Obama Bucks

[Ameroth]

Obama Cartoon Sparks Outrage

Who says watermelon, kool-aid, fried chicken and ribs surrounding a black man's head shopped onto a a donkey's body is racist? Who I ask you, who!?

Edit for those who cannot see vid:

[Durahansolo]

Re: Obama Bucks

Barack Obama T-Shirt this shirt made me lol I actually might buy one.

I found the foodstamp picture offensive.

[Kitalrez]

Re: Obama Bucks

Didn't the PGA already censure Fuzzy Zoeller for this stuff in '97? Yeah, here we go. And rich, white people in So. Cal who actually watch golf are still not up to speed on this behavior? The hell were people thinking?

Seriously, what's the next step? Do I get to see new McCain signs with the "N#$@er in the crosshairs" symbol I run into at every damn gun show I've ever been to? Wasn't the biggest fear going into this election that Obama might pull the race card? Yet, it seems like every step the Republican party is trying to outdo itself on who can be the biggest KKK wierdo.

[Neomage]

Re: Obama Bucks

I don't consider it in good taste, but is certainly isn't racist or offensive. How the hell is a watermelon a black stereotype?

[Kitalrez]

Re: Obama Bucks

It's all about the context you use it in. A noose isn't a black stereotype, either, but if you were to place one on the bill there, the meaning isn't exactly hidden. Watermelon's an old reference. Like, 30s and 40s old. It's meant to be construed as "poor people food" or somehow imply a low-class type of person. It was cheap, it's messy to eat, and you end up having to spit a lot.

To people our age, this isn't really anything inflammatory. To an old black person who actually lived through that era, this is bringing back all the crap they had to deal with growing up. It's like what Goebbels did with his film clips linking Jews to rats during the 30s. Look at old Tom and Jerry cartoons for an idea of how this got applied. Used to be that you'd see images of the "Sambo" type character eating watermelon, fried chicken, or collard greens. It was a way to communicate to people that blacks were dirty, lower class, and only happy when someone else was directing them. You made the linkage explicit in political cartoons, comic books, etc... and after that all you really had to do to invoke the meaning again was to insert an exaggerated black character somewhere with a watermelon. That's what they're trying to accomplish here. Racists are pretty much the only people who use this imagery still, but the meaning to them would be clear.

Why would people be offended? Because it looks like we're going back to a place we thought we'd finally escaped.

{EDIT}
Here's what I mean (Probably not work safe). This is a vid from Lewis Black's "Red, White, and Screwed". He's talking about Dick Cheney, and how all he has to do is say Dick Cheney and he gets a laugh or a boo. Doesn't have to be a joke there, because by now we all have an opinion of Dick Cheney and like or hate him. It's "saying it without actually saying it", like I've been pointing out with the watermelon.

[Ameroth]

Re: Obama Bucks

but is certainly isn't racist or offensive. How the hell is a watermelon a black stereotype?

Have you been living under a rock?

Kitalrez pretty much explained it all. Now tell me, how does 4 black stereotypes surrounding a black man's image not equate to racist? And the fact that people (apparently such as yourself) don't see that could be considered just as racist... or just ignorance I guess.

[Neomage]

Re: Obama Bucks

I guess I see it as racist now. I didn't know any of that, honestly... Guess I'm just to young to get the reference.

[Malacite]

Re: Obama Bucks

It's like what Goebbels did with his film clips linking Jews to rats during the 30s. Look at old Tom and Jerry cartoons for an idea of how this got applied.

Not that I ever cared for that series, but that's creepy.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Obama Bucks

How the hell is a watermelon a black stereotype?

Or Kool-Aid.
Or ribs.
Or KFC.

Yeah, I'm not seeing that as racist or funny. Just stupid.

If you're from the south, Chicken and Watermelon are commonly eaten by everyone. I'm usually the odd man out at summer picnics, I hate watermelon.

Why would people be offended? Because it looks like we're going back to a place we thought we'd finally escaped.

When the KKK was at its peak, it numbered at 4 million. Now its down to less than 15,000 people. We are escaping it, you're just letting the bad elements speak louder than they should by focusing on them. Giving it attention is empowering this sad element of humanity.

A stereotype will ultimately never go away, but it doesn't have to be about race for it to be a stereotype either.

I can attest to the fact that racism still exists, even in my area, but racial diversity here is so large now that no one would ever have the gall to bring it to the public eye without of flood of dirty looks.

The internet, however, is a known breeding ground for assholes to act upon thier petty little bigotries from the privacy of thier own home. The way we counter that is by teaching tolerance and better education in our schools.

[Mhurron]

Re: Obama Bucks

I guess I see it as racist now. I didn't know any of that, honestly... Guess I'm just to young to get the reference.

And now you know and can pass it on to your kids. Thank god we can have another racist and overly sensitive generation.

Why would people be offended? Because it looks like we're going back to a place we thought we'd finally escaped.

People being offended over everything is one of the largest reasons racism isn't going anywere. Anytime someone does something, intentional or not, racism is cried to anyone who will listen.

You want to let it go? Then let it go.

[Aksannyi]

Re: Obama Bucks

Every time I see this thread in the new posts listing, I have to read the title twice because I think it says, "Obama Sucks."

[Malacite]

Re: Obama Bucks

You know what's funny? There was a KKK guy on Charlie Rose saying

You need to vote for Obama.

Even those morons get it.

[Feba]

Re: Obama Bucks

That's actually becoming a recurring theme. I've read a lot of anecdotes from canvassers that people are saying things along the lines of "I'm voting for the nigger" or people who were otherwise very racist strongly considering Obama because of how bad the GOP is.


Bullshit, Mhurron. Understanding the references and being racist or sensitive to racism are completely separate things.



Each and every one of us know what this flag represents. That doesn't mean we endorse it, that doesn't mean that we let antisemitism linger for another generation, and nor does it mean we get up in arms about the Nazi scum or anything that refers to them.

The only alternative to spreading knowledge about old and misguided thoughts is to cover it up and forget about it completely. If you'd honestly propose that, I suggest you read Damnatio memoriae - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and following that, Streisand effect - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia . Those who don't learn from history, etc.

[Tickmeoff]

Re: Obama Bucks

Watching the video I was thinking "jesus shit, do these people actually think saying they didn't know all these things are racist is actually going to fly?"

Then I read some of the replies to this thread x_x maybe they weren't lying. I thought it was common knowledge that all of these are black stereotypes, but I guess I was wrong.

[Kitalrez]

Re: Obama Bucks

Well, you have to realize that a lot of us are old enough to get it, and a lot of posters here aren't. There's also the textbook issue. I was educated under the Utah public school system. It produces a relatively well-educated student body, but god only knows how. When I went to school in the 80s, I still had textbooks for civics that discussed Nixon invading Cambodia as a current event. If your textbooks and school supplies have that long of a shelf-life, you tend to get the civil rights era stuff a lot better than the kids growing up with the current books. Civics books spend more time on "Here's what's happening" vs. "Here's what happened."

I'm 30 right now, if you're within about 5 years of me either way, that's where you could probably start to make the "I don't get it" claim. We were the second generation to be integrated in public schools, we just missed the "here's the list of stuff that is no longer ok", that the previous generation got. Over 35 has no excuse, unless you lived under some kind of rock or were buried head first for a decade or so. You were there when they started the "ok/not ok" education plans. Under 25 you started getting into the "post-stagflation" era of Reagan. This is when the Equal Rights Amendment gets defeated because supposedly we no longer needed it. If you were born in the 90s, you completely missed the whole show. Your exposure to race issues pretty much begins and ends with gansta rap and Rage Against the Machine. Maybe you saw OJ and Rodney King in there, but they were bizzarre events instead of something you could apply a context to.

With age comes... you know, I'm not going to call it "wisdom" anymore, it's "baggage". With age comes baggage. Baggage is the crap you know that you don't necessarily want to know anymore.

The point though, is that these people are old enough to know. They don't have an excuse for this stuff. Even if the head honcho there didn't know, someone apparently did, or this wouldn't have been leaked to a reporter. Someone had to see this and think: "Damn it, we're not still back there, are we?"