Tea Party activist sends email depicting Barack Obama as a chimpanzee

[tpfkaw]

The Obama as Spock is pretty good.

I didn't know Leonard Nimoy read all his lines off a teleprompter.

I hope you don't have any crazy ideas about following a career as a comedian.

I can be a comedian and you can be an underwear model.

Are you hitting on me wormy?

Not a chubby chaser.

The correct answer would have been "not gay".

Oops!

Uh, I am gay, as I've pointed out several times.

Et tu Brute?

I don't get it.

Corrected your grammar.  A rather poor knowledge of the Classics for a Greek.

[Landslide Lyndon]

The Obama as Spock is pretty good.

I didn't know Leonard Nimoy read all his lines off a teleprompter.

I hope you don't have any crazy ideas about following a career as a comedian.

I can be a comedian and you can be an underwear model.

Are you hitting on me wormy?

Not a chubby chaser.

The correct answer would have been "not gay".

Oops!

Uh, I am gay, as I've pointed out several times.

Et tu Brute?

I don't get it.

Corrected your grammar.  A rather poor knowledge of the Classics for a Greek.

I never did Latin at school.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

If it weren't for the historical racism where blacks were considered an inferior species of ape, this image would be almost charming - they look like a nice enough family.   If the image itself were really considered horrible and disturbing, then what is the role of the mainstream news media in promoting it? Is it only the original copy that is outrageous, or is the reproduction ad nauseum also a problem? The description of Obama as a chimp baby makes it sound worse than this picture, as thoughtless as this image is. While the political operative who sent this out should be sacked, this probably isn't genuinely offensive so much as creating shock value.  I imagine the person who creating the image is enjoying seeing it all over the internet because anything with chimps and 'tea party' controversy sells. 
some other harsher representation of Obama as an ape could encourage racism, but not this - right?

[angus]

If it weren't for the historical racism where blacks were considered an inferior species of ape, this image would be almost charming - they look like a nice enough family. 

I doubt it.  Unless you also find shows like Reno911 amusing, it's doubtful you find this charming either.

I don't know if it's "racist."  I can't get inside Marilyn Davenport's head and neither can you.  And if she has been asked to resign over this email and this alone, and refuses to yield her central committee post, then I don't really have a problem with that.  Maybe she generally does a good job with that and knows she'll continue to help her group.  Or maybe she has been incompetent for some time, and that OC supervisor finally has a little public spotlight that he can leverage to get her to quit.  Who really knows the backstory here?  I don't.  And I really don't care much either way.  As gossip goes, it isn't all that interesting. 

What I do find interesting, in an academic sort of way, is the response on this forum.  The only consistent response is a partisan one.  For example, when caricatures were made of the Condoleezza Rice, who, like Obama, is well-educated, white-collar, very yuppie, and very light-skinned, some folks also called those images racially motivated.  Especially the one that made her Bush's lackie and thick-lipped, buck-toothed parrot.  Maybe they were racist, maybe they weren't.  Maybe the current picture of Chimpanzee Obama is racially motivated, maybe it isn't.  Who knows?  Who cares?  What's more interesting, and very obvious to me, is that the subset of people who notice such "racism" are those who support or are in ideological agreement with the subject of the picture.  And those who don't find such depictions to be racist are those who are ideologically opposed to the subject of the picture.  And that's been very consistent in this forum in the years that I have posted here.

And I don't think it's feigned, by the way.  I think Democrats are genuinely offended by this, and Republicans will wonder what the big deal is.  Just as Republicans are genuinely offended when one of theirs is mocked while Democrats simply see misguided over-reaction.  It has all become quite predictable.

[Cincinnatus]

If it weren't for the historical racism where blacks were considered an inferior species of ape, this image would be almost charming - they look like a nice enough family. 

I doubt it.  Unless you also find shows like Reno911 amusing, it's doubtful you find this charming either.

I don't know if it's "racist."  I can't get inside Marilyn Davenport's head and neither can you.  And if she has been asked to resign over this email and this alone, and refuses to yield her central committee post, then I don't really have a problem with that.  Maybe she generally does a good job with that and knows she'll continue to help her group.  Or maybe she has been incompetent for some time, and that OC supervisor finally has a little public spotlight that he can leverage to get her to quit.  Who really knows the backstory here?  I don't.  And I really don't care much either way.  As gossip goes, it isn't all that interesting. 

What I do find interesting, in an academic sort of way, is the response on this forum.  The only consistent response is a partisan one.  For example, when caricatures were made of the Condoleezza Rice, who, like Obama, is well-educated, white-collar, very yuppie, and very light-skinned, some folks also called those images racially motivated.  Especially the one that made her Bush's lackie and thick-lipped, buck-toothed parrot.  Maybe they were racist, maybe they weren't.  Maybe the current picture of Chimpanzee Obama is racially motivated, maybe it isn't.  Who knows?  Who cares?  What's more interesting, and very obvious to me, is that the subset of people who notice such "racism" are those who support or are in ideological agreement with the subject of the picture.  And those who don't find such depictions to be racist are those who are ideologically opposed to the subject of the picture.  And that's been very consistent in this forum in the years that I have posted here.

And I don't think it's feigned, by the way.  I think Democrats are genuinely offended by this, and Republicans will wonder what the big deal is.  Just as Republicans are genuinely offended when one of theirs is mocked while Democrats simply see misguided over-reaction.  It has all become quite predictable.

I honestly don't think I can add much more to that argument.  You pretty much nailed it there.  Whether it's racist or not, it will be used as a political tool by one side.  He said, she said seems to be how the media works these days.

[minionofmidas]

For example, when caricatures were made of the Condoleezza Rice, who, like Obama, is well-educated, white-collar, very yuppie, and very light-skinned, some folks also called those images racially motivated.  Especially the one that made her Bush's lackie and thick-lipped, buck-toothed parrot.

That's pretty obviously racist, yeah.

[angus]

For example, when caricatures were made of the Condoleezza Rice, who, like Obama, is well-educated, white-collar, very yuppie, and very light-skinned, some folks also called those images racially motivated.  Especially the one that made her Bush's lackie and thick-lipped, buck-toothed parrot.

That's pretty obviously racist, yeah.

Being a foreigner, you don't really have a dog in the race.  Well, to the extent that US policy affects you there might be, but it's not personal for you.  So I'd think you, and most of the other foreign posters here, could be capable of seeing all of it as equally racist. Or seeing none of it as particularly racist.  And that's okay too.

But the US voting public has very predictable responses to these "news" stories, or haven't you noticed?

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

Awww that horrid, horrid liberal media... you lot need better excuses, even when Fox News was the highest rated news channel... and there was a complicit and silent media until Katrina... you still complained about the biased media, even when it was doing your bidding.

It gives teabaggers and birther crackpots the time of day... that's not a liberal media - that's a media that wants circulations/rating...

Ugh...

[tpfkaw]

Leftist television channels such as Fox News are typically quite biased against conservatives.

[Cincinnatus]

Awww that horrid, horrid liberal media... you lot need better excuses, even when Fox News was the highest rated news channel... and there was a complicit and silent media until Katrina... you still complained about the biased media, even when it was doing your bidding.

It gives teabaggers and birther crackpots the time of day... that's not a liberal media - that's a media that wants circulations/rating...

Ugh...

Let's be honest.  All major media outlets are generally biased.  Liberal media will show something and ignore others, and Fox news will portray tea partier's as "The way", and ignore certain elements.  They're all biased, so if you want the truth check the sources.  To say one is biased and the other is not is biased in itself. 

[Joe Republic]

Leftist television channels such as Fox News are typically quite biased against conservatives.

[angus]

You people complain too much about bias in reporting.  Of course it's all normative.  When they report on a fire they always cheer for the firemen and against the fire.  It's human nature.  There is no such thing as objective reporting.  Especially in matters of public policy.  Get over it. 

[DrScholl]

Generally, people consider anything they don't want to hear to be bias, rather it really is or not.