Democratic Congressman Says Tea Party Wants To Lynch Blacks

Just so we’re clear that the inflammatory, and uncalled for, rhetoric is not solely a province of the right, I give you Congressman Andre Carson, representing Indiana’s 7th Congressional District:

A top lawmaker in the Congressional Black Caucus says tea partiers on Capitol Hill would like to see African-Americans hanging from trees and accuses the movement of wishing for a return to the Jim Crow era.

Rep. Andre Carson, a Democrat from Indiana who serves as the CBC’s chief vote counter, said at a CBC event in Miami that some in Congress would “love to see us as second-class citizens” and “some of them in Congress right now of this tea party movement would love to see you and me … hanging on a tree.”

This isn’t any different than a Republican who says President Obama is a Secret Muslim, or a Kenyan Socialist (apparently it’s possible to both in some people’s minds), or that he is consciously acting to destroy the country. So far, I haven’t seen anyone on the left condemn Carson, and I doubt I will. However, if you’re going to jump on the right when they say something outrageous and offensive, then you either do the same to your side, or your just a hypocrite.

FILED UNDER: 2012 Election, Race and Politics, US Politics, , , ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. Dave Schuler says:

    If the facts are as reported, that appears to be a pretty clear violation of the House decorum rules. Nonetheless it doesn’t appear to rise to the level required for censure or reprimand.

  2. Rob in CT says:

    Yes, that is across the line of decency and should be retracted.

    So sure, I condemn Carson for this remark. Ask other liberals to do so, and I expect that some will and some will not.

  3. Jay Tea says:

    I believe he also talked about Tea Partiers “spitting on” members of the Black Congressional Caucus. I believe he’s talking about the alleged incident involving Congressman John Lewis, which has been pretty much proven to not have happened. There were numerous video cameras that documented every bit of that walk, and no video ever surfaced — even after Andrew Breitbart offered $100,000 for such footage. Plus, Lewis himself later admitted that it wasn’t a deliberate spitting, but a bit of accidental spittle — something pretty much all of us have had happen, if we’re not too embarrassed to admit it.

    Congressman Allen West (R-FL) said that this is so embarrassing, he might have to resign from the Caucus in protest. That would be a shame.

    J.

  4. JKB says:

    I believe you are missing a “not” in the qualifying phrase of the first sentence.

    Who exactly is he trying to influence. Anyone under 52 has not direct memory of Jim Crow being toddlers when it was abolished. Are they afraid the Dems are losing older Black voters?

  5. Moosebreath says:

    “This isn’t any different than a Republican who says President Obama is a Secret Muslim, or a Kenyan Socialist (apparently it’s possible to both in some people’s minds), or that he is consciously acting to destroy the country. So far, I haven’t seen anyone on the left condemn Carson, and I doubt I will.”

    I haven’t seen anyone on the right condemn people (including posters on this blog) for saying the things you cite in the first sentence, either.

  6. @Moosebreath:

    I haven’t seen anyone on the right condemn people (including posters on this blog) for saying the things you cite in the first sentence, either.

    I’d ask you to provide one example of the posters on this blog making either claim, but given that you accuse them of never condemning it in the exact same post where one di condemn it, you’re obviously didn’t base that accusation on having acctually read the blog.

  7. OzarkHillbilly says:

    I am of the left. I condemn.

    Satisfied?

  8. OzarkHillbilly says:

    Anyone under 52 has not direct memory of Jim Crow being toddlers when it was abolished

    . I am 53. I have direct memories of Jim Crow. I find it hard to believe that someone 52, or 51, do not (unless they never travelled south of the M-D line).

  9. OzarkHillbilly says:

    One more thing, the tea party does not want to lynch, they prefer their darkies subservient. I mean, to lynch you gotta get the rope, the horse…. what a pain in the butt.

  10. Moosebreath says:

    Stormy,

    I am not going to search at length for examples, but Obama consciously acting to destroy the country is standard fare from jan, Jay Tea, etc.

    Where did the post condemn such statements?

  11. @JKB: Lemme guess… you went a public school where they taught “Social Studies” instead of “history” and “geography”?

  12. WR says:

    Even if I thought he was wrong about most teapartiers, I wouldn’t waste my breath condemning a congressman I’ve never heard of from a state I haven’t set foot in since I was six. Those who run around screaming about how this person has to condemn that person aren’t worth the oxygen they consume doing it.

  13. superdestroyer says:

    Any one who has ever claimed that Republicans could appeal to blacks is they just used the right words because blacks are actually social conservatives needs to remember this.

    This is the way blacks talk when they believe that whites are not paying attention. Blacks are the most liberal group in the U.S. and every speech by the members of the CBC proves it.

  14. Jay Tea says:

    @Moosebreath:

    I am not going to search at length for examples, but Obama consciously acting to destroy the country is standard fare from jan, Jay Tea, etc.

    Care to cite examples of me saying just that, Moose? And sincere ones — I’ve been sarcastic on a few occasions

    For one example that gets brought up, I speculated that Obama was actually trying to get himself impeached — because I couldn’t find any rational explanation for his actions, and “get myself impeached as a Machiavellian strategy to make my enemies look stupid” was the closest thing to a semi-coherent explanation. (The unstated subtext was that Obama simply isn’t smart enough to be consistent. Some liberals missed that.)

    I am fairly certain that I’ve never said anything quite like that, because I don’t believe it. On the other hand, just today I kicked around the birther idiots once again, even banning one. And I don’t resort to banning very often.

    J.

  15. WR says:

    @Jay Tea: Oooh, Jay’s kicking around the birthers again! He’s a tribumal for truth! He’s da man!

    Oh, yeah, he’s also the guy who repeats everything Rush tells him.

    But he’s an indivdiual deep thinker!

  16. Jay Tea says:

    @WR: Limbaugh? He’s still on the air? Hadn’t really noticed — got bored with him about 20 years ago. I hear about him occasionally; I was rather impressed with how he handled the whole “Senate Democrats’ Letter of Condemnation,” but I think that was the last time I was really aware of him.

    Oh, yeah, there was that way he handled the “Rush is the head of the GOP” dumbness. He handed the Democrats their asses on that one, too.

    Back to your kennel, lickspittle.

    J.

  17. Moosebreath says:

    “And sincere ones — I’ve been sarcastic on a few occasions”

    In other words, you are pre-qualifying that anything I find will be dismissed as you being sarcastic. No thanks.

  18. Bleev K says:

    Congressman Allen West (R-FL) said that this is so embarrassing, he might have to resign from the Caucus in protest. That would be a shame.

    Ohh, that is so sad. Poor little Alan West.

  19. There is no hypocrisy for condemning the right’s inflammatory statements while endorsing, by silence, those of Rep. Carson.

    The Left’s political statements are directed toward the exercise of power. Any statement that aids that objective is “true,” no matter how uttered or by whom, and any statements that hinders it is false.

    This is the basic tenet of postmodern linguistic deconstructionism, which I learned in detail in post-grad studies at Vanderbilt. Originally used in literature and historical studies to claim that there are no objective truths, only power-directed propositional statements, now pomo-decon is applied with increasing vigor in the sciences and mathematics.

    I wrote in some detail about this here and here.