Just as we were discussing Tea Parties in class, I received an invitation to one! Alas, going all the way back to Washington is a tad far for a tea party, but I would like to point out who is drinking tea and why.
The Tea Party was coordinated Sophia Trinh--Environmental representative to the ASG of Bellevue College. Besides drinking fair trade tea (out of your own cup and not a disposable one), partiers can eat cupcakes and swap clothes (a form of recycling). The values of these tea partiers extend beyond the environment to social justice--consider that fair trade has nothing to do with the environment. They hold stereotypical liberal values-, such as environmental and social justice.
Why tea? Why not coffee, or hot chocolate? For seem reason, stereotypical liberals hold a fascination with ancient China. Yoga, Buddhism, meditation, and tea all wrapped up in this. The particular brand of tea that is at the tea party--Tazo--has tidbits of ancient Chinese wisdom under the bottle caps, and the back of the labels have jokes about Buddhism, meditation, monks and tea. The colonists drank tea to show class, among many other reasons. In this case, everyone can afford tea. Tea is a symbol of a value system shared by people who are friends with the Environmental Representative.
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