Racism Under Wraps

Martin Luther King once appeared here. Now the ultra-conservative tea party movement has tried to take over the Lincoln Memorial, but they only partially succeeded.

The crowd that assembled at the Lincoln Memorial was unmanageably huge. Their number one hero is God, followed closely by TV talk show host Glenn Beck. The latter’s main vocation is spokesman for America’s conservatives. On his daily four hour (!) radio show, he accuses President Barack Obama of having “hatred for white people” and he rails against his “socialist” administration. But on this particular Saturday, two months before the midterm elections, he doesn’t talk politics. He told his admirers from all corners of the nation specifically to leave their banners at home when they came to attend the rally. On the steps of the Memorial, he shouts into his microphone that God can lead America back to those values and principles that made it great.

The location and the date of the rally are heavily symbolic. 47 years earlier, civil rights advocate Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have A Dream” speech from the same monument stairs. That struggle supported equal rights for African-Americans. This time, the event organizers, as well as the vast majority of those in attendance, were whites. They don’t want change in America. They dream of a return to bygone days. And they don’t come from the suburbs of America’s large cities; they hail from the nation’s middle. They prefer “natural” and “God-given” families. They profess Judeo-Christian religious traditions. There’s never any mention of “Islam.” Beck describes the timing of the event as “divine providence.”

Beck rejects out of hand the notion that this was an attempt to politically co-opt the beliefs of the black civil rights advocate, saying that Martin Luther King Jr. doesn’t belong to any one group. Beck himself was born one year after King delivered his historic speech. By age 30, the TV personality was a serious alcoholic. Then he converted to Mormonism (and thereby also to zealous abstinence) and married his second wife (a Mormon). Since then, his political campaign speeches have taken on a decidedly religious hue.

Many people at the rally wear black T-shirts emblazoned with gold lettering proclaiming “Restoring Honor.” What’s wrong with America’s honor? “I have to think about that,” answers a lanky young man from New England. “I really can’t say,” he says as he turns to listen to a war veteran invited by Beck to lead the crowd in prayer for all the troops “between Baghdad and Kandahar.” When asked the same question, a middle-aged woman, who traveled more than 600 miles from Minnesota to attend, replies “No comment.” Standing at the edge of the Vietnam War Memorial in her gold-black “Restoring Honor” T-shirt she says to the journalist, “I don’t know whether your reporting about us will be positive or negative.”

The American media announced a tea party demonstration: a get-together of people on the conservative side of the Republican Party whose numbers have grown rapidly ever since former President George W. Bush was succeeded by Barack Obama in the last presidential election. Tea party icon Sarah Palin also made a brief appearance at the memorial park in central Washington D.C. on this sunny Saturday. She said her appearance was not as a politician but as the mother of a military veteran. With her son as a starting point, Palin quickly breezes on to other soldiers, talking about their “honor” on the fields of Iraq and Afghanistan and their sacrifices of life and limb and of their love of America she calls patriotism.

Tea party rallies are generally characterized by an abundance of hate-filled slogans. One especially popular poster shows Obama with a Hitler moustache. But little of this was evident at Saturday’s rally as attendees obeyed Beck’s request to leave their signs at home. The most prevalent political sentiment visible was a small sticker bearing the message “I can see November from my house.” Republicans hope to reclaim majorities in both houses of Congress after the November elections.

Most T-shirts bore religious rather than political themes as well as references to the nation’s Founding Fathers. One assembly line worker employed at a St. Louis factory said, “A handshake used to mean something.” 39-year-old Michael Judd, a labor union member, attended with his brother. He said his union would probably disapprove of his appearance at the Washington D.C. rally and admitted that he had voted for both Republican as well as Democratic tickets in past elections, adding that the last President he really liked was Ronald Reagan. He said he simply doesn’t trust the current president, who he feels is pursuing policies “against the people.” As examples, the autoworker cites health care reform and the economic stimulus package.

Joseph Kuveikis, an Atlanta lawyer who represents accident victims, wears a crucifix around his neck that’s hard to miss. He’s convinced private enterprise is always more efficient than the “creeping, powerless government bureaucracy.” He created his own T-shirt using an image that alludes to the Founding Fathers and bears the title “Spirit of Ten.” Depicted on it are 10 men Kuveikis claims have clairvoyant abilities. Glenn Beck is in the first row.

About 100,000 people from every corner of the country are in attendance. The organizers would like to believe that the number is closer to a half million. Many spent long hours behind the wheel or on a bus to get here. For some, this is the first demonstration they’ve ever attended. For many, it’s all about the nebulous concept of “American values.” What does that mean? Alan, a fireman from North Carolina, says it means, “I’ll help you if you’re attacked by anyone,” adding that he’s also against socialism. What would he do if he were in charge? “I’d provide shelters for the homeless. I’d give everyone health care. And I’d pay off the deficit.”

About the time this demonstration begins to break up, the second political demonstration arrives at the Mall. American flags and religious leaders are also present in this group. The organizer is the Reverend Al Sharpton, who knew Martin Luther King Jr. personally. This is a protest demonstration against Glenn Beck and against his hijacking of the civil rights movement. This demonstration is predominantly black and very political. And it has much less to do with America’s Founding Fathers than it does America’s present and future.

Banners proclaiming “We Are The Dream” can be seen. Others show photos of Martin Luther King Jr. and Barack Obama with the caption “From the Dreamer to the Dream.” A group of students that has traveled by bus from Pennsylvania celebrated African, Hispanic and white America. “They never gave Obama a chance but started right in attacking him,” said 44-year-old Britt, a middle class African-American manager. A toothless woman of similar age from a Washington, D.C. suburb calls Sarah Palin “an asshole.” And 75-year-old Maureen, who still recalls the “wonderful feeling” she had listening to Martin Luther King Jr. deliver his “I Have A Dream” speech, talks of her “duty’ to take to the streets on this day. “Racism today is different,” said 17-year old Daniel, who traveled here with schoolmates from Ohio. “Now it’s an undercover racism.”

Sevnteen-year-old student Ashley Reese moved from Los Angeles to Washington D.C. to study journalism at Howard University. She wears her hair in the Angela Davis style, has on multi-colored stockings and last demonstrated against homophobia and for Obama’s health care reforms. She says she experiences “covert racism” when, for example, she goes shopping in a department store and is shadowed by store detectives. On the subject of TV personality and messianic preacher Glenn Beck, she says, “He’s the exact opposite of Martin Luther King Jr. He doesn’t represent America.”