The NAACP adopted a resolution Tuesday condemning “bigoted elements” in the Tea Party movement and calling on the movement’s leaders to repudiate racism, despite claims from Tea Partiers that the measure is just a political ploy
The nation’s leading civil rights group took up the language at its annual convention in Kansas City, Mo. The resolution initially said the NAACP would “repudiate the racism of the Tea Parties” and stand against the movement’s attempt to “push our country back to the pre-civil rights era,” though the wording was amended to downplay criticism of all Tea Partiers while asking them to repudiate bigots in their own ranks.
“We take no issue with the Tea Party movement. We believe in freedom of assembly and people raising their voices in a democracy,” the NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous said in a written statement announcing the unanimous vote. ”What we take issue with is the Tea Party’s continued tolerance for bigotry and bigoted statements.
“The time has come for them to accept the responsibility that comes with influence and make clear there is no place for racism and anti-Semitism, homophobia and other forms of bigotry in their movement.”
NAACP leaders have referenced an incident in March when Tea Party protesters allegedly hurled racial epithets at black lawmakers on Capitol Hill ahead of a health care vote.
