Tea Party Protesters, Black Family Reunion Particpants Peacefully Break Bread Together, WaPo Weeps at the Racism

Let me get this straight. On the mall on the very same day was a giant crowd of raging, unstable racists protesting Obama and a crowd of black families and artists celebrating the Black Family Reunion.

So, what happened in this steaming cauldron of redneck racism ready to boil over?

As they left the rally, many of those with opposing views walked through the Black Family Reunion, some stopping to eat at the booths. Protesters at the "tea party" protest were mostly white; the reunion crowd was nearly all black.

Let's put aside the irony of the Washington Post sending a reporter to ask participants in the Black Family Reunion, which was "nearly all black," about the inherent racism of the "mostly white" tea party protesters coming together on the Mall to support a common cause.

It would seem that the peaceful coexistence and even-gasp!-commingling of these two events on the national Mall might reassure the reporter and all involved of the ability of Americans of different races and political viewpoints to, well, peacefully coexist. But that was not the reporter's mission. The mission was to go to the Black Family reunion, and ask participants, "Hey, aren't the people at that other event probably just there 'cause they're racist?"

A day later, in the shadow of the Washington Monument, many participants at a much smaller gathering -- the 24th annual Black Family Reunion -- said the level of hostility toward the nation's first African American president had little to do with policy differences over health care or taxes and everything to do with race.

"It' s not conducive to the coalitions we need to build in this country," said Vera Hope, 60, of Mount Rainier as she left a booth promoting health prevention. "I'm disgusted and upset by the hostility. Let's call it was it is -- it's just a disguise for right-wing racists. They are fomenting a climate of violence to provoke people."

Where's the supporting evidence, one might ask?

Hope, for instance, is a teacher in the District. She grew up during the tumultuous 1960s and said health-care reform is a must. She takes eight medications a day and would not be able to afford health care without insurance. "The health-care situation in the United States is deplorable," she said. "You have people who have to choose between eating and paying for their medications."

Those sentiments starkly contrast with those of protesters who marched down Pennsylvania Avenue on Saturday with signs that said "Liar Liar Pants on Fire!" and "Hey Obama Here's a Tip for You -- Keep the Change."

I've never seen such blatant racism on display, if by "racism" you mean disagreeing with Vera Hope. The reporter did manage to find one person who doesn't lay blame for all the country's problems, racial and otherwise, on the folks protesting Obama (he's in the last paragraph):

Alan Sims, 38, is a home improvement contractor. He supports Obama and the changes he's advocating, but he said criticism comes with the job. Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush, he said, was judged harshly by black Americans because he is white.

"Race is always," Sims said, "going to be a factor in American politics."

And, the Post intends to keep it that way.

The great irony of this Washington Post story, cloyingly titled "Seeking Healing, Seeing Hostility," is that if tea party protesters and Black Family Reunion participants had been able to get past the reporter's pathetic, deliberate focus on race, they would have found that "strengthening the black family" and the African-American community's "traditional values"-the goal of the Black Family Reunion-is something the two sides would have largely agreed upon.

I have no doubt that a few of the good Americans at both events were able to realize that, have a nice conversation, listen to some gospel, and have a snack together on the day the Post insists on memorializing as "The Day a Giant Race War Was Just Barely Averted."

Isn't it great to live in a post-racial society?