Pitts: On race and the tea party

I found an article in the Austin Statesmen titled “Pitts: On race and the tea party” and became intrigued because I have been coming across the term “tea party” quite a bit lately since I started this course. So I did my research thanks to Professor Seago and have formulated my own opinions about the tea party movement. First off the author of the commentary Leonard Pitts Jr. is a syndicated columnist for the Miami Herald who won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize of Commentary. His commentary is in regards towards Keith Olbermann‘s commentary stating that in his opinion the tea party movement is the outcry of people of this country who haven’t accepted that their president is black. Keith Olbermann if you are unfamiliar as I was hosts a nightly news show on MSNBC who is known for criticizing the political right. I believe that this article was intended for anybody who is familiar with Leonard Pitts and is intrigued by his writing. This being the first time reading an article by him I have to say I agree with the point that Pitts made towards Olbermann’s comments. His point being that Olbermanns comments are not wrong but rather incomplete. The term tea party movement is used to refer to themes or slogans of the Original Boston tea party. It is a conservative, populist protest movement here with in the U.S. who opposes the new stimulus and many of Obama’s new policies. Keith Olbermann claims that the real reason for the movement when you look past everything is racism; he believes that the whole reason for the movement is because the president is now black. Pitts on the other hand is reminded from Olbermann’s commentary the 2008 campaign election in which people claimed African Americans were only voting for Obama because he was black. I agree with Pitt when he says there were other qualities that gave Obama the peoples vote. Then Pitts asks the question stating “would the first pot of tea ever been brewed had Condoleezza Rice won the presidency”? He thinks the movement would definitely say “no” and claim they would have supported her. I would honestly like to believe that it would not have been brewed, but I believe it would have been brewed just the same had she won the presidency. But as the votes prove many of us are looking for more than just skin color, with Obama winning I would like to think Americans are pushing the old ways out the window. I think there are more Americans now that skin color is not even an issue subconsciously to them. We have new generations who do not know what segregation is like and grew up sharing the same bus and water fountain equally at school. I think our country has evolved into a nation that overcame inequality, but we certainly do not forget to teach younger generations how we got to the point of equality.