But There's No Racism in the Tea Party

Lost in the whole Shirley Sherrod debacle was the impetus for Breitbart’s smear — the NAACP’s decision to call out the teabaggers for their unwillingness to disavow racism. The Sharrod smear was a desperate attempt to prove members of the NAACP were the real racists, that the tea party was free of racism, despite the strong evidence that Mark Williams had presented to the contrary.

Well, in further proof that the tea party is free of racism, let me introduce you to Tea Party Comix,whose imagery really speaks for itself.

Yes, the image of a horrible caricature of a black judge (meant to be Obama, natch) threatening Batman with a trial before a jury of twelve “angry black commies” is pretty much racism defined — so much so that the Tea Party’s response to the comics was to declare that they just had to be a liberal plot, because, uh…look over there!

Well, it turns out that the artist behind Tea Party Comix has come forward. He’s a real member of the tea party movement. He really hates Obama. And he admits he’s a racist.

Kidding! Well, not about the tea party and the hating Obama:

The creator of the now-infamous “Tea Party Comix” has spoken. The response, sent to Comics With Problems’ Ethan Persoff last week, ends speculation by some that the black-and-white comics featuring a racist caricature of President Obama might be a liberal parody gone wrong (or just misunderstood). In the rambling email sent early Thursday morning, the unnamed creator of the comics (the name was withheld by Persoff) suggests that they were created out of anger at Obama, but — according to the creator — not out of any intention to make a racial statement.

“I do not understand the connection with ‘big ears’ and ‘racism’, and I do not understand how a ‘dark face’ implies racism,” the creator of the comics wrote to Persoff. “The accusation of ‘Hate’ is true, but it is the hate of an IDEOLGY [sic], not a of race of people….. I understand that the ideology has captured 80 or 90% of the race(s) in question, but it is STILL a AN IDEOLOGY and NOT a “race” that this comic book attacks.”

You know, I think I liked the racists better when they’d just admit to being racist. I mean, at least then you could argue against them. But nobody’s racist anymore. Whether they’re running a Klan-themed bar that suggests Obama’s plan for health care is to “N—-r rig it,” or making an image of Obama as a witch doctor, or suggesting that “coloreds” want slavery to be reestablished, the racists are never, never racist anymore. They believe that all people are equal. It’s just that black people happen to be savage, lazy, dice-throwing, jive-dancing, welfare-cheating scum. But they don’t hate black people. No no no! Indeed, it’s you who are the real racists for suggesting such a thing.

The problem is that the racism is getting more and more overt, to the point where it’s not so much a dog whistle as a foghorn. An organization with decency would recognize this obvious fact, would strongly disavow racism, would work against it. The tea party will not. But don’t call them racist. You’re the racist, for thinking that that racists are racist.