What Do You Think of the NAACP's Condemning Tea Party Elements as 'Racist'?
"World News" wants to know what you think: Share your comments below.
July 13, 2010— -- The NAACP is expected to approve a resolution today condemning the Tea Party for "racist elements that are a threat to democracy."
The proposed resolution, which is expected to pass today at the organization's annual convention in Kansas City, Mo., cites cases of what it calls "explicitly racist behavior," including "signs and posters intended to degrade people of color generally and President Barack Obama specifically."
NAACP spokeswoman Leila McDowell told ABC News, "We're deeply concerned about elements that are trying to move the country back, trying to reverse the progress that we've made," and asked that "law-abiding members of the Tea Party repudiate those racist elements, that they recognize the historic and present racist elements that are within the Tea Party movement."
Tea Party leaders call these charges misguided and politically motivated.
The Rev. C.L. Bryant, a leading Tea Party activist and former NAACP chapter president, called the claim of racism "simply a lie."
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People wants to "create a climate where they can say that those on the right are in fact racist and those on the left are their saviors," Bryant said. "This is very much what the liberal agenda is all about."
Our question to you today: What do you think of the NAACP's condemning "racist elements" in the Tea Party movement?
ABC News' Huma Khan and the Associated Press contributed to this report.