Aug 09 2009
The real problem
I may have been a little slow on the uptake here, but it was only because I did not want to see it. I was in denial, as many of you probably still are. You see, the Republicans are not “angry” about health care reform, budget deficits or anything else they are screaming about these days. The real reason they are pissed as hell is this:
The President of the United States of America
They’ll deny it and I am sure that more than one of them will probably attach a comment to this post telling me that I’m crazy, but I challenge you to spend some time reading their blogs, perusing their newspapers and magazines or listening to their screaming heads on talk radio and the Fox “News” Channel and then tell me I’m wrong. I’m not. It upsets them to no end that a black man named Barack Hussein Obama is the President of the United States of America and they are going to do everything they can to bring him down – even if it means destroying the country in which they live. (And they’ll do it, too. They will.)
There, I said it. Prove me wrong. Please.
P.S. Here is the most popular image now circulating amongst the right wing bloggers. They seem to like it very much. They’ve even had it made into a t-shirt which several of them are bragging about having purchased.
(Tell me that isn’t racist.)
UPDATE: Several of you, in comments, are telling me that you see nothing racist in the picture of President Obama made up to appear as The Joker. That being the case, then surely you also see nothing racist in this picture:
Case closed.
28 Responses to “The real problem”
ooo Lennnn.. did you see my post today on this very same issue.
do you think america is ready to grow up ?
even chino burned lastnite – for much the same issue.
America, when will WE ALL BE American ?
I could care less what color he is. What I care about is that he is a far left wing radical. But as is typical for a liberal, when all else fails, resort to calling people racist because they disagree with your hero. I despise Pelosi and Reid as much as I do Obama, but because he is black that makes me a racist. Makes sense.
Come on, Leftie. You don’t really believe that all those old white idiots screaming hate the head n****r, do you?
For shame, for shame, for playing the race card.
The nation of miserable f***s won’t let you get away with it. Mark my snarky words.
@ dickster1961:
No, actually, he isn’t. I am a “far left wing radical.” President Obama is far, far to the right of me.
I’m certainly no Republican, but I actually don’t think the picture is racist.
I think they’re trying to portray another (also not flattering) message, such as he’s ‘a joker’ or ‘joke’ maybe, but I don’t associate the picture with racism.
You are exactly right. The birthers, the tea baggers, the health care protesters are all the same — they are nearly all white people threatened by what a black president represents. Obama represents a world that is no longer ruled by the White Man. This is coming from a white woman (me) — these people are racist. There is no other explanation for their illogic and extreme, extreme anger. It’s the anger of lynch mobs.
They are violent and dangerous. I would not go to a townhall meeting where these people might show up. They are now spreading the word to carry guns. Some of them are downright sociopathic.
And it’s not just that Obama is black, it’s also that he has a middle name that is Muslim. And if Obama were Muslim — so what? The Constitution does not say a person has to be a “Christian” even though that is what Obama is. But he threatens them.
Watch out for them. These are scary people. And yes, the “joker” picture is horrible, but I’m not sure if it’s racist. They put the world socialist under it, which is ironic, since most socialists in the world are predominantly white and northern European.
@ dickster1961:
Dickster, I don’t know who is feeding you info., but you gotta do your own research. I’m a liberal and Obama is way too conservative for me. He’s definitely a bi-partisan moderate, and I wish he wasn’t. I wish he was a kick-butt liberal, but I lose. Still, I will defend him because at least he’s not a right-wing nutcase.
@ Chinaren:
Putting a white man in black face is racist, but (somehow) putting a black man in white face isn’t? Even if, as you say, there message was something as simple as portraying the President of the United States as “The Joker” (something a person who is not a Batman fan would never know), it is still spiteful and hateful.
You’ll not convince me that the motives of those who publish and promote that picture are not racist in nature. They are.
I’m not American, but I follow the news, I agree. LOL.
I’m with Len and Shelly: Obama is no liberal. He is way too moderate for me. As a matter of fact, I suspect more people find him too moderate than all the birthers and teabaggers combined.
As to whether or not the picture is racist, I don’t have a strong opinion. It is a parody of the Joker in the latest batman, and for some that may be all that it is. Yet for others it is the flip side of portraying a white man in black face.
Personally, I would much rather focus on the issues. We need to remind those who fear ObamaCare and ‘death panels’ that the current private insurance system with its rampant denial of services is much worse than anything the Government is proposing.
I want free choice, the choice between private insurance companies and public insurance, and I really resent private insurance companies spending my premium money to try and prevent me from getting that choice.
to me, the screamers are shallow and pathetically close-minded. don’t bother them with the truth, ESPECIALLY if it shakes up their rigid mind-sets! a weak identity is resistant to both change and inquiry.
I get the obvious message — Obama = Joker = Evil — but that’s about it. There’s no subtlety, or even cleverness. The posters use this image over the word “socialism,” but there’s nothing socialist about the Joker; he’s an anarchist, which is about as far from socialism as it gets. The Joker is an out-of-control nutcase; Obama is known for staying cool under pressure. Joker makes things up on-the-fly; Obama is known as a master of the long game. (As were his parents, it would seem; I keep reading on the Internets about how they faked a birth announcement in the local newspapers in Hawaii so he could become president forty-seven years later.)
Dis these clowns (pun intended) even see The Dark Knight?
I’ve seen this photo too, and sadly worse. Yes there are many racists out there; but what bothers me more (because I find them far more extreme and dangerous) is those that call themselves conservative. There is nothing conservative about threatening someone’s life because they wish to attend or speak at a town meeting. They are the radicals. They want everyone to think, act, dress, and pray like they do. They say they value life, but really they are only against abortion, they are not against killing in war; they mistake war as being patriotic and therefore it gets their stamp of approval. So they don’t really value all life. The spout family values, even though more REp. have had sexual scandals, daughters that get pregnant, extra-marrital affairs etc. They say they are the patriotic ones, but look at a list of those that served this country in uniform before they were Senators or Congressman, far more are Democrats then REpulicans. They say they are the more Christian party, but they don’t want to help their fellow man, they want to cut services to those in need.
They say they are Conservative, yet they put us in depth, they invaded a country, they declared war…..none of these things are Conservative. I am Conservative. I’ve been married to the same one man for over 30 years, I pay my bills, I don’t buy things I can’t afford, I donate to charity, but…I do not wish to control what others think, or what they do with their bodies and therefore I am a liberal.
The other picture I’ve seen alot is President Obama made to look like Hitler.
These extreme radicals who call themselves religious conservatives need to understand what the word conservative means. Gun totting radicals intimidating others is not the defination.
Racism does underlie most of their crap but this icon serves many other intents. Psychopath, clown, loser, tearer-down-of-society etc etc. The chimp in a flight suit was their favourite delusion.
I fail to see how portraying a black man as the joker (the joker is pretty well known by the way, not just with comic book nerds) is racist. As to Obama being a moderate, that depends on whether or not you believe what he says, he talks like a moderate in public but in the past when he wasn’t as famous he spoke like a true radical liberal. I for one, cannot ignore the fact that he went to Rev. Wright’s church for 20 years or his relationship with the terrorist guy (totally blanking on his name right now)
The pic is not racist, and I think you know that. What if they had done Bush up in this same way? Would be more apt, sure, Bush the clown actually makes more sense, but neither way would these be seen as racist. Someone just thinks they’re being clever, that’s all.
@ The Fitness Diva:
No, actually, I do not know that. Why would I say I think the picture is racist if I know it isn’t?
If someone had put Mr. Bush in blackface, I would also have viewed that picture as racist. Why is it okay to put a black man in whiteface, but not okay to put a white man in blackface?
This is a racist picture. The person who created it intended it to be racist. That people are actually defending it baffles (and somewhat sickens) me. I thought our country was moving beyond this type of nonsense, but apparently not.
Bush has been done up this way, in 2008.
I enhanced it for my site here. http://tinyurl.com/r778cx
I agree with the person who said that this was intended to make Obama look like a clown, a freak, etc., and someone “other”. In that respect, it could be seen as racist, I guess, but I think that’s a stretch. It’s the way he is treated by many people on the “right” in general that is racist, because they can’t handle a black president and that is the reason behind so many of their actions like the birth certificate stuff.
@ ShellyT:
That is an interesting picture, ShellyT, but there is no way I would ever guess it was supposed to George W. Bush unless you had told me. I will admit to never having seen that picture before. Are you sure that is supposed to represent Mr. Bush? It sure doesn’t resemble him in any way I can fathom.
Yes absolutely it is George Bush. Block out the hair on the left (the hair hanging down) and it looks exactly like him. It’s from a Vanity Fair article from 2008 about George Bush. I enhanced the color and put “Fascism” on the bottom.
Len, here is the original.
http://www.vanityfair.com/online/politics/2008/07/bush-as-joker.html
@ ShellyT:
Sorry, but I would still never in a million years had guessed that image was supposed to be representative of George W. Bush. The eyes and the ears may be somewhat reminiscent of George Bush Sr., but I still don’t see Junior in that picture anywhere. Sorry.
I don’t see the racist angle to the joker picture – instead, it’s just taking Obama and depicting him as a crazed Batman character (personally, I don’t see the connection between the two, but I also don’t read anything racist in it, either.)
I don’t see anyhting racist about the Joker/Obama picture, though I can see why someone would think that. While I find it hard to believe someone had never seen Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker (which that picture is based on as opposed to the more “clowny” depicition in the comics) it’s not impossible, so I can see why you thought that way.
That being said, I do agree with you somewhat on the racist issue. Even if they don’t intend to be racist, it’s probably a sub-conscious effort. There’s simply too many really tiny things the Republicans are picking out and blowing up into huge problems. Making mountains out of molehills so to speak.
I’m sorry, but I still don’t see how the first picture of Obama as the Joker is racist. Nobody associates “the Joker” as being racist. However, EVERYONE associates “blackface” with being racist because of it’s racist origins.
@ Paul Bauer:
At the risk of repeating myself… Why is putting a white man in blackface racist, but putting a black man in whiteface not?
You’re missing the point.
The Joker picture is not intentionally putting Obama in Whiteface. The Joker, as a character, had actual white makeup on him. It was part of his get up: white face paint, red lips and black eye makeup an the infamous Glasgow smile. I doubt very much they made that image to paint Obama up as a white guy. Rather they wanted to associate him with one of two things.
1. The fact that he is a “joker” and hence is not worth listening to. They imply that he is nothing more than a poor joke of a president.
2. The Joker in the Dark Knight is the embodiment of destruction. He wrecks everything he touches. They are saying Obama does the same thing.
I know if an actual whiteface on a black man incident occured very few people would cry “RACIST!” Hypocrisy at its finest. But I can guarantee you I’d be one of the first. But nowhere in that Joker picture do I see a racist undertone. Rather, I see someone trying (rather poorly) to picture Obama as a bringer of chaos who cannot be taken seriosuly and who is ruining everything. But not racism.
@ Revelations Zero:
Sorry to be so stubborn about this, but I don’t think I am.
I agree. It’s not an undertone at all. It just comes right out and says it. There is nothing subtle about the racism in that graphic whatsoever. (Or for that matter — and this was the gist of the original post — in the way the right wing of the Republican party is reacting to the presidency of Barack Obama.)