Quit monkeying around with racism
May 13, 2008 Opinion, Political
Pat Buchanan has an interesting piece up at Human Events where he talks about how Bill and Hillary Clinton have been called racists by the very people who viewed him as the first black president. He discusses his view that Obama and his people have shouted racism at anything and everything and therefore have defined the parameters of what is allowed to be talked about. He notes that John Mccain has already said what is off the table for the general election and that by allowing the opponent to dictate the terms the results are usually defeat.
This is evident in Marietta Georgia where a pub owner is selling shirts with a picture of Curious George on them with the words Obama 08 underneath. This has certain groups of people up in arms decrying the racism involved in using a picture of a monkey to depict a black man. Protests are planned outside the establishment where groups opposed to the shirt will gather:
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Nation of Islam and the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials were among the organizations expected at Tuesday’s rally.
“Mulligan’s is promoting and selling racially offensive T-shirts, and Marietta and Cobb County residents and taxpayers abhor and cannot condone, any longer, this type of divisive and incendiary behavior in our community,” said Jerry Gonzalez, executive director of GALEO. AJC
The owner said that he is not racist and feels that Obama resembles Curious George. The groups are not buying it and they want to put an end to calling black people chimps. I want to know when it became bad to call a black guy a chimp but OK to call a white guy one. For the last seven plus years the left in this country has referred to George Bush as Chimpy, Chimpy McBush, and Chimpy Bush. His picture has been altered to make him look like a monkey and yet none of these people who protest today said a word. Bush’s face was placed on the body of a handicapped person in an ad for the Special Olympics, not a word.
First of all, I think the owner might be right. Obama does kind of look like Curious George. If he says he is not a racist and that this is the reason he picked the picture then I am OK with that. He should not let others decide the boundaries for him as the Obama backers will want to do. If these people cared about how people were treated they would have protested all the references to George Bush and a chimp. Here are a few, just for fun. Google Bush chimp and see what comes back.
From Hot Air, a short on Saturday Night Live
Time Magazine search for chimp (it is in the comments)
And this site called The Smirking Chimp (look at the picture in the title)
There are 142,000 results in Google for the search phrase “chimpy bush” so it is safe to say that the phrase has been used quite a bit. Add the nice Hitler phrases to it and you have people equating our president with a maniacal killer who happens to be one of the most despised people of all time. And yet, people are upset about Obama being compared to a cartoon character (sounds like the Mohammad cartoon issue).
Like I stated, I take the guy at his word but even if he meant it to be offensive I don’t care. I don’t care about the protesters (which curiously includes the Nation of Islam, hmmmm) because they are not interested in fairness. They kept quiet while this was being done to Bush and now want to complain because it involves Obama. I would not be surprised if half of them referred to Bush as a chimp or as Hitler. To hell with them. They can all suck wind as far as I am concerned. The only thing I want to know now is how I can get one of those shirts.
The last item to offer is this. Maybe they are right to be upset that Curious George is being used to represent Obama. After all, Obama is not 100% black. He is half white. Perhaps it would have been OK if the picture was of a zebra or an Oreo cookie. I also don’t want to read about context and slavery and all the other crap that is used to justify behavior. If it is bad for one group it is bad for the other, period. Otherwise, what goes around, comes around.
Hats off to the owner, Mike Norman for exercising his right to free speech.
Tags: curious george, georgia, mulligan's bar and grill, Obama, racism