El reporte “Tea Party Nationalism” se dará a conocer este miércoles 20 de octubre y promete detalles sobre lazos entre miembros del Tea Party y grupos de odio, además de mapas interactivos de la actividad de estos grupos en conjunto.
COMUNICADO (en Inglés)
NAACP To Release Report Highlighting Troubling Ties to Extremist Groups in Tea Party
Ranks
“Tea Party Nationalism” includes interactive maps showing Tea Party strength in
states
NAACP Tele-News Conference October 20 at 11:00am (EST)
NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous, civil and human rights leaders
including National Council of La Raza, Asian American Justice Center President and
Executive Director Karen Narasaki, Researchers Leonard Zeskind and Devin Burghart
News conferences being held in over 15 states
WASHINGTON, DC – The NAACP will release a report by the Institute for Research &
Education on Human Rights which, details various associations between Tea Party
organizations and acknowledged hate groups in the United States
(teapartynationalism.com).
The report comes a few days after the NAACP board ratified a resolution calling on
the Tea Party to repudiate racist elements within its ranks along with a resolution
calling for civility in the political discourse. Those resolutions are part of
nearly 80 others on jobs, education and climate change.
The national attention sparked by NAACP call this summer for the Tea Party to
repudiate racist elements within the group, inspired the Tea Party leadership to
purge some outspoken racist elements including Tea Party Express chairman Mark
Williams well known for racist rants.
The new report details ongoing links between Tea Party organizations and various
white supremacist groups, anti-immigrant organizations, and independent militias.
In addition, five of the six groups are headed by “birthers,” people who deny
President Obama’s citizenship.
“These groups and individuals are out there, and we ignore them at our own peril,”
stated NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous. “They are speaking at Tea
Party events, recruiting at rallies and in some cases remain in the Tea Party
leadership itself. The danger is not that the majority of Tea Party members share
their views, but that left unchecked, these extremists might indirectly influence
the direction of the Tea Party and therefore the direction of our country: moving it
backward and not forward.”
The report analyzes each of the six most active Tea Party organizations. Drawing
from Tea Party literature and websites, as well as original statistical analysis,
the authors provide demographic information and specific instances of racist ties.
It also offers interactive maps showing where Tea Party membership is located within
the United States.
It outlines instances of intolerance and extremism. An addendum details local Tea
party leaders who have direct ties to white supremacist groups.
The TeaParty.org faction is led by the executive director of the Minuteman Project,
a nativist organization that has in the past been associated with the murder of
migrant Mexican workers as part of its vigilante “border operations”. Roan
Garcia-Quintana, “advisor and media spokesman” for the 2010 Tax Day Tea Party and
member of ResistNet, also serves on the National Board of Directors of the Council
of Conservative Citizens (CofCC), the lineal descendent of the Council of White
Citizens. In Texas, Wood County Tea Party leader Karen Pack was once listed as an
“official supporter” of Thom Robb’s Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, a modern-day white
supremacist organization.
In addition to the report, the NAACP has been running Tea Party Tracker, a website
that monitors instances of racism and other forms of extremism within the Tea Party
movement. You can visit it at www.teapartytracker.org.
To join the call, please RSVP to (202) 463-2940 ext. 1021. The call in number is
800-857-9716 Participant code is 3879827.
For embargoed copies of the report, information on regional events or NAACP
interviews, contact Leila McDowell at lmcdowell@naacpnet.org or Chris Fleming at
cfleming@naacpnet.org. 202 463 2940.
For Institute interviews contact Marilyn Katz at MKatz@mkcpr.com.
For the interactive maps and the report online go to www.teapartynationalism.com
Founded in 1909, the NAACP is the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights
organization. Its members throughout the United States and the world are the premier
advocates for civil rights in their communities, conducting voter mobilization and
monitoring equal opportunity in the public and private sectors.
