Dem Congressman: Tea Partiers Want US To Return To Racial Segregation

Congressional Black Caucus Chairman-elect Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., is pictured, Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2011, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
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Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) recently accused tea partiers of wanting to turn back the clock to the era of racial segregation, BuzzFeed reported Wednesday.

The congressman was speaking Saturday at an event hosted by the Palm Beach County Democratic Party in Florida when he recounted an exchange he had with a tea party supporter.

“I’ll never forget this guy, on the steps of the Capitol, says to me, ‘We want our country back,’” Cleaver said. “And I’ve got people on both sides screaming, ‘We want our country back.’”

“So I turn and I say, ‘Well, you can’t have it,'” he continued.

“And the reason is, we’re not going back,” Cleaver said to applause. “You can’t have it back. We’re not going back to a day when we were segregated. We’re not going back to a day when women were considered secondary citizens. We’re not going back. No, you can’t have it back.”

Watch below. Cleaver’s comments on tea partiers start at about 38:30.

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Notable Replies

  1. Further than that…They want to return to a feudal society.

  2. I have found that most of those morons will call you a damned liar if you point out the fact that their party’s origin is a couple of multi-billionaires. Another reason the GOPers don’t like education.

  3. What a stunning rebuke to such an anti-American cliched trope!

    “No, goddamnit, if you insist on putting it that way, then no, you can’t have it back! It was never yours to begin with – you just thought it was. We call that “white privilege” and “patriarchy.” I’m sure you’ve heard of them…”

  4. Ya think?

  5. Brought tears to my eyes. We should only move forward, never back.

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