Racist?

[Bud Struggle]

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/images/2008/07/13/newyorkercover71408.jpg

Sorry--no bigger picture available. The picture shows Barak Obama as a Muslim and his wife as a Commieista. The American flag is burning in the fireplace.

It's causing a lot of fuss in the US.

[Bud Struggle]

Who are those two people and how could it be considered racist?

I know--it's a bit small. I filled in the backstory--

[bcbm]

I don't think its racist- its taking the piss out of right-wing arguments. But it doesn't seem to be very clear in its satire, as some people really believe all of that shit.

[chimx]

It is designed to be satirical, but it doesn't really do much to undermine stereotypes and misinformation. If anything it adds fuel to the fire.

[Bud Struggle]

Obviously it's not a correct depiction of affairs in the U.S., which would outrage people, but how is it racist?

I dunno, the Blacks in America are all up in arms that Obama and his wife are being typecasts as something other first rate true blue Americans--implying that Blacks arent always good Americans.

[bcbm]

I dunno, the Blacks in America are all up in arms that Obama and his wife are being typecasts as something other first rate true blue Americans--implying that Blacks arent always good Americans.

Which isn't even what the cover is trying to do. Obama's campaign and the usual liberal types have also been up in arms over it, afraid people will take it at face value... which is really the most disturbing part of this whole thing.

[Bud Struggle]

Which isn't even what the cover is trying to do. Obama's campaign and the usual liberal types have also been up in arms over it, afraid people will take it at face value... which is really the most disturbing part of this whole thing.


Which makes it interesting--this wouldn't happen if McCain was lampooned.

[Robert]

Agree with Chimx & Superstar: it's not racist. The problem is it's too clever by half. The editors of that magazine and its readers are Obama sympathizers. They're trying to lampoon a baseless suspicion that the candidate and his wife are Muslim revolutionaries and traitors (note flag in fireplace). But it's back-firing because it's so subtle that it looks genuinely anti-Obama and may be feeding the very hysteria it's trying to control.

It may be trying also to make fun of racists and anti-communists because Michelle is depicted in a 70's-Afro and looks eerily (to me) like Angela Davis of UCLA, former Black Panther and an active member of the Communist Party until 1991, when she was expelled for opposing the coup against Gorbachev.

It's just too complicated IMO to be funny or to make the intended point. Bad move.

[bcbm]

Which makes it interesting--this wouldn't happen if McCain was lampooned.

Probably because McCain isn't being called muslim, flag burner, anti-American, etc, etc. People campaigning for office are more worried about those sorts of smears than anything that could be directed against McCain.

[Kronos]

Good analysis, Robert the Great.

[Bud Struggle]

Reminds me of Kurt Vonnegut's book, Mother Night: "you are what you pretend to be."

[Lost In Translation]

I don't see what the fuss is about, really. The picture wasn't well executed, and sends a lot of mixed messages, but it's not racist...

[Sendo]

Americans take a piece of satire at face value...

I think Mark Twain is rolling somewhere...

[Bud Struggle]

Rush Limbaugh's take on the subject: (not that I agree.)

(me paraphrasing):

"Obama got all upset about this silly New Yorker cartoon.

Well let me ask you... who gets upset about silly cartoons?


...MUSLIMS."

(And Rush just signed a contract for $100 million, upfront....now that's some freakin' Capitalist!)

[ipollux]

I don't think it's as much racist as it is in poor taste. I understand the satire, it's just weak. It's more shock factor than anything, really.

[RHIZOMES]

Rush Limbaugh's take on the subject: (not that I agree.)

(me paraphrasing):

"Obama got all upset about this silly New Yorker cartoon.

Well let me ask you... who gets upset about silly cartoons?


...MUSLIMS."

(And Rush just signed a contract for $100 million, upfront....now that's some freakin' Capitalist!)

Aaah Limbaugh, such a tool.

[JamilD]

I hate what has become of the world today... I would consider myself a communist, but I'm Muslim, and I don't understand why there's such a stereotype on Muslims.

No-one in my family wears a Hijab/Burka, no-one wears a sheik (Not Turbans, not one Muslim wears a Turban), and no-one has ever done anything "bad"!

I get so many racist comments, most of them involving the word "terrorist". And Rush Limbaugh is really annoying me now.

That's why I support Obama, he's moving to Socialized Healthcare...

[Jazzratt]

Rush Limbaugh's take on the subject: (not that I agree.)

(me paraphrasing):

"Obama got all upset about this silly New Yorker cartoon.

Well let me ask you... who gets upset about silly cartoons?


...MUSLIMS."

:lol: Fuck me, that's quite some failure there.

[RedAnarchist]

Rush Limbaugh's take on the subject: (not that I agree.)

(me paraphrasing):

"Obama got all upset about this silly New Yorker cartoon.

Well let me ask you... who gets upset about silly cartoons?


...MUSLIMS."

(And Rush just signed a contract for $100 million, upfront....now that's some freakin' Capitalist!)

He is really dedicated to the scapegoating of Muslims, isn't he?:lol:

[pusher robot]

The Daily Show made the same joke.

[Wanted Man]

Good piece from Kasama:


Furor over New Yorker Cover: What Black Folks Contend With

Posted by Mike E on July 14, 2008
Racist mongering of Obama is the target of The New Yorker’s satire.

by Shine the Path

Lets just say so, straightforward, this is not a piece looking to defend Obama and establish how he is an American, Christian, and loves his country (probably all which is true), but here we are seeking to shine the light and expose White Supremacy as the hegemonic discourse in America. Whatever your thoughts on the Obama campaign per se, hasn’t this campaign been able to show the huge decrypt nature of this system and how a Black man and woman have to twist and turn in the wind in order to be viable for White America.

Today, the new episode of this awful series of racist events that have marked the Obama campaign is the appearance of the new issue of the New Yorker. The title cover is a satirical depiction of all the racist mongering drummed up by white racists and the media about the Obama’s, the concern that Barak Obama is a secret Muslim hiding as a Christian, that Michelle Obama is a radical black nationalist, that they give each other little gestures of black power or terrorist salutes. Google anything I have just said and you’ll find the myriad of fear mongering against Obama that is taken for legitimized discourse.

Even watching CNN today, speaking about the controversy over the cover, they had a man speaking about the absurdity of the claims that Obama is a Muslim radical. He then went on to claim the only concern for Obama should be he is a “Socialist!” No one even said anything to him on CNN, probably out of surprise, but this kind of stuff is spread on the CNN network constantly.

Here is just a clip of Glenn Beck, who has a show on one of the CNN networks.

GMLeamM7Jkk

Or perhaps you can find easily some trolls attacking Michelle Obama for talking about white supremacy as cultural hegemony.

So why has the The New Yorkers’ cover art coming under heavy criticism when it simply is poking fun at all the right-wing racist attacks against the Obamas? Attacks which the Obama campaign had to create their own website to defend themselves from the campaign. They’ve had to tell you his father wasn’t a Muslim, he was an Atheist. That he, himself, didn’t go to a Madrassa. He threw his pastor under the boss for the sake of appearance, had to to denounce Louis Farrakhan, had to tell Black fathers in Bill Cosby-esque “get-your-shit-together” patriarchal uncle tom tone to be personally responsible just to seek the approval of white America. The reason why the Obama camp is trying to squash The New Yorker cover article is to really get rid of race from the agenda of discussion in this campaign altogether. Obama doesn’t want race brought up, and he sees it as only a harmful element in his campaign. So rather than dealing with race and white supremacy, he has only talked about a post-racial society.

When white racists go on a racist campaign against you and its being discussed, its harder to campaign on a platform of “post-racial” society. America is evidently not post-racial, but the Obama campaign has revealed the deep seated white supremacist underpinnings of this system altogether. It didn’t embark on doing that, and is still attempting to avoid, but because they are the legitimate possibility and the likely winners of this presidential campaign, those underpinnings are now around. So even when a liberal-left magazine like The New Yorker publishes a cartoon satirizing the racist depiction of the Obamas’, they are targeted by the Obama camp to “shut the fuck up,” they don’t want to deal with racism in this presidential race.

http://mikeely.wordpress.com/2008/07/14/furor-over-new-yorker-cover-what-black-folks-contend-with/#more-1273

As for the YouTube clip, that was really painful to watch. Are all political pundits in America such demagogic assholes who think their audiences are stupid?

[RedAnarchist]

I think most of the American political pundits are too concerned with looking as liberal or as conservative as possible. They probably see their audiences only as gauges for their popularity.