WaPo: Few Signs at Tea Party Rally Expressed Racially Charged Anti-Obama Themes

The Washington Post ^ | Thursday, October 14, 2010 | Amy Gardner

[kristinn]

A new analysis of political signs displayed at a tea party rally in Washington last month reveals that the vast majority of activists expressed narrow concerns about the government's economic and spending policies and steered clear of the racially charged anti-Obama messages that have helped define some media coverage of such events.

Emily Ekins, a graduate student at UCLA, conducted the survey at the 9/12 Taxpayer March on Washington last month by scouring the crowd, row by row and hour by hour, and taking a picture of every sign she passed.

Ekins photographed about 250 signs, and more than half of those she saw reflected a "limited government ethos," she found - touching on such topics as the role of government, liberty, taxes, spending, deficit and concern about socialism.

SNIP

But Ekins's analysis showed that only about a quarter of all signs reflected direct anger with Obama. Only 5 percent of the total mentioned the president's race or religion, and slightly more than 1 percent questioned his American citizenship.

Ekins's conclusion is not that the racially charged messages are unimportant but that media coverage of tea party rallies over the past year have focused so heavily on the more controversial signs that it has contributed to the perception that such content dominates the tea party movement more than it actually does.

SNIP

Ekins spent the summer researching the tea party movement and also as an intern at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington. The survey was for her UCLA graduate studies.

SNIP

Adam Brandon, a spokesman for FreedomWorks, said his organization did not instruct protesters to limit their messages to fiscal slogans, but he did patrol the crowd and threw out a few protesters carrying signs depicting Obama as Adolf Hitler.

[justlurking]

Link?

[truthguy]

...media coverage of tea party rallies over the past year have focused so heavily on the more controversial signs that it has contributed to the perception that such content dominates the tea party movement more than it actually does.

Gee, like I'm so surprised. Every thinking person could have told you the MSM was trying to spin it in any they could to make the tea party look bad. It was so obvious that a blind man could see it a mile away. The MSM (or most of it) are scum, plain and simple. But then again most of us knew that.

[Ditto]

but he did patrol the crowd and threw out a few protesters carrying signs depicting Obama as Adolf Hitler.

Those were probably the Lyndon LaRoche cultists.

[kristinn]

Sorry: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/13/AR2010101303634.html

[LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/13/AR2010101303634.html

[9YearLurker]

Okay, so some of those 12 signs anyway referencing Obama’s race or religion were getting at his Muslim sympathies. So how many actually referenced his race, and how many of those were Alinksyite leftist plants? (Wouldn’t surprise me if it was 3 or 4 and if they all were plants.)

[avacado]

"Ekins's conclusion is... that media coverage of tea party rallies over the past year have focused so heavily on the more controversial signs that it has contributed to the perception that such content dominates the tea party movement more than it actually does."

[Spok]

“activists expressed narrow concerns about the government’s economic and spending policies and steered clear of the racially charged anti-Obama messages that have helped define some media coverage of such events.”

Translation: The MSM’s efforts to falsely label the Tea Party movement as racist have failed miserably.

[CMailBag]

I’d BET that they were Dumbocrats

[3niner]

The most controversial signs have been brought by Democrats pretending to be TEA partiers.

[lonevoice]

I wonder how she would classify this sign? It's my favorite I've seen at a Tea Party rally so far...

[Incorrigible]

Bump

[Zeppo]

It would have been fun for a similar "study" to have been done at the recent Unions-and-Communists rally in Washington. Categories with substantial numbers of messages would probably have included:

• Communism is good
• Freedom (capitalism) is bad
• White people are racists
• Republicans are despicable human filth
• Kill the Jews
• Corporations and rich people are fascist criminals
• Stop all hate speech
• We love terrorists
• Vote early and often for Democrats
• Dictators are people, too
• Give me free money and stuff
• Give me even more free money and stuff

[MrB]

I bet that little cracker is a racist, too.

[SeattleBruce]

“Those were probably the Lyndon LaRoche cultists.”

But LaRouche and his followers accurately represent the views of the Tea Parties./sarc

[ETL]

Barack "Black Liberation Theology" Obama is the racist.

SEAN HANNITY: But Reverend Jeremiah Wright is not backing down and has not for years and in his strong stance on the teaching of black liberation theology is nothing new. He had the same things to say last spring when he appeared on "Hannity & Colmes:"

WRIGHT: If you're not going to talk about theology in context, if you're not going to talk about liberation theology that came out of the '60s, systematized black liberation theology that started with Jim Cone in 1968 and the writings of Cone and the writings of Dwight Hopkins and the writings of womynist theologians and Asian theologians and Hispanic theologians, then you can't talk about the black value system.

HANNITY: But I'm a — reverend

WRIGHT: Do you know liberation theology, sir?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,354158,00.html
____________________________________________

"Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy. What we need is the divine love as expressed in Black Power, which is the power of black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal".--James (Jim) Cone,
African American Religious Thought: An Anthology (Paperback)
by Cornel West (Editor), Eddie S. Glaude Jr. (Editor)
____________________________________________

Malik Zulu Shabazz, chairman of the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense (NBPP):
"We believe in a Black first philosophy and a Black Liberation Theology."

http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/article_1858.shtml

[central_va]

WaPo: Few Signs at Tea Party Rally Expressed Racially Charged Anti-Obama Themes Unexpectedly

There, fixed it.

[FrankR]

Anybody who thinks the races are going to love each other, with people and organizations like obama, jackson, sharpton, NAACP, NBPP, and others slinging the racial hatred around to earn money, is crazy beyond belief.

Those who listen to these toublemakers, will always make trouble. They will make trouble just to evoke a response from you, and then use that response against you as evidence of your "hatred".

Well, you don't have to "hate" to be pissed off, and a lot of us are. Group-think is the tool of the left and they use it like a club to beat us over the head.

The ones who listen to the drumbeat haven't evolved very far and are still dancing around the campfire of hatred stoked by the racebaiters in America. They obviously can't think on their own, and need someone to tell them when to breathe in, and breathe out.

Notice: You throw it at us, we're going to pick it up and throw it back. That ranges from racial epithets, to hand grenades.

People scouring about looking for trouble can usually find it, and if they can't, they make some.

But the race card is seriously overdrawn and not as many "honor" it anymore.

[SeattleBruce]

Why is there only a caucasian (looking) baby on this rag’s cover? What if this baby has some Italian, or Greek in him - what if he’s 1/10 African American? My Mom was full blood Italian with fair skin and blue eyes. It’s not always easy to tell when a child is of mixed ethnicity - and why should we care Bluesweek?

Perhaps the creative design team at Newsweek are the worst racists of all.