# More racism directed at Obama **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 17, 2008, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-racism-directed-at-obama/468416 "2008-10-17T18:11:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![chromaticity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@chromaticity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chromaticity)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2008, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-racism-directed-at-obama/468416/81 "2008-10-19T13:07:59Z")
> [@Seven](#): > > From [http://www.pleasegodno.com/](http://www.pleasegodno.com/) That’s a pretty good summation of what i feel. I have stayed in America for 1 month of my life and am no way connected to the USA now, but still, I have heard of the KFC and watermelon connection. Granting the benefit of the doubt, she is still a moron. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2008, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-racism-directed-at-obama/468416/82 "2008-10-19T14:48:32Z")
\ > [@MandaJo](#): > > I honestly think the foods pictured, however, are the least of it: calling them bucks (a very old, southren racist term implying an over-sexed, animalistic black man) and making them _food stamps_, associating African Americans w/ welfare, both seem more offensive to me. I think you’re probably over-analyzing on the ‘buck’ thing. Funny fact - the only time I’ve ever heard the word used that way in the real world was two late-30’s black men talking about high school black kids. At the time the ‘over-sexed’ thing didn’t occur to me, but thinking back to the context, I guess that part was in there too… -Joe ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2008, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-racism-directed-at-obama/468416/83 "2008-10-19T19:52:27Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > (Granted ETF might be joking but Manda JO appears to have posted in earnest.) I wasn’t joking; I’ve heard/read the “Obamabots are all drinking the Kool-Aid” bullshit so often, it’s the first thing that came to mind. I was aware of the fried chicken/watermelon/ribs stereotypes as “black food” but had never, in my sheltered Northeast liberal enclave, encountered the idea that Kool-Aid is also an African-American staple. Huh. Learn something new every day. On preview: Thanks, **Tamerlane** , you’re spot on. ---
**Author:** ![Jolly\_Roger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/91b2a8/32.png) [@Jolly\_Roger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jolly_Roger)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2008, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-racism-directed-at-obama/468416/84 "2008-10-19T20:02:55Z")
> [@EddyTeddyFreddy](#): > > I wasn’t joking; I’ve heard/read the “Obamabots are all drinking the Kool-Aid” bullshit so often, it’s the first thing that came to mind. I was aware of the fried chicken/watermelon/ribs stereotypes as “black food” but had never, in my sheltered Northeast liberal enclave, encountered the idea that Kool-Aid is also an African-American staple. > > . You know, neither did I and i’m black and from Delaware. We used to drink Hi-C when I was a kid. My folks hated making kool-aid. So when people on the SMDB post and call Obama supporters “kool-aid drinkers” is that a racial insult?😕 ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2008, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-racism-directed-at-obama/468416/85 "2008-10-19T20:59:26Z")
> [@MandaJo](#): > > The stereotype of “Soul Food” arose in the 30s and 40s when huge numbers of poor southerners–white and black–left the South and moved to the urban centers of the north to look for work. Actually, the association of fried chicken/watermelon/Blacks is easily found in newspaper articles from the late 1800s. > [@Manda JO](#): > > calling them bucks (a very old, southren racist term implying an over-sexed, animalistic black man)… While the term “buck nigger” is found in the 1800s, it probably wasn’t used in a sexual way until the 1900s. ---
**Author:** ![Soggy\_Biscuit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/278dde/32.png) [@Soggy\_Biscuit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soggy_Biscuit)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2008, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-racism-directed-at-obama/468416/86 "2008-10-19T21:18:00Z")
There was a time when the watermelon was considered mildly poisonous to whites, but safe for blacks to eat. ---
**Author:** ![Ca3799](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9f8e36/32.png) [@Ca3799](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ca3799)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2008, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-racism-directed-at-obama/468416/87 "2008-10-19T21:27:48Z")
> [@Jolly\_Roger](#): > > You know, neither did I and i’m black and from Delaware. We used to drink Hi-C when I was a kid. My folks hated making kool-aid. > > So when people on the SMDB post and call Obama supporters “kool-aid drinkers” is that a racial insult?😕 No, it’s a “you are a cult member” insult referring to the followers of Jim Jones and the incidnet in Guyana where he and his followers committed mass suicide. > **[Jim Jones](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_jones)** > > James Warren Jones (May 13, 1931 – November 18, 1978) was an American cult leader, preacher, and mass murderer who founded and led the Peoples Temple between 1955 and 1978. Jones and the members of his inner circle planned and orchestrated a mass murder–suicide that resulted in the deaths of over 900 people including 304 children, which he described as "revolutionary suicide", a term coined by Huey P. Newton, in his remote jungle commune at Jonestown, Guyana on November 18, 1978, including the... ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2008, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-racism-directed-at-obama/468416/88 "2008-10-19T21:57:41Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > Tsk. Touchy. > > It may be technically correct, but it’s a bit dissonant looking in a political thread if you’re not using it to refer to extreme right-wing views. > > But fair enough. Sorry I offended. It’s not touchy to stand by your words when someone rudely tries to correct you and fails. It’s what most people would do. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2008, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-racism-directed-at-obama/468416/89 "2008-10-19T22:08:34Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > It’s not touchy to stand by your words when someone rudely tries to correct you and fails. It’s what most people would do. I wouldn’t call his post rude. Nor would I disagree with it. While your use of it was, in and of itself, perfectly valid, it does stick out like a sore thumb in a political thread. The word reactionary does have a particular meaning in politics, and it’s not made up. Your post was kind of like someone else using the word liberal when he means a style of 18th century philosophical thought. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2008, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-racism-directed-at-obama/468416/90 "2008-10-19T22:26:37Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > It’s not touchy to stand by your words when someone rudely tries to correct you and fails. It’s what most people would do. **Tamelane** is one of the least rude posters on the boards. And one of the more learned. I didn’t see anything rude about the information offered, or the way in which it was offered. As to failing to correct you on your use of a term which, today, isn’t used much to describe that which you think it described, well, so it goes. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2008, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-racism-directed-at-obama/468416/91 "2008-10-19T22:49:09Z")
> [@Merijeek](#): > > Funny fact - the only time I’ve ever heard the word used that way in the real world was two late-30’s black men talking about high school black kids. At the time the ‘over-sexed’ thing didn’t occur to me, but thinking back to the context, I guess that part was in there too… I’m pretty sure the word “buck” is used by at least one good old boy in the movie **To Kill A Mockingbird** , and possibly the book too, to describe Tom Robinson. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2008, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-racism-directed-at-obama/468416/92 "2008-10-20T00:29:34Z")
> [@Equipoise](#): > > I’m pretty sure the word “buck” is used by at least one good old boy in the movie **To Kill A Mockingbird** , and possibly the book too, to describe Tom Robinson. Oh, I’ve seen it a bazillion times in Harry Turtledove books. I’m talking about real life and in person. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2008, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-racism-directed-at-obama/468416/93 "2008-10-20T01:07:09Z")
> [@Soggy\_Biscuit](#): > > There was a time when the watermelon was considered mildly poisonous to whites, but safe for blacks to eat. I think you’re incorrect, but if you can give me some basis for it, I"ll reconsider. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2008, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-racism-directed-at-obama/468416/94 "2008-10-20T02:06:15Z")
> [@Frank](#): > > I wouldn’t call his post rude. > [@samclem](#): > > **Tamelane** is one of the least rude posters on the boards. And one of the more learned. I didn’t see anything rude about the information offered, or the way in which it was offered. _Blink_ Tsk. Really? As far as the use of the word, it’s hard to say the first definition and literal meaning of a word is wrong, but that’s the SDMB for you, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Soggy\_Biscuit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/278dde/32.png) [@Soggy\_Biscuit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soggy_Biscuit)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2008, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-racism-directed-at-obama/468416/95 "2008-10-20T02:07:48Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > I think you’re incorrect, but if you can give me some basis for it, I"ll reconsider. I may have been victim of an urban legend. I remember being told this long ago, and it jibed with some other stuff people believed in the past (i.e. it was once thought that blacks were immune to malaria), but I’ve done some searching online and I can’t find any references to it. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2008, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-racism-directed-at-obama/468416/96 "2008-10-20T02:11:32Z")
> [@Merijeek](#): > > Oh, I’ve seen it a bazillion times in Harry Turtledove books. I’m talking about real life and in person. > > -Joe Ah, ok, gotcha. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2008, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-racism-directed-at-obama/468416/97 "2008-10-20T02:21:12Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > As far as the use of the word, it’s hard to say the first definition and literal meaning of a word is wrong, but that’s the SDMB for you, I guess. I missed which dictionary you’re suggesting has your use of the word as it’s first meaning. Refresh my memory. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2008, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-racism-directed-at-obama/468416/98 "2008-10-20T02:25:25Z")
> [@Soggy\_Biscuit](#): > > There was a time when the watermelon was considered mildly poisonous to whites, but safe for blacks to eat. Maybe that’s why some people salt it? 😉 Or is that a southern thing too? > [@Ca3799](#): > > No, it’s a “you are a cult member” insult referring to the followers of Jim Jones and the incidnet in Guyana where he and his followers committed mass suicide. > [Jim Jones - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_jones) Actually, it was Flavor Aid. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2008, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-racism-directed-at-obama/468416/99 "2008-10-20T03:45:47Z")
> [@Soggy\_Biscuit](#): > > (i.e. it was once thought that blacks were immune to malaria) [Kernel of truth](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sickle_cell_anemia)? ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2008, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-racism-directed-at-obama/468416/100 "2008-10-20T06:52:11Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > I missed which dictionary you’re suggesting has your use of the word as it’s first meaning. Refresh my memory. That’s because I didn’t say. But since you’re so concerned, the Webster’s Unabridged that I keep on my desk. Would you like to compare penis size and/or urination distance now, sir? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-racism-directed-at-obama/468416.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-racism-directed-at-obama/468416.md?page=6)