Almost from the day Barack Obama was elected, certain people in American society have been in a state of shock over the fact that the nation actually chose an African-American to fill the highest office in the land. Since then there have been cries by birthers, conservative lawmakers and potential presidential candidates to “take back our nation,” charges that the president is a Muslim and a citizen of Kenya and depictions of the White House lawn as a watermelon patch and the president and his parents as a family of chimpanzees. Clearly, what’s really bothering them is the fact that the man is Black.

During an appearance on MSNBC’s The Last Word Tuesday night, PBS host Tavis Smiley predicted that the upcoming presidential race is “going to be the ugliest, the nastiest, the most divisive and the most racist in the history of this republic.”

Smiley blames the Tea Party and Donald Trump for turning the presidential race into a “race to the bottom” and being willing to say or do anything to ensure that Obama is not re-elected. He also pointed to “certain antics” of Tea Party members, such as turning up at rallies with guns.

Some critics believe that Smiley and others who share his view are playing the race card. The Tea Party movement and its sympathizers are in complete denial over their blatant racist comments and acts, because they’re too afraid to call a spade a spade—in public, that is.

(Photo: Heather S.Hughes /Landov)