Ah, gotcha ya.
My understanding is that the use of animal caricatures of political figures is a long-standing tactic and pretty common.
I don’t mean to defend equating with Obama with a monkey - I agree that is offensive. I just want to ask: is there any animal that could be used for a caricature for Obama without causing such a reaction? The animal I’d think would be most appropriate for him, the donkey, would still have racist overtones. It wouldn’t be as bad as the monkey Obama t-shirts, but still not what I’d call “good.”
I’m sure it would probably be possible to caricature him as some kind of animal without projecting any racist overtones. A monkey, though…
Historian Barbara Harris in Ken Burns’ The Civil War: “If some citizens live in houses and some live on the streets, then the Civil War is still being fought and, regrettably, it can still be lost.”
The underlying cause of the war is not yet completely behind us, no. It has transmuted and largely dissipated, but it is certainly not over yet. The Confederacy is still alive in spirit, too, as any electoral map shows, even though it’s weakened considerably since the Sixties.
I do have to wonder, though, if Obama might be *getting * even more votes because of his race than he’s losiing? Not only from blacks, but from whites anxious to put the Civil War behind us?
It is indeed. http://www.indiana.edu/~liblilly/cartoon/monkey.html
You’re absolutely right. Racism can even show up where you least expect it. http://www.fraterslibertas.com/Images/Politics/Rice2.jpg
