O’Reilly Proves Tea Party Is Not All White With ‘Paid’ Black Tea Party Activist

On Wednesdayt’s Factor, Bill O’Reilly examined the charges of racism and lack of diversity at Tea Parties by interviewing “The Big Black Lie” author Kevin Jackson, a black conservative who speaks at Tea Party events all around the country. Jackson responds that he hasn’t seen evidence of this at the rallies he has attended.

During the course of the interview, O’Reilly gets Jackson to admit that he is paid to speak at the events. O’Reilly points out that “some” might say that creates a credibility problem for Jackson.

That may be, but that credibility problem is minuscule next to the one presented by what comes out of Jackson’s mouth.

To be fair, Jackson vaguely claims that he wasn’t paid for the majority of his Tea Party appearances. On the other hand, he has had a book to promote during most of the Tea Party’s ascendancy.

Be that as it may, the real problem with Jackson is that, in defending Tea Parties, he invents a new stereotype. O’Reilly asks where all the black Tea Partiers are, and Jackson responds with the ridiculous claim that black people are “not really politically charged.”

He drops this whopper just seconds before complaining about the Congressional Black Caucus. He finishes with a flourish, positing black congressmen as slaves to Nancy Pelosi’s Massuh. I’m not sure where Barack Obama fits in Jackson’s calculus.

Whatever it is that Kevin Jackson is getting out of Tea Parties, he’s in the extreme minority. In a recent Quinnipiac poll, only 4% of black voters had a favorable view of the Tea Party movement. The poll didn’t say how many of them had Tea Party books to promote.

If the Tea Party movement wants to fight charges of racism, they could do worse than Kevin Jackson, but they could also do better.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.