James Earl Jones rips tea party as racist

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James Earl Jones thinks he knows makes the tea party tick: racism.

“I think I have figured out the tea party,” the actor recently said on the “Smiley and West” radio show. “I think I do understand racism because I was taught to be one by my grandmother.”

Jones described his grandmother as part "Indian, part black" and said she “hated everybody.”

“And she taught all of her children and grandchildren to be racist, to hate white people and to distrust black people,” he said.

Asked who is grandmother loved, Jones answered “nobody.”

“But that allowed me to figure it out for myself,” he went on. “And I think I know what racism is better than anybody who has ever been a racist.”

Earlier in the interview, Jones said that he takes in as much political news as he can.

“I’m always on MSNBC,” he said. “I can’t get enough of it. I even venture into the right-wing talk shows sometimes.”