[Source: California Republican Party News]

What is going on with the folks who run the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People? These days, it seems like they're more concerned with making headlines than they are advancing anything. Let me cite three recent examples. They <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/07/13/tea-party-preempts-racist-resolution-condemns-bigoted-naacp/">adopted a resolution</a> to condemn the racist elements of the Tea Party movement. The California chapter of the NAACP came out in favor of a ballot measure to legalize marijuana. And that same chapter's president, Alice Huffman, has supported studying whether to convert Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch into a state park. It's not clear to me how any of these actions follow the NAACP's mission statement to "eliminate racial hatred and discrimination."<br /><br />Let's start with the Tea Party resolution. This would make sense if there was any clear indication that the Tea Party movement is indeed racist at its core. But I'm struggling to understand why the NAACP seems intent on framing the Tea Party movement in racist terms. If any organization should have a fundamental understanding of civil unrest, it should be the NAACP, right?<br /><br />It's not surprising that the mainstream media is <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Eib2di9bq4">salivating over the prospect</a> of labeling the Tea Party movement as racist, but I've been to more than one Tea Party event, and felt not one inkling of racist motivation or intent among the people attending. From everything I see, the Tea Party movement is about reducing taxes, checking federal government efforts to skirt the Constitution, and identify waste and fraud. How is that racist?<br /><br />Ironically, by focusing on the still evolving Tea Party movement, the NAACP seems to be turning into the same thing it's historically fought against, labeling people it simply doesn't understand.<br /> <br />In fact, by passing an anti Tea Party resolution, the NAACP is implying it has transcended racism, that its members are beyond racist thought and action, flawlessly objective. So how would the NAACP react if another organization passed a resolution condemning the racist elements of the NAACP? How would its members feel if they were lumped into the same category as the National Black Panther Party? I have no doubt that if I were to start looking, I could find a line in the NAACP bylaws, or one person holding a race-tinged sign at an NAACP rally, then exploit that image to garner national headlines and tar the good works of the NAACP. <br /><br />Unfortunately, that's all the Tea Party resolution amounts to. <br /> <br />My same concern extends to the California chapter of the NCAAP and its ludicrous arguments in favor of legalizing marijuana. If anyone should aware of the rampage and mayhem illicit drugs have caused in the African-American community, it should be the NAACP. Instead of continuing attempts to curb the amount of drug use that goes on in poorer urban environments, the NAACP has decided that it is more convenient to focus on minority arrest rates. But regardless of how they spin their concern, legal or illegal, marijuana is a damaging, mind-altering substance. Making it legal will just lead to more drug abuse, the last thing the African-American community needs or can ever afford.<br /> <br />And then to cap it off, California NAACP President Alice Huffman went on record this week supporting a proposal to covert Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch into a state park. I admire Michael's artistic contributions to American pop culture. But California is in a budget crisis. People need jobs and good schools, and clean safe parks in our own communities right now. This act, perhaps more than any other, indicates the desperation of the NAACP's leadership to crowd into a news cycle and show to everyone that it's still there, that it still counts.<br /> <br />I am truly saddened by this direction of the NAACP. Instead of providing solutions to problems, it's promoting weak, ill-conceived, misguided resolutions that echo the same dark-age philosophies and attitudes the organization was founded to overcome.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">You can reach Micah Grant at mgrant@cagop.org</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4415342305243133312-3077506618626621936?l=blog.cagop.org' alt='' /></div>