New Video Betrays NAACP’s Bizarre Logic

Addendum, September 26, 2011: The interview described in the post below no longer appears in the video above. The MRC alerted me this afternoon that it decided to shorten the video post-publishing. I trust, however, that my post contains sufficient detail to keep the narrative intact, even for those who have not seen the MRC interview of NAACP Senior Vice President Hilary Shelton at the recent Congressional Black Caucus conference.

In this Media Research Center video created by reporter Dan Joseph and producer/editor Bob Parks (the latter of whom is an active Project 21 member), long-time NAACP Senior Vice President Hilary Shelton betrays some bizarre logic.

Asked if the Tea Party is racist, Shelton responds, saying “some” in the Tea Party are, as black Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) was called “the n-word” and “spat” on when he walked through a Tea Party rally outside the U.S. Capitol last March.

Reporter Joseph notes that these allegations are disputed by the Tea Party (in fact, Joseph understates the case; to the best of my knowledge, even Rep. Lewis has declined to confirm these allegations), to which Shelton replies, in part, “if somebody beats you up in an alley, and nobody saw it, does that mean it didn’t happen?”

RedQuestionMarkMediumJoseph replies, “I’d have the bruises to prove it,” to which Shelton, as if Joseph had just confirmed rather than demolished his analogy, replies, “thank you so much.”

Bizarre.

Yet Shelton’s analogy is even weaker than Joseph demonstrated. There were hundreds, even thousands, of people present (my son and I among them) and substantial video exists (Andrew Breitbart has offered $100,000 for video confirmation, with no takers). This was no private alley situation.

Shelton’s analogy would be more accurately written as, “if a third party claims you were beaten up in front of thousands of people and numerous running video cameras, and no evidence can be found and you yourself refuse to confirm the incident, does that mean it didn’t happen?”

If this is the strongest evidence Shelton has to prove “some” in the Tea Party are racist, the Tea Partiers look pretty good.

By the way, last July, Hilary Shelton pledged (and not in a dark alley, either) that the NAACP would issue a statement condemning those who attack Project 21 Fellow Deneen Borelli simply because she’s an outspoken black conservative.

We haven’t seen any statements.

Take the NAACP seriously only at your own risk.

Correction: This post was edited September 26 to correct the title of Bob Parks. I regret the error.



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