NAACP president Ben Jealous (pictured) says that during the group's national convention in Kansas City there was a resolution approved condemning racism within the Tea Party movement. The Tea Party has disagreed with the NAACP, calling for the organization to revoke the resolution.

According to Hilary Shelton, Director of the NAACP's Washington Bureau, the resolution "calls on the Tea Party and all people of good will to repudiate the racist element and activities within the Tea Party."
Sarah Palin jumped in to the debate, stating that she is "saddened by the NAACP's claim that patriotic Americans ... are somehow 'racists.'"

"We don't have a problem with the Tea Party's existence. We have an issue with their acceptance and welcoming of white supremacists in to their organizations," Shelton told the Associated Press.

Alex Poulter, a co-founder of the group called "Political Chips," disagrees with Shelton and the NAACP:

"It's unfounded, but people are running with these accusations like they are true."

According to the Associated Press, the group called the "St. Louis Tea Party" issued a resolution itself calling for the NAACP to withdraw the resolution. It is not clear whether the NAACP plans to meet with Tea Party leadership or not.

What I am personally trying to figure out is what the NAACP expects the Tea Party to do. Are they being asked to disband? Should they denounce the racism in their organization? Based on what I've seen, it appears that many members of the Tea Party leadership are indeed working to disassociate themselves from the more radical elements of their membership. For example, the group went out of its way to condemn a billboard comparing Barack Obama to Adolph Hitler an Vladimir Lenin.
Perhaps what we are seeing here is racial politics at its finest. I am thinking that perhaps the NAACP's motivation for issuing the resolution (I haven't spoken to Ben Jealous in a while, but I'll be sure to ask when I see him) is to make the Tea Party self-conscious about its primary liability.

The liability for the Tea Party movement is that while many of its members are not racist, there are certainly some who are. We know that, for example, most Republicans are not racist, but most racists are Republicans. All the while, the Tea Party gains its massive political momentum by taking in every supporter it can get. So the group is simply being asked to work overtime to distance itself from certain members of the group.

Sarah Palin's involvement in this conversation doesn't interest me much, since I don't expect very many intelligent words to come from the mouth of the woman who didn't know that Africa was a continent. At the same time, her defense of the Tea Party's actions is reflective of the kind of subtle, institutionalized racism that has always plagued America.

Racism doesn't reveal its ugly head in simple ways, and most of the time, those most affected are not even aware of what they're doing. So, while it's easy to accuse Palin and Company of lying to us about their racial motivations, the truth is that they are probably even lying to themselves.

Watch Rev. Al Sharpton discuss Tea Party racism here:



Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and a Scholarship in Action Resident of the Institute for Black Public Policy. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.