Poll Probes How Americans See the Tea Party Movement on Race

Republicans don't have to "reach out" to minorities because we actually interact with them in our everyday lives. Look at Obama, he stops off to eat on his vacation and who is he eating with? White guys! Not a woman in sight either! Even when he has pictures taken, he has to bring in black people to look like they came to see him. He visits Veteran's Hospitals & speaks to a film crew and leaves. He goes to Children's Hospital & speaks again, to a film crew, doesn't even read "My Pet Goat" to a single child, yet these people are the ones who "care about people." I know because I've talked to people that work at Children's Hospital. Breitbart is not a racist. Go to his web site. He actually does some of the jobs the media won't do.

Oh, Please.....As a member of the Tea Party, I can HONESTLY say that it is not about race. It is however about spreading the wealth and the taking from one group, of ANYONE to give to those who do not help themselves. No one in the Tea Party is against helping anyone. What is important is that the government, stop shoving these absurd agendas that continue to put this country in peril.
Most of those that I have met are everyday people. They do not want the government involved in every aspect of our lives and money being spent willy nilly with bigger government, and an arrogance of who knows best.
America is America. She stands for something very different from the rest of the world. She was based on freedom and enterprise and has been very successful at it.
Yes, there are things wrong in various areas but, there is far more wrong with DC. Those folks continue to take care of their own pockets and have snubbed the vey people they have sworn to serve and not the other way around.
Furthermore, The wonderful mixture of ALL races, Political affiliations, and religions and gender make it a wonderful cross country voice of what this country is.

Andrew Breitbart's racist tactics are tarnishing the entire tea party. He seems to be always going after black people.

Of course there are bigots and racists in both parties. I have been around long enough to have seen it and witnessed it in every place I've lived. While I was in high school I saw blacks, Hispanics, Italian/Sicilian groups erupt into racial fights.

One of the surprising encounters I saw was against American Indians in Roswell, New Mexico while I was in the Air Force. I lived in Massachusetts, Ohio, northern California, Southern California and in Texas.

While I was in Viet Nam I saw aggressive black power militants who segregated themselves into groups in the enlisted mens clubs in the late 1960s. I saw our own troops in Okinawa and Japan using abusive language and racial slurs against the nationals. I saw Japanese discriminate against almost anyone who wasn't Japanese. I saw Filipinos discriminating against Caucasians, often referring to whites as "you guys," seldom associating themselves with any other ethnic groups.

Racism will never go away. We celebrate American Indian Month, Black History Month, Asian-American Month, Hispanic-American Month, St. Patrick's Day, Martin Luther King day, and some parts of the country celebrate Cinco de Mayo and Cesar Chavez Day.

Go to any large city where there are barrios of Puerto Rican, Cuban and Haitian ethnic groups. We are a multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multi-faceted country in every way but ethnic pride often leads to gangs and racism.

For our own survival, we try to get along and most people, given the chance and open and honest dialogue, will strive to get along with each other.

One way we won't stop racism, however, is by passing hateful laws drawn up by bigots only for political advantage that preys off of fear -- fear that someone who is a different skin color is out to steal and destroy your "heritage", laws intended only to stir up more discord, racism and xenophobia.

The NAACP needs to realize that it's not 1860 nor 1960 anymore. News flash! It's 2010!

Racism is to Tea Party as bicycle is to fish: unrelated. The common themes I have heard at tea party events are a call for smaller, less intrusive government taxing less and spending far less.

Recent events have demonstrated that melanin or its lack do not seem to preclude racist thought and action on humans so disposed. I am dismayed to see the NAACP using racism to advance its aims, when so much has been done by previous NAACP leaders to fight all racism.

The Tea Party consists mostly of the extremists of the Republican party, the latter of which cannot shake themselves of their years of fiscal disaster, running up the debt and the deficit, under GW Bush. Though I like neither increased borrowing nor spending for economic stimulation, this is the remedy to hedge against depression according to most Keynesian economists who also agree that fiscal austerity at this time will halt any element of recovery at all and send the unemployment rate higher. The Tea Party wants the austerity now though. Where was the outrage when Bush was doing the same thing at a time when it was not necessary. On average, with an increase of the debt by $5 trillion during the Bush years, about $600 billion was injected per year during each year that Bush was in office. So was it the tax cuts that helped the Bush economy or was it just throwing an extra $600 billion a year into the economy? I think that the Tea Party members mean well and most have a genuine concern for our country which virtually all Americans do. But I think that other powers are misdirecting their anger toward what Obama is doing when, most likely, if the Tea Party members or the Republican Party were in charge, they'd be doing the same things on economic stimulus except if they want their names mentioned in the same sentence and context with Herbert Hoover. But just as they may be manipulated on the economy, they may be a safe harbor for racists in plain sight. This problem is not exclusive to the Tea Party but it is up to the tea party as to how they handle racists within as they become exposed. All organizations must renounce any racists among them.

Anyone who fails to see racism in SOME of the signs and placards carried by Tea Party members is practicing selective INattention. The president depicted as a snake, mocked up as a witch doctor and worst of all, as the cartoon monkey "Curious George" when simians have long been used as stand-ins for African-Americans.

Racism aside, what troubles me most about the Tea Party movement is that its adherents make demands in sound bytes but offer no well-reasoned policy statements that would bring their demands to fruition. "Less government", "lower taxes" etc. generate far more heat than light when there is no specification of what should be eliminated. Congressional candidates who have earned Tea Party support either employ the same sound bytes or make outlandish statements that are far removed from the mainstream.

The Tea Party movement must be taken seriously because it represent a formidable voting bloc. But serious thinkers who are capable of governing they are not.

No surprises in this data. Perception is reality, and the right wingers have created a perception of bias against all non-whites, non-hetros and non-evangelicals.

Can we also have a poll on the NAACP, DOJ, ACORN, SEIU, etc? Fair and balanced, no?