I came upon this image on Facebook last night. It says so much, so quickly, but none of it is very positive.
- Tea Party Birther's are not racist?
First, just to be critical, let’s look at the image. What it is implying is that President Obama is a Kenyan citizen and not a valid president. The innuendo in the image is quite obvious. He is wearing a Kufi, which is often considered a Muslim hat, but is predominant in West African heritage (and African Americans). It says “Africa Kenya” on the “Birth Certificate.” There are bones on his necklace. The Obama button is now earth tones, instead of Red, White and Blue. The imagery is just degrading.
The Kufi is not a “Muslim” hat, but typically West African. Kenya is in East Africa. That does not mean they do not wear such adornments in Kenya, only that it is “stereotypical” of the West. It would be similar to showing a Virginia teenager with a surfboard and a VW Bus. Farther, the year Obama was born, Kenya was part of the United Kingdom. The correct name of the country in 1961 was “Colony and Protectorate of Kenya.” Prior to this, it was just officially called East Africa Protectorate, as part of British East Africa.
Then we get to those bones on the necklace. This is just racist imagery. The portrayal of the “African Savage.” And is he sitting on hay? I can’t even figure that one out. How is this not a depiction of racism? It demeans the character of the President of the United States because of the colour of his skin. It attempts to invalidate he capabilities simply because he has a West African phenotype.
On Tuesday, a man was convicted in Knoxville, Tennessee of using a firearm with the intent to “create civil disorder.” This man was incentivised by the ideology that President Obama is not an American born citizen. People still believe this crap. Why is this funny? What year is this?
I have to say, as an American abroad, this is all highly embarrassing. People from all over the world see this. The sad twist is that they do not see President Obama as the one spiralling America into decline. They see a racist population (possibly a minority of the population) doing whatever they can to make conditions so deplorable that the “black guy” gets out of office. This is not just a British perception, or even just a European perception. I have heard similar statements from Norwegians, Germans, Argentinians, British, Germans, Mexicans, Indians (South Asian), even Greek and Italians. It is embarrassing to be compared to such nonsense. And all this is doing is sliding the level of respect towards the United States downward.
Part of it may be the down side to the recognition that the election of Barack Obama received in the 2008 election. It was a “Vote heard around the world.” People rejoiced from Kenya to England to India to Brasil to Argentina to Turkey… it was a monumental step forward. (I doubt the Chinese rejoiced, or even gave much thought to it. I’m pretty sure, as a culture, the Chinese did not care much at all.) The atmosphere of hope and belief in progress was palpable. Then, the next few years came and went and we all got to see President Obama not be allowed to do anything. (Best way I could construct that sentence.) It is evident to everyone watching that the primary reason the President is facing such strong opposition is racism and reactionary fear. The ideology doesn’t seem much to be opposed to, as President Obama has proposed very little in regard to “Far Left” policy.
Many are happy. They are glad that the United States appears to have no reason to tell other, developing countries how to “behave.” Also, the Tea Party has accomplished something fairly impressive: They are internationally recognised. People all over the world know who the Tea Party Movement is in America. They also, pretty evenly, equate them with a reactionary and racist movement.
So, what is the intent of images such as the one above? To incite violence? To mock the president? Or to damage the international integrity of the United States? Whatever case: Mission accomplished.
The image also solidifies one more thing: The conviction that the Tea Party and the GOP are motivated, or at least utilising, racism as a primary motivation. How can anyone claim that the Birther claims are not racist, when faced with the image above?
How does it feel that the whole world is casting dispersions aspersions and looking at you like a bunch of ignorant hicks?
This is a very cute picture of Obama.
Too bad the evil son of a bitch (literally) wasn’t as harmless as the cutie depicted in this post.
Now of course the images of Bush as Hitler were literally thousands of times more prevalent than ones that depict Obama as an equivalently malevolent figure.
… and of course the Adam Baum never had the inclination or the balls to say STOP IT! How pathetically hypocritical.
If tradition is served, I guess we should expect a long irrelevant rant defending this hypocrisy. And when their is no response to the diversionary rant (always chock full of useless tripe about Commie theoreticians), Adam Baum will likely muse “I guess a long ‘reasoned’ response was not desired”. (Actually, I am being a bit unfair – since I have not yet given the Adam Baum the opportunity to explain why his long winded response to my comment in the prior post wasn’t just a farcical diversion – that never addressed the point I made that he had zero to prove that Tea Partiers want a theocracy in the U.S.)
Not the same thing. Depictions of President G.W. Bush were based on his persona and policies, not his skin colour and ethnicity. There are critiques of President Obama based on his policy, diction, and personal background. This image is none of the above. It is based on ethnocentric hatred, racism and ignorance.
No need for a long response. This is ignorance and racism. If you dislike theorists that you don’t understand, that is fine. You want to dismiss them as “Commie theoreticians” that is fine. I am sorry that you do not want to be confronted with information that contradicts your preconceived notions, but it is quite expected. (Just don’t pretend to have an informed opinion.)
There is plenty of evidence of this. The claim that “marriage is defined by biblical definition” to the desire to place “In God We Trust” as the national motto… to the ideological/theological war on Islam and non-theism. I did address this in my response, as well as the dominant cultural hegemony that dictates that theological rationale should be grounds for legal procedures.
As to How does it feel that the whole world is casting dispersions and looking at you like a bunch of ignorant hicks?
Uh, I think you meant aspersions.
Well actually we feel bad… but only for you and your ilk. You see, we are proud of our differences with modern Europe. But obviously you’re embarrassed about them. That is exactly why we would like to save you the embarrassment… by having the world know that you folks (as your chief refers to U.S. citizens) have nothing but trade and national security to share in common with our citizenry. Hey here’s a novel idea. How about we get you to be spared the embarrassment by the two of us having a divorce?!
I did. Corrected. (The pratfalls to using multiple languages is the autocorrect tools sometimes alter text unwittingly.)
perhaps you misread… I pointed out that it is embarrassing that the representation of Americans is the perception that we are all a bunch of racist, backwards, uneducated rednecks. If you are proud of this perception, so be it. Personally, I find all of these qualities to be negative.
Here’s another novel idea… as is often told to the Native Americans and Mexicans: You lost the war, get over it.
Last I checked, no one is forcing anyone to stay in the United States. There is a whole host of countries that are willing to take expatriates.
Who is this a##wipe “Gets Rich Betting with Leftists” and how can we make him go AWAY?
and why does he use a fake name?
I think he uses a fake name (or at least, an unrecognisable pseudonym) because he doesn’t care about anything more than discrediting those that reasonably disagree with his misinformed assertions.
He’s just some racist that has been commenting on here for a while now, ever since I called him out as a racist. I could make him go away with a click, but I find it is good practice to discuss topics with someone so self-righteous and yet so misinformed.