AP: "Black conservative tea party backers take heat"
They've been called Oreos, traitors and Uncle Toms, and are used to having to defend their values. Now black conservatives are really taking heat for their involvement in the mostly white tea party movement—and for having the audacity to oppose the policies of the nation's first black president.
"I've been told I hate myself. I've been called an Uncle Tom. I've been told I'm a spook at the door," said Timothy F. Johnson, chairman of the Frederick Douglass Foundation, a group of black conservatives who support free market principles and limited government.
"Black Republicans find themselves always having to prove who they are. Because the assumption is the Republican Party is for whites and the Democratic Party is for blacks," he said.
Johnson and other black conservatives say they were drawn to the tea party movement because of what they consider its commonsense fiscal values of controlled spending, less taxes and smaller government. The fact that they're black—or that most tea partyers are white—should have nothing to do with it, they say.
"You have to be honest and true to yourself. What am I supposed to do, vote Democratic just to be popular? Just to fit in?" asked Clifton Bazar, a 45-year-old New Jersey freelance photographer and conservative blogger.
You can go read the whole thing and see from witness accounts how horribly these people are being treated simply because they dare to not agree with the liberal policies being forced on America from Washington right now.
The more interesting aspect to me is how all of a sudden, major media outlets have decided to stop reporting rumor and half-truths, but have decided to take a deeper look into the Tea Party movement and the people involved with it.
Perhaps the latest polls and surveys done by multiple organizations showing that the Tea Partiers are, in fact, representative of America demographically, might have something to do with the sudden interest in the truth and the news instead of the rhetoric and attempts to discredit the Tea Party supporters.
Reminder:
Gallup- 43 percent of Tea Party supporters are Independent
Rasmussen- 50 percent of voters more aligned with the views of Tea Party than with Obama.
Winston- Tea Party composition "28 percent Independent and 13 percent Democratic"
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