Reply #16: I agree with you, but I'd like to offer a caveat...

[Writer]

as a white person who is generally well-meaning, it can really, truly hit you in the gut to be called a racist, or to be told that something you said or did was racist. Or homophobic. Or sexist. Or anything else that misconstrues your intentions to be devilish instead of simply racially ignorant.

I'm not excusing the tea party folks, of course. This form of latent racism is white male hegemony's last sigh.