The Tea Party wants James Earl Jones to take his booming bass voice down a notch.
After the Star Wars actor compared the Tea Party to his racist grandmother on the public-radio show Smiley & West, he drew the furor of Tea Party Patriots, the nation's largest Tea Party-affiliated organization.
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Jenny Beth Martin, national coordinator of the group, E-mailed Whispers that Jones is "playing the politics of division and deceit."
Read a transcript of Jones's remarks to host Cornel West below:
JAMES EARL JONES: I think I have figured out the Tea Party I think I I do understand racism because I was taught to be one by my grandmother. My grandmother was part [tribal affiliation] Indian part black, she hated everybody and she taught all of her children and grandchildren to be racist to hate white people and to distrust black people.
DR CORNEL WEST: Who does she love then?
JAMES EARL JONES: Nobody
WEST: Nobody at all.
JAMES EARL JONES: But that allowed me to figure it out for myself. And I think I know what racism is better than anyone who has ever been a racist.
Elizabeth Flock is a staff writer for U.S. News & World Report. You can contact her at eflock@usnews.com or follow her on Twitter and Facebook.
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