When former civil rights group partners with Tea Party, something less than "equality" is the result

One of these days I’m going to have to apply some fix to force those pesky “updates” from the right-wing newspaper Washington Times to automatically find their wormy way into my spam folder, but for now I can always count on some new bizarre bit information: “How do you resist tyranny when it’s in your own backyard?” What is this about? What would you expect from a newspaper that doesn’t even have the journalistic integrity to bother concealing its bald-faced partisanship?

Help us establish a standing army of Tea Party Activists across the country ready to engage in 2014 and 2016!

Dear Patriot,

Will you help us ward off his dangerous corruption! As all wanna-be dictators before him, Barack has demonstrated that he will go to any and all lengths to destroy society as we know it, attack freedom, and exert his twisted, dangerous will upon his ‘servants’. He is a classic Alinskyite and has followed the steps to take down society almost to a T. His one fault…..doing too much too fast.

The latest attacks on America by the current administration is astonishing.  We have Democratic Senators attacking the First Amendment and the President’s team giving the tools and funding to Taliban terrorists to plan more devastating attacks against America soil.

Oh jeez, will these Tea Party numbskulls ever go away? Unfortunately we have to depend on the voters to decide that. In the meantime, we have Niger Innis, the “executive director” of the “official” Tea Party expectorating this garbage. And who is Niger Innis? Is this the guy who was head of the Congress for Racial Equality? The guy whose father, Roy Innis, only had enough sense not to add that extra “g” to his son’s name?

CORE started off as an interracial civil rights organization in Chicago, supposedly influenced by pacifist and civil disobedience antecedents, from the early 1940s into well into the 1960s. During this period it organized and led the so-called “freedom rides,” and the “March on Washington” in 1963. Ending racial discrimination in all its forms was a prominent focus of its efforts.

But that all changed in 1968, when Roy Innis took control of CORE. Innis was (and is) an arch-conservative. For a while, CORE became more in line with the Black Panthers and the Nation of Islam, preaching black nationalism and self-reliance. But like many of his ilk, Innis found his views were in opposition to those of most blacks, and he became more closely aligned with those who took advantage of his pariah status by “accepting” him into their fold. To far-right white racists, fools like Innis played right into their hands, becoming a convenient “colored” spokesperson, spouting racial stereotypes and “confirming” their racist beliefs.  It was even suspected that Innis was an informant for the FBI, reporting on the activities of his “liberal” opponents.

I always find in amusing how a black conservative believes that “acceptance” into the insular world of right-wing whites somehow equates to racial “equality.” The reality is that he is just your typical “token” black guy; most people who vote Republican wouldn’t give him the time of day even if they knew he was “one of them,” and not one of those “other” people. People like Innis do nothing to “diversify” the party; to gain entry, they must be more bigoted than the white bigots. The continuing existence of the Republican Party can only be explained by the need of many whites to have their own “party,” since the Democratic Party seems too “diverse” and thus not truly representative of their views. 

And what are those “views”? Small government, which is in fact merely an expression of their belief that the poor and impoverished are all minorities and only have themselves to “blame” for condition; their own prejudice and hate has “nothing” to do with it, of course. The hegemony of corporations over labor is another, as is rich over poor. More recently, Innis (and his son) became involved in the anti-environmentalist “movement,” claiming that environmentalism was “racist” because it hurt job opportunities for blacks (the environmentalist movement can be accused of racism—but for reasons that have to do with population and resources). And despite the high homicide rates among black males, Innis is predictably a full-blooded supporter of gun rights. 

In fact, CORE as an organization has strayed so far from its roots it should be long since ceased in existence, but it continues to hang on by a thread by donations from right-wing donors who find its existence still of some “value” to their own agenda. Today, CORE shamefully supports any and all forms of reactionary thinking, with Innis even claiming that slavery wasn’t a really a “bad” thing, and once asserted that blacks didn’t need black leaders—they had a “leader” in George Bush. 

Innis’ son, Niger Innis, is a chip off the old block, as they say. As a spokesperson for CORE, he has referred to blacks who vote Democratic as “useful fools.” One wonders what Innis thinks he is when CORE  “honors” white neo-Nazi types and racial bigots of all kinds, laughably claiming that these people are on a “mission is to fully integrate our people in every aspect.” Innis also opposes gay rights and gay marriage, claiming that “liberals” are “invading” black churches to feed parishioners this blasphemy of “traditional” values.

The younger Innis (who I will be referring to from here), has taken every opportunity to accuse Barack Obama of “racism” in everything from gun control, the environment and food stamps, claiming that these policies spring from “racist soil.” Innis clings to the pathetic belief held by black conservatives that right-wing whites will vote for them in elections; the reality is that they’d rather stay home than vote for a black man representing them. Innis ran in the Republican primaries this past year in a Democratic district in Nevada, and lost in a three-person race. How could this happen? Wasn’t he a “star” on Fox News, its “go-to” guy when it needed a black token to prove it wasn’t a racist network? Innis even challenged the vote as being “rigged.” Of course, it might actually have something to do with his impossibly reactionary politics in a district where such views just didn’t “sell.”

Innis continues to soldier forth blindly into his own world of illusion, criticizing Republicans who even have the slightest taint of compromise with the Democratic “enemy.” Anti-government racist Cliven Bundy even found a “friend” in Innis. Opposition to environmentalism, however,  continues to be his “meal ticket” on the right-wing talk circuit (other than bashing Obama ad nauseam), relying on discredited “science” from the usual right-wing suspects. He even founded a new organization called the Affordable Power Alliance, which claims to have a “humanitarian” mission:

“Thousands of Americans become sick and die each year because high energy costs that prevent them from adequately heating or cooling their homes; buying the medicines they need; and practicing better health prevention measures. Millions more lose opportunities to better themselves and their families because rising energy costs eat away at a large portion of their disposable income.” 

Of course, high energy costs are a problem for most people; they only hurt the poor more because of other factors—like poverty wages and unemployment while corporate fat cats continue to bloat their pocketbooks.  

 

Innis’s other “project” is TheTeaParty.net, which, to be frank, is not exactly as representative of the Tea Party as it purports to be, just another figment of Innis’ imagination. Being invited to Tea Party events seems to do things like this to the easily duped. After all, the Tea Party is a creation of far-right fascists like the Koch brothers. I’m not sure what Innis sees when he looks in the mirror anyways; I suspect that what he sees and his white “friends” do is something quite different.