Racism? – Really!
- September 16, 2009
Certain images
I have seen at the so-called taxpayer revolts I find terribly troublesome,
especially the one topping this blog. The picture shown above is
of President Obama but altered to appear as the Joker from Batman.
I observed it at many televised anti-healthcare rallies as well as extensively
at nearly all “T-party” events. Simply stated, the picture disturbs
me greatly!
Moving past the
general creepiness of the picture a number of reasons still offend and
sadden me although not everyone will make comparable connections:
1. How the
Joker originated is a matter of great speculation and a variety of versions
exist. So too, the origins of President Obama are being questioned.
The “birthers” claim that he has no legitimacy because they contend that
he is not a natural born citizen.
Additionally,
the Joker was a psychopathic master criminal that was all about unleashing
crimes and dirty tricks upon the populace. The motives of President
Obama are disparaged and he is accused of leading the country toward Socialism
which is the most abhorrent ideology to the conservative right wingers
and in their world it is criminal.
2. The alteration
of the photograph to that of a black man with a white face invokes for
me a recollection of the old minstrel shows. If you are old to enough
to recall or have researched this entertainment form you may have discovered
that stereotypes abound. Most often the theme for a performance featured
life on the plantation with all male actors taking both male and female
roles.
While the minstrel
shows were predominantly white entertainers that covered their faces in
blackface makeup, in the latter years black entertainers were a participated
and performed in either blackface or white face. In either case it
was all about drawing contrasts between black and white America.
Portraying the President in whiteface is obviously playing to stereotype
and focusing our deliberate attention to racial differences.
3. Former
President Jimmy Carter was interviewed several days ago by Brian Williams
of NBC News. (The link to that interview follows) Mr. Carter
stated that in his opinion the more intense anger being directed to President
Obama is racially based. The former President stated that his observations
as a man of the south from Plains, Georgia lead him to that conclusion.
Personally, as
a person that lived in the deep south of Montgomery, Alabama immediately
prior to and during the Civil Rights movement, I can relate to Mr. Carter's
allegation. Dear Reader please do not assume that I am setting
myself out as an expert, but I do have the capacity to observe and that
I did. Thus strictly as an observer in a variety of earlier entries
I have touched on the topic of civil rights but only as it applies to race.
Just don't forget that civil rights issues also involve age, gender, as
well as sexual preference and identity.
(Links open in a new window)
All
About Colors - March 31, 2008
Our
New Era or the Culmination of an Old Agenda? - November 5, 2008
Never
too far from their Roots! - December 12, 2008
The
Audacity of My Hope - January 20, 2009
Acceptable
VS Un-acceptable Behavior - September 10, 2009
My role as an
observer of bias and prejudice was honed during my adolescent years in
the Midwest. Although I was reared in a home devoid of prejudice,
it pains me to tell you that in retorspect I often wonder about possible
racial bias in my own father. I recall overhearing conversations
between males and females of varying ages. I remember the heavy use
of the “n” word, and then there were the off-color jokes, with any person
of color serving as the target. Of course, should a person of a race
other than white do something that played to type then there was the use
of “I told you that's the way THEY are!”
In closing I basically
agree with President Carter. Conversely I have had the dubious fortune
of living in many parts of the country. I have lived in the west,
the south, the Rockies, the Midwest and now in the Northeast.
IMHO (in my humble opinion) racial bias, stereotyping
and prejudice in one form or another exists everywhere. It isn't
about what Mr. Carter said; it is about what he didn't say. It exists
in its worst way in those states that were joined in the Southern Strategy,
need I say more?
As ugly as that
truth may be, there is more; and to our discredit as a nation many of the
crazies that are out there and unfortunately running around loose have
their feet mired in the mud of ignorance, intolerance and racial bias.
Each time one of them shouts “You Lie” or “He's not my president” or “ship
all them “dirty ni__ers” back to Africa” someone in a third world country
or our allies conclude that we are hypocrites when we make any reference
to “human rights”. Their collective denouement would surely condemn
us for our double standards.
Former
President Jimmy Carter on race
