The Tea Party is a White militant group.

[Raschel]

Can you imagine if this was an all-Black group with the threats and violence. The media would be prefacing reports with, "the Black militant group..."

There. I feel better now. Just had to get that out.

[get the red out]

1. Yes

Like Tim McVey belonged to, but they are the REAL America, right????? :crazy:

[Raschel]

9. And "real Americans" is the same code the KKK used back in the day.

They carried their Bibles too.

[Caliman73]

2. We know what happened to black "militant" groups in the 60's

COINTELPRO was conducted to destroy them. The Panthers were activists and though they were not saints by any stretch, they were pretty dedicated to the empowerment of Black American citizens and provided community services when the "charity" of the community at large that the Republicans always tout, and government had failed to assist vulnerable members of their communities. The Panthers were rowdy and provocative, but they did to my knowledge every threaten to kill any elected officials. Yet, they were targeted by the government for termination while these militias and teabaggers run around making veiled threats and some pretty open ones.

Go figure. How can this happen in "post racial America"? :sarcasm:

[EFerrari]

5. When the Panthers asserted their 2nd Amendment right, they were arrested

and demonized in the press, not defended by talking heads for a week.

[Caliman73]

6. Yep.

It also prompted then Governor Vader, I mean Reagan, to begin instituting various policies aimed at disarming undesirables, which laid the framework for California's very odd firearms laws. Black and Brown power is scary to conservatives. White power not so much.

[EFerrari]

7. And the media propagates bs in this way. I had no idea who the Panthers

were or what they were about until many years later. I don't remember anyone pointing out all their community service like the breakfast program for kiddos. I guess that would have shot the fear mongering all to hell.

[Caliman73]

16. Most, or at least the mainstream media has always been about the status quo.

Fear has always sold well I guess. The media seems to have always been about sales, although regulations did keep them a little more honest before now.

There were always aggressive journalists like Upton Sinclair, Murrow, Woodward and Bernstein, and others who sought to uncover and confront the powers that be and bring truth to the people. Mostly however, media has been in the service of the status quo. Whoever owned the papers or the networks, owned the information. Media has always been in a relationship with government. In the 40's and 50's they typically reported stories favorable to the government and white middle class and corporate classes. In the 60's and 70's they relayed more of the grit and problems in the country, but from the 80's and on they have been the mouth piece for conservatism because the corporations who own most of the media outlets are trying desperately to cling to power and prevent a paradigm shift. Once the news became a commodity and entertainment, then it ceased to be in the public interest.

[Raschel]

11. Governor Vader...

:rofl:

[catbyte]

8. Not to mention the Lakota on the Pine Ridge rez

:mad:

[Raschel]

12. I sat in on the Wounded Knee trial a couple of days.

[EFerrari]

18. That's right. n/t

[NNN0LHI]

14. Actually most of them were killed in their sleep by the police

[EFerrari]

21. Yes, Fred Hampton. And by the police in coordination with the FBI.

But there were other incidents where they would show up to public events armed and they were arrested on the spot. I'm thinking of a clip I saw of one of them being arrested outside the Sacramento capitol building. My brain wouldn't give the occasion or what documentary I saw it in.

But, the way they were handled is nothing like how the teabaggers have been treated, with talking heads falling over themselves to justify bearing arms in public.

[Raschel]

10. I didn't know about COINTELPRO. I have something new to learn.

[MrScorpio]

13. Buy and read this book

http://www.southendpress.org/2004/items/COINTELPRO

[Caliman73]

17. HBO did a pretty decent documentary called "The Bastards of the Party"

Which talks a little bit about how the FBI infiltrated the Panthers, set them against one another, which aided their eventual destruction and the rise of the Bloods and Crips gangs in Los Angeles and across the nation. Interesting stuff.

[Cleita]

3. I believe you're right. I've seen that "Don't Tread On Me" flag

waving over some of their compounds when I lived in the inland northwest. Also, popular for those movements are the Nazi Swastika banner for the neo-Nazis and the Confederate flag for others. Not all White Supremacists are neo-Nazis. The fact that Michelle Backmann and company were waving that flag on the balcony of the Capitol tells me she is associated with them, as much as former Congresswoman, Helen Chenoweth of Idaho, was.

[GodlessBiker]

4. It is a domestic terrorist organization.

[bluethruandthru]

15. Great point.. I think it's time to start calling or emailing the networks.

Let's ask them if they would be presenting the news about these terrorists in the same fashion if they were African Americans or Muslim Americans or any group other than white. What would the response of the media and the government be? I can't imagine that this April 19th rally just outside DC would be viewed the same as it is now.

[Name removed]

19. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Bluenorthwest]

20. I see them as a Straight Militant Group

But there you go.