African American Tea Party Supporters

In this book, Johnson interviews black Tea Partyers to reveal a group with deep regard for African Americans but also divergent perspectives on race, religion, government, and Tea Party racism. He argues in the context of their family structures and life experiences, their unusual political choices are knowable, understandable, and rational. To their critics who celebrated the election of America’s first African American president, black Tea Party supporters are self-loathing race traitors. In African American Tea Party Supporters: Explaining A Political Paradox, Kirk A. Johnson interviews thirty elected officials, radio personalities, military veterans, and other black Tea Partyers to reveal a group with deep regard for African Americans—and even for Barack Obama—but also divergent perspectives on race, religion, government, and Tea Party racism. Johnson argues when viewed in the context of their family structures and life experiences, black Tea Partyers’ unusual political choices are knowable, understandable, and largely rational.