RATIONAL CONSERVATISM AT........THE ROOT?

If you don't remember The Root, it got significant play last year during the controversy involving Henry Louis Gates, Cambridge police officer James Crowley, Barack Obama, and the White House beer summit. The Root is a blog that was founded by Gates, who posted about the controversy that erupted following his arrest by Crowley. Gates chimed in with a statement on the website he started. In the days after the incident, Gates gave his take.

Via Gates at The Root at the time.

Now we have an interesting post at The Root, courtesy of a writer named Sophia Nelson, a black woman who seems to get the Tea Party. The fact that she does so while writing for the site birthed by Henry Louis Gates warrants piqued interest. Check out what she has to say right out of the "gate":

As a black woman in America, I have remained largely silent about the Tea Party movement and whether the movement itself is ''racist,'' as it is being charged by many in our community, including the leadership of the NAACP.

As a community, we should take a step back for a moment and learn how to stop making emotional judgments and consider the facts about the Tea Party movement.

Nelson really seems to get it at the end, as she conveys to readers that regardless of how mistreated certain groups of people may feel, the ones who have the biggest beef with the Tea Party actually have the most in common with it:

The founders, all men of means (many of who owned slaves), risked their very lives and fortunes as ''traitors'' once they declared their "independence" from Great Britain in 1776. What I think we all miss is that the colonies rebelled against economic tyranny and oppression of individual freedom and liberties. This is a key takeaway that often gets lost in the modern Tea Party debate.

In the final analysis, I think we would all be wise to consider what Thomas Jefferson warned: "Every generation needs a new revolution." Does anyone among us really believe that government knows what is best for our lives? Does anyone among us really believe that paying more taxes will solve what is wrong with the poorest and least among us? Perhaps the African-American community needs to consider what we can do to secure our own economic wealth and our own individual liberties. Make no mistake -- we are in perilous times, and to sit by passively and do nothing in the face of such deprivation is against all that we as Americans stand for.

In addition to the column, I was also struck by the number of comments in support of Nelson.

I'd love to know if Henry Louis Gates is monitoring that blog of his.

h/t to Lynn Woolley for the Nelson piece.