THE TEA PARTY, THE NAACP AND THE RETURN OF THE TAP DANCE KID

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People or NAACP was founded in 1909 by 53 white "Liberals" in response to lynchings and a so-called "race riot" in 1908 in Springfield Illinois. All the presidents of the NAACP from 1910 to 1966 were white men. This fact and a reputation for being in favor of integration with the status quo caused some friction between its most famous black member, W. E. B. DUBOIS, who was the editor of the NAACP's publication, "The Crisis," and the most nationalistic and economically independent minded black leader of the era, namely MARCUS GARVEY. Garvey is reported to have visited the NAACP's offices of "The Crisis" to invite Dubois to a meeting and found it staffed entirely by whites. Dubois brushed off the invitation and it appears the relationship, between Debois and Garvey, continued to deteriorate from there. All of this background to establish that the NAACP often called the nation's oldest and most prestigious civil rights organization still has credibility and relevancy problems.

Although the NAACP helped end lynching and fought segregation and discrimination, some people are questioning its relevancy on its 100th anniversary. Its current president, BEN JEALOUS, ignited a conservative backlash by calling on the Tea Party leadership to repudiate the racist elements among their ranks. Although he actually missed the mark, since this so-called movement doesn't just contain racist isolated "bad apples" but, it's ideological genesis and inspiration is... in my opinion, formed of a hate-filled and racist backlash to the Obama presidency. Enter ANDREW BREITBART, characterized in the media as a conservative "blogger." But in reality, Breitbart is a right wing professional "operative" whose job is to carry out media "hits " against all enemies -foreign and domestic." Unfortunately, his victim this time was a completely innocent sacrifice, in the person of SHIRLEY SHERROD, the head of the Georgia USDA. Mrs. Sherrod was the victim of a hatchet job that included broadcasting clips from a speech she gave at a NAACP meeting; where she recounted her experience, with a white farmer in danger of losing his farm. The irony, which she pointed out, was that hundreds of black farmers who had lost their farms, as a result of discrimination by this same agency. Mrs. Sherrod told how she realized that all poor people, both black and white, were being taken advantage of, by the "powers that be." She actually was successful in saving the white family's property; but, that's not the story Fox News told.

Before anyone reviewed the tape, in order to ascertain the truth, Mrs.Sherrod had been fired by the Dept. of Agriculture, vilified by BEN JEALOUS and many media outlets. But, as in devine intervention, SHIRLEY SHERROD was quickly vindicated and offered an apology from the Sec. of Agriculture and offered her job back. BEN JEALOUS also backtracked and offered his "mea culpa's." This is the whole point, before Jealous revived the tape the NAACP tape he started tap dancing to the Fox News beat. So frightened was he, of the charge of racism from the GLEN BECK's and BILL O'RIELLY's he threw the sister "under the bus" After 100 years of "tap dancing" to white liberal tunes... is the NAACP now "buck dancing" to the beat of the conservative drum? A. YUSUF RAMADAN

A.Yusuf Ramadan //// Resident Imam Masjid Nurriddin /// Ed. Dir./Clara Muhammad School-Queens NY /// Host of A New Day For Al-Islam In America Radio Show /// WPAT 930 AM Dial or WPAT930am.com /// Saturday Mornings - 5am-6am (Eastern) /// 4am-5am (Central), /// 2am-3am (West Coast) ///