The Congressman delivered his remarks at an event the CBC held in Miami on August 22. He later said he stands by them, and tossed in The John Birch Society for good measure.
Carson’s crazy rant resembles others from CBC members such as Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., who said tea party members can “go to Hell.”
But they and other CBC members are only reprising what they hear in the media, where smashing the tea party as racist comes from top members of the industry.
What Carson Said
In one garbled remark, Carson said that the tea party’s is “stopping change” because it wants to stop the growth of government, and that such a view is akin to “the effort that we’re seeing of Jim Crow.”
Some of these folks in Congress right now would love to see us as second-class citizens. Some of them in Congress right now with this tea party movement would love to see you and me … hanging on a tree. Some of them right now in Congress are comfortable with where we were 50 and 60 years ago but it's a new day with a black President and a Congressional Black Caucus.
In other words, Carson believes those who oppose his leftist agenda hate blacks and want to hang them.
Even worse, Carson defended the remarks. His spokesman told Politico that Carson uttered the imprecations “in response to frustration voiced by many in Miami and in his home district in Indianapolis regarding Congress’s inability to bolster the economy.” Politico reported:
[Carson spokesman Jason] Tomcsi, in an email, wrote that “the congressman used strong language because the Tea Party agenda jeopardizes our most vulnerable and leaves them without the ability to improve their economic standing.
“The Tea Party is protecting its millionaire and oil company friends while gutting critical services that they know protect the livelihood of African-Americans, as well as Latinos and other disadvantaged minorities,” Tomcsi wrote. “We are talking about child nutrition, job creation, job training, housing assistance, and Head Start, and that is just the beginning. A child without basic nutrition, secure housing, and quality education has no real chance at a meaningful and productive life.”
The spokesman also explained to CNN:
"He used strong language because the tea party agenda jeopardizes the most vulnerable. Members of the tea party are holding up a lot of things that the president wants to do and want to gut critical services and programs that they know are important to African Americans as well as Latinos and other minorities."
But Carson added more remarks of his own, slamming The John Birch Society as an evil precursor to the incognito Klansmen he imagines lurking in the halls of the Capitol:
Well, I wasn't talking about the entire tea party. I think the tea party is absolutely right when they call for increased transparency in government, when they call for a cutback on excessive government spending. I am deeply concerned about some elements of the tea party who are extremist and who have reflected a mentality going back to the John Birch Society, going back to George Wallace’s Dixiecrats.
John F. McManus, president of The John Birch Society, and publisher of The New American, said in an interview:
If an honest person really goes "back to the John Birch Society," he would find one of the most formidable anti-racist organizations in the United States. During all of its 53 years, there never has been any racism in the Society. Dishonest smear artists have hurled the charge at the Society during all of its years, but they could never back it up. It bothers all of us in JBS, especially our black members.
In JBS, people are judged by their character. As for being "extremists," all members would plead guilty to being extreme admirers of the U.S. Constitution and the good will that has always characterized our country. They would also plead guilty to being extremely worried about the way our nation is being taken into undeclared wars, massive indebtedness, and sinking morality.
In a written statement, Reverend Jesse Lee Peterson, founder and director of Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny (BOND), commented on Carson and the Congressional Black Caucus:
Rep. Andre Carson and the CBC want black Americans to forget about the racist legacy of the Democratic Party by falsely portraying the tea party as "racist." Let us not forget that most of the segregationists of the past like Sen. J. William Fulbright, Gov. George Wallace, Sen. Robert Byrd, and Al Gore, Sr., were all Democrats. Rep. Carson needs to back up his allegations by providing the names of the members of Congress whom he alleges want to see blacks as "second-class citizens" and "hanging on a tree."
Carson’s assertion that JBS is "racist" and "extremist" is absurd. I’ve been affiliated with the JBS for more than 20 years, and I’ve not witnessed any racism coming from the organization. JBS is about educating the American public about the serious threats facing this great nation. They’re advocates of limited government and promote individual freedom and responsibility. Carson’s remarks are an attempt to back peddle from his reprehensible attacks against the tea party by besmirching another group of patriotic Americans.
The South Central L.A. Tea Party has attended the Congressional Black Caucus Town Hall Meetings, and they’ve been nothing more than political pep rallies to motivate the Democrats’ base by blaming the tea party for President Obama's failures. Rep. Carson, Maxine Waters, and other members of the CBC don't care about the black community or the nation at large. They are using the town halls to directly lie to the black community, so that they will remain in a hypnotic trance and stay on the Democrats’ plantation.
The South Central L.A. Tea Party is demanding that Rep. Carson apologize for his remarks about the tea party and JBS or resign!
Carson, Waters, Media
Carson has a history of peddling lies. On March 20, 2010, the day ObamaCare passed the House of Representatives, Carson told the media that Tea Party members, upset about the President’s socialist healthcare plan, surrounded him and Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) as they exited the Cannon House Office Building and shouted racial slurs and spat on the two black leftists.
Carson lied. When Big websites proprietor Andrew Breitbart offered $100,000 to the United Negro College Fund if anyone produced evidence that such an event occurred, no one adduced it. Carson’s answer to Breitbart? The reward was “a veiled attempt to justify actions that are simply unjustifiable.”
As Breitbart noted, “He calls protesters racist and if you ask him to prove it, you’re a racist, too.”
But Carson’s defamation of the Tea Party merely echoes those of other prominent black leftists in Congress, including radical leftist Rep. Maxine Waters. At what the Washington Post called a “community summit” in California, the congresswoman unbosomed rhetoric nearly as violent as Carson’s: “I’m not afraid of anybody. This is a tough game. You can’t be intimidated. You can’t be frightened. And as far as I’m concerned, the ‘tea party’ can go straight to Hell.”
The NAACP has been peddling the theme since its convention in July, when the group called the Tea Party a group that tolerates what it called “racist elements.” Said NAACP chieftain Benjamin Jealous, “We take no issue with the Tea Party movement. We believe in freedom of assembly and people raising their voices in a democracy.”
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.
The same day the NAACP voted, MSNBC’s leftist host Chris Matthews encouraged Jealous to smear the Tea Party on his program.
In March, National Public Radio fired its chief, Vivian Schiller, after one of her top executives at the organization was video-recorded calling members of the Tea Party stupid racists.
West Responds
Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.), the hard-shell black conservative from Palm Beach, penned a letter to CBC Chairman Emanuel Cleaver, telling him remarks like those uttered by Waters and Carson are beyond the pale.
It is unconscionable when a fellow CBC Member, Congressman Andre Carson, comes to South Florida and claims that some in the Tea Party would love to see black Americans 'hanging on a tree.' It is appalling to hear another CBC colleague, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, say "The Tea Party can go straight to hell."
As Chairman of the CBC, I believe it is incumbent on you to both condemn these types of hate-filled comments, and to disassociate the Congressional Black Caucus from these types of remarks. Otherwise, I will have to seriously reconsider my membership within the organization.
Congressman Carson's desire to generally criticize a large grassroots group as racist is baseless and desperate. When individuals believe they are defeated in a political disagreement, they normally resort to race-baiting, which in my opinion is in itself racist.
Photo of Rep. Andres Carson (thumbnail, at top): AP Images
