We’re all racist now
People have their delicate sensibilities all atwitter because some one you would have never otherwise heard of forwarded an image of Michelle Obama making an unflattering facial expression. Said gesture was then compared to a monkey making the same facial expression. You can see the image and some righteous indignation here.
One of the reasons people are clutching their pearls is because IT’S RACIST!!!. Or is it? I don’t think the comparison is inherently racist. Because the two facial expressions are similar. And they are as similar as the facial expressions of George Bush being compared to a monkey here. In other news, it turns out chimps and human beings make similar facial expressions. Who knew?
Racism depends on the context. Racism is not defined as look at all these people who are offended and showing me their shocked face. Racism is very specifically defined as discrimination or prejudice against a race. Or the implication that one race is inherently superior to another. The photo is unflattering. The comparison is rude. And it’s not even all that funny. But it’s not inherently racist. People were yammering on here about how the cultural context makes the implication clear that it must be racist. Horseshit. Our culture has been conditioned to presume that comparisons of some groups of people to animals is racist, whether that’s the intent or not? Then our culture sucks. That’s the only cultural implication I get out of that nonsensical position. So, clearly, our entire culture is just racist. That proposition, I suppose, is easier than thinking. Guess it’s just easier to presume something is racist and then force those involved to defend themselves.
Intent matters more than your cultural baggage and white guilt.
Besides, Michelle Obama looks like Wayne Brady anyway.*
And Sigorney Weaver.*
* I’m sure that’s racist too.
March 6th, 2010 at 1:58 pm
well said
March 6th, 2010 at 4:51 pm
I recall seeing the same picture of that chimpanzee accompanying a picture of President Bush (43).
When they apologize for their racism, they can get ticked off at it being used on them.
Assuming that it’s racism, which it isn’t.
March 6th, 2010 at 5:15 pm
Does it not depend on who is doing the monkey mocking given the history of the term (two words, last word rhymes with long-haul trucker)?
Calling Bush a monkey cannot be racist. However, given the history of that term, using monkey as an insult as to Obama is always racist.
March 6th, 2010 at 5:52 pm
Remember when Bush senior vomited into the prime minister of Japans lap then he passed out?
The Japanese trained a chimp to imitate him.
you know the problem with racism? Its racist.
March 6th, 2010 at 7:24 pm
Well in that picture, she really looks like a monkey. Absolutely I agree. But on the other way around, I dont agree generalizing them as racist.
We haven’t heard their side.
March 6th, 2010 at 7:24 pm
I think she looks like James ( I feel good ) Brown
March 6th, 2010 at 10:27 pm
Wasting your effort, Uncle. Nobody who is persuadable on this topic thought for two minutes the comparison was racist. The people who think this sort of thing is racist have the eye that alters.
March 6th, 2010 at 11:46 pm
I think that people naturally fear things that they don’t understand so in order to make these things that they don’t understand less frightening they make fun of them that being said “i hope ya’ll relize that it was tha wite newspeople that put out them fotos of busch and that monkee”
March 7th, 2010 at 3:35 am
So what does this one mean?
http://totallylookslike.com/2009/02/15/hillary-clinton-totally-looks-like-the-raptor-from-jurassic-park/
March 7th, 2010 at 11:10 am
Here’s a hypothetical: if you compared a picture of Ted Kennedy to that of a rat, would that be racist? Of course not. But if you compared a picture of Joe Lieberman to that of a rad, it most certainly would be. The Nazis compared Jews to rats, remember. There is history here. It doesn’t matter if they’re making facial expressions that are similar. That wouldn’t excuse it.
March 7th, 2010 at 2:40 pm
OK, so calling the wife of the President a chimp is racist.
How about calling her a hippopotamus? She’s certainly got the hindquarters for it, and her facial expressions frequently seem the same.
March 7th, 2010 at 10:24 pm
You can be racist without being mean and grumpy. I give you the Japanese, arguably the most racist race on the planet. They seem to like cute little blue-eyed blonde kids, but will they admit folks with Northern European ancestry to get naturalized as Japanese citizens?
Well, Hell No!
They express it more mildly, not wishing to hurt the feelings of us big lovable palefaced members of inferior races.
March 8th, 2010 at 2:24 am
What is Man, but the most intelligent ape? (He’s an animal, yet more, as he’s made in the image of God, but that’s another argument.) Thus, it’s no wonder that apes and all races of humans have similar expressions.
March 8th, 2010 at 4:52 am
Oddly and ironically the racist First Lady, and she is racist, is being mocked because of her physical similarity to a chimpanzee.
While that may not be polite, it was accurate, she did favor the chimp one Hell of a lot. I can’t see as how it is racist.
However, I will grant there is a case to be made that it is specist (specieist?), and that the chimpanzee should be the one who feels insulted.
But what the Hell do I know? I didn’t get to hear them talk. The smart one would be the chimp.
March 8th, 2010 at 11:15 am
Google is racist. I tried to do a search string that starts with the word “why”, and the autocomplete suggestion was “why are black people so loud”.
Al Sharpton was pissed when I called him.
March 8th, 2010 at 11:20 am
They say the search results are based on past searches. I tend to doubt it since I got the same result.
We’re all racist, apparently.
March 8th, 2010 at 2:20 pm
I just call her Worf.
March 8th, 2010 at 9:05 pm
This was in the text of the email:
“I asked about Cheeta, he beamed and said she was doing good, had married a Lawyer and now lived in the White House!!! ”
In case you’re wondering about intent. If the email was sent without pictures, what would your reaction be?
March 9th, 2010 at 4:04 am
what’s the sense
March 10th, 2010 at 1:08 am
How sad that we lose a man that has done so much for the city, because of our hypersensitivity to race. For some reason, our country thrives on humor at the expense of others. Turn on the TV or walk into any comedy club. Jokes against fat people, skinny people, the handicapped, smart people (nerds/geeks), & less than smart people. We pay Jeff Foxworthy alot of money to make us laugh at the expense of unrefined Southern folk with low IQ’s. It’s all slander and it’s all against the 8th Commandment. But somewhere along the line, someone decided that poking fun at race is a bigger sin. There is no bigger sin. But because of that, we make a scapegoat of a really good man.
What’s even more sad, is that we will completely miss the point. We’ll all go to work tomorrow and continue to poke fun at anyone different than ourselves. And we will laugh, like nothing’s wrong.
How sad.