Tea Party activist sends email depicting Barack Obama as a chimpanzee

[angus]

Cute.  But it's been done already.  With Bush.  Although Bush always had a tail, so he was apparently a monkey.  Chimpanzees are apes.  Maybe we see Obama as a slightly more highly-evolved primate than Bush.  

I like this one better:



Obama himself is the product of an interiracial couple, and he's very cool, supremely logical, and has really big ears.  And he admits to being a Trekkie.  He told newsweek "I used to love Star Trek...  You know, Star Trek was ahead of its time. There was a whole—the special effects weren't real good, but the storylines were always evocative, you know, there was a little commentary and a little pop philosophy for a 10-year-old to absorb."  Also, he ordered a special screening of Star Trek in the White House.  And, don't forget, he married a woman that looks like Uhura.  

[angus]

You know it's your fault.  I was doing some writing.  Doing some calculations.  Bought some stock today at scottrade.  Ordered a book on-line.  I even learned to use a new instrument this morning.  A scanning electron microscope.  Overall, it was shaping up to be a fairly productive day.  Then I checked in here to see if there were any interesting polls, and I see you mentioning Star Trek.  So I start clicking on reviews to see what the critics say, and one link leads to another, and the next thing I know I'm closing my office door and spending an hour and a half studying images of Zoe Saldana.  I blame you.

[angus]

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

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

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

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

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

[angus]

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

That's pretty obviously racist, yeah.

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

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

[angus]

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