As we’ve seen this election cycle, there’s a desperation seen in the MSM talking heads and newpaper columnists, even some blogs, to declare Barack Obama’s success a post-racial triumph in this country — that racism is rapidly becoming a distant memory.
First, take a look at this lovely T-shirt being sold at Mulligan’s Bar and Grill in Marietta/Cobb County, Georgia (h/t Jeremy from Cobb).
Marietta tavern owner Mike Norman says the T-shirts he’s peddling, featuring cartoon chimp Curious George peeling a banana, with “Obama in ‘08″ scrolled underneath, are “cute.” But to a coalition of critics, the shirts are an insulting exploitation of racial stereotypes from generations past.Not a racist. I guess he doesn’t do Klan night riding on the weekends, so in his mind he’s free and clear of that label. Even sadder, he’s donating the proceeds to the Muscular Dystrophy Association. I wonder what the MDA thinks of this?“It’s time to put an end to this,” said Rich Pellegrino, a Mableton resident and director of the Cobb-Cherokee Immigrant Alliance. It was among the organizations planning to gather outside Mulligan’s Bar and Grill Tuesday afternoon to protest the “racist and highly offensive” shirts.
Just down the street from Marietta’s famous Big Chicken, Mulligan’s has carved a provocative niche in an increasingly multicultural area, thanks to its owner’s ultra-conservative political views. If you live in Marietta, it’s impossible not to know what’s on Norman’s mind, as he posts his views on signs in front of Mulligan’s. Among his recent musings: “I wish Hillary had married OJ,” “No habla espanol — and never will” and the standard “I.N.S. Agents eat free.”
“I’m saying out loud what everyone in this town whispers,” Norman said.
…Norman said those offended are “hunting for a reason to be mad” and insisted he is “not a racist.” Why picture Obama as Curious George? “Look at him . . . the hairline, the ears, he looks just like Curious George,” Norman said.
More below the fold.
Today we will see an example, in West Virginia’s primary, of how there are limitations to that fantasy. As I was driving in to work this AM I was listening to NPR and the report was on that state’s primary. The reporter referred to the — “older, less-educated, less affluent, white voters Clinton refers to as her base.” At this point, there’s little use in cloaking the fact that we’re talking about people who will simply not vote for a black man for any reason. They are out there, and even in this PC-culture, they don’t mind sharing. I think it’s healthy for people to say exactly where these scared voters are coming from, so that all the kumbaya fantasists realize we have a lot of work to do, even as we see the unprecedented performance of Barack Obama.
There is an eye-opening piece in the WaPo, “Racist Incidents Give Some Obama Campaigners Pause“, about young canvassers, many of them white, getting their first taste of bold, in-your-face racism, as they went door to door in Indiana and Pennsylvania in advance of those primaries.
In Muncie, a factory town in the east-central part of Indiana, [volunteer Danielle] Ross and her cohorts were soliciting support for Obama at malls, on street corners and in a Wal-Mart parking lot, and they ran into “a horrible response,” as Ross put it, a level of anti-black sentiment that none of them had anticipated.And it’s not just bold declarations of fear of white privilege we’re talking about. These young people are getting a terrible taste of the dark side of America, one that has been allowed to fester because we have trouble discussing color-arousal issues without escalating the conflict.“The first person I encountered was like, ‘I’ll never vote for a black person,’ ” recalled Ross, who is white and just turned 20. “People just weren’t receptive.”
For all the hope and excitement Obama’s candidacy is generating, some of his field workers, phone-bank volunteers and campaign surrogates are encountering a raw racism and hostility that have gone largely unnoticed — and unreported — this election season. Doors have been slammed in their faces. They’ve been called racially derogatory names (including the white volunteers). And they’ve endured malicious rants and ugly stereotyping from people who can’t fathom that the senator from Illinois could become the first African American president.
…Documentary filmmaker Rory Kennedy, the daughter of the late Robert F. Kennedy, said she, too, came across “a lot of racism” when campaigning for Obama in Pennsylvania. One Pittsburgh union organizer told her he would not vote for Obama because he is black, and a white voter, she said, offered this frank reason for not backing Obama: “White people look out for white people, and black people look out for black people.”
The bigotry has gone beyond words. In Vincennes, the Obama campaign office was vandalized at 2 a.m. on the eve of the primary, according to police. A large plate-glass window was smashed, an American flag stolen. Other windows were spray-painted with references to Obama’s controversial former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and other political messages: “Hamas votes BHO” and “We don’t cling to guns or religion. Goddamn Wright.”This is going on even as Obama has won 30 of the 50 Democratic primaries and caucuses held so far. That achievement is remarkable and historic, and the feeling of optimism should not be quashed by such bigotry. On the other hand, this WaPo article is a rarity in that it dares to raise the issue of negative, race-based voting patterns and a resistance and fear that are very real.
Putting our heads in the sand is dangerous; I am glad that these people are gutsy enough to admit their prejudices aloud so that we are reminded that racism isn’t relegated only to a region south of the Mason-Dixon line. It’s more about class and a population that has a base fear of further displacement and denial of their American dream by the “other,” a seemingly ascendant population — blacks — who are going to somehow exact retribution on them via Barack Obama as president. I hate to break it to them, but white privilege will not be erased with the election of Barack Obama, and the ones who hoodwinked them out of the American dream were BushCo and the GOP.
75 Responses to “More fun in post-racial America”
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You know, you look at shit like this, and it just….it just proves Wright right, at least about racism. I don’t blame him.
And then you know there are people going, “Hey, I’m not that bad!”
Shrub looks far more like Curious George (or “Spurious George”) than Obama does. Where are the t-shirts on that?
Wow…I’m SO proud to be an American…
I wonder if any of this will get back to idiots like Tony Snow so they’ll know better than to open their ignorant mouths and claim racism is over…
I remember a while back there was a great image going around of pictures of monkeys (including George) and GWB, with similar expressions. I’d wear that shirt. Anyway, I think the Shrub/Curious George comparison has been made fairly extensively, and with more accuracy (at least visually and in terms of qualifications to be prez).
But I’ve also toyed with making graphics for a Koko and Kitten ‘08 campaign. Unlike your average human politician, Koko is compassionate and cooperation-oriented. Plus kittens are cuter than human VPs.
That was my first thought, too, ginmar.
The other thing I’ve thought about is all that hoopla a few weeks ago about how “elitist” Obama allegedly is. To my mind, calling someone elitist is just a fancy attempt to deflect attention away from the fact that they’re right about you.
And I feel nothing but pity for someone who doesn’t see the irony in breaking into a political campaign office, vandalizing it and stealing property, then leaving a message like “We don’t cling to guns or religion” on the wall. The level of personal exceptionalism and IOKIYAR that goes into behaviour like that is just too much for me to take.
Get one of those shirts and encapsulate it with “only racists think this is funny”.
Watch people react.
Seriously, how could anybody think this is acceptable or just a little fun? Maybe a Geriatric Alzheimers McCain dressed half in a military uniform and half in a Depends would be a real scream!
As for the raw racism in their faces, it is a good education for young, particuarly white volunteers.
These are the people who have the most to lose from losing their unearned privileges. Look at the other people they typically rail against: educated people, women, immigrants, etc.
Without their white privilege, they don’t have very much to fall back on, and they damn well know it!
I can’t believe I am witnessing in my lifetime a black presidential candidate (man or woman) succeed in this country. I am astounded. In a good way.
I knew bushorchimp.com would backfire one of these days.
And let’s be fair, lots of people are voting for him because he’s a Muslim and/or the Antichrist.
So, does this mean that Senator Clinton is right, that only she can beat Senator McCain, while Senator Obama cannot?
Case in point.
Mike, it’s interesting you bring up elitism, because I’m dealing with some genuine elites and they’re very conscious of their class as educated people—and educated very shoddily, because they think ‘re offense’ and ‘re arrest’ mean the same thing. They also assume they know all because, well, they’re college girls and thus what happened to them is what happens to everyone! That’s genuine elitism. It’s naive and arrogant and conceited, but it’s there. Maybe they’ll outgrow it.
Anybody calling Obama elite–and I bet they’re Republican—is doing some serious projection, because Republicanism is the party for elitests, for rich white guys, and why doesn’t the media point this shit out? The Republicans are nothing but robber barons of today, and they’re calling Obama elite? How? How is that even possible? There’s blood on their hands and billions in their bank accounts. They didn’t get that money honestly.
“So, does this mean that Senator Clinton is right, that only she can beat Senator McCain, while Senator Obama cannot?”
No, it simply means there are cancerous tumors of racism that still haven’t been excised yet. Which certainly shouldn’t be news to any sentient American who wasn’t home-schooled…
I guess I’m only surprised that anyone is surprised.
Wonder when the EEOC is going to send some testers to Mulligan’s.
The people who are so racist as to openly admit they would never vote for a black man… would they have voted for a Democrat otherwise? Totally fucking unlikely.
Deep: Not all pre-Civil Rights Act Democrats migrated over to the Republican after the Southern Strategy. To be fair, though, these now-seniors can go with the surrogate “He’s a Muslim” argument, or its close cousin, “I heard he don’t salute Boy Scouts and rarely spontaneously ejaculates when hearing the Star-Spangled Banner being played.”
Well, see, the media as it stands now is in fact an oligopoly composed of only a handful of large corporations that have extensive ties to this country’s financial and political elites, and…
Oh wait. That’s what your kids call, erm, a ‘rhetorical’ question, isn’t it?
your kids == you kids.
Dang typos.
Sadly unsurprising, remembering that Cobb County is the home of Textbook Stickers. I moved from Cherokee County into ATL proper last fall largely because it is still 1953 out there. Sha-na-na represents the height of fashion, and muscle car owners get all the “chicks.” I had the restaurant pointed out to me where the owners used to host the Klan meetings…I guess I didn’t know the handshake so I didn’t get an invite. Willful ignorance and bigotry are celebrated in that area. I had a roommate, and her parents (long-time Cobb County residents) were concerned about her living with a guy until they met me. Apparently my choice in eyewear was a dead giveaway that I wouldn’t be a danger to her as no straight man would wear these. (Mine are black)
The misogyny and bigotry are pervasive. It really is The South in most every stereotypical way. Once you get out of Atlanta, Georgia really is Mississippi.
Sadly unsurprising, remembering that Cobb County is the home of Textbook Stickers. I moved from Cherokee County into ATL proper last fall largely because it is still 1953 out there. Sha-na-na represents the height of fashion, and muscle car owners get all the “chicks.” I had the restaurant pointed out to me where the owners used to host the Klan meetings…I guess I didn’t know the handshake so I didn’t get an invite. Willful ignorance and bigotry are celebrated in that area. I had a roommate, and her parents (long-time Cobb County residents) were concerned about her living with a guy until they met me. Apparently my choice in eyewear was a dead giveaway that I wouldn’t be a danger to her as no straight man would wear these. (Mine are black)
The misogyny and bigotry are pervasive. It really is The South in most every stereotypical way. Once you get out of Atlanta, Georgia really is Mississippi.
Wrong meeting. That’s for the meeting later tonight, down by the docks.
“To be fair, though, these now-seniors can go with the surrogate “He’s a Muslim” argument, or its close cousin, “I heard he don’t salute Boy Scouts and rarely spontaneously ejaculates when hearing the Star-Spangled Banner being played.””
They decided they weren’t going to vote for Obama regardless. All of the other things thrown out there are only for the purpose of making them think it isn’t racism that guides their choice - or at least it’s not ONLY racism that guides their choice.
But most of us know the more somebody denies some factor, the more likely that factor figures prominently in their decision making.
I guess I’m just disappointed/embarrassed that some people are so proud of their own racism they will come right out and tell somebody about it. It reminds of nothing so much as film of “man-on-the-street” interviews from the ’60’s during civil right marches, etc.
Disgusting…
There’s nothing wrong with being a Muslim, either, which is what these assholes miss all the time.
Ginmar: Given some of the clips I’ve seen today of the ossifying electorate in West Virginia, we might be able to get to that bridge in about the year 3000never.
GAH.
I think Curious George is adorable and the books are some of my kid’s faves…but this shit makes me want to build myself a bazooka. Then i remember I don’t know how.
Have spent 3 hours gardening today; off to do more- better to kill weeds…
Ginmar- hang in there.
Norbizness, you ever read Deer Hunting with Jesus?
Again, people with not a lot to work with are being convinced that losing their white privilege, insofar as they really have any privilege given their poverty, will be the final straw in their demise.
Either that or they will find out they were being shit on all along, but could claim differently because of their whiteness.
I just hope whoever owns the rights to “Curious George” sues him out of existence.
I was totally going to link to how to build a bazooka. Then i remember I don’t have any money for liability lawsuits or airfare back from Guantanamo.
Will Ferrell, curiously enough. Pun deliciously intended!
Does that make Hillary the Woman in the Yellow Pantsuit? Which reminds me: her new game for the Wii, Point Point Seal Clap Seal Clap Revolution (complete with pad) will be available this fall.
The sign re: wishing for Clinton’s brutal murder is both psychotically misogynstic and racist as well. Twofer bigotry!
Anyone want to guess how long it will be before a wingnut says “Y’all did comparisons between Curious George and Bush. So comparing Obama to Curious George can’t be racist!”. Anyone want to guess how they’ll handwave away the long history of racists calling African-Americans monkeys and apes.
“So, does this mean that Senator Clinton is right, that only she can beat Senator McCain, while Senator Obama cannot?”
Given that the latest poll recorded a 51-44 lead for Obama over McCain, and put Clinton at a smaller lead, I don’t think so. Obama also leads McCain in just about every tracking poll I’ve seen lately, even after bruising nomination fight.
Really, anecdotal stuff like this is no way to do electability calculations. Go look at all the polling data you can.
“…insulting exploitation of racial stereotypes from generations past.”
From generations past?
deep6 wrote:
A great many of them voted for Hillary Clinton in the primaries, and many of them voted for Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996.
Thanks Auguste; needed that one! Owe ya…
BlackBloc wrote:
I’d like to give you this link to an article on Get Religion. In the comments, #7, a man named Michael, who is part of the media, wrote:
Thing is, as I pointed out top him, most reporters are working class white Americans, at least wage-wise, but they see themselves as professionals or middle-class or something other than working class.
Seriously, how could anybody think this is acceptable or just a little fun?
These are the same people who thought it was a hoot to mock wounded vets by wearing Purple Heart band-aids during the 2004 Republican Convention, so I’m assuming this was a rhetorical question.
Things like this make me embarrassed to live in Georgia. Like Swedgin. I moved out of the burbs and into the city because I got sick of dealing with it. There are a lot of willfully ignorant people up that way, or, like this jerk, people who derive self importance from causing controversy. These are the same bastards who drive H2’s “to piss off the environmentalists.”
1) Reporters do not run news rooms. The class position of reporters has almost zilch to do with the class orientation of the media.
2) Class is not a matter of income (’wage’ is a bad term, since by definition if you’re paid a wage you’re working class). It is a matter of relationship to capital. Mainly, whether you own it (bourgeoisie/capitalist class), whether you work for those who own it (working class), or whether you work for yourself but without owning any capital of your own (petite bourgeoisie/middle class/professional class). There are, technically, some sectors of the working class that are doing better income-wise than some sectors of the petite bourgeoisie. Though *generally* the distinction roughly maps to income.
Yes, BlackBloc, but if you read Dana’s comments on the post he linked, he appears to be making class distinctions based on neither one’s income nor on one’s relationship to wealth, but rather on what kind of clothes one wears to work.
Frankly, as usual, I’m having trouble figuring out exactly what Dana’s point is supposed to be.
Though *generally* the distinction roughly maps to income.
Not necessarily. It has a lot to do with education, too. If you have a master’s degree (and I know for a fact that you must have one to be hired as a full-time reporter by the Los Angeles Times), you’re considered middle-class no matter how much you make.
Reporting used to be considered a skilled labor job, so people like Sam Fuller started out as teenage copyboys or, like Mike Royko went into journalism from the armed services without a college education. It’s only recently that journalists were expected to have any college education at all.
My comment specifically about journalists is (hopefully) being modded, but ….
That’s the traditional old Marxist definition, but it really doesn’t hold up well (and never really did in the US, frankly). I think the biggest class marker in the US outside of sheer amounts of money is education. Paris Hilton can be upper-class even though she only has a GED because she has inherited lots of money, but you’re never going to find someone from a less wealthy family who would be given the same class status.
Money first, then education, at least in the US. That’s why people are so desperate to get a college degree that they’ll go tens of thousands of dollars into debt to get one — it’s an automatic bump into the middle class no matter how little they earn.
Mnemosyne, I talk of class as an objective economic category. You talk of class as a subjective cultural/subcultural identification. Obviously we’re never going to understand each other as long as we’re not speaking the same language.
I don’t really much care how reporters see themselves. It’s called ‘false consciousness’. Someone isn’t middle class because they happen to do skilled work. They’re middle class if they’re not relying upon a wage from a capital owner. A doctor or lawyer with a private practice is middle class. A projectionist (highly skilled work) is working class. An IT consultant is (more often than not) middle class. A programmer in a software design company is working class (though well paid).
As for why I say that ‘generally, class maps to income’, this is because:
1) class correlates to power
Capital is the primary source of power in Western societies. Your relationship to capital thus typically correlates to how much power you have. You’re either the person who employs other (high power), the person who gets employed (low power), or the person who does neither (mid power). Someone who is independant of capital owners has more power to decide for themselves how to run their lives, though they have less power than someone who does own capital (as they may fall down to working class status if they dilapidate their middle class power).
2) power correlates to income
Someone with more power to decide their own fate or those of others in society tend to accrue more income than those who don’t.
Oh wait. That’s what your kids call, erm, a ‘rhetorical’ question, isn’t it?
No, it’s that last best chance I’ve got at hope. Wishing Hillary Clinton to be brutally stabbed to death? Calling Obama a monkey? I’m not shocked, I’m just….It just wears you down. I think that’s the point. I think it’s supposed to make you lose heart and hope.
Well, fuck them. Liberals are hampered by decency but the shit the Right has been pulling demands more than what we’ve been getting from the media. If it weren’t for blogs, we wouldn’t know anything about this shit.
It’s true, and as long as you insist that “class” is an objective economic category and ignore how the social implications of class assumptions and divisions impact us as a society, we will continue to not speak the same language.
With your categorization, my stepbrother is a member of the ruling class while I am working class. The fact that I make more money than he does is immaterial to the fact that he is his own boss as a house painter while I work for a corporation. And yet when people notice that my brother has a high school education and paints houses for a living, they consider him to be working class, but they think of me as middle class since I have a college education and work a comfortable corporate job.
It’s not that your categories are wrong, per se, it’s that they’re not as useful as you seem to think.
When do we get to post-asshole America? Mulligan’s sounds so Al-Qaeda-ish, I’d report them to the FBI for the terror meetings they sponsor.
Monkeywrench the bastards, be innovative, let ‘em know how much fun a buncha monkeys can be, no matter which species.
well, the guy does have a point about the ears. it’s still a racist joke, but on top of that it’s just not funny. although, i guess it’s kind of funny that someone could be stupid enough and ignorant enough to think that actually is funny.
In defense of Cobb County, 69% of its Democratic voters did cast their ballot for Barack Obama. (For comparison, he won 75% of the vote in Fulton County, home of Atlanta). It’s optimistic, but not that optimistic, to say that Obama will win the county in November; it’s been trending Democratic.
I wonder if this hatred doesn’t stem in part from the rapidly changing demographics in Cobb - over the past ten years, the county has grown tremendously, but the white population has declined; it’s all due to nonwhite residents - black, latino, Asian. No surprise that this anti-black shirt accompanies a “No habla espanol” shirt - plenty of signs on Cobb Parkway read in both languages, or Spanish only.
Their world is changing, and they can’t cope.
Does anyone know which website this guy bought the shirts from? Might be worth forwarding details on to Houghton Mifflin, who owns the trademarks to Curious George and see what happens …
That. Is. Sick.
Ruling class? Man, is he self-employed, or does he run a national/multinational conglomerate of house painters?
Artisans are petit bourgeois, not ruling class…
Artisans are petit bourgeois, not ruling class…
And, again, I am a lowly wage slave working for a corporation, which makes me working class. Therefore, my brother is of a higher class than I am even though he makes less money, correct?
well, the guy does have a point about the ears.
Yeah, and since Obama most closely resembles his mother’s father, that makes it non racist because he has white monkey ears. QED.
(/snark)
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has a poll asking readers to vote whether or not the t-shirt is racist. It’s currently running about 50-50. P.Z. Myers is urging his godless horde to join the fray.
The poll is 58-42 “its racist” now. Thanks, PZ!
If this is actually the first time that these 20 year old white Obama canvassers have encountered “in you face” racism, I might be willing to argue that cup is half-full. I mean they made it until their 20’s and never heard overt racial prejudice.
Mnemosyne wrote:
Down home, we’d call that “putting on airs.”
As far as I am concerned, the full-time reporter for The Los Angeles Times and the full-time machinist are both working for a living; to me, that makes them both working class. But we seem to have developed the cockamamie notion that the man who works with words on paper is somehow better than the man who works with his hands on tools. The former may make no more — and often less — than the latter, but our society somehow affords him greater status and honor.
If all of the doctors and all of the garbagemen went on strike, which group do you think most people would miss the more?
If all of the doctors and all of the garbagemen went on strike, which group do you think most people would miss the more?
If both garbage collectors and doctors went on strike, that would lead to a total collapse of public health - so this is probably a bad comparison to make. People get sick or die either way.
I do think that garbage collectors would be far more missed than, say, legislators or radio talk show hosts.
It seems to be a matter of ignorance or racism. In any event both are bad. One would think many Americans, who don’t have their heads in the sand, know the history of this country and that African-Americans were often described as monkeys by racist people and the description is still being used today. A few months ago I saw people describing African-Americans as monkeys on some news boards.
I think about other people’s feelings before I speak or do something because I care about people. Freedom of speech doesn’t mean it’s not necessary to use wisdom before speaking. Only a fool spews words without thinking.
The whole world is watching us– watching America during this election. What are we showing them? Are we showing them that we are truly a great country? Are we showing them that we are a country that they should respect? Or are we showing them that we are hypocrites and small minded people?
In any event both are bad. One would think many Americans, who don’t have their heads in the sand, know the history of this country and that African-Americans were often described as monkeys by racist people and the description is still being used today. A few months ago I saw people describing African-Americans as monkeys on some news boards.
This guy and his supporters are trying to have it both ways — they’re invoking and winking at the “monkey” history of imagery while at the same time pretending it doesn’t exists. They know damn well it’s racist and if they’re going to go along with something like that they ought to at least admit what it is. Grrrr.
Annejumps, you may be correct in you assessment of the situation. I have always asserted that I never met an intelligent racist. They are small minded people. I have uneducated ones and ones that have all kinds of degrees and college education, however, their thought process on race is always so illogical. They constantly reveal they are fools by their actions or when they speak.
Sorry, I had a typo. I meant…I have met uneducated ones and ones that have all kinds of degrees and college education, however, their thought process on race is always so illogical. They constantly reveal they are fools by their actions or when they speak.
Houghton Mifflin’s permissions email is:
trade_permissions@hmco.com
Since this is who one would ask for permission to use the trademark, I assume that they know the people who sue your ass off if you don’t ask permission. I already emailed …
Looks like they are already aware of it.
The wikipedia definition for Conservative is “political philosophies that favor tradition and gradual change, where tradition refers to religious, cultural, or nationally defined beliefs and customs”.
So, when Mike Norman, the owner of the tavern in Cobb County, calls himself ultra-conservative, then I take it that he is opposed to all change, favors tradition - would probably return to the middle ages if he could.
Unfortunately for America, it’s people like Mike Norman, who’re the reason why we’re struggling to cope with a global economy in the 21st century. While countries like India, China etc are spending billions to educate their population to perform in the 21st century, we’re being dragged down by the likes of Mike Norman and Jeremiah Wright. And all we do is complain about “foreigners taking our jobs away” and hurl endless abuses at each other. Whether we like it or not, change….big change is upon us. We can either adapt, and adapt fast, OR we can fight it and eventually be reduced to “erstwhile superpower” status.
Norman, Wright et al are people still living in the past, not willing to move on, not willing to let others move on either. Their kind is irrelevant to the future. Devoting time and attention to them will only slow America down and drag us further back into the morass that we have been wading in for the past 8 years.
‘The past isn’t dead. It isn’t even past.’ — William Faulkner
Faulkner understood a *lot* about the south.
MKK–former southerner
Curious George publisher hopping mad over Tshirt.
The low-life bar owner who is selling the shirt, Marietta tavern owner Mike Norman, of Mulligan’s Bar and Grill, has gotten a little shot across the bow from Houghton-Mifflin:
Interesting how the repugs are all about intellectual property rights forever until their use of somebody else’s copywrited work for bigotry is questioned!
Hey, was this guy on the Colbert Report a few weeks ago? I remember some asshole bar owner being interviewed during a segment about some asshole who built a robot that roamed the streets squirting homeless people (Mondo Laffs!!). I think he even sold stupid asshole t-shirts for assholes. Can anyone with a better memory verify this? I wish I could say that there aren’t too many asshole bar owners who sell asshole t-shirts for assholes who fit this profile, but as we all know, assholes are everywhere.
Different bar owner, Metal Guru. The owner of the “Bum Bot” lives and works in downtown Atlanta.
Oh, I agree with you. As I pointed out above, it’s only very recently that “reporter” became a professional-class job that required a college education. Before that, it was strictly a skilled trade that you learned on the job, not something you went to school to learn.
My brother is very good at his job, has a very successful business, and has contributed far more to the world than, say, Paris Hilton. And yet most people in this society look down on him for working with his hands and look up to her because she was lucky enough to be born into a rich family.
“Norman said those offended are “hunting for a reason to be mad” and insisted he is “not a racist.” Why picture Obama as Curious George? “Look at him . . . the hairline, the ears, he looks just like Curious George,” Norman said.”
That’s weird; attacking an African-American candidate by using tragically long-standing stereotypes to compare his appearance to that of a monkey–Mike Norman sure looks just like a racist.
It’s difficult to believe how people can be so narrow minded and hateful. I can’t imagine how Obama deals with people like this.
“Norman said those offended are “hunting for a reason to be mad” and insisted he is “not a racist.” Why picture Obama as Curious George? “Look at him . . . the hairline, the ears, he looks just like Curious George,” Norman said.”
That’s weird; attacking an African-American candidate by using tragically long-standing stereotypes to compare his appearance to that of a monkey–Mike Norman sure looks just like a racist.
It’s difficult to believe how people can be so narrow minded and hateful. I can’t imagine how Obama deals with people like this.
“Norman said those offended are “hunting for a reason to be mad” and insisted he is “not a racist.” Why picture Obama as Curious George? “Look at him . . . the hairline, the ears, he looks just like Curious George,” Norman said.”
That’s weird; attacking an African-American candidate by using tragically long-standing stereotypes to compare his appearance to that of a monkey–Mike Norman sure looks just like a racist.
It’s difficult to believe how people can be so narrow minded and hateful. I can’t imagine how Obama deals with people like this.