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From “Bang Bang” to “Blackface”

More controversial remarks have surfaced regarding  marginal U.S. Senate candidate Richard Behney.  In the Spring of last year Behney expressed his outrage with the national Tea Party movement and his letter was published at DailyPaul.com.

Behney objected to the idea of  Tea Party members bringing canned goods to local rallies as a way to generate positive media attention.  Instead Behney suggested the following…

Now, if we want media attention, let’s take a lesson from the original Tea Partiers. The original men dressed up like Native Indians not to disguise their identities…everyone knew who they were. They dressed up like Indians to emphasize the “radical” point that they (Americans) were NOT going to be treated like “heathens” any longer by the English crown (government). You desire media attention? Titillate the main stream media by leaking that our Tea Parties are going to have an “anti-slavery” message…cameras WILL show up. Picture men, womEn, and children in chains (black face?) with banners and signs declaring “WE WILL NOT BE ENSLAVED BY THIS GOVERNMENT!” – “LET THE AMERICAN PEOPLE GO!” – “FREE US FROM THE WHIPS OF PELOSI AND REID!”

Now to be fair to Mr. Behney, he made the remarks before he was a declared candidate for the U.S. Senate.  But think about this, a predominately white crowd showing up in blackface, dressed as slaves,  as a way to protest the policies of the first African-American President.  Mr. Behney is right, they would have definitely gotten some media attention with that idea.

Posted: 01|30|10 at 6:00 am by Abdul Hakim-Shabazz
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  • pascal

    Channeling Chris Matthews?

  • guest

    Tisk, tisk, tisk. Abbie. You were scooped yet again. So much for your “good friend” Carl coming clean and confiding in you. Where is Indyundercover when you need him most?

    From the Indianapolis Star – Indystar.com
    Cash for Brizzi raises questions
    Father of woman whose sentence was reduced donated nearly $30K
    By Jon Murray and Heather Gillers
    http://www.indystar.com/article/20100130/LOCAL1…

    Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi accepted nearly $30,000 in campaign donations from the father of a woman who was convicted in a plot to kill her husband — and later had decades shaved off her sentence.
    Brizzi and David Wyser — his chief trial deputy, who received $2,500 — accepted the donations after the woman's attorneys began negotiating with Wyser for her early release from prison.

    Paula Willoughby was released in July, 18 years into a 70-year sentence. That drew public criticism from some of the victim's family members. But even then, the prosecutors did not return the donations until a few weeks ago.

  • Indiana_Barrister

    Actually we were planning to sit down and chat about this next week. Scooped, not really. But thanks for thinking of me.

  • Dave

    Folks may agree or disagree with his tactic; but, discriminatory mistreatment of rank & file citizens by a misgoverning elite, appears to be the point. Maybe someone should ask this guy if he intended to promote racism or expose systemic classism (?!?).

    While there are raise-ist issues at IPS, this Behney bit seems no bigger a deal than a black comedian doing routines at a place called “Crackers.”

    While we're stepping in this stuff, we might as well consider how many of the “light skinned & articulate” will be turned out of office during the next few years…

  • joneaster

    Hmmm…what Behney said and what Matthews said were from two different directions.

    What Matthews said was simply stupid. Behney's was more insidious. Also, Chris Matthews doesn't want to be a Senator anymore.

  • patrick

    Haha! Not that the tea partiers haven't already exposed themselves as wacko, but I just know that at some time in the near future someone from the tea party camp is just going to go way over the line and the whole movement is going to be dismissed.

  • Rico

    1. If you were being fair, Abdul, you wouldn't have used 'black face' within his quote, but in your analysis after it. His point was obviously to draw an analogy between over-reaching government and slaveholders. But in a manner that would make your hero Barry proud, you've painted this man as a racist.

    2. What Mathews said was more than just stupid, Jon. It was quite revealing actually. It's just one of many recent examples of what the social elitists among us (Biden, Reid, Boxer, etc.) truly think about American citizens of African descent. While they portray themselves as the enlightened, compassionate ones , in reality they do believe blacks to be less capable, less intelligent, and in need of a head start.
    Since nobody really watches Mathews (except for maybe you, Think Again, and about forty others) maybe he was trying to get attention. I seriously doubt that, however. I think he was showing his true colors. If someone on FOX had said it, you'd be calling for his head.

    3. 'Whacko' is bending over and taking it from your government like a good citizen, Patrick, no matter how much you personally enjoy that. It's always easier to marginalize something you don't undertstand rather than educate yourself.

  • melyssa

    Everytime I pay my mortgage (which went up $300 a month due to property tax increases post CAPS), I feel like a slave. There's no better way to describe it. It IS a form of slavery.

  • melyssa

    Channeling Senator Reid who suggested that Obama was light skinned AND articulate kind of like he was a “prize” for the democrats.

  • Taxpayer 834512

    Abdul, What's up? You've been thick-skinned (no innuendo intended), seemingly immune to the inanity of politics vs the real meat and bone of issues. We're going to demean a candidate, essentially running on excessive spending and expansion of government, by posting somebody in black face? Where it the raving, ranting photo of Rev Wright at the pulpit? Where is the picture of the victims killed by an era of radical politics that William Ayers still won't renounce? Where are the pictures of Chairman Mao, held in high respect by a short-termed Obama Czar, despite thousands who died in his reign for perceived political or ethnic differences?

    What next, the latest pictures of UFO abduction victims and Angelina Jolie? There's nobody else in the city covering both sides of real issues as you do. I suggest sticking to that. You're too good to descend to tantilizing and tittilating. Please. You're the closest thing we've got to journalism around here.

    And, while I'm not a Bayh supporter, Behney's not even my first choice.

  • allen1776

    Sorry dude – but you missed the point.

    I was on the capitol grounds on 4/15 and in WRSP on 7/4.

    People are mad at President Obama — but not just at him. Tea Partiers are mad at both parties for subjecting us to Progressivism and Federalism that erode our liberties.

    We were not protesting “him” – we were protesting “THEM!” Both sides.

    I think this is mountain out of molehill time.

  • melyssa

    I'm focused on helping citizens understand that they are being controlled by being placed into the very false paradigm of Republican vs. Democrat.

    The real fight is between The People vs. the Establish R/D Combine!

    Ogden is calling it correctly for The People Populist.

  • melyssa

    MacBook got away from me. I meant to say:

    The People vs. the Establishment R/D Combine is where the real battle needs to be fought.

  • Think Again

    Actually, I agree with Rico vis-a-vis Matthews. What he said was just plain stupid, and revealing. Whether it is an indictment against all who agree with Matthews on other issues, I doubt it.

    I've never understood the appeal of Chris. Ever. When cornered on something he believes in, he throws out the mantra : “I use dot work on Capitol Hill….I know what I'm talking about.”

    It's really quite annoying.

  • pascal

    If the senate candidate is marginal why bring anything up?

  • http://www.chris-spangle.com cspangle

    Black face is what he wrote, read the source: http://www.dailypaul.com/node/86987

  • Taxpayer 834512

    Allen sums it up. It's no longer parties, it's issues. If you're on the wrong side of an issue- Beware. By no means do you get a pass because you're a member of the Skunk party versus the Weasel party. My primary voting mantra may be “First, do no evil”, but that comes in many forms for me. It's going to take a mighty fiscally oblivious Democrat or Libertarian to make me not vote for them, versus the absentee record, travel escapades, and general arrogance of a Dan Burton

    If our precious public servants don't put common sense and their constituency before their precious office and party, the only turf they'll have to worry about is what they'll be laying down on the landscape crew after November.

    A pox on both their houses.

  • allen1776

    pascal asks a great question. Here's the common sense answer in Behney's case:

    Because Behney came out of the Tea Party movement.

    No other candidate has that direct of a tie to the movement that the Republicans HAVE to have in their corner. If the Tea Party movement doesn't, by and large, support a repub candidate in the general, that candidate will probably lose.

    That's why all four of the GOP Senate candidates are trying to paint themselves as big Tea Partiers. The only one of them with “street cred” in that arena is Behney.

    The GOP and their support staff in the legal/poly sci fields need to realize one big fat fact: The Tea Partiers have lost ALL TRUST in professional politicians. The WORST thing a candidate can do to attract Tea Party support is tout their past experience as politicians.

    That's why the message of the candidates in races across the country changes between their type of audience. Try listening to a mainstream candidate's stump speech before a GOP club meeting – then compare that message to their message in front of grass roots groups they are trying to woo.

    It's obvious to me that the political party insiders and political pundits don't want grassroots folks outside the legal or poly-sci field to succeed as candidates (or don't believe that they'll make good legislators) -unless they've got good party backgrounds.

    The Tea Party grassroots cares about party background. The deeper that connection – the bigger their distrust of that candidate.

  • shorebreak

    This OP from Abdul is highly disingenuous. Abdul knows that Behney (whose free-wheeling and un-restrained speaking style is dangerous to any sincere effort towards restoring liberty) was illustrating opposition to economic and bureaucratic enslavement, not racial antithapy towards President Obama. So let's cut to the chase here.

    The definition of illustration is:

    “a visualization such as a drawing, painting, photograph or other work of art that stresses subject more than form”

    Behney clearly reminded his readers that the original tea party participants dressed as native indians to illustrate how Americans were treated like heathens by the crown. He went on to explain that we should demonstrate how Americans today are treated like economic slaves by our ruling elite. If Abdul can be so disconnected from commonly practiced norms in communication as to mistake such a clear illustration for a racist remark, I wouldn't place an ounce of faith in any of the statements or observations that flow from either his microphone or his keyboard.

    ….but I know with certainty that Abdul isn't as disconnected as he “pretends” in this particular piece. Therefore, he's simply being disingenous towards Behney.

    One of the things that I've learned over the years is that when politically connected media figures become disingenuous towards a candidate, more often than not, I find that candidate to be a believer in our Republic who will stand for it's sovereignty and for individual liberty that the ruling elite is working to erode. This may not be one of those circumstances, but I'm now convicted by Abdul that Behney is worth looking into. If I find him to be a loyal American who supports the US Constitution and national soveriegnty, he may have found a new supporter – so long as he can clean up his message and stop giving disingenous reporters additional opportunities to turn the public against him.

  • Roger James

    Have you read Behney's book? He has a chapter entitled “Color, Culture and Class.” Forget what he said in a rally last summer. He really exposes himself in the book. It is pretty radical stuff. I found it on his web site.