Academy Award-winning actor Morgan Freeman believes race relations within the United States are worse now than they were before President Barack Obama entered the White House. And he had no problem telling Piers Morgan of CNN just what he believed was the driving force behind the worsening relations: The tea party movement.
"Made it worse. Made it worse," Freeman stated in answer to Morgan's question of whether or not the election of Obama had helped in eradicating racism. "Look at the -- look -- the tea partiers -- who are controlling the Republican Party, their stated policy, publicly stated, is to do whatever it takes to see to it that Obama only serves one term. What's -- what does that -- what underlines that? Screw the country. We're going to do whatever we need to do to get this black man -- we can -- we're going to do whatever we can to get this black man out of here."
When the talk show host attempted to qualify, saying it was "not necessarily racist," Freeman forcefully interrupted, "It is a racist thing."
And it isn't the first time charges of racism have been directed at the tea party movement as a collective as well as many of its individual members. From its disjointed beginning as a very loose group of small organizations formed around the idea of less taxes and less government in all its forms, the tea party has been plagued with reports of racists in their midst.
From witch-doctor dressed Obamas to Obama as Hitler and various slogans written on placards, signs, and banners, the tea party movement, as it grew in scope and size under the watchful guidance of Fox News Channel, saw the public perception of the rallies and the tea partiers themselves grow increasingly negative. Several reports have been issued over the past couple of years that suggest that the tea party might have a racially biased element, but some believe that much of the bias is nonexistent and a creation of the media.
When Morgan asked if he was "unnerved by the traction" that the tea party has gained as a political entity, Freeman admitted he was.
"Well," he said when asked to explain, "it just shows the weak, dark underside of America. We're supposed to be better than that. We really are. That's why all those people were in tears when Obama was elected president. Look at what we are. Look at how -- this is America. You know? And then it just sort of started turning, because these people surfaced (ph), like stirring up muddy water."
President Obama has had a tough time getting bipartisan support for anything he has proposed since taking office in January 2009. And it is difficult to look beyond Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell's statement made shortly after Obama's election that the primary purpose of the GOP would be to ensure that Obama's presidency was kept to four years -- a statement that some point to as evidence that Republicans were willing to do anything, including produce intentional government gridlock, to make Obama more unelectable.
Some, like Freeman, maintain that is a product of the underlying racism within the GOP and generated through the tea party movement, which has considerable political leverage in the current political scheme of things. Others believe it is the natural political progression of a country whose political views are becoming more and more polarized, with the tea party members of Congress reflecting a simple diametric opposition to the president's policies and goals while moderate Republicans appear too willing to compromise with their Democratic adversaries.
Undoubtedly, Freeman is correct that there is an element of racism involved in the tea party movement. However, the depths of its influence on the movement is unknown. It is also undoubtedly true that there are elements within the large grass roots movement that do not see race as an issue and only see the political side when they oppose President Obama and his policies.
But the perception of endemic racism within the tea party does exist, despite efforts to expel the more racially divisive element and condemn those who mix race with political issues. And although the general perception may be one that looks at the movement and its members as a collection of racially motivated activists, to define the organization in exclusionary terms of black and white does more than a few of its members a disservice.
But is it "a racist thing"? The possibility exists. Not seeing the dark spots on a black panther does not mean they do not exist, nor does it obviate the fact that what one is observing is a leopard.
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