On the evening of Nov. 20, I went to Colby College in Waterville to see Christopher Parker speak about how the tea party is racist.

He talked about how he interviewed 1,500 people via telephone over various parts of the country, describe the methodology he used to ask questions in a particular way to control or elicit certain responses.

I interpreted his carefully worded technique as attempting to obtain the preferred answers.

During the Q&A session, I asked, “How do you account for the contradiction between your presentation and the fact that there are black tea parties all over the nation, including the Crispus Attucks Tea Party in Houston (Crispus Attucks was the first casualty of the 1770 Boston Massacre — and a black man), the Rocky Mountain Black Tea Party in Denver and South Central Los Angeles Tea Party, which is heavily black?”

His initial answer was that they are still racist. I asked how can a person be racist against their own race?

He said it was still possible, giving the example that a gay person may hate himself or herself because society taught them that their sexual orientation is wrong, but he is what he is. I didn’t think this was an equitable comparison, as his example was about one person hating himself, not a group of people hating another.

Regardless, I concluded his message was that all black tea party members who disagree with President Barack Obama’s policies have a psychological disorder, while all black people who favor President Obama’s polices do not.

I am sure the folks in aforementioned tea parties would disagree.

Greg PaquetSmithfield


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