What the NAACP Sees, and the Media Doesn’t, at Those Tea Party Rallies

photo: cometstarmoon via Flickr via ThinkProgress via NAACP

Sadly, I’m afraid Matt Bai’s inclination to write off the friction between the NAACP and the Tea Party as mostly lingering baggage between an older generation of black activists and older white Teabaggers comes off as wishful thinking.

If the NAACP is feeling a little paranoid, it’s because the Tea Party has become a vehicle for white fears and coded (and visually, at least, not-so-coded) scapegoating as the country does becomes more brown and education and real opportunity does stays down — that, compounded by the hesitancy of traditional media to show the kinds of pictures that bring out just how fringe the white so-called movement really is.

(This photo is posted with the NAACP’s resolution to condemn extremist elements within the Tea Party, and accompanies a montage of other examples. I should also point out, by the way, that the guy posing with the “Monkey See” sign at naacp.org is not exactly a senior citizen.)