Will NAACP Make Good On Pledge?

WASHINGTON - Project 21 Fellow Deneen Borelli received a pledge on national television from an NAACP senior vice president that the NAACP will issue a statement repudiating racist statements made against her because she is an outspoken black conservative.

On the July 17 edition of "Geraldo At Large" on the Fox News Channel, Borelli appeared on a panel discussion about race and politics with NAACP senior vice president Hilary Shelton.

During the discussion, Borelli asked Shelton if the NAACP would issue a statement condemning those who expose her to race-based abuse because she is an outspoken black female with views.

Below is the Borelli-Shelton exchange on "Geraldo At Large":

Borelli: "I'm a black, female conservative.  I'm often targeted by individuals who call me all kinds of names: racist, an Uncle Tom, a traitor  - you name it.  I'd like to know if the NAACP will issue a statement condemning those individuals who were doing that."

Shelton: "Why, yes, ma'am... Just give us some details... The very broad answer is... yes, we repudiate anybody calling you a bad name in the political arena."

Shelton added that the NAACP repudiated past assaults on Bush Administration cabinet members General Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice.

Borelli has been called the n-word by liberal critics, as well as other epithets such as "house negro," "Stepin Fetchit," "Sambo," "Uncle Tom," "Auntie Tom" and a "pitiful excuse of a human being," among many others.

Project 21 will send a detailed letter to Shelton chronicling some of the past racist statements made against Borelli and other Project 21 members.

Last week the NAACP passed a resolution they will unveil later this year that calls on leaders of the tea party movement to denounce alleged racism in their ranks.  There was no similar action regarding progressive mistreatment of black conservatives.
"I hope that Hilary Shelton's pledge on 'Geraldo At Large' to have the NAACP officially repudiate racially abusive statements about black conservatives was earnest and not just a way to get out of a tight squeeze," said Borelli. "The era of the wink-and-nod use of the race card in politics must end."

Borelli added: "Progressives cannot hurl stones at the tea party movement for alleged racist behavior without hitting a few of their own glass houses.  There is a particularly strong and sinister vitriol reserved for black conservatives, and it is wrong for the NAACP not to recognize it and demand it be stopped.  I am looking forward to Hilary Shelton making good on his pledge to speak out against it."

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