Black Tea Party Members Deny Movement Is Racist

By Sarah Mamula - Talk Radio News Service

On Wednesday, a handful of black conservative and Tea Party activists held a news conference Wednesday to dismiss allegations of racism within the right-wing movement.

“This is not a movement driven by race,” said Selena Owens, a member of the Tea Party Express. “We are not racist…[and] we will not allow those in the media or political left to censor or censure us with false and derogatory statements and smears.”

Alan Keyes, a former Ambassador and Presidential candidate, said that President Barack Obama was elected by a “virulent form of racism” and compared the President’s agenda to a slave owner’s.

“What did it mean to be a slave?” Keyes said. “Your master guaranteed your food, your clothing, your shelter and a job…that’s exactly what the Obama faction and the leftists…want to pretend all Americans should aspire to.”

Another speaker, radio talk show host Herman Cain, said that the false accusations were a liberal strategy to divide the movement and deflect attention from what he dubbed the Democrat’s “failed policies.”

“When they [Democrats] do not succeed…they resort to name calling,” said Cain.

The group harshly attacked Obama and the Democratic party by calling them elitists that had “re-enslaved America.”

President of the Black Conservative Coalition Kevin Jackson accused Obama of referring to blacks as “mongrels,” and blamed the Democratic agenda for why blacks are the leading the nation in unemployment, high school dropout, neighborhood crime and abortion rates.
 
When directly asked about the incident involving Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) allegedly being called a racial slur by a Tea Party member amid March’s health care reform vote, the speakers emphatically stressed that there was no evidence that anyone from the Tea Party movement directed a racial slur at him.

The group maintained that any evdence suggesting racism could be the result of nonmembers infiltrating the organization in order to “brand” the Tea Party as racist.