Leave it to Patrick McIlheran to come to the defense of an almost indefensible position. Earlier today, Paddy Mac blogged about a recent controversy that’s come to light in Georgia, where a bar owner thought his idea to make t-shirts comparing Barack Obama to Curious George would be good for a few laughs. First Paddy Mac starts off his blog by saying:
Jerks: If the bar owner either didn’t know that it’s widely regarded as an insult to call someone a monkey, that it’s considered still more insulting to say it of a black person, or that Obama is black and so you really should avoid the monkey imagery, he’s an idiot.
Or he’s just being provocative.
So according to Paddy Mac, the bar owner’s just a jerk or an idiot, or perhaps he’s just being provocative. It couldn’t be the bar owner’s really just a racist showing his racist stripes. After all, we’re talking about a bar owner in Georgia, so it’s not as if this guy’s oblivious to the fact that comparing an African-American person – and in this case an African-American who just happens to be running for President of the United States – to a monkey might be just a tad bit racist.
McIlheran goes on to attempt to rationalize the t-shirts as a little “tit for tat,” pointing out that President Bush himself has been the target of unflattering comparisons to a chimpanzee:
Then again, this would be more obvious if we weren’t just wrapping up eight years in which comparisons of national leaders to chimpanzees were just ordinary political dialog from many of the same people all enthused over Obama. What goes around…
What seems lost on Paddy Mac is the fact that all comparisons of Bush to a chimp have to do with the fact that Bush doesn’t seem to be much smarter than the average trained chimpanzee, while conversely having nothing to do with Bush’s race or ethnicity.
H/T to Dan Cody over at Left on the Lake
You can’t be serious. The last 8 years there have been t-shirts, graphics, cartoons of GW as curious George. Were they racist? I am so tired of crap being racist by default, rather than in itself.
How is Curious George a racist caricature. It is posts like this that makes me even more convinced of the “racial baiting” by Obamacons.
How, if Obama can not be compared to Curious George, will he ever handle the oval office. Maybe that is why Obama and his supporters remind me of GW and the Neocons. They are the same, they just replace the accusation of patriotism with that of racism. Any time the messiah is challenged, the one that mentions the emperor has no clothes is a racist.
Henry, I’m sorry if you just don’t see how calling or comparing an African-American to a monkey is racist. Perhaps you’ve never experienced racism in the idyllic utopia you call home, but I’ve seen it first hand, and this is what it looks like.
The Curious George character itself isn’t necessarily racist, but again, if you don’t see how equating an African-American with a monkey could be considered racist, then so be it.
BTW, here’s a link for your enjoyment.
Yes, and that includes about every ethnicity. Sorry, I don’t equate African Americans with monkeys.
You guys just stop the race baiting, it certainly will not help your candidate. It seems to me there are bigger fish to fry, such as the arrogant dismissal of a female reporter by saying “hold on sweetie. Not only was that a blatant dismissal of jobs lost because of blind trade, it was highly condescending and sexist.
Seriously Dubb… calling a black man a “monkey” is less of an issue than someone calling a woman “sweetie”?
Let’s take a little trip down to Georgia, go to a couple of different diners and conduct a little experiment. I have to call all the female waitstaff “sweetie” and you have to call any african american waitstaff “monkey”. Whoever gets the most caustic reaction from the waitstaff has to sign all of their assets over to the other person.
I will pay for our airfare if you are willing to play along (and your assets make the trip worthwhile). Are you free this weekend?
The really sad part for me here is that the racism isn’t even at question because it’s so over the top……….but now we’re talking about “Sweetie” posibly not being too bad of sexist behavior because some women have accepted the fact that they are never going to get the same respect and treatment as men.
And, he used that term as he dismissed her. I heard the apology he called and gave her. He said it was a bad habit. Yeah, real bad for someone who wants to be president.
Racism is unexusable and has hurt race after race on this planet. Sexism has hurt over half the population on this planet since the beginning of time……….you tell me which is worse. The United States of America still does not have the ERA passed, so don’t even go down the road of “it’s not really so bad anymore”. Because so many women accept it for one reason or another it just keeps on keeping on.
PS Obama wasn’t raised and educated in GA, what’s his excuse? That Harvard degree didn’t include gender sensitivity classes?
BTW thank you so much for making your font larger, it really helped. Not that you may appreciate that right now 😉