Tea Party activist, Sonny Johnson, talks about the conservative voice needing to be heard and how it cannot cower in fear, or shrink away when accused unduly of racism.
The issue of racial solidarity is becoming a major issue for black conservative Tea Party goers, because of the media's hyper focus on racism in the Tea Party. The media has focused its attention on the tiny number of crackpots at the Tea parties and have tried to portray them as an example of the whole tea party movement. As a result many in the black community believe that the Tea Parties sole purpose for opposing Obama is because he is black. Nothing could be further from the truth.
I have attended three Tea Parties thus far and will attend my fourth on April 15. What I have observed first hand is that the vast majority of people at the Tea Parties are basically everyday folk who are concerned about a disconnected Congress and a president whose policies are a recipe for disaster. Many of them, like myself, have never ever been politically active before. These people are basically your neighbors, coworkers, friends or family. There really isn't anything special about them.
Finally there is an aspect of the Tea Parties I wish the black community would explore. It is the concept of coming together around our issues rather than around political parties. Currently, the black community has no true political voice because we have been placed in a Catch 22. On one hand we are told not to vote for Republicans because they are all racists, on the other hand the Democrats repeatedly fail to solve any of our issues.
It be far better to unite on our issues and only support those individual candidates that have a proven record of solving our problems, regardless of which party they may come from. Think about it black America, isn't it time we effected our own change?
