# "Obama is a chimp" Tea Party Republican is sorry if anyone was offended by her harmless satire. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 30, 2011, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-is-a-chimp-tea-party-republican-is-sorry-if-anyone-was-offended-by-her-harmless-satire/580320 "2011-04-30T21:53:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2011, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-is-a-chimp-tea-party-republican-is-sorry-if-anyone-was-offended-by-her-harmless-satire/580320/1 "2011-04-30T21:53:13Z")
Marilyn Davenport, a Tea Party supporter and member of the Orange County Republican Party Central Committee (does that sound Commie, or what?), recently sent out an email to some other GOP members with [this picture](http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/President_Obama_Monkeys.jpg) and the comment “Now you know why - No birth certificate.” Now that the predictable shit-storm has descended on her head, including from some Republican officials and former officials who aren’t racist douchebags, she has trotted out the standard I-didn’t-mean-anything-racist-and-I’m-sorry-if-anyone-was-offended-by-my-private-and-humorous-email defense. Obviously knowing the right noises to make in the face of criticism, Davenport’s first refuge was religion, making a good old-fashioned [American appeal to her Christianity](http://www.ocregister.com/news/obama-297230-davenport-racist.html). She also demonstrated a complete obliviousness about what constitutes satire, made a claim that it’s not racist if she didn’t have racism in her heart, and said that none of her black friends had complained about it. > [@](#): > > At the press conference, Davenport read the apology she issued in written form on Monday. It said, in part, “I am an imperfect Christian lady who tries her best to live a Christ-like honoring life. I would never do anything to intentionally harm or berate others regardless of ethnicity.” > > Fielding questions from reporters today, she said she now understood how the email could be considered offensive but that she didn’t find it racist. > > “I considered it to be political satire,” she said. "I did not send it to people I thought would be offended… > > “I think it is only racist when the intent in my heart is racist, and that was not my intent.” > > She said that none of her black friends had complained about the email – but upon questioning, said she had not heard from any of her black friends about it and had not asked any of them what they thought. [And](http://articles.latimes.com/2011/apr/23/local/la-me-banks-20110423) > [@](#): > > “I guess I offended the black people,” she said, before quoting from James 3:2 and Luke 17:3, about trespass and repentance. Is this woman a real person, or is she some sort of Frankenstein created from all the left-over tropes of racist apologia? The Chair of the OC Republican Party, Scott Baugh, [called](http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2011/04/racist_orange_county_republica.php) her email “despicable” and “dripping with racism,” and suggested that she resign. The chair of the California State GOP has echoed that call. She has no intention of stepping down, saying that her constituents support her and have encouraged her to stay put. In a [very tame and even sympathetic interview](http://www.ktla.com/videobeta/?watchId=04097792-1d48-4db0-9810-7839c5440adf) conducted by KTLA, Davenport made clear that, for her, the most distressing and problematic aspect of the whole incident is that someone within the GOP leaked her email to the media. Awesome priorities there, Marilyn! She can hardly claim to be unaware of the ways in which these racist stereotypes work. A couple of years ago, she was a staunch defender of the Mayor of Los Alamitos, who resigned after circulating a picture showing watermelons growing on the White House lawn and quipping that there would be no Easter Egg hunt this year. She also, as former state GOP Chair Michael Schroeder [pointed out](http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2011/04/racist_orange_county_republica.php?page=2), supported “former Newport Beach City Councilman Dick Nichols, who stated that he was voting against putting in more grass at Corona del Mar’s beach because, he said, there were already ‘too many Mexicans on the beach.’” I guess, in Orange County, a Republican and Tea Party stronghold where about 2% of the population is African American, she’s pretty confident of her audience. I debated whether to put this in the Pit, or in MPSIMS. I’m not even especially angry about it; more like sad and resigned. I guess it’s also sort of RO, but i do think that shit like this needs to be called out whenever it happens. Maybe we should just have a single thread where we can add stuff like this as it appears; sort of a compendium thread devoted to clueless racism. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2011, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-is-a-chimp-tea-party-republican-is-sorry-if-anyone-was-offended-by-her-harmless-satire/580320/2 "2011-04-30T22:05:53Z")
Yeah, that’s a sincere apology. I can’t get worked up about this though. It’s business at the same old stand. When people don’t feel the need to apologize for racism, that’s when we should worry. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2011, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-is-a-chimp-tea-party-republican-is-sorry-if-anyone-was-offended-by-her-harmless-satire/580320/3 "2011-04-30T22:12:30Z")
It actually find her response somewhat humorous. It’s just so wrong and ridiculous. I wonder if that’s how Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert feel. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2011, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-is-a-chimp-tea-party-republican-is-sorry-if-anyone-was-offended-by-her-harmless-satire/580320/4 "2011-04-30T22:15:31Z")
If your going to make racist pictures, you could at least spend some time to make the photoshopping looks decent. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2011, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-is-a-chimp-tea-party-republican-is-sorry-if-anyone-was-offended-by-her-harmless-satire/580320/5 "2011-04-30T22:15:37Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > Yeah, that’s a sincere apology. > > I can’t get worked up about this though. It’s business at the same old stand. When people don’t feel the need to apologize for racism, that’s when we should worry. I guess, although it seems to me that her apology is not really “for racism,” _per se_, but an apology to people who might have been offended by her non-racist email. “I’m sorry you took offense” is not really an apology for the thing you did, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2011, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-is-a-chimp-tea-party-republican-is-sorry-if-anyone-was-offended-by-her-harmless-satire/580320/6 "2011-04-30T22:24:53Z")
“I am very sorry you all mistakenly thought it was racist. And next month’s email, with the Kenyan flag and the Mau Mau comments, won’t be either.” ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2011, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-is-a-chimp-tea-party-republican-is-sorry-if-anyone-was-offended-by-her-harmless-satire/580320/7 "2011-04-30T22:24:57Z")
I say let all the racists fly their little freak flags. It’s easier to spot them that way. And how many people think this woman is lying out of her behind when she claims to have black friends. Let alone black friends that aren’t offended by this? I know someone’s going to cry double-standard and mention all the Bush-Chimp comparisons made during his term. It _is_ a double-standard, though I think the racist element of the Tea Partiers have taken it to another level. But so what? If you don’t want to be perceived as racist, don’t do things that make you indistinguishable from racists. It’s long been recognized that drawing any parallel between apes and monkeys with black people is a political MINE FIELD, despite your intentions. So if you do stuff like this and you really aren’t racist, well, you’re still stupid. Neither is a good thing to be. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2011, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-is-a-chimp-tea-party-republican-is-sorry-if-anyone-was-offended-by-her-harmless-satire/580320/8 "2011-04-30T22:53:27Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > .. When people don’t feel the need to apologize for racism, that’s when we should worry. Well, isn’t that already the case? The whole birther thing is racist, because the subtext is that a “black” person can’t be one of “us.” The cognitive dissonance that the guy in the Whitehouse is (half) black must be explained for them in some way. But no one will ever apologize for questioning Obama’s birth in the first place, even after they admit that he was indeed born in the U.S. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2011, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-is-a-chimp-tea-party-republican-is-sorry-if-anyone-was-offended-by-her-harmless-satire/580320/9 "2011-04-30T22:54:19Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > I know someone’s going to cry double-standard and mention all the Bush-Chimp comparisons made during his term. It _is_ a double-standard, though I think the racist element of the Tea Partiers have taken it to another level. But so what? If you don’t want to be perceived as racist, don’t do things that make you indistinguishable from racists. It’s long been recognized that drawing any parallel between apes and monkeys with black people is a political MINE FIELD, despite your intentions. So if you do stuff like this and you really aren’t racist, well, you’re still stupid. Neither is a good thing to be. I think you put it perfectly. Yes, it’s a double standard and hypocritical and whatever, but our society isn’t perfect since we’re all non-perfect humans. So you don’t do some things when talking about blacks that would be OK when talking about whites. Example? Bush in chains with the caption “a slave to his party”? Stupid. Same picture with Obama? Also stupid, and whatever the intentions were, will obviously be interpreted as racist. I don’t think there were racist intentions, but there clearly was a lot of stupidity. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2011, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-is-a-chimp-tea-party-republican-is-sorry-if-anyone-was-offended-by-her-harmless-satire/580320/10 "2011-04-30T23:05:04Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > I know someone’s going to cry double-standard and mention all the Bush-Chimp comparisons made during his term. It _is_ a double-standard, though I think the racist element of the Tea Partiers have taken it to another level. But so what? If you don’t want to be perceived as racist, don’t do things that make you indistinguishable from racists. It’s long been recognized that drawing any parallel between apes and monkeys with black people is a political MINE FIELD, despite your intentions. So if you do stuff like this and you really aren’t racist, well, you’re still stupid. Neither is a good thing to be. I don’t think it is a double standard at all, precisely because of the extent of historical comparisons between apes and black people as a whole. In some ideal world, bereft of this sort of historical context, comparing a white guy to a chimp or monkey and comparing a black guy with a chimp or monkey would have the same cultural meaning, and allowing one while criticizing the other could be seen as a double standard. But we live in a world where this historical context exists, and is incredibly important. For long periods of time, comparisons with lower creatures were used to justify treating black people differently, and while race relations have improved dramatically over the past half-century, it doesn’t erase those earlier comparisons. I tend to agree that it’s good to have chuckle-headed people like this out in the open, where you can see them. I also have no interest in any sort of legal sanctions against the free expression of opinions on matters like this. If someone wants to compare black people to chimps and monkeys, i’m quite happy for them to be ridiculed and derided in the free market of public opinion. But it’s precisely because i believe in free speech that i think it’s appropriate to make clear to people like this that i believe they are bigots and assholes. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2011, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-is-a-chimp-tea-party-republican-is-sorry-if-anyone-was-offended-by-her-harmless-satire/580320/11 "2011-04-30T23:17:20Z")
Dude, you _have_ driven up the 405, right? Orange County is a haven for these KKK bastiches. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2011, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-is-a-chimp-tea-party-republican-is-sorry-if-anyone-was-offended-by-her-harmless-satire/580320/12 "2011-04-30T23:19:47Z")
Ideally, someone should have been standing behind her holding up a sign saying “LIAR” while she gave her disingenuous ‘apology’. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2011, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-is-a-chimp-tea-party-republican-is-sorry-if-anyone-was-offended-by-her-harmless-satire/580320/13 "2011-04-30T23:23:31Z")
> [@](#): > > “I considered it to be political satire,” she said. "I did not send it to people I thought would be offended… > [@](#): > > Davenport made clear that, for her, the most distressing and problematic aspect of the whole incident is that someone within the GOP leaked her email to the media. I think these two lines are the key. There’s probably dozens, if not hundreds, of emails like this being sent around in Tea Party circles. This one just happened to escape. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2011, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-is-a-chimp-tea-party-republican-is-sorry-if-anyone-was-offended-by-her-harmless-satire/580320/14 "2011-05-01T00:05:48Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > Yeah, that’s a sincere apology. > > I can’t get worked up about this though. It’s business at the same old stand. When people don’t feel the need to apologize for racism, that’s when we should worry. I think the apology is just faked sincerity and she knew exactly what she was going for. It’s no surprise or shock anymore. It’s not a big deal either, these days, it’s almost expected. BUT if I were a Dem campaign advisor, I would advise them to dredge this back up when the time presented itself. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2011, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-is-a-chimp-tea-party-republican-is-sorry-if-anyone-was-offended-by-her-harmless-satire/580320/15 "2011-05-01T00:06:51Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > I say let all the racists fly their little freak flags. It’s easier to spot them that way. It’s free ammo for the Dems now. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2011, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-is-a-chimp-tea-party-republican-is-sorry-if-anyone-was-offended-by-her-harmless-satire/580320/16 "2011-05-01T00:24:51Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I think these two lines are the key. There’s probably dozens, if not hundreds, of emails like this being sent around in Tea Party circles. This one just happened to escape. Anyone else remembering Carl Paladino? Look, when the Tea Party (and the GOP, for that matter) are willing to elect (Well, elect in the primaries for state wide office.) someone who sends these sorts of shit emails around and then claim they’re not racist assholes, it makes it pretty hard to believe that the Tea Party and GOP are not, at the most generous interpretation, willing havens for racist assholes. This isn’t surprising. It’s not an isolated incident. It’s not just a few bad eggs in the fringes of the Tea Party movement. It’s part of the central fucking core. Anyone who gives a shit about racism has to remember this in the polling booth. Don’t forget it. Don’t ignore it. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2011, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-is-a-chimp-tea-party-republican-is-sorry-if-anyone-was-offended-by-her-harmless-satire/580320/17 "2011-05-01T00:37:05Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > I guess, although it seems to me that her apology is not really “for racism,” _per se_, but an apology to people who might have been offended by her non-racist email. > > “I’m sorry you took offense” is not really an apology for the thing you did, IMO. “I am so so so sorry this leaked out and I got caught” is most likely ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2011, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-is-a-chimp-tea-party-republican-is-sorry-if-anyone-was-offended-by-her-harmless-satire/580320/18 "2011-05-01T00:41:24Z")
Not to excuse the Tea Party folks who did this, but did anyone ever apologize for calling Bush a ‘chimp’? Or for the various pictures of him in chimp like poses, or photo-shopped as a chimp or with chimps? Why were those ok (and considered both funny AND relevant on this board), but this isn’t? I get that this is more offensive because Obama is black, but it seems a bit of a dual standard to me. ETA: Quick Google search for [Bush Chimp](http://www.google.com/search?q=Bush+chimp&hl=en&prmd=ivnsu&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=aay8TdqhIoa2sAPZptHVBQ&ved=0CCIQsAQ&biw=1920&bih=855). -XT ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2011, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-is-a-chimp-tea-party-republican-is-sorry-if-anyone-was-offended-by-her-harmless-satire/580320/19 "2011-05-01T00:43:44Z")
Wow. Racist, yes, but thats just the beginning, That is one dumb bitch. The, ahem, “satire” doesn’t even make sense logically. Glad she’s exposed herself to be the twat she is and has been kicked off the island. Unbelievable. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2011, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-is-a-chimp-tea-party-republican-is-sorry-if-anyone-was-offended-by-her-harmless-satire/580320/20 "2011-05-01T00:45:16Z")
> [@xtisme](#): > > Not to excuse the Tea Party folks who did this, but did anyone ever apologize for calling Bush a ‘chimp’? Or for the various pictures of him in chimp like poses, or photo-shopped as a chimp or with chimps? Why were those ok (and considered both funny AND relevant on this board), but this isn’t? I get that this is more offensive because Obama is black, but it seems a bit of a dual standard to me. > > -XT Read the thread, then post. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-is-a-chimp-tea-party-republican-is-sorry-if-anyone-was-offended-by-her-harmless-satire/580320.md?page=2)