Yet Lenny McAllister, a Republican commentator and author, said he has seen racism within the tea party and has confronted it — approaching people with racially derogatory signs of President Obama and asking them to take the signs down. Like Brice, he said leaders of the movement must not ignore the issue.
“I feel like the tea party movement is at its core a good thing for America. It is a group of citizens that have not been previously involved,” McAllister said. “The people are speaking up and becoming more educated on the issues, but you have fringe elements that are defining this good thing with their negative, hateful behavior.”
McAllister, who has spoken at several tea party gatherings, said the movement is more diverse than news clips show. “There is this perception that these are all old, white racists and that’s not the case,” he said.
Jean Howard-Hill, a moderate Republican who leads the National Republican African American Caucus, wrote that she is “not sure what’s in the cup of tea.”
“Any movement which cannot openly denounce racism, calling it out as wrong troubles me,” she wrote. “To attack President Obama on his policy is one thing, but to do so on his race or some hysterical pretext of socialism is yet another.”
