Trying to Outrun Race

By CHARLES M. BLOW
NYT

Racist. Tea Party.

Are those separate concepts or a single one? Depends on whom you ask.

According to an article accompanying a Washington Post/ABC News poll released on Wednesday: “About 61 percent of tea party opponents say racism has a lot to do with the movement, a view held by just 7 percent of tea party supporters.”

This gulf of perception has left Tea Party organizers struggling to scrub the stain of racism from its image, but those efforts may fly in the face of the facts.

On Thursday, Amy Kremer, the director of the Tea Party Express, sat down on “The View.” Prompted to disavow supporters who might be motivated by racism, she looked into the camera and said: “This is not a racist movement. We don’t want you here. Go away if that’s what you’re about. We’re about the fiscal issues and about being American.”

(More here.)