African-American Tea Party organizer Ali Akbar posted this open letter on the blog Tea Party Brew in response to actor Morgan Freeman's racist anti-tea party rant.
Dear Mr. Freeman,
My name is Ali Akbar. I’m a 26 year-old
African-American small business owner and a tea party activist. I’m not
writing to rake you over the coals in the way that many conservatives
have done in the last 48 hours. Heck, I wrote a passionate open-letter refuting
many of your claims already, but this is not that. This is an honest
and standing invitation. I do believe that you are wrong in what you
said about the tea party, but I would rather prove it to you than
castigate you for your comments.
I also understand that your
reflexive comments came from experience. You grew up in a different
America than the one that I was blessed to be born into. We both grew up
in the south, but I never saw ‘White Only’ signs. I’ve been called a
name or two in my three decades, but racism has always been the
exception in my life, not the rule, as it probably was in your youth. I
understand your suspicion of conservative political movements. It is
rooted in pain and fear and memory, and though I never saw the horrors
of segregation that you did, we share that cultural heritage.
I’ve
been a fan of yours all my life. From “Driving Miss Daisy” to “Lean on
Me” to “The Shawshank Redemption,” I idolized you as a boy. Growing up
without a father, you were one of the strong black men in my life who
gave me a model to follow. Each of the characters you played had dignity
and confidence. I tried to emulate the strength you projected. While
many of my friends headed down the all-too-familiar path of drugs, unwed
pregnancies and crime, I’ve striven to live a life with dignity, be an
example for my brothers and make my mother proud.
My favorite of
your movies was “The Power of One.” I must’ve watched it a hundred
times, crying every time when your character Geel Piet was killed by the
racist South African. Geel Piet was brave and heroic, even in the face
of death, because he knew that the hate that killed him was a trifle in
comparison to the love that PK’s anti-apartheid movement was spreading.
It is with that spirit that I’m writing to you this morning.
I’ve
attended dozens of tea party events. I’ve helped organize them, and I’ve
even spoken at a few. The tea party is not what is often depicted in
the news. It is people of all colors who are terribly concerned about
the direction that America is heading. We don’t trust big government to
make decisions for us. And we fear that the present administration’s
spending is going to lead our country down a path to insolvency, much
like what Greece is currently facing.
Your comments about the tea
party have caused me physical pain. You’ve rekindled the old painful
paradigm of Uncle Tom – that any black man who votes Republican is some
kind of sellout. It’s not true. I work hard, pay my taxes, love Jesus,
and I’m good to my family and community. In effect, your comments have
stereotyped an entire group of people. And I know in my soul that you
must regret that on some level.
There’s already plenty of groupthink
among American blacks. Over 90% of us vote Democrat with religious
regularity, and we have been doing so for over fifty years. For a short
time, I was one of them. I realized a few years ago that the Democrats’
promises of equality bestowed by government wasn’t working and will
never work. I came to believe that redistributionist policies
with the goal of social justice was essentially creating a new
plantation within the federal government. Scraps might be thrown our
way, but dependence on the plantation would be the inevitable result.
Over
half a century since we started voting for Democrat policies, blacks in
America are worse off than before. Black Americans are more likely to
get involved with drugs, go to prison, and die younger than our white
counterparts. Over 70% of our children are born out of wedlock. Our
abortion rate has never been higher. There are two explanations for
these results. 1) Blacks are an inferior race and can’t take care of
themselves. 2) Despite the best of intentions, the government has
created and implemented “social justice” policies that promote perpetual
dependence. I choose to believe the latter. Therefore, I have become a
Republican.
Mr. Freeman, I’m not asking you to adopt my political
views. You’re in your seventies, and a political shift is not in your
future. I’m reaching out to you because I want you to think better of
your fellow countrymen. Barack Obama is in the White House, and Herman
Cain just won the Florida straw poll. America is the land of opportunity
for black Americans like never before.
I’m hoping that
you’ll come to a tea party in Tennessee — the place of your birth.
Really anywhere in the country that works for you; I’ll set it up with
the one of the thousands of activists I know around our great country.
I’d be delighted to introduce you to good people who will welcome you
with open arms, disagree with you, and then feed you some of the best
barbeque you’ve ever tasted.
Racism is an ugly thing, but I assure you that it is part of our past, not our present.
It
takes bravery to admit that you may have made a mistake. But, for Geel
Piet, bravery is like breathing. It’s just something you do.
I hope you’ll take me up on my offer.
Sincerely,
Ali Akbar
ali@vvclients.com
Mr. Freeman is one of my favorite actors and I was disappointed to hear that his mind had been poisoned by ignorance and hate. I hope that he will accept Mr. Akbar's invitation and gain some first hand experience of the Tea Party. He would be mobbed by admirers seeking pictures and autographs. And if he took the time to speak with and listen to the participants in a Tea Party event he would learn that far from wanting Obama out of office because of his race they want a new president because Obama's policies have hurt them and their families.
Morgan Freeman is a wealthy actor who is insulated from the nearly all of the damage caused the current administration's policies. He needs to have some contact with people who are not.
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