype!”

NAACP Statement

To show your support of Shirley Sherrod, please visit Color of Change and join them in calling on the White House to reinstate Shirley Sherrod and to stop caving in to right-wing smears.

Guest Post By Teresa: My Thoughts on Liberals Using the Race Card, & The Incendiary Language that Black Conservatives Endure

As you may know, one of the goals of Diversity Ink is to allow people with differing viewpoints on race-related issues to share them here. Last week, I came across the following post (My Thoughts on Liberals Using the Race Card, & The Incendiary Language that Black Conservatives Endure) on the blog Teresamerica. Since the blogger (Teresa) had done a guest post earlier this year, I asked if she'd be interested in doing another one. Even if the debate ends in a draw, I think it's important to try and understand why someone with an opposing view thinks the way they do.

This was posted by Teresa on her blog on April 8, 2010:

After reading THIS and THIS, I pondered a bit. Here are my thoughts:

The liberals that are making false accusations about Tea Partiers must stop!! This is dirty, outrageous, and wrong!! The Democrats and liberals in the media have consistently entered into a smear campaign of tactics consisting of false accusations, hateful rhetoric, and incendiary comments. One particular brand of false accusations that comes to my mind is how the liberals recently have been making charges that Tea Partiers are racists without having one iota of proof to back up their claims. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Tea Partiers are not racists!! We have political disagreements but they are not based on racial differences. Liberals are the ones using blacks for their own benefit in advancing their agenda. The Democrats are the ones who claim to represent the black community while keeping many African Americans and others dependent on government programs. Why doesn’t the black community prioritize their outlook about themselves, refer to themselves as American citizens first and foremost, instead of focusing every little detail or policy on the fact that they are African Americans? Or a different ethnic group? The representatives of the black community are being racially divisive by putting so much focus on a person’s skin color. The Tea Party movement is primarily concerned with fiscal responsibility, rising debt in our country being caused by our government, and individual freedom and liberty for all Americans.

I believe that making false accusations of racism without any proof might make that person who made those false charges a bigot or even a racist if they purposefully make a false claim to score points with a particular community in our society. Why is it that democrats are so infatuated with race and race-based politics?

I would hope that there are some decent liberals out there that would denounce the derogatory language being spewed by liberals in Congress, our Left Stream Media, and by other liberals across America. Do liberals that call black conservatives such derogatory terms as “Oreo” or “Uncle Tom” and “Traitors” know that these are derogatory terms? These terms are extremely inflammatory, incendiary, and must be denounced. Maybe, its just that black liberals couldn’t care less? I don’t know. Have African-Americans and other liberals been misled or are they just ignorant to this fact? Or have they been desensitized by the black community’s acceptance of those terms even though these are in fact bigoted, incendiary, and hurtful rhetoric? Black conservatives are not sell outs to the black community. They care for all people and not just blacks. How do you know the Democrats really care about and speak for African Americans? Is it because they give government handouts? IMO, it is kind of arrogant of the democrats to think that they own a particular set of peoples’ in our society, or speak for them. I found it quite odd, interesting, and good to find out HERE, that there are no derogatory terms specifically targeting black liberals in our society. Is there a reason for this? Are liberals in general more hateful with their rhetoric than conservatives? It sure seems like it to me. But, part of the reason for this is that democrats or liberals play identity and group politics to try to pin certain groups against one another. Liberals like to play favorites towards one particular sect of society against others. Conservatives do not do this. Conservatives look at each individual as an American and we treat everyone the same instead of treating a certain group differently because of their skin color. We do not play economic warfare just because a person’s more successful than another person, and that person may happen to be of a particular ethnic group. Liberals play racial warfare and are causing a great divide in our country while conservatives want everyone to succeed, and don’t blame another ethnic or racial groups for their problems. Every individual in this country has the chance to succeed in life. I hope every person does their very best and succeeds in all their endeavors.