Having not read the thread in question, I read that phrase as racist. Analytically I suspect it was just a habitual dig at Obama without conscious recognition of the comment’s racisistocity, but it does indeed read as racist.
But I’m just a white guy, so what do I know?
Yeah well, my skin is yellower than an Asian person, and I’m white!
Talk about diving into the void of meaninglessness head first. Kudos dinsdale. You win the Nihilist of day award.
*this award goes out to all who work dilligently to rob the universe of meaning. Whether they intend to or not.
For what it’s worth, I seem to remember Shodan having mentioned that his children are adopted and of Asian heritage. Which might mean, depending on the country of origin/ancestry (which I don’t think he’s ever mentioned), that his son might have been moderately dark of complexion to begin with, with a desert tan on top of that. I honestly saw it as a simple descriptor, not a slur at Obama.
^^This right here.
It’s fine. Now, if he had said, “He’s darker than John Boehner!”, well, them’s fightin’ words!
I did not know that, and I know **Shodan **is white, and still figured it was just descriptive. He meant his son is *literally *darker than the president, which is surprising and worthy of comment, because (I thought) his son is genetically European, and Obama is genetically half-European/half-African.
We should not judge a man by the color of his skin, but by his character. Unless we’re, you know, talking about the color of his skin.
It being habitual would make it worse, I’d think. It would mean that the person is so used to having racist thoughts that they don’t notice when they say them aloud. Or say them aloud so much that they no longer notice them.
I can definitely see how the comment would be perceived as racist. Particularly because it doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t make sense as hyperbole, as Obama is not particularly dark. It doesn’t make sense literally, as the differences in the pigments between a light-skinned black man and an overly tan white man are just too different to warrant such comparison. What does make sense if for it to be an allusion to the old racist diatribe already mentioned. I see it similar as calling Obama elitist, which alludes to the old racist term “uppity.”
I aslo don’t get those of you that think that, since the OP is particularly sensitive to racism, that makes his point invalid. If anything, it strengthens it. What is the purpose of avoiding racist speech but to avoid offending people? I guess if the person actually is racist, the purpose may be to try to hide that fact, but othewise? I mean, if it wasn’t for the fact that certain words hurt people of another race (for legitimate reasons, obviously), they wouldn’t be racist.
And please, please don’t fly off at the handle at what you think I meant. I’m not explaining the concept that well, since I can’t think that clearly right now. But please have the decency to try and figure out what I mean, before you start arguing that I am wrong.
Yes, you should have. But good for you for realizing it.
As far as your dislike for Shodan, just out of curiosity, are their any conservative posters on this board who you do like?
For some reason, I have it in my head that his children are Korean. I could be totally making that up, though.
Add another mark in the “neutral descriptor, but a kind of weird one” column.
When my nephew got out of jail a few years back, he was pastier than Bush.
Just recalibrating the sensometers, folks.
They were adopted from South Korea.
How was Shodan’s remark derogatory to the President?
The President is black, so is Shodan’s son. Get over it. That Shodan is a conservative has nothing to do with anything. 'Cept that makes him wrong by default.
I dunno about you, but I like it when people think “white guy” when they think of me. Especially since I’m not really all that pale - it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy to know that when people think of me, my race is what comes immidiately to mind anyway.
The question here is “wait, why are you talking about Obama at all?”
Shodan is a lying, ignorant troll. It’s perfectly reasonable for people to parse his comments based on his track record.
I would imagine that he doesn’t mention the name Obama without forming it into what he thinks is a dig.
I think this is better suited fo In My Humble Opinion. I’ll move it there from The BBQ Pit.
**
Gfactor**
Pit Moderator
It seems that his kids are Korean, not black. But the similarities in skin tone is much more likely, so I am starting to think that he might just have been being literal.
I’m wondering the same thing.
No, I don’t think that’s fair. He’s far from ignorant.
He doesn’t understand basic economics and yet he pontificates about it. Cite.
He also doesn’t appear to understand the broken window fallacy. He’s just not that bright. The fact that he’s smarter than bottom-feeders like Clothahump just makes him seem well informed. 
Sure. But it’s a dick move to do so in that particular thread.
THIS thread, IMO, is a different story.