Pot to kettle: 'You're a racist'

I often suggest we are living in a world where up is down, black is white, right is wrong and left is … well, no, left is still never right.

That would be "bizarro world," that parallel universe, where everything is backward. That's what I think with regard to the groundless, baseless, irresponsible, false, unjustifiable and unsubstantiated accusations of racism against the tea-party movement by a group seeking the advancement of nonwhites – the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

About the meanest, most hurtful, most ruthless smear you can make about someone in America in 2010 is to label that person a racist – and rightfully so. If anyone hates other people and wishes them ill because of the color of their skin, that person deserves to be vilified and berated.

However, when that accusation is unfairly, inappropriately and cavalierly hurled at people, those doing the smearing are the ones who should be vilified and berated. In fact, they are actually in service to the cause of hate and racism when they cheapen the label and simply use the accusation to attack those with whom they simply have a political disagreement.

And that's really what's going on here with the NAACP. I suspect even the leaders of the organization have some regrets about promoting the resolution condemning the tea-party movement for racism without the slightest trace of evidence. It's backfiring on the group. No sooner was the ink dry on the resolution than the backtracking began.

Ben Jealous, the chairman of the NAACP, suggested the resolution did not actually indict the tea party for racism (which it did). It was more of a warning, he said. Now he demands the tea-party movement repudiate racism.

It's like the old interrogation line, "When did you stop beating your wife?"

Exactly who at the tea-party movement is supposed to do that? There are no prominent national leaders of this decentralized movement. This is a spontaneous, grass-roots effort – barely 18 months old. Are the tens of millions of Americans who identify with this movement supposed to denounce racism in unison?

For what it's worth, I'm going to do something historic right now. As the author of "The Tea Party Manifesto," a book that seeks to give the movement a mission statement upon which to build a consensus, I'm going to take the liberty to speak right here and now for the tea-party movement – just this once.

"The tea-party movement seeks to promote the proper role of government in America – namely as the protector of all people's individual, God-given, inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, without regard to race, color or creed."

I have met hundreds of tea-party activists across this country and I believe that every single one of them would approve of that statement.

However, I don't believe for a moment that those hurling the racial accusations would.

The NAACP, for instance, still clings to the Marxist notion that only whites can be racist. Why? Because whites have the power, they say, and racism is about using power to victimize racial minorities.

Think about this: We have a black president. We have a black attorney general of the United States. We have sworn testimony from a former U.S. attorney accusing the Justice Department of pervasive racism in the dismissing of cases against black defendants charged with victimizing whites. But the NAACP couldn't care less about that. Instead, the NAACP is concerned about the mere potential for racism in politically disenfranchised grass-roots activists who have demonstrated no racist attitudes at all.

Make sense to you?

But the hypocrisy and double-standards get worse.

Another group has rushed to the defense of the NAACP. It's the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Communications director Ibrahim Hooper says the tea-party activists have "failed to repudiate elements within the movement who use racist or bigoted language." He says CAIR is now tracking incidents it claims show tea partiers are "Islamophobic," whatever that means.

As I stated earlier, I believe the tea-party movement is characterized by deep commitment to the inherent, inalienable and God-given rights to all people – and that includes the right to worship freely or not to worship at all.

Does CAIR?

If so, has CAIR ever repudiated the government of Saudi Arabia for banning Bibles, banning churches, banning worship of any kind other than Sunni Islam, banning the travel into the city of Mecca by any except Muslims?

I don't think so.

Has CAIR ever sent back any of the millions of dollars it has received from Saudi Arabia, the most religiously intolerant nation on Earth?

I don't think so.

Has CAIR ever called for opening the city of Mecca to people of all faiths?

I don't think so.

Has CAIR ever humbly apologized for the wanton destruction of Christian churches throughout the Islamic world?

I don't think so.

Has CAIR ever used its influence within the Islamic world to stop the brutal persecution of Christians, Jews and other non-Muslims?

I don't think so.

Pot to kettle: "You're a racist!"