Letter to Lincoln: Stereotypes Disguised as Satire Reflect Real Views of Tea Party and GOP Rank & File

Mark Williams,  leader of the Tea Party Express, in response to the NAACP's resolution calling on the Tea Party to expel bigots from its ranks wrote a Letter to Lincoln.

I've reproduced it below as Williams has removed it from his site, but you can find the text and and a screenshot here:

Dear Mr. Lincoln
We Coloreds have taken a vote and decided that we don’t cotton to that whole emancipation thing. Freedom means having to work for real, think for ourselves, and take consequences along with the rewards. That is just far too much to ask of us Colored People and we demand that it stop!

In fact we held a big meeting and took a vote in Kansas City this week. We voted to condemn a political revival of that old abolitionist spirit called the ‘tea party movement’.  The tea party position to “end the bailouts” for example is just silly. Bailouts are just big money welfare and isn’t that what we want all Coloreds to strive for? What kind of racist would want to end big money welfare? What they need to do is start handing the bail outs directly to us coloreds! Of course, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is the only responsible party that should be granted the right to disperse the funds.

And the ridiculous idea of “reduce[ing] the size and intrusiveness of government.” What kind of massa would ever not want to control my life? As Coloreds we must have somebody care for us otherwise we would be on our own, have to think for ourselves and make decisions!

The racist tea parties also demand that the government “stop the out of control spending.” Again, they directly target coloreds. That means we Coloreds would have to compete for jobs like everybody else and that is just not right. Perhaps the most racist point of all in the tea parties is their demand that government “stop raising our taxes.” That is outrageous! How will we coloreds ever get a wide screen TV in every room if non-coloreds get to keep what they earn? Totally racist! The tea party expects coloreds to be productive members of society?

Mr. Lincoln, you were the greatest racist ever. We had a great gig. Three squares, room and board, all our decisions made by the massa in the house. Please repeal the 13th and 14th Amendments and let us get back to where we belong.

Sincerely
Precious Ben Jealous, Tom’s Nephew NAACP Head Colored Person

 Mark Williams' letter played right into the hands of Tea Party opponents on the left.  Numerous commentators and the general public have labeled it a virulent screed that is so offensive on its face that it proves the NAACP's point. Reading this letter, my personal take on this guy is that he is really angry at black people, because he employs some nasty stereotyping and insulting language. Looking at his history, this isn't new.  A regularly intelligent commentator here, the Everlasting Phelps, once pointed out to me that white people are convinced that racism is evil and this explains why Tea Party denials of racism are often so vehement as to appear unhinged.  That's the charitable way to interpret the virulence of Mark Williams' response to the NAACP in terms of this letter and his public comments.

I don't feel particularly charitable however. I feel like talking some truth.  Here's one. The underlying stereotypes and background assumptions in Mark Williams Letter to Lincoln reflect what he and a majority of Tea Party members really feel about blacks as a political constituency, disguised as satire. Here's another.  Conservatives often use satire to respond to criticism from the black community because if they straightforwardly articulated their actual thoughts, the general public would find them repugnant. 


Let me clarify the meaning of what I said above just a bit. Specifically, I'm NOT declaring Williams to be a racist. If you read this blog even semi-regularly then you already know I consider the term "racist" to be almost devoid of utility in our public discourse due to its gratuitous misuse.  I am declaring that Williams does not consider blacks to be a political constituency necessary or essential to the Tea Party's aspirations for governance and is representative of the Tea Party rank and file he leads in that respect.  

I make this conclusion based on the way in which Williams draws on stereotypes and what I consider widely shared assumptions within the Tea Party in the writing of his letter. Lets examine them:


As Coloreds we must have somebody care for us otherwise we would be on our own, have to think for ourselves and make decisions!

Williams is expressing here in satire what I will argue to all comers is a dominant sentiment among Tea party members and quite frankly the GOP rank and file, namely that blacks are brainwashed thralls of the left and so incapable of independent thought that it is essentially not even worth the effort to engage them in political discourse. Its why the messaging of the GOP and the Tea Party is so consistently bad on the issue of race. Tea Party rank and file members don't believe blacks as political constituency engage in any thoughtful consideration of the merits of conservative positions, but  reflexively resist conservatives because they are told to. Its a perspective that has evolved to a species of contempt on the part of Tea Party and conservative GOP leadership and rank and file which prevents them from seeing or engaging blacks as rational political actors.

  Bailouts are just big money welfare and isn’t that what we want all Coloreds to strive for?
  How will we coloreds ever get a wide screen TV in every room if non-coloreds get to keep what they earn?

These two comments flow from the idea that blacks are unwilling to work hard, preferring to benefit from the efforts of the white working class via welfare programs or other government largess paid for by the tax dollars of the white working class. I think Williams believes this to be essentially true, but since he won't say it straightforwardly, he can only thinly disguise it as satire to maintain plausible deniability to the charge that he is trafficking in stereotypes. 

 That means we Coloreds would have to compete for jobs like everybody else and that is just not right.

This line plays to the related idea that what jobs blacks have, we don't earn, but rather are given them through misguided affirmative action policies at the expense of hard working whites.  Again, I will argue this is what Williams feels about blacks as a political constituency but can't say in any way other than satire without repelling most people. I will further argue to all comers that this feeling is widely shared by the members of the Tea Party movement in general. 

These themes permeate the discourse and the unspoken and spoken views of the Tea Party Express membership. Thats absolutely true, because Mark Williams is the spokesperson and leader of that group. He articulates the feelings and viewpoints of his membership.  He is their leader and spokesperson because they believe he represents and articulates their views the best.


Its unfortunate. Mark Williams and the Tea Party movement writ large have a political point of view that many blacks would find appealing, and when he articulates that, he is in the zone.  Listen to him here on Anderson Cooper: 

 

If  the Tea Party stuck to that message, they'd do just fine with black folks.  

Williams has since appeared on Geraldo at Large along with Sharpton and Ben Jealous and some others and to hear Williams tell it, they all managed to sing Kumbaya by the time the program ended.  I'm reserving judgment on that score until I see the video after it airs. Perhaps a moderation of my view on Williams himself may be in order. We'll see. 


In any event, I have strong words on the Letter to Lincoln and strong assertions. I'm open to having those assertions disputed.  Give it your best shot.