Ethics Daily has posted an outstanding essay by Chuck Warnock entitled "When Tea Partiers Come to Church." Warnock points out that tea partiers "tend to be Republican, white, male, married, and older than 45" and have attitudes that reveal "a subtle undertone of racism."
What if the angry faces at tea parties were black instead of white? How would the talking heads on the radio and Fox news react? What would Southern Baptists say? How would moderate Baptists react?
Sara and Brian Brandsmeier have posted an essay by Tim Wise on their Ephphatha Poetry weblog that offers a suggestion. Wise, the author of Between Barak and a Hard Place, writes:
Imagine that hundreds of black protesters were to descend upon Washington DC and Northern Virginia, just a few miles from the Capitol and White House, armed with AK-47s, assorted handguns, and ammunition. And imagine that some of these protesters -- the black protesters -- spoke of the need for political revolution, and possibly even armed conflict in the event that laws they didn’t like were enforced by the government? Would these protester -- these black protesters with guns -- be seen as brave defenders of the Second Amendment, or would they be viewed by most whites as a danger to the republic? What if they were Arab-Americans? Because, after all, that's what happened recently when white gun enthusiasts descended upon the nation's capital, arms in hand, and verbally announced their readiness to make war on the country's political leaders if the need arose.Wise has a lot more to say. Follow this link to read the rest.
All I have to add is that this little exercise in sympathetic imagination should not be difficult for anyone who has ever seriously attempted to live by the golden rule.
9 comments:
I can imagine reaction would be quite severe.
I don't know yet about the racist aspect of the entire tea bagger movement but certainly some segments are definitely racist. Most of the tea baggers I know are very reasonable non-racist people.
Sometimes I think that the whole movement is all about nostalgia for this all white past where Blacks didn't have equality, Hispanic people were a lot less in number and Gay people stayed in the closet and we didn't have so many people of different cultures or beliefs.
Life is much more complicated than what it used to be and instead of embracing differences many people just want to go back to way they think things were in a more happy time.
Yes, imagine the scandal if crowds of well behaved American blacks were protesting the excessive spending by the P-BO regime.
Truly shocking.
Craig,
Yes, and it would have been great for all those white male tea partiers to have agreed to pay-as-you-go for their war to remove non-existent WMD's in Iraq.
Yogi,
As one who grew up in what was supposedly a happier time, I would rewrite your last sentence as,
Thank God life is so much more diverse and open-minded than what it used to be. Unfortunately, instead of embracing differences and instead of facing new challenges, many people just want to go backwards to a time of challenges that they have already overcome. They think this will make them happier, instead it just leads to death.
Dr. Bruce,
Pay as you go, you mean like the stimulus bill, and the health care bill.
Craig,
I suspect you forgot that G.W. Bush sent out $152 Billion in stimulous checks in 2008 and followed it up with a $700 Billion dollar bait-and-switch bailout package.
Obama added another $787 Billion under the advice of the same financiers giving advice to Bush.
It's my understanding that healthcare reform will save money in the long run.
Dr. Bruce,
Your first error is to assume that I have or did support Bush's stimulus or bail out. I did not. You may have noticed the we just had the single largest monthly deficit EVER recently (P-BO's) and that is a time of economic downturn. I'm not sure how you can argue that going from a deficit of 20.91 billion in April 2009 to a deficit of 82.69 billion in April of 2010 qualifies as "pay as you go". Further recent (May 11, 2010) CBO numbers suggest that P-BOcare will cost over $115 billion for 2009-2010 alone. Which brings the total estimated cost to over 1 Trillion dollars. Where is the "pay as you go" here. Please note that these estimates continue to go UP not down. This doesn't even address the back loaded numbers from the P-BO administration that make the 10 year projections look better than they are.
I love the concept of "pay as you go". I fail to see how 14-15 months of continuous and increasing deficit spending actually qualifies as "pay as you go". In the real world, "pay as you go" means that you sometimes have to cut, postpone, or do without things you might want or need. Not so in P-BO world.
If you want to defend P-BO and his deficits go for it. But, please don't assume that I will defend Bush's spending. I didn't than and I won't now. Personally I'd be impressed if any of the P-BO supporters had the guts to do what the Bush folks did and actually disagree with his fiscal policy. I'd be impressed, but I won't hold my breath.
Br. Bruce,
I didn't "forget" about Bush's spending, I just think that it's past time we start to give P-BO Responsibility for his regimes own policies and stop living in the past. At this rate P-BO'll be running against GWB in 2012.
Craig,
"Regime" refers to a "form of government" While the term is often used with a negative connotation, it can be used in a more neutral sense. The United States' form of government is determined by its constitution. It is not President Obama's regime. He was duly elected under the terms of the United States form of goverment or regime.
I agree that each President is responsible for his actions and policies. However, the American people must take some responsibility. Over the past forty years we have elected Senators, Congressmen, and Presidents that have whipsawed our economy between over taxation to under taxation all without any real spending discipline. Just as Americans have been on a consumer spending frenzy on cars, houses, clothes, excess food consumption, etc. for which we cannot afford, we have enabled our government by our votes to spend for the things we want without taking any responsibility for how we are going to pay for these things. It is easy to blame the Democrats or the Republicans or the government. Just as our economy went bust from greed, fraud, overspending and borrowing, our government and way of life can go bust if we do not change our personal ways and vote for those who will insist upon a sound management of our national life.
Maybe you should run for office to help some part of our common public life to be more responsibly managed.
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