Today's Date: March 28, 2024
American Water Charitable Foundation Announces National Partnership With American Red Cross With $250,000 Donation   •   PMI Foods Gives Easter Donation of 15,000 Pounds of Prime Rib to New Life Church in Arkansas   •   Scotiabank ranks on The Globe and Mail's annual Women Lead Here benchmark of executive gender diversity for the fourth consecuti   •   Taro Pharmaceuticals U.S.A., Inc. Expands OTC Portfolio for Children with the Introduction of bébé Bottoms™   •   Consolidated Credit Launches Free Webinar Series to Empower Individuals During Challenging Economic Climate   •   Bill Introduced in Minnesota Would Increase Access To Genetic Testing   •   Pushing Policy: Women Uniting for Legislative Change; Four Trailblazing women at the forefront of the Quad Caucus   •   Chevron Announces Opening of Fab Labs at HBCUs   •   UC Berkeley FHL Vive Center Teams Up with BeamNG   •   Gale Primary Sources Release Four New Archives Devoted to Contributions from Underrecognized Communities   •   University of Phoenix Receives Arizona Veteran Supportive Campus Recertification   •   New Report Shows Massachusetts Customers Could Have Saved Hundreds of Millions in 2024 Through Competitive Energy Supply   •   80 M/other Artists Converge for MICAfest 2024 in Northampton, MA this May   •   More $10-a-day child care spaces   •   BNSF Railway builds upon safety record by utilizing virtual reality for training   •   JAMS Diversity Fellowship Accepting Applications   •   Paralyzed Veterans of America to honor former Senator Elizabeth Dole with 2024 Gordon H. Mansfield Congressional Leadership Awar   •   Impacts of Extreme Weather on Interior Design Examined in New Research   •   Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas and Wells Fargo Bank Award $850K for Rio Manor Apartments Renovation   •   Argonne-Supported Critical Materials Assessment Tags Potential Supply Chain Bottlenecks
Bookmark and Share

Black Rights Group Condemns Racism Charges

 WASHINGTON -- Members of the Project 21 black leadership group are condemning the left's false use of the accusation "racist" as a political tactic, saying they recognize the strategy from the teaching of left-wing organizer Saul Alinsky.

Former U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Chairman Mary Frances Berry, a long-time prominent liberal activist, has admitted in an interview with Politico that the left is trying to smear the tea party movement as "racist" for strategic reasons, not out of genuine concern that the movement is itself racist.

Berry called the tactic an "effective strategy" and chose not to denounce it.

"As an active participant in the tea party movement, I know the movement's motivation is about Obama's policies and not his race," said Deneen Borelli, a Project 21 full-time fellow who has spoken at many tea party rallies and is scheduled to speak at the "Uni-Tea" rally in Philadelphia on July 31.  "Race card politics is the last-ditch effort to shift the debate away from President Obama's harmful policies such as the government's takeover of health care and his failure to create jobs -- both of which are having an impact on his popularity.  This diversion may also help Obama to try to jam through cap-and-trade legislation through Congress.  It's a grand distraction from policies and may unfortunately increase racial tensions."

Berry, now the Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought and History at the University of Pennsylvania, was asked, "will branding the tea party 'racist' work?"  

Berry replied:

Tainting the tea party movement with the charge of racism is proving to be an effective strategy for Democrats.  There is no evidence that tea party adherents are any more racist than other Republicans, and indeed many other Americans.  But getting them to spend their time purging their ranks and having candidates distance themselves should help Democrats win in November.  Having one's opponent rebut charges of racism is far better than discussing joblessness.

"This is exactly the kind of thing that has irked me all of my adult life, to put it mildly," said Project 21 member R. Dozier Gray.  "This willful and purposeful use of the race card for nothing more than political gain is toxic to race relations, and Mary Frances Berry must know that.  But she evidently does not care.  Based on her comment, political posturing takes primacy over whatever real issues regarding race that she might pretend are her calling cards.  I have seen this all before.  I find it shameful."

Project 21 member Bob Parks added: "What's most disturbing about this very public quote?  Not only is Mary Frances Berry making this comment without fear of admonishment, and that progressives have apparently embraced and are employing these very shameful, race-baiting tactics -- but Berry is likely teaching this 'social thought' hate to children."

Left-wing organizer Saul Alinsky, whose tactics have been studied and followed by Barack Obama and his followers, taught his activists to "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it."  The Tea Party movement has unnerved the left and energized supporters of smaller government, causing the left to target it, as per Alinsky's method, with bogus racism charges.


Project 21, a leading voice of black conservatives since 1992, is sponsored by the National Center for Public Policy Research (
http://www.nationalcenter.org
).



Back to top
| Back to home page
Video

White House Live Stream
LIVE VIDEO EVERY SATURDAY
alsharpton Rev. Al Sharpton
9 to 11 am EST
jjackson Rev. Jesse Jackson
10 to noon CST


Video

LIVE BROADCASTS
Sounds Make the News ®
WAOK-Urban
Atlanta - WAOK-Urban
KPFA-Progressive
Berkley / San Francisco - KPFA-Progressive
WVON-Urban
Chicago - WVON-Urban
KJLH - Urban
Los Angeles - KJLH - Urban
WKDM-Mandarin Chinese
New York - WKDM-Mandarin Chinese
WADO-Spanish
New York - WADO-Spanish
WBAI - Progressive
New York - WBAI - Progressive
WOL-Urban
Washington - WOL-Urban

Listen to United Natiosns News