In this electronic image of a poster with head shots of U.S. Presidents, take a look at the “photo” that was selected for Obama. Let me help you. Check out the lower right-hand corner. The image was a joke sent out in an email by an aide in the Tennessee state legislature. I think you can assume that the aid was a GOP staff member–but don’t be fooled to think that there are no Democratic aides that would make a similar blunder.
This goes into the file labeled, “What in the world were they thinking?” I’m torn between assuming, on one hand, that the people who end up in this file are just a few knuckleheads AND that this is emblematic of the depth of racism in our society on the other. (People really do seem to make a lot of racist jokes…or so I’ve heard.)
Here’s another one for the file.
Shortly after the arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr., a Boston police officer and member of the Massachusetts National Guard sent out an email–and to lots of people, I should add–in which he called Gates a “banana eating jungle monkey.” Ouch.
By the way, there is a sub-folder in this file that is titled “What the F are they thinking?” and this one probably goes there. The police office, Captain Justin Barrett (he’s not a twenty year old rookie), asserted that he felt remorse and was sorry for the email and that he is not racist because, afterall, he has friends from all racial and ethnic backgrounds. “It was a poor choice of words,” Barrett said. “I didn’t mean it in a racist way. I treat everyone with dignity and respect.”
Can I disentangle this just a bit. It seems to me that if I went to a KKK meeting and asked someone in a hood to define “negro,” they just might say something like, “Negro? Why yes, son, that would be a ‘banana eating jungle monkey’.” What else would they possibly say that would be acceptable to the racist hoards waiting to reclaim the country from the brown skinned barbarians?
Here’s another one for the WTF file:
Unfortunately, this guy only had the funds to pay an entry level, mail order public relations clean-up person and so he couldn’t come up with something more convincing than blaming it on supporters of Charles Darwin. That was a pathetic attempt to spin this slip and it went nowhere. My god, brother, have some respect for our intellect.
I find myself saying some pretty off-the-hook things at random moments and yet I never seem to slip into this level of racist banter. I guess since I don’t have the thoughts, the words never leave my lips. But I have to wonder if this how many of us think in our private moments. And then when these private moments get loose in the public domain, they spin about until we’re all dizzy with the feeling of impending dread of having to suffer another media circus.
Sometimes the “attack of the racists” goes a bit too far — like the condemnation of the poor schmuck who a few years back correctly and unwisely used “niggardly” in a meeting among colleagues. He got hammered pretty hard because his office mates didn’t know what the word meant. (Of course, he might have been baiting them because without the “dly” the word is pronounced just like the N-bomb.)
Other times, however, I suspect that people who engage in what is so obviously offensive and racist behavior clearly deserve what they get. “We don’t give a damn if it’s part of your cultural heritage; we don’t do that any more.” Sure there can be a very fine line between these two reactions, and I don’t want to be the judge of who crosses it. But sometimes enough if enough.
I think that these “WTF” cases are a very interesting topic. I find these strange scenarios interesting for a different reason the average person, but I think about them frequently nonetheless. I have been always been intrigued by the fact that people whose jobs require them to have a good public image act in such a tailored, pre-determined manner. For example, the President of the United States is someone who has to be held to the highest levels of decency, and has to have the perfect response to every problem or query. All of his speeches are written by someone else, all of his outfits are picked out for him, most of his important decisions are made by others; basically his whole life is determined by other people. While most Americans think they have a good understanding of their President, in reality we probably don’t know our President at all.
My example of the President of the United States is applicable to an infinite number of professionals. All of the parties mentioned in Sam Richard’s blog were heavily ridiculed for their actions, which in most cases they deserved to be. The question is, who knows how many other people are making the same or similar comments behind closed doors? For all we know, President Obama is making racist wisecracks about every Latino on his staff and Benjamin Bernanke is calling every black man that works on Wall Street a nigger. I would feel more comfortable with the people that are running this country being upfront about all their opinions and bad habits, rather than acting like an All-American who is an entirely different person flaws behind closed doors.
I am also of the belief that someone should not necessarily be judged for one seemingly negligent comment that they make. Although Rusty Depass made an inappropriate statement towards the First Lady, we can’t be certain of the nature and context of that comment. In my estimation, it seemed that Mr. Depass was trying to make a joke about one of Mrs. Obama’s previous comments, and the media heard the comment and completely distorted it from its original meaning. I make bad, over-the-top jokes all the time so I am not going to pass judgment on him. Obviously he could have been trying to cover up a comment that garnered him negative public scrutiny, but I’ll never know the truth so I’ll grant Mr. Depass the benefit of the doubt. The CNN reporter who was speaking in the blog was so critical of Mr. Depass, although he did not even seem sincere to me. Here is this man publicly defaming Mr, Dupont’s reputation on a national media outlet, while he could go home after the show and be doing any number of taboo deeds. The CNN reporter could be a racist, adulterer, murderer, etc. While there is very little likelihood that any of those allegations are true, the point that I am trying to make is we know relatively nothing about people we unanimously trust as a country.
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Where the line should be drawn when it comes to talking about race has been a problem for many people for many years and will continue to be a problem in the United States and around the world. Race is a very sensitive subject and different people take offense to different things. In this article, GOP activist Rusty DePass makes extremely inappropriate remarks about President Obama’s wife, Michelle Obama. He compares her ancestors to loose gorillas that have escaped from the zoo. In my opinion, that is absolutely a racist comment and he should more than apologize for what he said in the facebook message. Comments like his are not acceptable and a person in his position has no room to be making racist comments about the president’s wife. Even if he intended for it to be a joke, people can not say things like that. Whether it is intended to be funny or not, it is still highly racist and the comment should not have been posted.
Although the situation with Rusty DePass is clearly a racist comment that he should be criticized for, there are often times when comments are taken in the wrong context. People sometimes are looking too hard for a racist remark and turn comments that aren’t meant to be racist into something they are not. Later in the article, a situation is brought up about a businessman at a meeting where he uses the word, “niggardly.” Everyone in the meeting took it as a racist comment when the person who said it was not intending to be racist at all. He was simply trying to use a word that can sound like the N-word to a majority of people who are not familiar with the word. A businessman should not have to worry about whether the people he is in company with are familiar with a certain word. What he said was taken completely out of context and he was punished for his peers’ lack of a vocabulary.
This article shows how hard it is to find out where to draw the line when it comes to racism. Things can so easily be taken out of context to mean things that they don’t. At the same time, many people take racist jokes and racist comments way to far and need to see that some of the things they say are unnecessary and inappropriate. When trying to decide whether the line has been crossed or not, people need to see the context of the situation. It usually isn’t hard to see whether a comment is racist or not when a comment is taken in context. In this article, I was able to see two different situations where comments were made and after putting them in context, I was able to see that only one of them was truly racist.
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I believe the picture of Obama is racist in its intentions, but I do not personally find it offensive. Its motives, however demonstrate racism at its worst. While it is wrong of someone, especially someone who is a political leader, to create the picture, I do not think it should be blown out of proportion. Everybody knows that Obama is black, and I do not see how this crude attempt at a joke would impose any other insult on Obama. I have lived with some very dark Africans over the last couple years and I will admit it is harder to see them when there is practically no light but I do not see this as an insult, just a difference, just as when it is very bright and I am in the snow it is hard to see me. Being oversensitive to this only prolongs the life of racism in this country. This picture only exaggerates how dark Obama is, and it is the viewer of the picture who sees it, notices that the Obama is especially black (to the point you can’t see him in the dark) and THEN somehow associates being black with a certain negativity. So in the case of the picture, I believe the viewer of the picture who looks at it and sees something wrong with it is someone racist themselves. The heart of racism in this case lies with the majority of the Americans who when they saw the picture, and made some kind of association with the blackness of Obama and a defamation.
The comments about Michelle Obama are very insulting and racist on every level. To compare someone to looking like a monkey is not only unprofessional and childish but is been known to be a very racist means of insulting people of color. Clearly in this case it is atrociously wrong, but where do we as a society draw the line of racism? I remember a few years ago George W. Bush was cartoon-drawn all over the place as a monkey because of his larger than normal ears. In that case it was not viewed as racist, but I think if Bush were of color it would have been a huge issue. I do not know how to differentiate these two categories: jokes poking at someone’s differences, and racism. If making fun of someone because of a physical difference apparent because of their ethnicity is incredibly racist and wrong, then where do you draw the line at distinguishing jokes from racism.
For example, I am from a country where the average height difference is significantly higher than that of most other countries. If I am ever called tall is it racist? If not then why would someone saying that someone looks like a monkey or gorilla or black in general racist. To clear any confusion: I do believe that in both cases (the picture of Obama and the remark of Michelle) are racist in their creation, but it is the people that serve as the catalyst through their fundamental interpretation that is the real problem.
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Well, I am very embarrassed for whoever decided to put make that racist photo even though it was supposed to be funny. I think it completely crossed the line and is definitely a very negative racist offense to our President. I think it is important that our nation as a whole comes together to support our leader because I think our nation is criticized enough by the rest of the world and this woul just something else for other countries to pick at and ridicule. Plus, he is our President and he deserves our respect and it is just ignorant for us to do this sort of petty bull shit. As much as we can wish and talk about overcoming racism, I think it will alwayss be a big issue in America as long as we remain a culturally diverse nation. What is the most important thing is that we can not let it get to us if we are faced with someone acting in a discriminatory matter toward us. We need to be strong and realize that no one can offend us because one can only choose to be offended. This is probably the best way to deal with the issue of racism. It's sad to say that it will probably never go away but I think we have to be realistic because there will always be ignorant people in the world who will just hate because they are either afraid or just dumb. What we can do is just simply rise above the remarks or judgements and be accepting of all different cultures and ethnicities. As for the man who called Michelle Obama a gorilla that is just absolutely ridiculous. And to try and play it off of that evolutionary crap which just really makes him look even more stupid. We as a society are more intelligent then he assumed obviously and he definitely crossed the line and showed what he is really all about when he makes those remarks on facebook. And the "niggardly" incident simply justifies my belief that there will always be very stupid and ignorant people in the world that will misinterpret stuff that is said and twist it to somehow be offensive. I think its also terrible that people hide behind certain excuses as if that makes it okay to be racist. For example, just because you are from the south, that does not give you the right to be discriminating toward someone who has a different skin tone than you. I also noticed that I think that some races are putting up walls that are separating themselves from other races an probably contributing the level of discrimination between the two. For example, black people call other black people the N-word all the time but it is not okay unless you have permission, which still makes it awkard, to use that term in casual conversation. Offensive language should just be dropped all together. That would help with the discrimination in society as well.
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After reading the article about Microsoft the first thing that I thought was I cannot believe that this has happened again. This problem could have easily been avoided and it should have since it was done by such a big company. I do not really know a ton about computers but I know enough to be able to correctly use Photoshop and edit a photo. How could you forget to change the color of one of the hands of a person in the commercial that was meant to be aired on national television? If this mistake would have been caught when it was being made, we would not even be talking about this terrible display of editing on Microsoft’s part. I do not agree that it is ok to change the color of a person’s face in the advertisement, but I could see why Microsoft would go ahead and do that to the character. I do not know what the ratio of white people to any other is in Poland, but from my experience I have not met a lot of black polish people. From where I am from, there are a lot of polish people but none of them are black. I do feel that if this act of laziness occurred in the United States there would be a lot more problems that would be happening because of it.
I do not understand why Microsoft went and did this to themselves anyway. They should have just run the same commercial and website in all regions of the world. They would have avoided all of these problems, but I could see why they wanted to run two ads. They wanted to try and make their product more desirable to the group of people that they were trying to sell it to. They had the right idea when they wanted to make all of the people in the commercial for Poland all white. They were also correct with the commercial for the United States because there is a lot of diversity among the actors.
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Im a bit torn on this picture. I like to keep an open mind about most situations and I am usually willing to laugh at most things. For example I did laugh at the picture because it is funny but at the same time its annoying to me that people from opposing parties always feel the need to nit pick at all possible characteristics in order to cause problems. I understand having a little fun and making jokes about your opponents and I am sure Obama and any other person understands that. Its expected in any competition but sometimes it can go to far. I laughed at the picture but at the same time was somewhat ashamed of myself for doing that. I would love to see President Obama’s reaction to this photo. I believe he would laugh at first and not let it affect him because he seems like the kind of man who is strong willed and can take a joke. He is the type of person that knew he would get criticized in every possible way because he broke the trend for presidents. I like that he has been resilient and not let it get to him. That’s what we need as a president no matter what color their skin is. In my own personal opinion if I were a member of the republican party I would accept defeat and as an American I would back our president in every possible way. Even if the person is not from my party they are still the leader of our country and it is our responsibility as Americans to back him and support him in his efforts to keep us free. We obviously wont agree on everything and I think it is fine to question certain policies of our leaders but when all is said and done he is our chosen leader and we should back him as best as we can. I really would like to think that this is not an example of how racist our society is. I would truly be saddened if that was the main purpose for the picture. I think that a little joke here in there is necessary because otherwise everything would be taken too seriously and we would be at each others throats constantly. I think we need jokes and laughter to keep us level headed. I don’t doubt that there are plenty of racist people out there but everyone seems to be giving President Obama more problems because of who he is. I honestly believe that if the republicans lost and the democrats won but their candidate was a white man there would not be half as many problems between parties as there is now and that’s disgusting to think about. It sad to think that but its probably true.
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The point brought up questioning if the words DePass said are often in the mind of many people who maintain control and keep their thoughts to themselves is extremely intriguing and brings up a good point. Although it can be said that one is a racist even if they think in a similar manner, by keeping comments similar to those of DePass to oneself it shows that the sentiment is not truly felt. Many thoughts run in and out of our minds every minute and just because something triggers a certain thought in our heads does not mean that we necessarily believe in these thoughts. I feel confident saying that over seventy five percent of people have at one point been in a situation where they have thought to steal for at least a second, but do not follow through with the crime. However, there is a thin line between keeping thoughts to ourselves and speaking our minds without really thinking about what we are saying that DePass blatantly crosses. His comments are extremely racist and even in his “apology” he shows little remorse for his harsh remarks. Our minds are where we run our thoughts over and then decide what they mean and ultimately deciding if we agree with them. By “speaking our minds” we stand by what we are thinking and therefore associate ourselves with the comments.
The electronic image can be seen as offensive, but if seen on a lesser degree than the president of the United State, it would be seen as comical. It is not in any way defaming black people it is simply making fun of skin color. At this point in time if we cannot all laugh at this type of joke then we are still a long way from overcoming the barrier of skin color. In my group of friends that is half black kids and half white kids we always joke about skin color both ways and because we all know that we have no racist sentiments. In our world today we should all be able to joke about something as simple as our skin color because it means absolutely nothing to the people that we are.
In the instance of the Boston police officer calling Henry Louis Gates, Jr. a “banana eating jungle monkey” he also crosses the barrier. This disparages black people on all levels. This goes along with the gorilla comment, as it is ridiculous and unfair to compare any human to an animal simply because of skin color. This defames black people unfairly and without justification. Until our world can see skin color as something other than a barrier between different people then comments like these will continue to surface.
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I am not going to lie, I actually laughed when I first looked at the poster of the president’s. As messed up as it is, it struck a nerve with me that I thought it was funny. I by no means agree with it and would never in my life imagine doing that or letting it be attached to my name, but I did chuckle at it. There is “minor” racism like that which I enjoy and chuckle at and than there is the alternative. The cruel snipes taken like describing a black person as a “banana eating jungle monkey” are wrong. To say that about any human being is so degrading and should never escape a person’s mouth, especially an officer of the law. The statement that the officer released after is completely pathetic too. Treating everyone with “dignity and respect” is just a complete false statement that he said. Clearly you are too ignorant to respect someone from another race. I think it’s ridiculous when people make comments like that. Just because someone happened to be born a different race or religion than you doesn’t mean they deserve to be judged off the bat for it. I’m not saying I haven’t made inappropriate comments or anything in my life; however, I truly believe that if you did not choose how you are there is no reason why you should be looked down upon for it. The thing that upset me the most in this blog however was the Michelle Obama comment. To begin with, Michelle Obama is one of the most powerful first ladies to ever live in the white house. She speaks her mind and asserts her independence and is not seen just lurking behind her husband, as much of the first ladies have done. She is a strong influence for all females: she is well educated, well dressed, always put together, and most importantly classy. For someone, especially someone who also influences this country, to call her a gorilla is just plain wrong. The first reaction I had to it was “how dare you insult a first lady like that?” I do not care what your problem is with her she is one of the leaders of our country. If you have a problem with her leadership, that is something you can comment on, but to have a problem with her because she is black is a complete other issue. And to use such condescending words makes it even more offensive. Referring to people as monkeys or gorillas it saying that they are not worthy enough to be considered a human being. It doesn’t matter who you are but to say that you are below all people is offensive and rude.
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This entire onslaught of recent racist behavior has been sort of like watching a volcano simmer for a while. Its been that way for a good long while and suddenly something happens and the whole damn thing erupts in a breath of fiery doom, pain and suffering. Right now we're at the fiery magma doom part. I don't know a single black person who I know personally who'd feel safe breaking down in some of the back roads of PA. There's still a lot racial tension left over when blacks were brought in as strike breakers in the later 1800's and early 1900s, the economic depression in the south after the collapse of slavery, and other such events in our nations history have all contributed to a lot of misplaced rage. I had the “fortune” to live in a very rural part of Kentucky for a bit of my life. To give an example, a friend of mine, black of course, was beaten by the teacher. His parents tried to sue and found out that it was legal for teachers to “punish” students at their own discretion.
I believe we are seeing two things happen in terms of a lot of the racial issues we're seeing come out of the republican party. One is Obama has taken a sort of classic scape goat role for a lot of racists. And secondly that hate is being used by career politicians to fuel a (at least from what I've noticed) mostly republican agenda against Obama. Not to say that Democrats aren't equally capable of similar stuff, just that the recent issues have been mostly Republican in nature and source. Not only race but political agenda, I've heard the term socialist abused and misunderstood so much in the past few months that I think it may need to be put down. What was the latest gallop poll I read? 85% of Republicans are against the president, 95% of Democrats are for. In such a polarized country its hard to imagine the president not facing a shit storm of hate mail.
To answer the big question of “What were they thinking?”, the way I see it people like Barnett and the GOP activist mentioned by mister Sam are generally puppets for a much larger political agenda, and racists. They wouldn't be puppets in this case if they weren't at least marginally racist would they be? At least that is my take on it. I feel as if I can make this conclusion just based on some of the stuff McCain let fly from the rancid bear trap he calls a mouth (you just found out my political allegiance). I recall a particularly baffling remark that Obama shouldn't be president because he didn't look like the guys on the dollar bills. Of course this could just be my imagination going hog wild, but I'm pretty sure I'm right on this one.
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I wasn’t surprise about this news casting at all or any news casting. The news does it job to draw up any story the best way they can. Everything on the news is for entertainment, without entertaining story there would be no news. Looking at this story, it almost likes a copycat story of Don Imus and the Rutgers Girl Basketball Team. Yet the only difference is that Imus express himself on an opinion that I really agree with because Imus was just demonstrating his first amendment. But this time, I felt it was disrespectful what the activist said about Michelle Obama which this activist is part of the Republican Party. Yes Michelle Obama made a good point that every white people has a little black or color in them , but disrespectful to Michelle Obama. Majority of our presidents are white a suddenly once the president become black, the election was bogus and call unfairly. It so funny when a black man run and becomes president he must get criticizes for every little thing which also includes Michelle Obama. Also, another funny story is that the first president for the United States was black. George Washington is the first president under this bullshit that we call a constitution today. There is a lot of question at need to be answer but it seems like the Republican Party is getting away with everything. That party is majority white, but all it take is just apologizes or trying to remove from the sources and everything is going to be ok. Too me, it doesn’t work that way because people never forgot anything. Yet if we flip the script, Black people can get away if a black on black racial conversion because we know it all jokes and when white people do it, then it is so much controversial between white and black. Racism and racial comment today is probably the reason why people are not getting along, not thinking before they speak, and not making credible points. These could be the reason why racism probably still continues today. Knowing Michelle Obama is a very strong back woman, she was not going to take this sitting down, yet it is so crazy that when she made her press conference. The point she was trying to make is that American really are stupid and have no sense of history which that is very true. This quick story will help me make a point to show how stupid most Americans are. Our last president was white and this man brought the united states of American in the worst turmoil since Ronald Wilson Regan was president. Everyone was excited when he was president. Once he upset a lot of people Bush was no more and never heard from him since. Now the president black and the first lady is black and now people are asking too much, black people still isn’t getting there respect, and the president cant even do this job. Nothing is going to change unless we as people have change among themselves.
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Racial slurs have always been a problem in the United States but over the past few years they have escalated a bit too much. Even though back in the 60’s racism was by no means a joke, nowadays jokes are used as the means of hiding their racial slurs. I honestly don’t see what the point of having all society, including the media, know about their hate against other races because they just make a scandal out of something that might not be too offensive or in other cases they simply aggravate the situation. Racial slurs make people want to give up, a racial slur is not something easy to take and for me as a minority I take it more deeply. I do not understand why some people are so narrow-minded, I do not see why they cannot accept others for who they truly are regardless of color, gender, religion, sexual orientation, etc.
Personally, I do not think that there is a right or wrong way of saying a racial slur even if some people try to joke around with it because people still get offended no matter what. Whenever people try to joke about racial slurs and have other people laugh about it, that makes the person that is getting offended get even more mad because it’s not only the joke that is making the people laugh but also the fact that it is something racist.
I think that it is not only the racist people’s fault to say racial slurs but also the racial group’s fault because we as well make a joke about it even though it might be a racial slur. We think that it is ok for us to say it between our own races but we find it offensive when someone else calls us that racial slur.
I would truly want for racial slurs to stop, even though that might not happen at all, but we as racial groups should do something about that. We should take the initiative in stopping those racial slurs, even if we think that it is ok to say it between our own races. I personally believe that it is not ok because that makes other people think it is ok for them to say it too.
Over all, racial slurs should not even be mentioned. It is a way to truly offend someone and make them feel like trash. But I think it is even worst when someone tries to make it a joke out of it, which is honestly wrong. If people really feel hate, or racism against other racial groups then why can’t they just keep to themselves and not hurt anybody’s feelings? There should be no need for them to say it out loud and have other people know about it, and this is when the media or society aggravate the situation even more.
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I wasn’t aware of any of these stories before now and I find them to be a little embarrassing and disappointing. The picture by the Tennessee aide is a little ridiculous coming from him. President Obama is the first black president of our great nation and that is something we need to respect, recognize, and embrace. It’s awesome that racial boundaries have been weakened to the point that there is a legitimate chance for a person of color to successfully run for the presidency of the United States. With that said, it is still a little sad and pathetic that acts like these still happen, especially from an aide in the Tennessee legislature. It’s not just a reflection on him, but on the state of Tennessee and maybe even the nation as a whole. The picture is a blatant racist remark and its only purpose is to make fun of Barack Obama. I can’t say I didn’t expect things like this to eventually come up. Racist jokes and slurs happen everywhere, everyday. If used in the right spirit, I think sometimes it can be all right. In this case, the act was very tasteless and probably not very timely. In the other story about Michelle Obama, a lot of the same ideas come up. I can’t believe people with this much at stake, this well respected can be so stupid. Obviously it isn’t going to be accepted by the general population if you publicly make a joke referring to a gorilla as Michelle Obama’s relative. The comment would most likely be frowned upon if it were made towards any first lady, let alone our first black one. I was happy to see the mayor of Columbia come out and make a statement. It was an obvious racist remark that needed to be called out. Politicians are people that should know the boundaries of political correctness. It’s always great, too, to see the public apologies that come as a result of these types of incidents. What a weak apology, “ I am as sorry as I can be, if I offended anyone.” Come on, man. That’s something that should have been a red flag from the beginning. Whether or not these particular acts irritate people, they will most likely continue to happen in the future. People, whether they mean it or not, will always make racist statements, because every one has their biases and opinions that sometimes can overpower the politically correct way to act. Racism and bias may always be present in politics and although that isn’t what we want to hear or believe, it’s the cold reality. I hope I’m wrong in saying that, and I am also hopeful because of the fact that we’ve made it this far.
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I wasn’t surprise about this news casting at all or any news casting. The news does it job to draw up any story the best way they can. Everything on the news is for entertainment, without entertaining story there would be no news. Looking at this story, it almost likes a copycat story of Don Imus and the Rutgers Girl Basketball Team. Yet the only difference is that Imus express himself on an opinion that I really agree with because Imus was just demonstrating his first amendment. But this time, I felt it was disrespectful what the activist said about Michelle Obama which this activist is part of the Republican Party. Yes Michelle Obama made a good point that every white people has a little black or color in them , but disrespectful to Michelle Obama. Majority of our presidents are white a suddenly once the president become black, the election was bogus and call unfairly. It so funny when a black man run and becomes president he must get criticizes for every little thing which also includes Michelle Obama. Also, another funny story is that the first president for the United States was black. George Washington is the first president under this bullshit that we call a constitution today. There is a lot of question at need to be answer but it seems like the Republican Party is getting away with everything. That party is majority white, but all it take is just apologizes or trying to remove from the sources and everything is going to be ok. Too me, it doesn’t work that way because people never forgot anything. Yet if we flip the script, Black people can get away if a black on black racial conversion because we know it all jokes and when white people do it, then it is so much controversial between white and black. Racism and racial comment today is probably the reason why people are not getting along, not thinking before they speak, and not making credible points. These could be the reason why racism probably still continues today. Knowing Michelle Obama is a very strong back woman, she was not going to take this sitting down, yet it is so crazy that when she made her press conference. The point she was trying to make is that American really are stupid and have no sense of history which that is very true. This quick story will help me make a point to show how stupid most Americans are. Our last president was white and this man brought the united states of American in the worst turmoil since Ronald Wilson Regan was president. Everyone was excited when he was president. Once he upset a lot of people Bush was no more and never heard from him since. Now the president black and the first lady is black and now people are asking too much, black people still isn’t getting there respect, and the president cant even do this job. Nothing is going to change unless we as people have change among themselves.
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Racism is a very touchy subject anywhere in the world. It is especially a hot topic in the United States because of our history with slavery and continued persecution. However a big part of why it is such a hot topic is because there aren't any clear boundaries, and the topic is far from cut and dry. Racism is relative to whoever you are dealing with. One person's view of racist might be drastically different to someone else's view of racist. That is why this discussion will continue on for generations or possibly later.
The topic of the Obama photo is a good example of how different viewpoints, particularly on a hot topic could create such a stir. The idea of having a photo featuring all the presidents with their certified picture then feature a doctored photo of Barack Obama with just a black background and a set of white eyes was sent as a "joke", but the after effect shows that not everyone took it as so. I tend to agree with the people that take it as more than a joke. By featuring Obama in that setting it shows him in a dehumanized way. The photo gives no indication of a human. Also, people could derive that it's meant to be Obama, but if you take the picture as a whole it makes him seem less significant than the other presidents; the photo as a whole makes him look overshadowed- no pun intended. When you take the time to feature a whole composite of the presidents then black out a photo of Obama and replace it with two white eyes then that also sets into the area of disrespect. Dehumanization and disrespect are far ways to go for a simple laugh.
While I do believe that the photo does dehumanize and disrespect Obama, I don't necessarily think it was racist. I think the politician was playing on the harsh and lame jokes of black people. This brings me back to my original point of racism being in the eye of the beholder. He viewed the idea as a joke, however many thought of it as something more than that. As a politician you have to be very careful of your moves, not only does it directly reflect on you in a public setting, but also on your state, the people that you represent, and on some occasions, your country. Anything that could be considered borderline should be avoid altogether. That's what makes this politician's actions so dumb; he was well aware of the weight that his position carries and should've known of the affect of some actions. Just as everyone in the class knows how touchy and undefined the topic of race is, he full-well did and still followed though in his actions, and that is where I think the real crime is. If he viewed something as a joke, but others might not don't do it.
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First of all I would like to state that I think that the picture was quite humorous and I do not believe that it was to be racist at all. At the same time one has to consider where this picture came from. The Tennessee state legislature should not permit this even if it is an aide that published it. Barak Obama is the first African American President and he deserves everybody’s respect and support. For this photo to come out of a governmental institution is just plain wrong and it shouldn’t be tolerated. Furthermore I think that the aide should be fired for publishing this photo. Let somebody else that has no ties to politics be the comedian.
I think the real issue to be discussed is the competency of the Tennessee state legislature. I realize that they can’t control what everybody does in their personal time but it does bring the character of the state into question. It may have been one incident but every employee should be fully aware of what they can and cannot do in their position. As funny as the photo may have been it was out of line but only because of where it came from. We are supposed to be making steps forward as a society and this didn’t exactly help.
How does a person call someone a banana eating jungle monkey and then turn around and say that they did not mean it in that context? Unless someone is speaking to an actual monkey there is no context in which that can not be offensive to another person. To make matters worse the person who made this comment was a police officer and he made the remark to someone that he had arrested. And people wonder why citizens, especially minorities, have issues with law enforcement. This might be one of the most inappropriate remarks a police officer can make. I equate this to the comments made by the officers in the Rodney King Incident in which the officer referred to King as a “Gorilla”.
Then when the man can regain some respect by owning up to his mistake he tries to say its ok because he has friends that are minorities. That is complete bullshit. He should have said that he made a mistake and that he was sorry for what he said because absolute no one is going to believe him when he says it wasn’t meant as a derogatory remark. The man has lost my respect as an officer of the law and as a man. I don’t think that he should be in any position of power (captain of a police department) if he cant even control what he says. This is an absolute disgrace to law enforcement.
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“What are they thinking?”
What I think about this blog is just another reason to get worked up about it. There always has to be some type of stereotype or racist comment about minorities. Now that we have an African-American president, everybody makes jokes about it. Then once they get caught they are either asking for apologize or they just do not care what the media says about them. It gets everyone so worked up about it that is getting a bit old. Then once that person comes up with the joke and get caught they always say the same thing, “They said it first”. That is such a lie.
Then on the picture with all the past presidents their picture is so nice and represent able. Then Barrack Obama’s picture is dark with only two round white eyes. They would do the same thing if we had a Latino or an Asian as president. They would change the picture to the stereotype of the background of that president. It is obvious that the state of Tennessee would put a picture like this. In my opinion the southern states give themselves a bad name. The reason why I say this is because they always have something racist to say, and once that comes out in the open they act like it did not happen.
Then the southern states get all offended when they are giving their stereotype nick names. The thing is that in my opinion everyone is racist in their own way. When people think about racist people it always goes towards the whites. Latinos, Asians, Blacks, and Europeans they also make racist comments towards everybody. Like I have said, in the media you always hear that a white person has made a racist joke towards a person of color. It is rare to hear that a color person made a comment about a white or any other colored person. So in the end we all make these statements and we are hypocrites. We just don’t realize that we are being hypocrites and we try to hide it.
No matter what we do to make a “change” we would always encounter racism. People are not going to stop, and they are going to keep doing it if they find the opportunity to do so. Another reason why this kind of thing happens is because we always we are going to get together and experience someone else’s culture. For example in colleges and universities, they have all this organizations. But not one is a multicultural. You always see a different organization or club for a specific ethnic group. These are some of the reasons why we see this things happening. Everyone is to scare or shy to go out of their comfort zone and explore new things on their own.
In the end no matter what people do, racism would be present everywhere and at any time. This is what I have to say for this blog.
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When I first saw this photo I figured it was another ignorant comedian or someone just trying to get people to view their website. However, after reading the blog further I saw that this picture was sent out by a GOP staff member. The fact that this “joke” was sent out by someone who works for the government is very disturbing. First of all, this “joke” is blatantly racist and is in no way comical, and I was appalled when I saw that a GOP member sent this out. Honestly, what was this guy thinking? There’s no way he thought that this joke would have been received by the general public as funny, especially coming from a political figure.
In our society we talk so much about how we have grown as a country and everyone is more tolerant of each other and all that, however these racial jokes are still clearly around and said all too often. America is still not a completely united country. The fact that someone of political importance sent out this “joke” shows that this is a big problem. These racist jokes seem to be okay with everyone in our country including important political figures. Instead of frowning upon racial “jokes” most people laugh at them. This is another problem. Many of these jokes are very offensive. Personally I am of Jewish decent, and when I hear someone say a joke making fun of Jewish people I usually take offense to it. This picture is considered very offensive not only to the president but for all dark skinned people in the country. People don’t deserve to be judged or made fun of based on their race or background. Barrack Obama is the president of our country, and even people who work for his government poke fun at his racial background. This GOP member and the rest of our country should respect the fact that a black man is our president and is the leader of the United States.
This blog not only illustrates the problems with racial jokes, but it also shows that we as a nation still haven’t crossed over racial boundaries. Barrack Obama is our president, and I think that too much attention is aimed at his race rather than his actually presidency. Yes, I think that it is enormously important that a person that has a black background was elected president. That in it’s own shows that many people can accept someone of another race as president. However, now that he is president, the attention is still paid at the fact that he’s partially black rather than his presidential policies.
Moving further, when I read about Police Captain Justin Barrett’s comments I thought that it was just completely ridiculous. What he called Professor Gates was completely racist and was in no way what so ever a funny joke. Furthermore, his excuse that he has friends from all racial backgrounds further demonstrates how ridiculous this guy’s comments were. Regardless of who you are or who you’re friends are it’s still despicable to call someone something so offensive.
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In response to Mojo Pin, I disagree that this year is the year of racism (love the Avenue Q reference though). The election of Obama just gave large news organizations something else to harp on about. Racism has always been there, and the morons that spout it out from public offices have been doing it for a while. The only difference now is that news media cares more about it. I live near Pittsburgh, and as much as I hate everything about the Steelers, I can remember listening to WDVE radio in the morning after Mike Tomlin was named head coach and hearing people calling in to call him the n-word after they lost a game. I could not believe how ignorant and absurd people were willing to go under the shadow of animosity. I was pleased when the host immediately hung up on him and scolded his listeners for being racist. Unfortunately, we live in a world where people are intolerant of one another for no reason. People go to war for gods that preach peace and understanding. Some people are just messed up in the head and feel the need to take offense to anything and everything that is different from them.
I love Barrack Obama, I voted for him and I heard him speak last year on the lawn of Old Main. I hate that his presidency is overwhelmed with people caring about all the racists in this country. I wish that mainstream news media would focus on something positive, instead of always looking for the negativity in the world. One of my favorite people, Jon Stewart, said, “The country is run by extremists because moderates have shit to do.” I find this so accurate; all of these morons making “what were they thinking” comments get so much media attention. It’s disgusting. Every other day you turn on the TV so see some middle-aged balding white man making the dumbest comment he could have made. These guys need to lay off the Jack Daniels and start thinking before they speak.
The whole Henry Louis Gates incident is ridiculous from start to finish. The cop was an asshole, Gates was an asshole to the cop before he was arrested, and the neighbor should probably take the time to know what their neighbor looks like before they call the cops. No surprise the message comes from the Boston police, notoriously one of the most racist police departments in the US. I agree that some people get what is coming to them. If you are going to spout out slurs in the public then you deserve to get slammed when every joe-schmo in America knows you cannot get away with it.
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The world is never going to change. Racism is always going to be around and blacks will always be degraded no matter what we accomplish. Now as for the bold ones who make public national comments on the negative stereotypes and racist slurs against blacks, God bless their souls. Comparing blacks to monkeys and other derogatory terms seems quite funny to them, but it’s not.
If you look at it this way we are all monkeys, which are if you believe in evolution. I personal do not which makes me even more upset. Also monkeys, chimps, or whatever you want to call them are like the second most intelligent creatures on this earth. That was just a positive spin on the negative remarks made by jackasses. Politicians and Republicans crack me up I swear they do. They have to be the boldest idiots in the world, I mean some of the things that comes out of their mouth makes me wonder about who is running our country. These are supposed to be some of the elite brightest common sensed people we know. Yet, somehow they always amaze us, especially when they speak on national television about another politician or something of that matter.
Now for the first lady Michelle Obama, I really applaud her. It seems as if America does not know what to make fun of her for. I mean first it was how black is she had no rhythm when she dances, a stereotype of blacks. To now she looks like a gorilla according to a politician. Blacks will always be scrutinized by the ignorant people of America no matter what power or position you hold. I mean look at President Barack, he is president of the United States in which people vote for since we live in a democracy. So he gets elected and all of a sudden the same man you voted in is doing everything wrong, gets ridiculed, questioned as whether he is eligible and all this other stuff that we the people voted him office for. I just do not get it at all. Yes everyone does not like nor voted for him but nonetheless majority of us Americans did.
If I was not an African-American I would be distraught I think. It has helped me look at adversity and the way the world really is behind its bullshit blindfold they put up for the other countries.
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I personally think that the electronic image of the U.S. Presidents was blatantly racist. How couldn’t it be? It plainly depicts President Obama, the only non-Caucasian president in the history of the United States, as a black blob with eyes. If the image was intended to be a joke, then why didn’t the creator make fun of other presidents as well? The only “funny” thing about the image is the very fact that no other president was made fun of. This clearly had to be labeled as “What in the world were they thinking?” because the creator of this image must have not thought of the reaction the public would have to his depiction of President Barrack Obama. If he didn’t think that the image was not racist then what would he had labeled it as? On a different note, allow me to express my opinion about the comment of Captain Justin Barrett on Professor Louis Gates. To write an email in which you depict Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. as a “banana eating jungle monkey”, distribute the email among many of your peers, and then say that you are not racist, is plainly absurd. How could that comment not be called racist? Captain Barrett based his depiction of Professor Gates solely on the fact that he is black. Then Captain Barrett says that he cannot be racist due to the fact that he friends of many different ethnic backgrounds. It seems to me that one of the reasons he has such friends is to use them as a scapegoat for situations like these. Why else would he bring that up? Then he goes on to say that the comment was just a poor choice of words on his part, seriously? That’s the best he could come up with? I don’t believe that his comment was a poor choice of words. All the words that he used are very common words. Is the order in which he decided to arrange them that brought about the controversy. Such comment is not something I would expect from a Captain in the police department. If he treats everyone with dignity and respect as he claims to do, what part of his depiction of Professor Gates is paying respect to him? Finally, another comment that was not to be intended to be racist was the comment that GOP activist Rusty DePass made about Michelle Obama on facebook, a social networking site. DePass commented on a post that was announcing the escape of a gorilla in a zoo, in which he said “I’m sure it’s just one of Michelle’s ancestors”. Even if the comment was not addressed to Michelle Obama, the comment is still offensive. Why would he even write that, on webpage that is frequently visited and could be seen by millions of people? Doesn’t he know that anything that is posted on the internet is not private at all? Then he goes on to say that those weren’t his words, they were Michelle Obama’s words. That’s simply a great excuse; I would love to hear what else he could come up with. When did Michelle Obama start announcing that her ancestors were gorillas? Not cool.
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I would actually like to do my journal entry on the “What are they thinking?” blog. There are a few things I would like to point out.
First of all, the whole issue with the picture of the presidents is one of the most racist things I have seen in a while. Regardless if the person thought it was funny or not, it is simply unacceptable. Obama, being the first black president is obviously going to be under a lot of scrutiny, but racist actions such as this one are just way over the top. Obama isn’t at all dark skinned, in fact he looks more white than he does black if you want to get down to it, so why would someone depict him in such a manner. I’ll tell you why, because certain people are racist and are unable to control their thoughts and treat everyone equally like the constitution requires us to.
Secondly, the whole issue with the man calling Henry Gates a “banana eating jungle monkey” was completely unacceptable as well and was yet another harshly racist statement. It brings to light the thoughts that go through people’s minds, especially racist people. The crazy thing is, when he was approached and asked about the situation he claimed that it was merely a slip of the tongue, “a poor choice of words”. I find this hard to believe. Only a racist person would be able to think up such a malicious name and then actually use it on someone. Why is it that people still have such ill feelings towards each other? Personally, I thought we were moving in the right direction with this issue, at least making small but noticeable progress. It’s hurtful but not shocking that people still feel this way. The real problem was that he claimed to always treat people with dignity and respect, but where was treatment when he made this statement? Very interesting to say the least.
Finally, I have a response to the video about Michelle Obama. The comment that was made was also completely and utterly unacceptable. The GOP activist claimed that it was it was a simply a statement made out of jest, or in other words, a joke. Although it might have been funny to him and his racist friends, I don’t believe that Michelle Obama found it funny, considering that it was directed at her. He had to know that she was going to hear the remark he made, and so he knew the consequences of his action but completely disregarded them. This is what I found to be so shocking.
All of the following topics make it very clear that racism is still quite and issue and that much more needs to be done in the way of preventing and eliminating it.
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I had never heard any of these stories before because I don't really keep up with the news but all of them are none the less shocking. I would hope that people have gotten past all of their rude ways of describing people. Although I grew up in a family where I heard these racist comments all the time, such as my dad referring to blacks as nothing more than monkeys, I can't help but just be offended for them. I wouldn't want people to call me such things so why call them those things? Someone should never have to deal with being insulted in that way and the sooner that people gain respect for others the better. The funny part about all of it is that all of these people will claim that they aren't even racist. If they would just step back and take into consider how they make that person feel they would know how truly racist they are. I understand that the reason people are most upset is because it was the first lady but regardless of a person's status in the world, they should not be insulted in that way. Everyone deserves the same respect from every person. People should take that into consideration and the world would be a much more peaceful place. Like for example, especially on 9/11 like today, people stereotyping all Middle Eastern people to be terrorists. Many people who came from there recently wanted to leave that whole scene behind only to come to America to be considered a terrorist. I know how terrible 9/11 was but don't be mean to people who weren't involved. Those people did not do anything and they do not deserve to have dirt kicked in their face everyday. I will admit that I am white and just as Sam said the only thing that offends me is when someone calls me racist but I could not imagine being in another race's shoes and having to deal with that every day. Especially how everyone refers to Hispanics as Wetbacks and doesn't expect them to get offended. Or how they expect the only thing someone of that background can do is landscape or do some kind of manual labor especially for cheap, but in reality I guarantee there are so many people from that background that would be so much smarter than how everyone sees white people. White people aren't all that so the sooner all the racist ones realize that the better. Everyone should be treated equally. It doesn't matter the skin color. Everyone has feelings and shouldn't be judged on their ancestry. I wish I could change my family from being so rude to other colors but that isn't going to change anytime soon. Hopefully from having a president that is mixed it will bring down the racism in the country a little bit though.
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In my opinion a joke is a joke but jokes just like many things can be taken too far. First off the pictures of the United States presidents were extremely offensive. It’s quite pitiful that so much hatred and anger comes about because a man of a different race is now the leader of the United States. If you are to make a joke about someone make it about their attributes or something they’re not good at given there not mentally or physically handicapped. But if you come to think of it, the waves of hatred have always come about to leadership when someone not like their predecessors assumes that role. An example from US history would be John F. Kennedy when he became president. There were plenty of slander and hatred spoke about him because he was an Irish-Catholic. Up until then there were no presidents who were catholic or Irish. Later in his presidency he was assassinated because of hatred and it’s downright pathetic. But to think just because a black man is president people would portray him as a shadow with eyes amongst all his predecessors.
On the topic of the police officer that was extremely juvenile. It especially was foolish being that the entire incident was just fueled by racial tension. How bad does that make the MA police force look being that it’s an area with that has had a lot of racial turmoil throughout its time. Everyone should have red flags in their brain involving ethnicity and culture. To me personally calling a black person a monkey is worst than calling them the n-bomb. And it just fuels the cameras for fox news and cnn to make it bigger than what it should be. I think the police officers punishment should be thorough, because among what he is he is a professional and a professional should not act in such a matter.
Now on the guy comparing Michelle Obama to a gorilla was completely wrong, but to cover up and lie about it was unbelievable. Quite frankly the man is a coward. Why humans make such irrational choices is beyond me. And the fact that this man is pretty distinguished among his peers makes it more unthinkable. You would hope that a man who wants and has ambitions of leading would not have thoughts or at least enough common sense not to say such things related to racism. At least I wouldn’t but as you would have it this came up. But for him to attempt and disguise it by saying she made the comparison was really stupid. Well this pretty much goes to show you that if you have some racial confusion or hatred it’s going to be reviled. I just wish people would talk about it not go behind peoples backs.
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Why do people continue to think in such an insane manner? To compare a human-being to a “banana eating jungle monkey” is an inexplicably offensive remark to make to a person of a different color skin. My skin is brown. Neither black nor white. How is my different to your skin? Do you really believe that your skin is superior to mine? I’ve lived in a town of completely white people. Never have they made my appearance feel inferior, uglier, or dirtier. Never have the people of my town ever inferred darker skin color to signs of inferiority. To even think that just because my skin color is different I’m less important. Do you believe can’t compare to you cause my skin is different then yours? My identity does not determine status. It is my ideals, and beliefs that determine who I am as a person. Do not label me until you get to know who I am.
There are many different characteristics that determine status. This doesn’t mean that every characteristic can be morally justified. For example a person that goes through undergraduate school, attains a degree in finance. Then he decides to go to graduate school and get an MBA and luckily obtains a job as the CEO of a fortune 500 company. The person is then labeled as a top executive and exerts control over the company. This person worked their way to their status. It was not ascribed to them at birth. There can be no inferiority insinuated from this status because they worked hard to obtain it. Now should African American people be condemned because of the color of their skin? Part of the fact is due to our American history.
In the early 19th century the primary form of entertainment in America were minstrels and ballads. People sang music through sheet music because there was no such thing as the phonograph yet, or an ipod. These ballads primarily consisted of songs that derailed black people and made a mockery of them because of their skin color. The term “coon,” did not originally appear as a racial slur term for a Black American, though over a short period of time it evolved into that. In early minstrel songs, the "coon" was reference to a raccoon, whose meat was preferred by plantation slaves. This was rooted early into American culture in the form of popular music. This laid the foundation for America’s biggest problem, racism. America built themselves on this foundation and now looks back and regrets being built on it. You can’t replace a foundation like you replace a light bulb, only can improve it by re-cementing the concrete walls. Hopefully, we can improve our ideas sooner and faster.
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Wow! That picture really upset me. In no way shape or form is having a picture of President Barak Obama as a black background with eyes piercing around, humorous or acceptable. If it is meant to be funny or humorous for everyone to enjoy, then President William Taft’s GIGANTIC derriere should have been displayed in his pictorial slot. Or better yet they should have had President George Bush’s dumbass portrayed as a jackass. When I saw the picture that they had for President Barak Obama, I immediately felt extremely offended. It seems like even though he is the president of the United States he is not giving the utmost respect that he deserves. Sometimes I feel that some people feel that he is less than a president because of his skin color. It really shouldn’t matter, the leader of the United States should be respected by his people. If we as Americans do not respect our own president, whom was fairly elected, how do we respect people from outside countries to respect him or us?
Now let's talk about "banana eating jungle monkey". What the hell???? I really just don't understand why people believe this stuff is funny. I'm sure that almost every educated person has had one lesson about slavery in their entire school career. And I am sure that everyone came across the idea that during slavery, black people were considered less than human. And a lot of times they were compared to looking like a "MONKEY." Now, knowing that fact and the sensitivity concerning that subject, how can a person think that's funny. I believe that at this moment right now, if a white person referred to me as a "banana eating jungle monkey" that would probably be a lot of curse words flying out of my mouth.
Now to Michelle Obama, who the hell told that man that it was funny, yet again. And even if it was funny, it wasn’t funny for a white man to say. There is a very thin line between being funny and being insensitive. Once again a black person is referred to as an animal. And the thing that gets me is that he used the internet to blog this statement. I really don’t understand. Are some people just that stupid or is it that they just don’t care? Everyone knows that once something goes on the internet, it is free grabs for everyone that uses internet. So my only conclusion is that he basically has no respect for a the First Lady. It saddens my heart to see all of these racist remarks and racist images. It not only makes me think that racism is still around but it makes me feel that it is as blatant and disrespectful as it was 100 years ago.
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Hahahaha! So this man tried to turn this back onto Michelle Obama. It is funny to see people try to weasel out of what they say. I would respect him more as a person if he stood by what he said then to try to back out and please everybody. Now that is not to say that I don’t think what he said was racist and wrong (in my opinion). Some people yes, genuinely believed that humans evolved from monkeys but for this man to point out Michelle Obama seems to me like he was being racist. But then I look at it this way. If that was said about Laura Bush when George Bush was president, would that statement have been taken the same way? Would that statement even have been stated? Did the current first lady make a statement about apes in the past? I try to look at things from every angle. I don’t want to assume that about people because I want to believe that people don’t want to hate each other. Especially over things they cannot control like race or ethnicity. Sometimes I wonder if people really even know what comes out of their mouths because I know personally I have no internal filter. I say almost anything that comes to mind. I say some pretty offensive things that aren’t meant to be funny jeers but someone could be offended so it could be possible that this man was simply trying to be funny. The more I write and think about this the more questions I have and the less answers I can come up with. I have no idea why people are so crazy about race sometimes. I talked to a boy today who said that his parents just brought him up to be nice to everybody they did not even mention that he was different from other people. I think that that is how people should raise their children in the first place. People should not dwell so much on race sometimes when people make a comment because if that is the case nobody will be able to comment about anything. Like Sam said being offended is a problem within. I say what I feel but I do not mean to make anybody feel a certain type of way I just say it and if they feel some type of way that is on them. I do not have time to worry about everyone’s feelings but at the same time I am going to be considerate. Bringing this to an end I have to say that I changed my mind. I do not think that that man meant it in some type of way but in the same instance the way he said it he might have.
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This article was very interesting because it hits the public in the face with what people seem to forget is still going on in our society—racism. What differentiates an offensive comment and a good humored joke? Shortly after the death of actor, Heath Ledger, people started to make jokes about his life, such as, “what is black, white, and hungry? –Heath Ledger's Cat". Can society’s reaction to racism be comparable to the same scenario? Do people justify racist comments by thinking of them as jokes to befriend the image of this country’s tragic history with racism? The sad truth is that, yes, there are people still in this world who are still racist and try to justify it through humor, and to take it even farther, people who don’t feel the need to justify it.
But, seriously, at this day in age, it is embarrassing more than anything to be caught making offensive, racist comments in the public eye. But on a more individual level, more than anything else, racism is evidence of a lack of personal development in a person’s mind, in today’s global society. As usual though, people make excuses and in this particular situation, the excuse is the Darwin Theory? Are you kidding me? The fact that humans may have evolved from gorillas, makes it okay to call a black person “a banana eating jungle monkey”. No, false, it does not. We have come way too far in society to still have the nerve and general decency to make any type of racist comments. I do not see lifestyle, human nature, or humor as excuses to harbor racist thoughts. It is simply weakness, ignorance, and stupidity. Think about it this way, our country is a democracy that takes pride in “we the people” and our individual rights to vote and have the privilege of having how the country is governed. People all throughout the world marvel at the idea of our freedom and concept of a government. Don’t racists know how stupid they make us look as a people, when others see and hear offensive comments/images about the president of our country and sole icon that represents us and our government—Oh, and the man’s wife! Dude, we elected him to represent our vote and govern our country. WE elected him. Be proud of our decision as a nation and get over the fact that he is of a different race. Understand that winning the presidential election required the majority vote of our citizens, which means the majority of our nation has matured enough to know that racism is no longer excusable. Let’s move on with our lives.
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The amount of racism and disrespect that has been exhibited in these examples is appalling. It surprised me that an aide in the Tennessee state legislature would send out a racist email, let alone one that poked fun at our president. I myself am not a fan of Obama, however, he is our president and deserves the respect and support of his fellow Americans. The same goes for respecting our first lady. GOP activist, Rusty DePass, insulted Michelle Obama by calling her ancestors gorillas. These actions are inappropriate and uncalled for in this political climate.
I think this is more an issue about disrespecting the president and first lady than it is a race issue. If an average Joe made a gorilla comment similar to the one Rusty DePass made, I think it would just be shrugged off as another term. The fact that people give it so much attention causes it to be blown out of proportion. I’m not saying it’s okay to use such derogatory terms by any means, but I just think if people didn’t concentrate on it so much then it would escalate to the point it’s at.
When Rusty DePass apologized he said ‘The comment was hers, not mine” since we are all descendants of apes. This comment reminded me of the video we watched in class the other day about how we are all monkeys. According to evolution, we are descendants of monkeys so why should anyone take offense when someone says gorillas are his/her ancestors? People take comments like this one too literally and act irrationally.
I feel like everything white people say is taken out of context and is misunderstood as being racist. This blog makes it seem like white people are the only type of people who are racist towards other races. Some cases can be easily misconstrued as being racist such as the example in the blog with the word “niggardly”. It’s base word is used as a slur and can be seen as one taken out of context or if someone is ignorant and does not know the definition. If a black person made that same comment then it would be okay in everyone else’s eyes. Black people can insult themselves with racist terms with no repercussions but as soon as a white person makes that same comment it’s the end of the world and they’re labeled a “racist”.
I’m sure that other races feel the same way towards white people and can be just as racially charged. We see everything from the white perspective but I’d like to hear what black people say about us when we’re not around. Why aren’t their racial attitudes publicized as widely as white politicians or other public figures? If everyone was presented in the same light in regards to racial comments then there wouldn’t be any politicians highlighted over others. It would be true racial equality if everyone’s comments were looked at in the same way.
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Now maybe it’s just my easy sense of humor or the fact that I’m white, but I find the picture of the U.S. presidents somewhat funny. Of course, when it comes down to it, the picture is blatantly racist. Every president before Obama has been some rich white aristocrat and has done some amazing things in their terms (some more than others). The fact that Obama is black doesn’t mean he is incapable of doing something that changes the U.S., pointing it in the ideal direction. The thing I don’t understand is how things as insignificant as this are getting so much attention. I guarantee that everyone has come across racism at some point: heard a racist comment or laughed at a racist joke. So what makes this picture any worse then what people hear every day?
One reason could be is the origin, coming from the Tennessee state legislature. Now I’m thinking, why in the hell people would create something like this in the first place, let alone release it to the public’s eye. Is it possible that they are following everyone else? Think about it, everywhere we look, there is racism. It is practically embedded in our society. For example, some comedic movies get huge laughs out of racist remarks and a few stand-up comedians play the race card in their acts. If these comments in movies and acts cause laughter in the crowd, what makes it different than some snobby government officials trying to make a joke? Personally, I think it’s the context. Comedians and movies are all about entertainment, while true haters want to actually offend others. So what exactly does this fall under, and should there even be a difference?
As for that GOP activist, he definitely stepped over the line by insulting the first lady. At first he said he didn’t mean anything by it, possibly a joke (similar to the picture?), then he gets obliterated by media and states that he was taking Mrs. Obama’s words as a spark to his insult. Seriously, he is just trying to make up anything to cover his ass in the situation. Same goes for Captain Barrett, who stated what he said was a poor choice of words. He probably said one of the most racist comments I have heard and after getting flamed for it, apologizes for it profusely. Personally, I think these apologies are hollow. Both of these people meant what they said (ie. Racist comments) because there is no way you can spin it to mean anything else. Apologies won’t pluck the words out of people’s ears or take them out of someone’s memory. All in all, I think they are not apologizing for what they said, but actually for who they really are.
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I'm ashamed to admit, but the first time I saw the image with the portraits of presidents, I laughed a little bit. I did not, however, find the image particularly funny at all. As a matter of fact, I thought it was extremely disrespectful, if not offensive. Yet, I still laughed when I first saw it a month ago because it reminded me of a night a few years ago when a bunch of friends and I were playing manhunt in someone's backyard. At one point during the night, someone, who was white, was having a hard time finding a black friend of ours in the darkness of night and jokingly yelled out, “C.J. (our black friend), can you smile or something so I can see where you are.” Almost everyone found it funny. No one was offended. C.J. joked about it afterward. There were no problems. There is a limited of times where what he said could be considered a joke and not offensive, but this situation was one of those times. It was all good.
But that's not always the case. Too many times you hear things that are blatantly racist, only to be covered up by the “I was just joking” response. The problem is that these “jokes” aren't really made in any sort of context. They are just made to convey their racist thoughts to an audience. Making “jokes” about the race of President Obama, Henry Louis Gates, or the first lady aren't jokes when they occur unprovoked at the expense of these people. They're racist personal attacks. What did Barack Obama do to cause someone to create the image and only place two eyeballs where his portrait would be? Nothing. The only way that I could imagine it being acceptable is if Obama himself publicly made a joke saying how “there wouldn't be enough light in the room while they take his portrait photo causing only his eyes to show up,” and then some bozo on the Internet creates the image. But that wasn't the case. What was done, seems to me at least, was created out of racist expression.
As for police Captain Justin Barrett and his “poor choice of words,” he has some major issues. It would never even cross my mind to call someone a “banana eating jungle monkey.” Just wow. I don't even understand how that's funny, even if you are racist. And what's worse is that he didn't just say this to a buddy of his, he sent out a mass e-mail with it included. Did he just feel like sending out an email to a bunch of people to show that he's racist? If he did, then I could say he's a “shit eating dung beetle,” but that's offensive to the beneficial dung beetles.
Of course there are many instances where someone can make a joke involving race. Countless comedians make careers out of jokes about different races, but especially their own race. Sometimes stereotypes about race can be used in a humorous manner such as the Chappelle's Show skit Trading Spouses, or the other day in class when Sam played the video of Michelle Obama's lack of rhythm. But I guess in these instances, the funny thing is the portrayal of the stereotype and not the race itself. Except for the rare instance, race just isn't funny. Black skin, white skin, brown skin: there's not really anything humorous about skin. Just as there's not really anything humorous about the differences between blond hair, brown hair, or black hair. “Jokes” about race just aren't funny, they're just offensive.
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In response to Professor Richards’s blog “What are they thinking?” I just feel that there seems to be a common theme to all of these incidents; attacking blacks in high standings of our society: the President of the United States, an ivy-league college professor, and the First Lady of the United States. This is only my sole opinion as a black man myself, but I personally feel that some (not all) non-black people do not take a black person in a position of power seriously. This could be for a variety of reasons spanning from racism to petty jealousy. But the fact still remains that some people refuse to accept and respect a black person in a position of power.
With that said, I want to take the time to talk about a couple of issues that demonstrate this theme. Within the past few days, there have been two speeches addressed to the nation by President Obama; the speech to our children and the speech about the health care reform. Both of these speeches have had their controversies associated with them along with some unexpected problems that lead back to a lack of respect for the Presidency. First, I will talk about the speech to our children from the President. My father and I were having a discussion about how when he was in grade school, it was a requirement to listen to the President whenever he addressed the nation while in class and everyone was supportive of it whether they were white, black, asian, latino, etc. As my dad put it, “He was the f*ckin’ President and if he had something to say, then it was important.” So when my dad found out that at my little sister’s elementary school, parents were keeping their kids out of school because they were afraid that President Obama was trying to “brainwash their kids,” my dad was appalled by the reactions of these seemingly rational-thinking parents. It was the fact that many of these parents didn’t respect our LEGITIMATELY elected President enough to even listen to what he had to say. I mean in a time of “racial tolerance” how close-minded can these “educated” parents be? In fact the speech turned out to be an empowering speech that did nothing more than to encourage our kids not to give up on their education no matter how bad their situation is. So I guess that parents didn’t want their kids to be told to do the right thing from a black man huh.
Another incident that showed blatant disrespect for our President was shown during President Obama’s speech about health care in which a venue that was supposed to be respectful and dignified was sullied by a Congressman shouting “YOU LIE!” shortly after our President addressed the issue of health care to illegal aliens. Never in the recent history of speeches given at the Capitol has a President been heckled by a leader of our country. It was simply childish and disrespectful and that kind of conduct has no place in a dignified place on Capitol Hill. Both of these incidents show just how non-receptive the President is to some of these people and it is not right. He is our President who worked extremely hard his entire life and over a two year campaign to get elected to the position he is in. He is more than qualified to lead this country and people need to accept that.
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Professor: Dr. Samuel Richards
Soc 119: Section
September 11, 2009
Gorilla Descent, Really?
The fact that Rusty Depass,well renown political of South Carolina has made such a blatantly racist comment about the First-Lady of this nation refutes the notion that because President Obama was elected that racism no longer exists. The election of President Obama diminished racism in such a diverse country is what I have heard many of my peers proclaim and has also received many hours of coverage from the media. It is well known that in the past black people were often compared to animals, in particular monkeys and apes.
For Rusty Depass to demean the lineage that First-Lady Michelle Obama has descended, moreover black people as a whole we all because she is a face that represents us all. Degrading her quality of being to that of an animal, to categorize this gesture as offensive would by far be an understatement. A statement as such is a far ways off from being humorous for him to say the comment was “in jest.” The degree of intensity that his comment harbors, this remark would only be comical to individuals that have similar perception of black people are relatively the same and find derogative statements acceptable. Furthermore, a “jest” of that severity is not a mere slip of the tongue, but the result of true emotions and thoughts embodied deep within the core of an individual.
On the contrary, he neglected to thoroughly evaluate the magnitude and the consequences of his joke, then for him to say, “I am as sorry as I can be if I offended anyone.” Really speculate on this statement, the predicament that he was in, and his political background, was that statement really sincere or an act of preservation? Preservation. After the Rusty Depass’ history as a politician, him now taking his reputation into consideration and his career into consideration, the fact that he would be looked down upon by his community and it would be something that would follow him for years to come. It not only following his social life put also jeopardizes his career path, he did the political thing and attempted to cover his messed up before the world could get a good smell of what it really was run with it. He wanted make it clear to the national that he was not mean to come across as one of the boldest racism in the world, for deliberately making a racism statement over the world wide web, in addition about the First Lady of the United States, even worse the first black First Lady of the United States. He should of just called President Obama ‘boy’ while he was at it. As reinforcement, individual such as Rusty Depass confirms that racism still dwells heavily in this national, and President Obama being elected hasn’t changed the minds of many.
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After reading this blog I came to the conclusion that no matter how many historical breakthroughs we have in America there will always be racism. After having forty-three white American men occupy our nations office, President Obama stepped in as the first African American President. I remember the streets on election night and how many people across the globe celebrated that monumental moment and now the excitement of the first black President has died down. Just because this publicity died down does not mean its time to start making fun of the President, especially in a racist way. To have a poster with all of these respectable Presidents on them and then a set of eyes to represent Obama is absolutely ridiculous! What kind of example are we setting for younger children? If my little brother saw the poster and talked about it with his friends they would all think it is acceptable to make jokes like the email that was sent.
What I do not understand is why American humor points to racism. All jokes about African Americans, blondes, Jewish people, or LGBT having most people cracking up but if those types of people are around the joke become no longer funny. It is almost like shows like Saturday Night Live criticize politicians all of the time for humor which I think is acceptable but when other legislatures criticize the race of the President of the United States I have a problem with that. I understand if this aide of a Tennessee legislature was sending it as a harmless email but that’s the thing with today’s society: anything on the Internet can be found and anyone can make it public. Something that might not be offensive to one person may be offensive to someone else.
The biggest problem I have with the second part of this article is that the offensive comment that was directed towards The First Lady was on FACEBOOK. In our society today anything we say or do can be find out because of facebook. (I personally think it is weird when people as old as my parents have facebook and use it often.) If you in the public and are going to put something about Michelle Obama on the web, you better believe it will hit the media. If a student at Penn State were to say something about a gorilla on facebook it would not hit the news but because of his status he has to think before speaking. When it comes to racism most people do not think. When they say a rude comment or send a racist email they are not thinking about the consequences. That applies to most things in life. If people just took the time to stop and think before their actions the world would certainly not have as many problems as it does.
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I cannot believe this day in age that politicians and other government official still aren’t smart enough to keep their mouths shut! Did Captain Justin Barrett really think Facebook was a smart network to make negative racial comments?
He is supposed to be a public figure that the people of his community can look up to. His comments were distasteful and incredibly racist. Facebook is a public networking site that anyone can access and to post that comment for everyone to see was irresponsible as both a citizen and a public figure. How he got to be the police chief with such narrow minded and arrogant views will continue to baffle me. To look at any other human being as if they are somehow inferior to you is wrong but what did he think would happen when he said those words about the first lady? There is absolutely no way people could view his words in any other way than derogatory and racist.
I would like to think that this country has moved past one of its darkest hours of discrimination and racism but situations such as these prove that we still have a lot to overcome as a country. To say these words approaching the 8th anniversary of the September 11th attacks absolutely stuns me. If September 11th taught the American people anything it was that we are all vulnerable to hate crimes. The terrorists didn’t attack us because of the color of our skin or our religion; it was because we were Americans. The police are supposed to embody what this country stands for and not only demonstrate these qualities but make sure other people follow the law as well. Some public figures who run into trouble after making a certain comment or action often complain that they are held to a higher standard but this isn’t relevant in this case. Captain Justin Barrett’s words did not shock the community because he holds a public office; it was shocking because he is a man who calls himself an American.
As expected, Captain Justin Barrett made a public apology. Why do public figures think that a simply apology will be a band-aid for negative actions and comments? Barrett did not even take full blame for his comment in his apology, he blamed Michelle Obama for saying everyone is a decent of apes. Did he think that is a proper justification?
Incidents such as this really make me think about America’s politics and infrastructure. How many politicians and government officials have negative feeling toward other races? Will the United States have to experience another national disaster to learn the injustice of racial hate and discrimination? As the “melting pot” of the world, it is surprising that racial tension is still a pressing issue.
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I cannot believe this day in age that politicians and other government official still aren’t smart enough to keep their mouths shut! Did Captain Justin Barrett really think Facebook was a smart network to make negative racial comments?
He is supposed to be a public figure that the people of his community can look up to. His comments were distasteful and incredibly racist. Facebook is a public networking site that anyone can access and to post that comment for everyone to see was irresponsible as both a citizen and a public figure. How he got to be the police chief with such narrow minded and arrogant views will continue to baffle me. To look at any other human being as if they are somehow inferior to you is wrong but what did he think would happen when he said those words about the first lady? There is absolutely no way people could view his words in any other way than derogatory and racist.
I would like to think that this country has moved past one of its darkest hours of discrimination and racism but situations such as these prove that we still have a lot to overcome as a country. To say these words approaching the 8th anniversary of the September 11th attacks absolutely stuns me. If September 11th taught the American people anything it was that we are all vulnerable to hate crimes. The terrorists didn’t attack us because of the color of our skin or our religion; it was because we were Americans. The police are supposed to embody what this country stands for and not only demonstrate these qualities but make sure other people follow the law as well. Some public figures who run into trouble after making a certain comment or action often complain that they are held to a higher standard but this isn’t relevant in this case. Captain Justin Barrett’s words did not shock the community because he holds a public office; it was shocking because he is a man who calls himself an American.
As expected, Captain Justin Barrett made a public apology. Why do public figures think that a simply apology will be a band-aid for negative actions and comments? Barrett did not even take full blame for his comment in his apology, he blamed Michelle Obama for saying everyone is a decent of apes. Did he think that is a proper justification?
Incidents such as this really make me think about America’s politics and infrastructure. How many politicians and government officials have negative feeling toward other races? Will the United States have to experience another national disaster to learn the injustice of racial hate and discrimination? As the “melting pot” of the world, it is surprising that racial tension is still a pressing issue.
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Racism has always been present and inevitable, just because some uneducated persons use random words and don't care about what they're saying. We see racism every day, it happens without us noticing it, by the way you don't have to act racist to be racist. But of course the most hated people are blacks, Latinos, and Jews. For what reason no one really knows, just because of the skin color. There are always racist names for each and every culture, everyone hates each other and no one really cares. The man's comment on the Facebook really gives us an example of how today there is racism, and how not even the strongest persons can escape it. The man that called the first ladies relatives gorilla was not thinking of the consequences, it only got well known because he was famous. This conflict only got well know because the dude was famous, no would have cared if someone like me would've done it. When you're famous one has to look out for what one says, but even then there are people that do this kind of things on purpose to get famous. The matter here is that he compared the gorilla to the first ladies relatives just because she is African American and because he wanted to make some kind of simile between the two, which made the comment racist. The gorilla is a fearful and hairy animal and it's no where near comparable to the first ladies relatives. The man was making a joke, so let's give him a break on that one but the joke was racist and hateful. He should discourage his own self and not others. No matter what the occasion is one never makes racist comments, at least not where everyone will notice it. The man is very mistaken because we all came from the same place and he probably has more hair the relatives of Michelle. Things like this should be addressed in the political world, this was probably done because he is a republican and the lady is a democrat. Many things like this happen in the political world but there is no excuse for what happened. The comment was only made because the first lady is of color and he might think that people of color are aggressive or something but he is wrong and he should be punished for this. This man still blamed it on the first lady just because he made up some random story about apes. The point is that he made a racist comment, and no matter what the excuse is one should never make a racist comment without knowing what the real issue is. The world is still in a racist state because of people like this man that don't know what they're talking about.
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It was very interesting to find out that grownups also known as adults make racist comments about other people. Not only that, but people within government making comments like that is something embarrassing. And I know that people might make comments like that all around but at least they sometimes keep it to themselves somewhat. And by them being involved in government doesn’t make them very special or get special treatment, but people expect more from them. When I talk about expecting more I mean that other people see them in a more professional manner. Also I know they are human and they make mistakes, but I think they were fairly aware of the comments they say and the things they do. I think calling Michelle Obama also known as the first lady a gorilla or a descendant was an inappropriate comment. Not only inappropriate, but racist in some manner because why would someone make such a comment and then when things get out of control you try to clean up or say that’s not what I meant. Also that the guy that said the comment tried to blame it on her and say that it was something that came out as something related to a humorous or joke. I also think that it might have something do with the political parties or once again did it to get some type of attention. On the other hand if he didn’t mean to say such comment why is he apologizing just to cover his back, I don’t think so. I think that he is afraid of what might happen to him. And what I mean what might happen to him is not getting brownie points or any type of extra help with government relations. He is probably worried because he burned himself meaning he will not be able walk like a normal person because of what he said. Also that the people that know him will not see him in a certain a way or at least the way he wants to be looked at. Furthermore, I believe that he apologized because something concerned him in a way. The comment was not only directed to Michelle, but any other person that got offended. What is implied by this is that the comment is directed towards black people. I think he is making an apology with another racist comment. Either way he said it and a lot of people took it the wrong way or really got offended by such a comment. At the same time people should not let comments like this offend them because according to evolution we all came from apes in some way, shape or form. I think now a day’s people should not get offended by such comments because we live twenty first century. Overall comments like that shouldn’t be made but people should be mature and if there is people out there like that than simply ignore them.
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It is clear to me that although the year is 2009 racism has not ceased, and sadly probably never will. Racism appears in all forms of the “racist spectrum”, with some a little more subtle than others. However, this photograph far surpasses the lines of subtlety. The representation of President Barack Obama is not only outlandish, but disrespectful. I shall say I did laugh when I noticed which picture was the said “Obama”; nonetheless the laugh quickly wore off because it was not at all a laughing matter.
After 8 months of President Obama serving in office, I would think that people would have moved on from the silly racist banter. Maybe find a hobby to partake in, read a good book, or perhaps go fishing, anything productive for that matter. Honestly, is it really that serious? Do people really take time out of there schedules to make “jokes” such as this? Obviously, the Tennessee representative that decided to pull this stunt needs to be given more work to do because it seems as if he has too much time on his hands. I must agree with Professor Richards when he states that this photograph allows us to see how deep racism has spread into all aspects of our culture. In which racism has become so embedded in our society that not even President Obama can escape its influence.
As far as I am concerned the “banana eating jungle monkey” comment was definitely at the top of the racist spectrum. Even though Captain Justin Barrett, Boston police officer tried to spin his statement into a friendly packaged comment his efforts were futile. Ironically, it does seem that when people make racist jokes they always seem to have a bunch of friends from different racial groups as Mojo Pin pointed out in their blog. Unfortunately, the people that claim to be such good friends with those of other ethnic groups after they make absolute buffoons of themselves fail to realize that if they were so closely knitted with people of ethnic races they wouldn’t say things such as “banana eating jungle monkey” so nonchalantly in conversation, as much as to let comments such as those “slip” while they are in the public eye.
On the matter of disrespecting Michelle Obama, the first lady of the United States it is just outright pathetic. Especially for the fact that he tried to reinvent his statement to say that he said it only based on comments she previously said. When truly, he said the statements because he wanted to because no one forced him or asked him to say them. Therefore, to blame the victim after they are victimized has to be as low as it gets. Racism as we have seen has not gone away, and has even become as blatantly disrespectful as in the past. I must say I am curious to see when, or if ever this country will respect those of other races equally.
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To me it still boggles my mind the way that our country is today. People can say and do things that are very clearly prejudiced, and then claim that they did not mean to offend or that they are not a racist. I find it funny how there are all of these people who say that things like this are not a “big deal,” and that “oh, black people can be just as racist.” However it is a very big deal to me. First off, in regards to the picture, as many people have stated, Barack Obama maybe our first president with a significant amount of Sub-Saharan African origin, but he is also half white. Obama’s mother came from Kansas and is of Scotts-Irish descent making him our twelfth Scotts-Irish president. Also the joke in the picture would be somewhat funny if Obama was dark-skinned, but since he is still half white he is not dark-skinned. So the joke about how you would only be able to see his eyes does not make sense. He is light skinned, so one must wonder if the person who made this thinks that all black people look the same. When I first saw this illustration it made me cringe and reminded me of the negative depictions of African-Americans that were often seen in minstrel shows, and early Disney and Looney Tunes cartoons. Second in regards to the remark about Michelle Obama’s ancestors, I have to say this is extremely offensive to me. First off Michelle’s ancestors were just a bunch of poor, abused, mistreated individuals who were forced to work as maids, houseboys, and laborers for next to nothing all of there lives. Now even in death they are being disrespected, as this man dares to compare them to creatures that eat bugs, swing from vines, and throw feces at each other. Haven’t these people suffered enough? Finally in regards to the banana eating monkey comment, come on! It’s so obvious what he meant by that, exactly what he said, that even though Henry Louis Gates is an intelligent well respected Harvard professor, he will still always be seen as just a low level banana eating monkey. Yet he claims that he exhibits no racism in that statement, and the basis of his argument is that he is not racist because he knows many people of different races. Come on that makes as much sense as that picture Sam showed us in class of the Black Gay Jewish KKK. The only reason why the police officer submitted the retraction was because it came out and was linked back to him. There is an old saying that goes “don’t try and piss on me and tell me it’s raining.” I feel as though this is exactly what this police officer is trying to do, blow smoke up our ass, but people are smarter than this.
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I find it very interesting that we as a country have once gotten over the race barrier, and now that there is a black president in office all of those old feelings about race are beginning to resurface. It has been so many years since Martin Luther King Jr. gave the speech about all people being created equal and many people, whites included accepting it. If the whole race issue was buried why does it need to be dug up again? This just proves that the speech given meant nothing. This article in particular made me furious. How dare they disrespect an image of the President of the United States of America, where freedom supposedly reigns? It should not matter what side you are on. I am very much a strong republican and was not exactly thrilled about Obama becoming president but I do know that I have enough decency and respect for him because he is the President of the United States. I am very curious about the responses from the change is person for an advertisement. Would the Polish people really have cared if there was a Black man in the advertisement? Would it really have offended them? Another question that I wonder about is how did the black people react to the change? Microsoft blatantly discriminated against African Americans. They clearly did not put themselves in other people’s shows. How would they feel if someone changed an original ad, just to cater to a specific group, and by doing so caused them to discriminate against their own kind? This specific situation is similar to the story regarding the black and white called in to check on a house that was called in for a robbery. The man in the house was an African American. As soon as the cops showed up to the house they asked the man to step outside. He refused stating that everything was ok. Why is this relevant? Even though the men (one black and one white) were just doing their job, the African American took it as the black cop falling under white power. This is an example of current racism that cannot seem to go away. Another issue I have is the “monkey” talk. First of all I am pretty sure monkeys are animals who cannot talk, and to call a human being a monkey is just plain wrong. Something else I began to think of is the fact that our President is half black and half white, but most people see him by his color not his background. Sure he looks like an African American, but his mother is white and I think people need to stop judging a book by its cover and open it up and reed it.
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I would not call myself a racist in the slightest hand, but I did laugh at first glance at that electronic poster. I laughed because I think many people have made jokes of that kind. I myself voted for Obama and am a major supported. Here’s the area of concern to me: that poster is publically making a racist statement about our president. When I have made jokes about that it is usually with a small group of friends who know me and know I do not actually mean any harm.
In my opinion, the person who created that poster may be actually racist. They created that poster and made it available to the public. It is loses its humor when the illustrator actually has ill intensions and thoughts towards another race. The person in the Tennessee state legislator office should have thought about their easy access to the media and realized that this could easily get out; making it way more serious than an office joke. This also concerns me because even if this is an office joke, it makes me question if they even have a black person working in their office who may be offended. Furthermore, if they do not have a black person working at their office, there is a good chance they are discriminating when they hire new employees.
In regard to the situation with the Boston police officer sending out the e-mail where he called Professor Gates, “banana eating jungle monkey;” that is plain carelessness and stupidity. I say that because the question of racism after the original incident made racism a hot topic across the country. With that emphasis going around on the topic, people are looking more closely at police departments and racial intolerance cases. Again, sending a mass e-mail is more than goofing around with close friends; it makes it seem as the author of this e-mail is actually intolerant to minorities.
Another “Freudian slip”, (sarcastic), by a well-know politician shocks me. It actually makes it scary that these are chosen leaders, by the people, who have gained respect from their constituents. People who are at this level should know better than to make such ridiculous statements. By this time in their career they know cameras and media are looking for scandal and stories on them. Sam, I agree with you, this GOP activist has no respect for our intellect. It makes him look like a coward by looking for a scapegoat that doesn’t exist. By doing so, he is burying himself in even a deeper whole because now he is flat out known liar. After watching this interview and reading your blog, I find myself frustrated. I’m frustrated because I want the job of his terrible PR person. It would look great for my resume, I’d do it for a lower pay, and I’d be better at their job.
Overall, I’m surprised about all these slip-ups. If you want to joke around with racist jokes, know your audience. If they’re for pure humor and with good friends it is one thing. Publically making statements against minorities is pathetic and a cheap shot. Anyone could stoop that low.
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After seeing the picture of the United States Presidents in “What Are They Thinking” and the way president Barack Obama was represented, I felt in no way, shape or form should it be taken as a joke or prank, but rather total disrespect. Whether it was sent out or made up by another democratic, member of a legislature board, or GOP staff member, it was still a racist joke that shouldn’t have been allowed. As an African American I was offended by the photo and how people could actually joke about something like that so I can only imagine how President Barack Obama felt and how it more than likely affected and hurt his family as well. Having to deal with racism from all different people who you are actually trying to help by bettering where they live is probably like a huge smack in the face for president Obama. You would think that as the president of our country, most people would honor and show respect as they have done in the past, but instead racism and hate still shines through many around the world. People still haven’t accepted change and the fact that this world will not always be run by the “white man”, but every other race and ethnic background is just as worthy and equal.
Also, in “What Are They Thinking” was the topic about the email sent out by a Boston police officer not long after Mr. Gates was arrested for supposedly breaking in his own home. In the article he said something that was extremely out of line and racist whether he believes it or not by calling Mr. Gates a “banana eating jungle monkey”. Even though he claims he didn’t mean it in a racist way, it still was probably one of the worst comments I’ve ever heard directed towards a black person. The saying “think before you speak” is what he most definitely lacked in doing. The connotation of a black person relating to a monkey is very degrading to a black person and over all just hurtful. To think that we as black people were really called monkeys on a daily basis years ago by so many people disgusts me and shocks me most of all to see how belittled we were as a race. And for Captain Justin Barrett to actually bring those words back and use them against someone who did absolutely nothing to him was ignorant and impertinent whether he felt sorry afterwards or not. Next time he needs to take into consideration how somebody else will feel based on his comments, whether he thought it was a joke or not. He should really just think about how it would make one of his friends of other races he claims to have feel if he said something that degrades their race or ethnic background.
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When I read this feedback and saw the video of the man who referred Michelle Obama to being an ancestor of a gorilla, I was very shocked that a man whom is apart of the political system was capable of being very rude and ignorant. It is understandable that some people may think of people as being different and originating from certain backgrounds. But this is uncalled for in all aspects to say such things and for the fact that this man who made this rude comment is someone that is representing people makes it even more worse. I am not sure if this man was in his right senses to disgrace himself like this. The sad thing about is that Michelle did not do anything to provoke this man to such things and also for the fact that she is the First Lady of the United States of America. This is an example of how people of this country show how they truly feel about someone and it also demonstrates that there is not a unity amongst the political system. Once again, this is one of the cases where the man should have kept his mouth shut and keep what he has to say to himself, if he knows that it will be something rude. There was not any need to say what he said and now he will be another person who has to face the consequences of the actions that he took. Now, people are now referring to him as being a racist, and he might not be at all, but because of the comments he made people are going to jump to a conclusion and say that he is since Mrs.Obama is black. One thing that he should have known is that in this country being a leader of any kind you have to watch what you say while you’re in public because people are watching your every move. As it is clear to see he did not take that into consideration that saying such comments about someone’s ancestors is okay, but when you say that they came from animals being a gorilla is not the smartest thing to do especially if they are black and the President of the United States wife. Another thing that is very foolish of him is to say that Mrs.Obama even said that her ancestors were gorillas, which was found to be a lie. This shows the stupidity of the man and that he is truly not sorry about the comment he made if he is still trying to defend himself by lying on the first lady instead of taking responsibilities for his actions. For his workers and other political figures to come out and also put their own input about the comments and come to agree with the public that the man made an outrageous move and should be very sorry for what he says is kind of embarrassing. At the end of the day this was another dumb move made by another political figure, when will they ever learn?
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These types of racists “jokes” that circulate through millions of email accounts per day find their way into the inbox of more than just a “few knuckleheads.” It is unfortunate that people take the time to create these jokes and even worse to distribute them time after time. So, aside from simply sitting here bitching about them and how they are ridiculous, I’d like to think more about the origins of such behavior and why it continues throughout the country. The interesting part about racial and ethnic jokes is that most people who tell them or pass them along do not consider their selves racist, and most likely do indeed have friends from all walks of life. So why would they indulge in this behavior? I’m sure there are a thousand different answers for this question, but I can think of a few that stand out when I think about my experiences with these types of jokes. I have received racial or ethnic jokes in my inbox from time to time; it is a fact of life that eventually someone will send you these with the belief that they are the funniest thing they have heard all year. But why do we come to believe this? I think that one reason has to do with acceptability. Most of these jokes that I receive are sent from those I know that do not have much going for them in life. It seems they believe that by sending jokes about other races or ethnicities that they have come to believe are lower than them on one categorical totem pole or another, they automatically find themselves in a position that is better than at least one entire race group. Of course this is not true, but some people seem to believe it is and feel better about them selves because of it. Basically, these jokes help people feel better about who they are in life. I believe that if they can feel like an entire group of people is of lower standard than they are simply by passing along a joke, than they ultimately will. As far as the people in prominent positions that indulge in this behavior, I believe that they are simply weak minded and give in to this behavior because others are doing it. They ultimately feel that they too can increase the amount of power they posses in this world simply by degrading entire groups of people that are not like them. It is all about power and respect in today’s world, and increasing these aspects of life can unfortunately be found in exploiting others. I believe that there are exceptions, but the majority of those partaking in this behavior are of the lowest levels of societies respect level. This behavior is an unethical, yet unfortunately an easy way to feel better about them selves or their situations, with the simple click of a mouse.
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Um yeah, so I’m thinking that was about the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen. Maybe I am kind of skating away from the topic but that really just seemed like the most childish thing I have seen on the news in a while. It’s just really not that serious to me. Maybe it’s my lack of sensitivity or maybe I just really don’t care but to me it just seems as though somebody said something that was on his mind and the world jumped on him. I would much rather the world be honestly racist then fraudulently accepting. I have been around long enough to know that not only does racism still exist, it is still very healthy in certain places. I have pretty much come to accept that fact. So when faced with the option to pretend it’s not there or face it head-on, I will take the latter option every time.
So ok the guy said she looked like a monkey or whatever. Not a big deal, I’ve been called much worse than that, what gets me is the fact that he really tried to act like he was referring to evolution. So not only did you call her whatever you called her, but now you are trying to insult all of us with that bullshit excuse. Please man up I think I speak for all of us when I say that bullshit is the one thing none of us have time for.
Just a quick thought to throw out there. Why is it that racism is bad? It sounds stupid but think about it, in class we talk about thinking differently and stepping outside ourselves but it seems we all hold the common notion that racism is a bad thing. Well what if I say it’s not? That guy was just being honest with himself and the world in making that statement. What if everybody was that way, would it be so wrong? Especially because most if not all people have some racist tendencies anyway so to make them hide them is unfair to them right? I mean there are a lot of people who don’t agree with gay marriage but it seems some states are opening up to the idea. So if we are going to let gays get married, why not let racists be racist? I can’t really see the difference between the two. I mean the idea is pretty general. Who decides what is right and wrong, or good or bad, especially if we agree to eliminate GOD and religion from the equation. I personally draw all of my morals from my religion but for the purpose of the example, let’s eliminate GOD because we can’t all agree on his existence. So where do our rules come from? Who made them up and titled them “laws”? And if we figure out who it was then we have to figure out why we all decide to follow their set of rules.
So next time someone tells you to stop doing something because it’s wrong. Ask says who? Then make a face and go about your business.
And that’s the bottom line cuz Stone Cold said so…
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Ugh. What were they thinking?.. They were thinking that they are rich white men who run society and that the things they say can be taken in jest and aren’t hurtful or disrespectful. Please notice all of the people discussed were white, male, and in positions of influence. How are these men the representatives for our constituents in our country? It’s truly sad that there are people in our country who continue to believe that African-American’s are an inferior race. Whites, Asians, Hispanics, Blacks.. etc, across the board, there are still closed minded people who only see white as right.
I was in the commons the other day eating dinner with my friends and a group of guys (black and white) came and sat at the table right next to us (mind you, there were 30-40 open tables available). Not a problem, we figured they were trying to talk to us, get our numbers, and have a friendly conversation over dinner. Unfortunately, they were absolute assholes. Transfer students, juniors, and the Head-Ass was a black guy who thought he was holier-than-thou. He thought he was the cream of the crop and that girls should just bow at his feet for being a black male at the main campus. He said that he was unique and special because he had “risen above all of the other academically inferior students at his old campus.” (However, if he was truly the academic scholar he claimed to be, he would’ve been at the University Park campus as a freshman and not deferred to the smaller campus for his first two years.) He stated, “the only reason I’m up here is to meet some white people who can get me further ahead in life” and went on to elude that me and my group of friends were bourgeois black girls who were just on campus to distract him from his overall goal. (Mind you, he came and sat next to US.)
As the dim-wit continued the conversation, he compared how different the conversation would have gone if he had sat down next to a group of white girls instead of black girls. He felt that the group of white girls would have been more accepting towards him and wouldn’t have had as much of an attitude. Again this is after he called my friends names “African-fusion-hood-rat” names. After all of my friends had mentioned their names, and I told him that mine was Lindsay he was surprised that my name wasn’t Shaniqua…
This asshole was the most close-minded black male I’ve ever encountered in life. And the sad part on top of that, was I encountered him on a college campus. Most of my friends left upset, mad, angry etc; I, on the other hand, left disappointed and saddened. I truly was scared for my race and what impact that man could have on the perceptions of my race. If a person from any other race talked to him all they would see is a black man, and identify his views and opinions with my views and opinions because I am a black woman. It’s really scary to think of the damage he is capable of doing with a degree and his close-minded views. It is scary that his racial comments were just as disrespectful as all of the white men mentioned in the blog, but I felt more anger from his comments because they came from the lips of my own race.
I didn’t think that there were really people like him out there… There are.
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So here we go again with another situation that enables us to see that racism is, indubitably, still at the forefront of our nation. Obama has been faced with racist and discriminatory remarks and issues ever since his name was brought up to be one of the potential candidates for president. How could someone that’s a part of a legislature take it upon his or herself to blatantly formulate a racist photograph? It just goes to show that racism is alive in all facets of life. I wish the person who put this photo together as a “joke” would be exposed to the world, and then try to come up with an excuse to say that he’s not a racist. This is not a joke in any form. When will this seriously come to an end? If you’re going to post something like this, at least have the courage to put your name on it. I commend Barack Obama for handling each racial situation, and slur, with great character because if I was in his shoes, I do not believe I would be able to maintain civility. It’s just upsetting when a day like September 11th comes to mind and we remember what the turmoil and tribulations that the terrorists bestowed upon and America, and it’s no doubt that the terrorists are our enemies are in this situation. But then to just look down on America and see that we are still disputing, and at war with ourselves makes me very displeased to even call myself an American at times. If King was able to see how the world is today, he would be in high spirits to see that what he , and other protestors have fought for, has made a difference, but overall the challenge to form a “ more perfect union” throughout the United States of America is not yet done. And the funny part is that now-a-days I don’t see or hear as many racist or derogatory sayings coming from blacks as much as I do whites. Why is that? Why can’t they just face the fact that this is America where equal opportunity is here, and we now have a bi-racial president?
Since the days of slavery, blacks have been equated to monkeys and apes. This situation with Henry Louis reminds me of a few months ago when a New York Post cartoonist decided that it would be necessary to draw a picture of two cops standing over a monkey that was shot, uttering the words “ Guess they’ll have to find someone else to pass the stimulus bill.” (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00490/18_02_2009—17_50_490015a.jpg) — how about adding this to the WTF file.
When I initially saw the photo nothing came to my mind. All I saw was a monkey being shot, but after I put it all together, I was surprised. Nothing surprises me much anymore. Unfortunately I guess came to terms that people are going to be racist and that blacks will always be equated to monkeys and apes. What is currently catching me off guard is that these degrading terms and photos are coming from the mouths of National Guards, GOP activist and legislators: people whose contribution to forming a better America is very important, and also people of such ranks. What is the world coming to!!
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So here we go again with another situation that enables us to see that racism is, indubitably, still at the forefront of our nation. Obama has been faced with racist and discriminatory remarks and issues ever since his name was brought up to be one of the potential candidates for president. How could someone that’s a part of a legislature take it upon his or herself to blatantly formulate a racist photograph? It just goes to show that racism is alive in all facets of life. I wish the person who put this photo together as a “joke” would be exposed to the world, and then try to come up with an excuse to say that he’s not a racist. This is not a joke in any form. When will this seriously come to an end? If you’re going to post something like this, at least have the courage to put your name on it. I commend Barack Obama for handling each racial situation, and slur, with great character because if I was in his shoes, I do not believe I would be able to maintain civility. It’s just upsetting when a day like September 11th comes to mind and we remember what the turmoil and tribulations that the terrorists bestowed upon and America, and it’s no doubt that the terrorists are our enemies are in this situation. But then to just look down on America and see that we are still disputing, and at war with ourselves makes me very displeased to even call myself an American at times. If King was able to see how the world is today, he would be in high spirits to see that what he , and other protestors have fought for, has made a difference, but overall the challenge to form a “ more perfect union” throughout the United States of America is not yet done. And the funny part is that now-a-days I don’t see or hear as many racist or derogatory sayings coming from blacks as much as I do whites. Why is that? Why can’t they just face the fact that this is America where equal opportunity is here, and we now have a bi-racial president?
Since the days of slavery, blacks have been equated to monkeys and apes. This situation with Henry Louis reminds me of a few months ago when a New York Post cartoonist decided that it would be necessary to draw a picture of two cops standing over a monkey that was shot, uttering the words “ Guess they’ll have to find someone else to pass the stimulus bill.” (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00490/18_02_2009—17_50_490015a.jpg) — how about adding this to the WTF file.
When I initially saw the photo nothing came to my mind. All I saw was a monkey being shot, but after I put it all together, I was surprised. Nothing surprises me much anymore. Unfortunately I guess came to terms that people are going to be racist and that blacks will always be equated to monkeys and apes. What is currently catching me off guard is that these degrading terms and photos are coming from the mouths of National Guards, GOP activist and legislators: people whose contribution to forming a better America is very important, and also people of such ranks. What is the world coming to!!
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Okay, so the picture of the Presidents. I do not understand what the big deal is. It I just a joke. I mean President Obama is black after all, or is he white, well, he is both, but apparently we are claiming him to be the first “black” president so I guess that is what I will refer to him as. I mean we live in a “racist” world. I am sure there are tons and tons of pictures out there making white jokes about white people, Asians, Mexicans, you name it, its out there. So are you saying it is really that offensive or that because he is the President of the United States of America we cannot make a joke? Well I say everyone is fair game, maybe because I have had my fair share of comments about my race thrown in my face. Either way I think it is absolutely absurd to get your panties in knot about the photo, seriously people? I mean like Sam says, “DUDE, IT DOES NOT MATTER, WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE IN THE END ANYWAY!” Am I right? I do think there is a line of what is acceptable and what is not. I think the “banana eating porch monkey comment,” was a little harsh. But that is the beauty and sometimes the ugly of America. Our ancestors fought hard and long for freedom of speech, to be able to express our opinions freely. So then why when someone makes a comment about “a banana eating porch monkey” is everyone up in arms? He was just expressing his freedom of speech. It is just one person’s opinion. And some of your opinions could be that his opinion is ignorant. However, either way it is an opinion and that is all there is to it. I really do not know what else to say other than the fact that everyday there are comments made in a negative “racist” manner towards people of all races, whether they are Mexican, latino, black, or white. But time after time day after day it is always the black community that is in an uproar. So why don’t we for once take the focus off of them and put it on another groups injustice!?
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Okay, so the picture of the Presidents. I do not understand what the big deal is. It I just a joke. I mean President Obama is black after all, or is he white, well, he is both, but apparently we are claiming him to be the first “black” president so I guess that is what I will refer to him as. I mean we live in a “racist” world. I am sure there are tons and tons of pictures out there making white jokes about white people, Asians, Mexicans, you name it, its out there. So are you saying it is really that offensive or that because he is the President of the United States of America we cannot make a joke? Well I say everyone is fair game, maybe because I have had my fair share of comments about my race thrown in my face. Either way I think it is absolutely absurd to get your panties in knot about the photo, seriously people? I mean like Sam says, “DUDE, IT DOES NOT MATTER, WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE IN THE END ANYWAY!” Am I right? I do think there is a line of what is acceptable and what is not. I think the “banana eating porch monkey comment,” was a little harsh. But that is the beauty and sometimes the ugly of America. Our ancestors fought hard and long for freedom of speech, to be able to express our opinions freely. So then why when someone makes a comment about “a banana eating porch monkey” is everyone up in arms? He was just expressing his freedom of speech. It is just one person’s opinion. And some of your opinions could be that his opinion is ignorant. However, either way it is an opinion and that is all there is to it. I really do not know what else to say other than the fact that everyday there are comments made in a negative “racist” manner towards people of all races, whether they are Mexican, latino, black, or white. But time after time day after day it is always the black community that is in an uproar. So why don’t we for once take the focus off of them and put it on another groups injustice!?
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