Activist Update

Today in Phoenix a crowd of people showed up to protest outside the courthouse...evidently not because a judge enjoined part of the SB1070 law, but for, well, something. Anyway, Breitbart has the video. Notice the flags flying around the 30 second mark. Here's a screen cap:


Hmm, that was the same type of Cuban-Che flag once posted in an Obama campaign office. Meanwhile, in a previously reported story, Mary Frances Berry speculated that most of the racism charges being hurled at various tea partiers are not really based on race but instead amount to simple tactics:

Tainting the tea party movement with the charge of racism is proving to be an effective strategy for Democrats. There is no evidence that tea party adherents are any more racist than other Republicans, and indeed many other Americans. But getting them to spend their time purging their ranks and having candidates distance themselves should help Democrats win in November. Having one’s opponent rebut charges of racism is far better than discussing joblessness.

Which seems to mean the genie is out of the bottle going forward as to all future racism stories, suggesting the press should take a skeptical eye. Right? After all, if Andrew Breitbart admitted that the tea party was largely a corporate creation designed to suppress minorities the media would surely take note...going forwards and backwards.

Enter Shirley Sherrod, herself a civil rights liberal activist like Berry, who announced today she is suing Andrew Breitbart, apparently for defamation. She's already claimed his video was racially motivated, tied him to the tea party movement, and outright called him a racist. So, according to Ms Berry's speculation is it real or just a tactic? And if Ms Berry were to call Sherrod's vocal pushback and lawsuit a tactic, would that itself be racist?