I don't know who the above gentleman is (I think he is a candidate for office in Illinois - my mate took the picture) but he was speaking at the Rockford Tea Party yesterday and was warmly welcomed. Let me add that I was talking for a few minutes with a black guy who had a Naval Air Wing cap (VA-45 IIRC). We had a very pleasant and animated discussion. He was not at all agitated as some one might be under threat of any kind. I have felt angry crowds (Century City - Los Angeles - anti-LBJ rally) and at no time during the Tea Party did I ever feel anything but peace and serenity. My mate said it was one of the most centered large gatherings she had ever attended. She also remarked that she felt the most anger when hanging out with Democrats. Interesting.

Why bring up something so utterly unremarkable? Hot Air sheds some light on the subject.

One purpose of the endless racial demagoguery of the right by the Frank Riches of the world is, of course, to make life hard for minorities who break with leftist orthodoxy. They'd never admit that, which is understandable, but they're also rarely ever called on it, which isn't. For all the media navel-gazing these days about how political rhetoric mainstreams hostility, the "race traitor" accusation that's almost universally experienced by minority conservatives I know and that's implicit in any grotesque caricature of tea partiers as some sort of neo-Klan rarely gets attention outside of right-wing media.

[H]ere's what you don't often see in the coverage of Tea Party rallies: Patriotic signs professing a love for country; mothers and fathers with their children; African-Americans proudly participating; and senior citizens bopping to a hip-hop rapper. ... It is important to show the colorful anger Americans might have against elected leaders and Washington. But people should also see the orange-vested Tea Party hospitality handlers who welcome you with colorful smiles.

There were a few signs that could be seen as offensive to African-Americans. But by and large, no one I spoke with or I heard from on stage said anything that was approaching racist.

Almost everyone I met was welcoming to this African-American television news producer.

And then we have some crazed Jewish guy saying totally unhinged things about Tea Parties.

MEMPHIS, TN - The Mid-South Tea Party is fuming over comments made by Congressman Steve Cohen comparing the national movement's members to the Ku Klux Klan. We told you this weekend about the legislator's words on an obscure radio talk show, "The Young Turks."

"The Tea Party people are kind of, without robes and hoods. They have really shown a very hardcore angry side of America that is against any type of diversity," Rep. Cohen said on the show. "And we saw opposition to African Americans, hostility toward gays, hostility to anybody who wasn't just, you know, a clone of George Wallace's fan club. And I'm afraid they've taken over the Republican Party."

In a similar vein may I suggest this 5 minute Bill Whittle video.

And just in case you have forgotten what the Tea Party is about:

Cross Posted at Power and Control