# A quick giggle for you - Michelle Obama **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 25, 2009, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-quick-giggle-for-you-michelle-obama/518900 "2009-11-25T14:00:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![tumbleddown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tumbleddown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tumbleddown)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2009, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-quick-giggle-for-you-michelle-obama/518900/61 "2009-11-27T23:08:34Z")
> [@curlcoat](#): > > I don’t know about the others, but my question came from the feeling that some black people tend to blame everything on their color, and not on their actions, so it just seems that the racist card is played too often and too easily. Not to mention all the folks that rally around any black person who has had a bad knock and claim they couldn’t help it/won’t get fair treatment/were oppressed and all the other stuff they blame other than the guy just happens to be a jerk. You’re the person who is so completely ignorant about anything about the African-American community you believed that only 1% of it was descended from slaves (then blamed that gaping hole of _logic_ on your crappy high school like this is a fact that has to be taught) so you know you are about the last person who isn’t a member of the Klan who should be holding forth any thoughts about what black people know, think or do. You don’t have the requisite knowledge about us, by your own admission. Until you learn a little more you should really keep shtum. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2009, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-quick-giggle-for-you-michelle-obama/518900/62 "2009-11-28T00:05:34Z")
> [@tumbleddown](#): > > you know you are about the last person who isn’t a member of the Klan who should be holding forth any thoughts about what black people know, think or do. You don’t have the requisite knowledge about us, by your own admission. Until you learn a little more you should really keep shtum. This is a touchy subject for a variety of reasons, but please do not make it personal. ---
**Author:** ![curlcoat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea5d25/32.png) [@curlcoat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curlcoat)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2009, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-quick-giggle-for-you-michelle-obama/518900/63 "2009-11-28T00:27:34Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > Your “feeling” is incorrect, and does not have a bearing on what is happening in reality. You are aware that there are different realities in different places? For example, I could easily be living in a place where the race card is played almost constantly - would you believe that every time this happens, there really was racism going on? > [@tumbleddown](#): > > You’re the person who is so completely ignorant about anything about the African-American community you believed that only 1% of it was descended from slaves (then blamed that gaping hole of _logic_ on your crappy high school like this is a fact that has to be taught) so you know you are about the last person who isn’t a member of the Klan who should be holding forth any thoughts about what black people know, think or do. You don’t have the requisite knowledge about us, by your own admission. Until you learn a little more you should really keep shtum. Perhaps you can explain to me how my not knowing that most blacks living here now are descended from slaves has anything to do with whether or not the only time the race card is played today is when it is totally justified? If nothing else, I know its not always justified by personal experience. Oh, and what is “shtum” - can’t do it if I don’t know what it is…😃 ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2009, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-quick-giggle-for-you-michelle-obama/518900/64 "2009-11-28T01:08:36Z")
> [@curlcoat](#): > > You are aware that there are different realities in different places? Oh yes indeed. There are some who believe that you can [Create your own reality](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality-based_community) Reality is just so… flexible for some. ---
**Author:** ![Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aji_de_gallina/32/260_2.png) [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aji_de_Gallina)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2009, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-quick-giggle-for-you-michelle-obama/518900/65 "2009-11-28T01:10:05Z")
I get the racial connotations. Would any other animal be ok? ---
**Author:** ![curlcoat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea5d25/32.png) [@curlcoat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curlcoat)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2009, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-quick-giggle-for-you-michelle-obama/518900/66 "2009-11-28T02:21:27Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > Oh yes indeed. There are some who believe that you can [Create your own reality](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality-based_community) > > Reality is just so… flexible for some. I suppose. I prefer to go with the reality that surrounds me externally instead of internally - less to try to keep track of that way. ---
**Author:** ![tim314](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim314/32/3468_2.png) [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2009, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-quick-giggle-for-you-michelle-obama/518900/67 "2009-11-28T07:00:47Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > Could someone just explain why it’s off-limits to caricature a black person as a monkey but completely acceptable to caricature a white person as a monkey? Because one is a racial slur, and the other isn’t. It’s not so hard to understand. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2009, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-quick-giggle-for-you-michelle-obama/518900/68 "2009-11-28T10:36:16Z")
I’ve been looking through old drawings and watercolors of blacks from the early part of the 20th Century. I think they are supposed to be humorous or in some way “cute.” Most of them _are_ of children, but most often they do not look quite like the real children that I have known. I know that children have large heads, but these heads are unusually large. The eyes are very large with lots of white showing in a very black face. Often the mouth is very exaggerated and red. There is little or no neck. The abdomen is portruding, the ledgs are short and bowed. I didn’t notice anything about arm length. Some of them were made to look slightly ape like and others were not. What struck me over and over was that they were **not** made to look like _normal human children._ The comments that the children are supposedly making are always written in thick dialect. In the drawings and watercolors of adults, very often the heads are misshapen and elongated. I did not see any portrayals of attractive (by today’s standards) black adults in any of the closeups. Portrayals of blacks as apes is not a recent “on-line” phenonmenon. I have been familiar with the characterization for as long as I can remember – which is back to the 1940s. It is _very_ ugly to see it again. I always thought that Bush was portrayed as a chimp because his eyes are so close-set and he always had this “d’oh” look on his face like maybe his DNA was missing a few letters on the chain. But maybe all white Presidents have been stereotyped this way – and their wives of course. And all white people through history. As for the Irish, yes, we were at one time in the history of Great Britain, actually considered a separate race from the English. I read about it earlier this week, but I can’t remember where. Probably on line somewhere. The poor Brits have come a long way. So often people cannot see that their own racism is just screaming out at other people. It’s usually the bitter ones of any race who scream the loudest: “I’m a bigot!” ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2009, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-quick-giggle-for-you-michelle-obama/518900/69 "2009-11-28T15:31:12Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > I witnessed eight years of people calling George Bush a chimp. Where were the sensitive hearts breaking all over that? Could someone just explain why it’s off-limits to caricature a black person as a monkey but completely acceptable to caricature a white person as a monkey? Damned black people getting all the breaks. > [@](#): > > For the record, saying “That’s racist! I’m offended!” is about the _most_ conformist stance that someone can take today. There is nothing courageous, unique or even interesting about it, whatsoever. It _is_ the status quo. Well, yeah, and there’s nothing all that interesting about people being bigoted. I really don’t get this comment. People should stop calling out racism or commenting on it because it happens too much? I don’t mean to be rude but why is it so often that you get so annoyed at the people commenting on the racism instead of the racism itself? It’s very odd to me. ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2009, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-quick-giggle-for-you-michelle-obama/518900/70 "2009-11-28T15:49:04Z")
Nobody calls racism racism in an attempt to be iconoclastic, Argent Towers. And frankly, I’ll continue doing it, even at risk of boring you. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2009, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-quick-giggle-for-you-michelle-obama/518900/71 "2009-11-28T16:37:26Z")
It’s actually rather boring and uncreative to try to seem shocking and iconoclastic by decrying imagined “political correctness,” and pretending racism isn’t really offensive. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2009, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-quick-giggle-for-you-michelle-obama/518900/72 "2009-11-28T17:07:43Z")
> [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](#): > > I get the racial connotations. > Would any other animal be ok? Sure. Lion, stallion, eagle, magical eagle-lion… ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2009, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-quick-giggle-for-you-michelle-obama/518900/73 "2009-11-28T19:02:25Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Because there’s a difference between comparing an individual to a monkey because of specific, personal characteristics, and comparing an entire _race_ to monkeys, and saying they’re subhuman _because of their race_. > Can we please stop playing dumb and pretending we don’t get it now? The mental gymnastics needed to get around this issues baffles me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-quick-giggle-for-you-michelle-obama/518900.md?page=3)