A work colleague of mine showed me the photos of her family pets, which she had placed in her cubicle. Each photo had the pets’ name underneath it.
One of them photos was of a black dog, and it was called Obama. I said to her she should remove the name in case some people get offended - do you think I did the wrong thing?
The thing is, her father really did name the dog Obama because it’s black. My colleague is Chinese, her father lives in Shanghai and the dog is in Shanghai too. She said she could make up a cover story where her father named the dog Obama because he’s a fan of the president. I told her I don’t think that would fly with some people.
Considering the First Family has a black dog, I wouldn’t be too concerned. If someone would be offended by it she could simply say she thinks it looks like Bo.
Of course, if she named it Obama because it’s the same color as Barack Obama, then, yeah, maybe not advertise that.
Just tell her it’s technically inaccurate since BHO is mulatto and not negro, therefore the name doesn’t make any sense.
Many people will interpret it as racist even if from her point of view it isn’t. So I would try to discourage her without using perceived racism as your main argument.
I don’t know if her dad did it for racist reasons, but if someone wanted to attack her on it she’d have a hard time defending it. Even though the person attacking her would be a schmuck.
Related question I was wondering about from something else I read: is any and every depiction/caricature of Obama as a monkey necessarily racist? I don’t think so, as people are often insulted by being monkey-like as a commentary on their perceived stupidity or cluelessness. Bush was the Chimp. We have “a thousand monkeys typing”, etc.
Which is just crazy since Maynard Jackson was quite light-skinned, even lighter than Obama. We might as well call a black cat “George Hamilton” if we’re going to go that route.
It’s like naming a parrot “Bette Midler” because the bird’s got a beak like a “Jewish” nose. Yeah, that’s maybe funny for two seconds and then it’s just juvenile.
OK, so the dog is in China, and we don’t really know the true context of “Obama” as the name. Black Dog= US President, Good Luck for breaking race barriers, or Black Dog=Bad Running Dog Capitalist plus Darkie to Boot, or, and here’s the dark horse nasty kicker: Black Dog that will be dinner come winter, to use a harsh judgement of possibility in Chinese culture.
I’d ask the coworker what her Dad really meant by it, and discuss the social difference before interfering with her cubicle space.
monstro’s reply is pretty damn fine for distinction.
Bush was compared to a chimp because he looked like one. It was not a comment on his race, it was a comment (admittedly an unkind one) on his actual physical appearance. With Obama, it’s only because of his race and nothing else. He does not have a simian appearance, nor does he exhibit stupidity or cluelessness.
Oh, and, magellan, yes, characterizing a Black person as monkeylike in the US is offensive, because there is a looooonnggg history of that being used as a derogatory stereotype to separate and deny a sector of citizens their rights based on a misuse of physical features as a judgement of capacity.
Bush’s physical characteristics often looked rather chimpish, so he got the butt of jokes; however, he was born into the above-it-all class, and the physical comparison wasn’t at all anything that would impede him, or his family, to any detriment.
By the way, the answer to he OP is that it depends on the intent of the namer. Someone could easily name a dog Obama without any racist or malicious intent. Someone else could think it was the height of hilarity to do it because the dog is black. Either way, it’s pretty harmless, though it could lead to some uncomfortable moments.
Back in the 60’s, my dad brought home a yellow-eyed all black kitten and named him Sambo. Growing up in what was then the all white San Fernando Valley, I never realized it was racist until Junior High. Yeah, my dad was dick at times.
OTOH, a few years ago we named our dachshund puppy Anne Frankfurter, because we thought it was cute and clever, with no ill will towards Dutch Jews.