Why the Left Needs Racism. It serves a political purpose.

What do you get when you cross a corny old joke with a network news report? Something like this:

A black guy walks into a tea party, and a white lady says to him, "You know, we don't get many African-Americans in here." The black guy replies, "And at these prices, it's no wonder!"

The joke, at least as we originally heard it, involves a kangaroo and a bartender. The news report, brought to our attention by the fellows at NewsBusters.org, involved NBC reporter Kelly O'Donnell and tea-party activist Darryl Postell. O'Donnell approached Postell at a Washington rally, and hilarity ensued:

O'Donnell: There aren't a lot of African-American men at these events.

Postell: [laughs] Right.

O'Donnell: Have you ever felt uncomfortable?

Postell: No, no, these are my people, Americans.

Another joke, attributed to our friend Rich Miniter circa 1991, goes as follows: What do you call a black man at a conservative event? Guest speaker. To the New York Times's Charles Blow, this is no laughing matter. Blow visited a tea party in Dallas last week and didn't like what he saw:

I had specifically come to this rally because it was supposed to be especially diverse. And, on the stage at least, it was. The speakers included a black doctor who bashed Democrats for crying racism, a Hispanic immigrant who said that she had never received a single government entitlement and a Vietnamese immigrant who said that the Tea Party leader was God. It felt like a bizarre spoof of a 1980s Benetton ad. READ MORE...