A Message for The City of Lynchburg Regarding the NAACP and the Recent Murder of George Baker.

After years of being a School Counselor in the inner city, I think one of the most important things I’ve learned, from some of my most challenging students, is that everyone has a need to be understood.

I do not think that the NAACP was out of order in asking the Tea Party movement to separate itself from the racists in its midst, but the famous civil rights organization ought to start by following the same suggestion.

During the great March On Washington in August of 1963, the Nation of Islam was not invited. Its members were not bothered because Malcolm X was to become a bit more famous by ridiculing the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the whole affair as a meaningless piece of theater held in check by the almighty white man.

But by the end of the decade, the civil rights movement had fallen to pieces shortly after King’s assassination in 1968. Black Power emerged and whites were discouraged from joining or attempting to join anything supposedly free of white control.

Both the tea party and the NAACP must be in the business of empowerment not complaining. Pointing fingers at each other like children is disingenuous and counterproductive.

Much to my surprise, I’m with Benjamin Jealous of the NAACP on this Tea Party business this week.

Jealous has called on the Tea Partiers to officially disavow the racists, such as there are, in the movement. I am pleased to see that he has been on good behavior—no melodrama, no exaggeration, no pretending it’s 1962 (which I read as one more sign that that style of race discussion is on the ropes). Complementing his call for the Tea Partiers to be explicit, he has been explicit in saying—admitting! This really is something special, folks—that the Tea Partiers themselves are not a racist body.

If he’s going to actually admit that in public, then it’s a fair trade for the Tea Partiers to speak up about racism in their organization.

Many of you have heard by now, that just this week the NAACP, decided that they would prepare to declare the TEA Party movement as racist in whole, if its leaders did not denounce any and all racist fringes. Ben Jealous cited signs saying ‘Lynch Obama’ and ‘Lynch Eric Holder’ as proof of such racist fringes. The only problem with this is that there is no such evidence that signs ever existed let alone were held up by TEA Partiers at any TEA party rally. It was a charge rather like the indelible and erroneous rumor of black congressmen being spat and called slurs, which was also proven false. Even though it was such an obvious fallacy; that didn’t stop Nancy Giles from spewing it out her mouth on Larry King Live.

Dana Loesch, a co-founder of the St. Louis TEA Party, however rightly put her and Stephanie Miller, who insisted on using the insult “teabaggers” as a means of identifying TEA partiers, in their places. Dana, in my humble opinion ran circles around the lies and misconceptions surrounding the TEA Party and its members. As for Ben Jealous, David Webb got him to admit the power of the TEA Party and rightly shot down accusations of racism against the TEA Party movement.

There is no question that the NAACP has a storied past and they should be recognized for such. My readers know I have been very critical of the NAACP over the years. I would love to be able to write a glowing column about them, but dammit, they have to give me something to work with. Unfortunately, they have not given me anything to work with for today’s column.

During the planning phase of putting together a national convention, the leadership of the organization must always ask, “What is the sound bite they want the media to focus on?” Based on the media coverage from the NAACP’s convention, it is quite obvious that they never asked this question during their planning phase.

Of all the issues and problems facing the Black community, how can they waste time passing a resolution labeling the Tea Party movement as racist? And the NAACP wonders why they are considered irrelevant? In the immortal words of football great, Chad Johnson (Cincinnati Bengals), “CHILD, PLEASE!”

If black Americans are suffering due to our current economic woes, Obama’s own policies are hardly helping them. The NAACP can’t bitch about “the Man” anymore because the Man is Obama.

When radical liberal groups like the NAACP, or the Congressional Black Caucus say that Lott’s comment were racist and Reid’s were not; what they mean is they agree with how Reid votes, therefore he can’t be racist. I disagree with most things the Catholic Church stands for, but does that make me anti-Catholic? Why can’t Lott disagree with Blacks on affirmative action, King’s birthday, or certain government programs without being labeled a racist?

How many of you know that Lott was one of the main sponsors of a bill that allocated over a billion dollars to Black universities to update their technology infrastructure? Blacks must be more strategic and less emotional. Just because one disagrees with a person’s voting record does not mean the person is a racist. This is part of the reason for the push back on a lot of racial issues by whites. They don’t want to be vilified simply because they have a different view. Any fair minded person would agree. That’s why dialogue is very important in matters like these.

Since President Obama rammed through Congress his reckless $787 billion stimulus bill the number of unemployed Americans has been steadily increasing, especially among African-Americans. For months that the president’s stimulus bill has failed to create the jobs he promised, and now the NAACP recognizes it, too.

As the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) meets this week to celebrate its 100th anniversary, I am very conflicted. First, I want to congratulate them on their first 75 years. They did a marvelous job at a time when America needed a lot of nudging down the road towards equality. Their past 25 years, however, has not been so glorious.

“I have already reoriented the RNC away from ‘doing outreach’ and towards building coalitions instead — moving beyond its comfort zone to create a relationship with diverse communities and constituencies. My goal: to advance freedom in the African-American community.”

Chairman Michael S. Steele, Tuesday, July 14, 2009, New York, NY