TheLoop21.com

By: Devona Walker (Add to your loop)
Tue, 09/15/2009 - 09:49

Mark Williams was out of line yesterday when talking about President Obama on Anderson Cooper 360.

Tea Party leader Mark Williams called President Obama an "Indonesian Muslim turned Welfare thug," last night on Anderson Cooper 360 in a segment where he was trying to deny any racist motivations behind the Tea Party protest.

Williams denounced those carrying blatantly racist signs against President Obama during the tea parties as "no more part of the mainstream of America than the hippies who wear nipple clips and feather boas in San Francisco streets during so-called peace demonstrations."

"What you're saying makes sense to me here when I'm hearing what you say but then I read on your blog, you say, you call the President an Indonesian Muslim turned welfare thug and a racist in chief," Anderson Cooper said. 

"Yeah, that's the way he's behaving," Williams said. "He's certainly acting like it. Until he embraces the whole country what else can I conclude."

There is nothing more enraging than watching a group of old white guys discuss racism, as if it's this abstract concept. It is equally infuriating to hear this man say this on national television and be allowed to finish his argument. But this is the white male privilege in this country.

But as a minority, there is something I must say to clear the air. Just because you don't use the N-word doesn't mean you are not a racist. Just because you call your movement one of "angry, working-class Americans" does not provide cover for the fact that you are leading a racist mob. Just because you don't explicitly tell people to assassinate the president, abortion doctors, gays, Hispanic-Americans or illegal immigrants, you may still have blood on your hands if you cheerlead them on and provide propaganda as fuel. And just because you were born in this country and have some "America love it or leave it" bumper sticker on your Ford F-150 truck does not make you a good American. It's interesting that all it took was a Black president to turn these "patriots" against their entire country. 

Williams, the man behind the tea party protest, in addition to Glenn Beck, the other guy behind this movement, could not be anymore racist if he were parading around in white sheets.

My hope here is not necessarily that Blacks or other minorities will rise up in anger. But that the vast majority of Americans, who I do not believe are overtly racist, will rise up and realize who these people are. 

Devona Walker is TheLoop21.com's senior political and financial reporter. She has worked for The Associated Press and the New York Times regional newspaper group. 

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