Umm, can you post a photo of yourself, so we can superimpose a monkey likeness on it, and then laugh at how stupid you must be, monkey boy?
More to the point, can we laugh at you as a subhuman monkey and deny you decent human rights for a couple of hundred years , well, really, up until the past 50 years, with lagging detritus of mind?
Nope, no way I’m gonna just accept that line of crap.
I’m not getting anything but a handful of pictures of Michelle Obama (granted they’re not all the most flattering shots of her at her photogenic finest, but nothing funny or out of the ordinary.)
Oh of course, its the people who say its offensive that are the problem not the ignorant racist fucks. Yes the monkey stuff is here to stay because ignorance and racism is tolerated and ignored and brushed off by people like you.
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? It’s not only black people who have been compared to monkeys by people who were against them. In fact, I could show you many cartoons like this one that show the Irish as monkeys, from the 1800s. I think it’s likely that the Irish were actually compared to monkeys more often than blacks were for most of American history, because I have seen political cartoons showing ape-like Irish immigrants from the 18th century all the way up to the late 19th century.
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.
It’s also the correct answer. You are not this stupid, you know exactly why calling Bush a chimp is not racist, I’m not going to bother explaining things to you as if you were five when you are being deliberately dense.
Whatever the case may be, people who use monkey-related imagery in conjunction with a racist agenda do it because they know it will stir up a hornet’s nest of outrage and righteous indignation. They are being trolls, and everyone is feeding them. I truly believe the best way to combat the black=monkey comparison is to dismiss it as silly and childish instead of condemning it vigorously with the righteous mantle of anti-racism. The latter validates it; the former diminishes it.
If only monkeys were albinos (or sumptin) we wouldnt have these kinda controversies…maybe…
Oh, and personally, I think its the monkeys that should be offended by all these comparisions…
Personally, I don’t really think the answer is to ignore it when people, however batshit insane, go off on racist diatribes or make offensive remarks. I don’t see what’s wrong with making it clear that we as a society don’t approve of bigotry or racism.
Racist diatribes are one thing but the whole monkey symbolism thing is a different phenomenon. This is a meme, largely an online one, that people are using to get under the skin of others and, by God, it is working like a charm. I mean, look at the Google search bar. “Michelle Obama monkey” is number two, right below “Michelle Obama Pictures.” The First Lady of our country, the President’s wife, and the very second search result for her in the Google bar is the monkey reference. Do you realize how famous, how sensationalistic something needs to be to get in that Google search suggestion lineup? It means that millions of people are apparently fascinated by this whole monkey thing. As long as it gets sensational coverage, it’ll be a cheap tactic to stir people up.
I will say that caricaturing of the human face is one of the most strongly emotional things you can do to an opponent. There are few things that are more personal, and that cause more of a visceral reaction, than the exaggeration of someone’s facial features or the association of those features with a stereotype.
[Mod Hat]People, don’t make this personal.[/Mod Hat]
I think you’re too old and too intelligent to criticize people for conformity while ignoring the substance of their remarks. The fact that Irish people were compared to monkeys 200 years ago is interesting, and that’s also prejudice. The fact remains that this comparison involving Michelle Obama is racist, and there is an extensive history of black people being compared to apes. You’re aware of that, I’m sure. Here’s another instance of the same comments being made about Michelle Obama just a few months ago.
Are these people trolling? Absolutely. People need to start ignoring more of this kind of thing. You’re also correct that there is nothing intrinsically offensive about comparing human beings to other great apes. But it’s the context that determines the meaning.
I think there may be more historical precedent for the Irish=monkey comparison than the black=monkey one. I’ve seen a hell of a lot of political cartoons from American history; blacks tend to be portrayed as childlike, and with exaggerated lips and very dark skin, but still looking reasonably human, whereas the Irish often don’t even look remotely human. Here’s another cartoon, this one showing an Irishman and a black man. In this case the Irish looks far more apelike.
CNN.com on the controversy: Google apologizes for results of 'Michelle Obama' image search - CNN.com
My favorite picture of the First Lady; her official portrait. I especially like the irony of Thomas Jefferson’s portrait being in the background: http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2009-02-27-MrsObamaPortrait.jpg
I really doubt it, but I wouldn’t know. In any case the Irish comparison is not really circulating these days.
So who are you blaming? Reporters and so on for reporting on this? Are you saying we should all just pretend this isn’t happening?
Besides, do you really think anyone would have said this about Hillary Clinton or Laura Bush? Hillary had and has her enemies, but no one would ever do this to her. And while people made rude remarks about Chelsea Clinton while her father was in office, no one ever called her a crack whore.
Racism isn’t as bad as it once was, but I think these kind of remarks show that there are people who look at the Obamas, not as a hard working and successful family worth of admiration, but as uppity and needing to be taken down a peg based on race.
No, but historically speaking I think it may truly have been more widespread. I say this not to try to spar with you, Marley, but just as someone who has studied American history and especially American immigration history fairly extensively. Today, racist cartoons are confined to racist newsletters and racist websites; historically, racist cartoons were in mainstream papers. Dr. Seuss even did a series of jaw-droppingly racist anti-Japanese cartoons during World War II. I’ve seen the childlike “little black sambo” and “pickaninny” far more often than any kind of ape reference, but the way the Irish are depicted is consistently simian and with a hugely exaggerated lower jaw.
As to the post above mine - I don’t think this issue dignifies a report by CNN. That is giving it far too much power.
I can’t speak for Argent Towers, but I’ll post a picture of me. Go ahead, laugh and tell me I’m stupid, buddy
Conceding that for the sake of argument, this is still not the same as the Bush thing. That was a comment on his intelligence, merited or not, not his heritage or his race, and this IS a comment on her race.
Not that it particularly matters here, but I don’t think the Bushes have Irish roots. Barack Obama has a little bit of Irish heritage, however.
I’m a big Obama fan, volunteered for his campaign for a month…
But honestly, all human being are apes. Very smart hairless apes, but apes none the less. And if I giggled at George W. Bush as a monkey, or the Onion headline"Laura Bush Noisily Devours Infant" then I’m just going to have to accept the other side sniping in the same manner for the next 3 to 7 years.
Isn’t it racist to assume that a monkey was used in Obama’s case because of color rather than intelligence?
(I haven’t seen any of the “monkey Obama” pictures so I don’t know if any reference was used)
But Michelle Obama doesn’t look simian and neither of the Obamas are known for their lack of intelligence.
And there is that long tradition of black people being compared to apes. Whoever did it had to have known what buttons they were pushing.
It’s like when they were calling Mahlia Obama all those horrible things for daring to wear a peace sign, and then someone on these boards was all, maybe it’s not about race. These insults don’t really make sense if you take out race from the equation.
