Yeah, big shock. I know.
In August, the RNC abruptly canceled a fundraiser in Beverly Hills that was to be headlined — not by GOP top-draw candidates like Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina — but by one of the new lead GOP race-baiters, Andrew Breitbart.
It wasn’t a fundraiser, but last weekend, Breitbart did attend a tea bagger rally in Beverly Hills. There were a few celebrities there — if you define “celebrity” down to people lower in Hollywood claim to fame than the Kardashians, by which I mean Pat Boone and Victoria Jackson.
(And this was literally a tea bagger rally, as the Los Angeles Times photographed one attendee with tea bags stapled to his headgear.)
Breitbart spoke, of course, as did serveral others but the white people on the stage stood aside to allow one of the few African Americans in the crowd of 200 get to the heart of what animated the tea party movement from the outset and what drew them all together in Beverly Hills that morning:
…African American reverend and radio show host Jesse Lee Peterson … said white Americans need to get over the fear of being called racists.
“As a result of your fear, we now have the worst president this country has ever experienced. Barack Obama is a liar; he is a racist,” Peterson said to cheers. He also said white people shouldn’t have any qualms about using the “N” word.
“Let me just say, to free you up, that word don’t mean anything to black people because if it did, they would stop saying it and the word would fade a way. It’s just another way of controlling white Americans, but get over your fear,” Peterson said.
There’s subtext here that requires highlighting. Peterson is, of course, addressing his remarks to white people, like those in his audience that day, who did not vote for Pres. Obama. He is telling them not to be ashamed of their bigotry, but rather to follow his example, as a black man, and embrace their hatred toward African Americans.
So sick on so many levels.
People like Jesse Lee Peterson have no credibility in the larger African American community outside of the tea party groupss. We’re used to dealing with people like Peterson in our communities. Most African Americans like Peterson, Steele, Blackwell, Harry Jackson, Alveda King, and other AAs in the GOP are usually motivated by greed and/or jealousy. Many of them also have serious problems with their own self-esteem. These factors play a role in leading them to hate other AAs. All of them know that neither of them could have risen to the height of American society the way that Barack Obama has. They cannot understand why he was successful and became the first AA POTUS when other AAs like Jesse Jackson and Sharpton failed.
I can’t fully explain here all of the issues that would inspire Peterson to tell the mostly white crowd that it is okay to use the word “n!993r.” He’s either a fool, or he’s attempting to make the tea partiers think that he is not like “them,” meaning the rest of the AA population in America. Plus, he overlooks the fact that there are millions of us AAs who don’t use the word.
I don’t use the word “n!993r, I wasn’t reared to use the word even though I spent the first 18 years of my life living under segregation. My parents didn’t approve of the word and taught us kids not to use a word that some others used in a derogatory manner to refer to ourselves. I have always followed their rule on this. In fact, I reared my daughter to abhor the word. IMHO, not using the word “n!993r” while being AA is a matter of self-respect for me.
Whatever fallout that occurs as a result of Peterson encouraging a group of mostly elderly white persons to use a word that is seen by most AAs as a very ugly and derogatory term, he has to own, and so do the whites who are bold enough to use it in referring to African Americans. If the term were used toward me, I’d probably shrug it off and continue on my way, but I know that there are some AAs who would challenge/fight any white person who uses the term to refer to them, and Peterson knows this. In this instance he acted in a very foolish and irresponsible manner.
Majii – I doubt they needed much encouragement to use that word, given the anger expressed earlier in the article I sourced (by LAT columnist Steve Lopez). And I know what you mean about Peterson. Gay conservatives are hard to explain too. Why the desire to join a group that reviles them?
I’ve seen some radical far-left “progressive” (meaning Communist btw) “mentally ill” blogs before but this should win an award. When you use terms like “teabaggers” and such, you cheapen your point (if you had one) and you make yourself look really, really ignorant.
And you wonder why you are called Liberal trash? All one needs to do is read this drivel. Have a nice hate-filled life Jon! You and the rest of the liberal/Communist trash are on their way out soon! :)
Ta!
Jason – Thanks for dropping by. I love it when people under the sway of Beck-Rush-Fox-Palin and their Republican tea party mobs complain about name calling. Wasn’t it just a few years ago that right wingers used to sneer at political correctness and ridicule people who wallowed in their victimhood? What happened to that? Now you’re all the biggest whiners and complainers on the planet.
If tea baggers don’t like name calling, they should stop calling people names like socialist, Muslim, fascist and Nazi, especially when none of that is true.
Bottom line: If you can’t take the name calling, don’t dish it out.
Jason LOL! You guys gave yourselves the name Teabaggers, till Rachel Maddow told you what it meant. LOL! And Jason have plenty of tissues around come Nov 2nd your going to need them. Maybe 2 boxes. We have facts you idiots have Fox.
We are taking OUR country back.
Jason: On this Saturday, October 2nd., make “sure” you’re near a TV and an “open window” on a high floor in a building, say about at least ten stories high! When you jump out make sure that you shout, “Teabagger on the way down!!” LMAO
Jason: Was gonna just move along after reading until I saw your letter — you’re one sick cowboy, cowboy. I’m so glad I’m not you that I almost feel like saying a prayer…
Advice to white people. Don’t use that word. Just don’t.
Majii: I’m with you on the n-word. I’m white, and my parents were from a formerly Confederate state, but we were also taught NEVER to use that word. It’s insulting, and in my experience, is intended to be insulting; I don’t understand how anyone – let alone anyone of African descent – could say “Go ahead and use it; it doesn’t mean anything.” If it doesn’t mean anything, why are we even having this discussion?