Solving Racism Through Racism - Campaign '08's Going To Be A Blast
Saturday, June 14th, 2008 - 3:34am
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that's the Obama Monkey. You couldn't make it up.
As an aside right now, i'd like to add that I, personally do not approve of the Bush = Monkey stuff either, although obviously, that's not steeped in racial history.
For bonus fun, check out the company's oh-so-naive "We're sorry you're offended" response.
Quote:
We at TheSockObama Co. are saddened that some individuals have chosen to misinterpret our plush toy. It is not, nor has it ever been our objective to hurt, dismay or anger anyone. We guess there is an element of naviete on our part, in that we don't think in terms of myths, fables, fairy tales and folklore. We simply made a casual and affectionate observation one night, and a charming association between a candidate and a toy we had when we were little. We wonder now if this might be a great opportunity to take this moment to really try and transcend still existing racial biases. We think that if we can do this together, maybe it will behoove us a nation and maybe we'll even begin to truly communicate with one another more tenderly, more real even.
Maybe i'm just cynical, but I don't believe for one goddamn second that naviete was involved in this.
Christ, this is going to be a long election season.
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I like this part better.
I can't wait for Fox News to pick this story up and say "Some liberal blog has caused a fury over a cute depiction of Obama".
Somewhere on a deep ocean vent no man has ever seen, God smites a small colony of tube worms because you masturbate.-JoeBedurndurn, on sin
I wouldn't have thought of the racist interpretation for a second if it weren't pointed out explicitly. Either way, ah well.
Kat on Cally wrote:
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I wouldn't either and while I can't speak for you, I can for me and I happened to grow up in a 2/3 white 1/3 hispanic area with a handful of black people, so I wasn't really exposed to that form of racism, but if someone came out with a Bill Richardson plush Bean, I wouldn't doubt for a second that it was racist (having heard hispanic people called beaners my entire life).
I find it reassuring that there's probably a good chunk of people on this board who don't immediately recognize racism (because I think that means it's not on our minds and we're that much closer to eradicating it), but that doesn't mean there aren't still plenty of racists out there and I wouldn't be surprised if this was completely intentional racism.
Fletcher wrote:
Wow. I guess I'm in the minority when first I saw this toy and thought it was cute. Obama + Monkey = Racism didn't even register until it was pointed out.
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I didn't think of it at first either. Kinda like Randal in Clerks 2: "Are you sh*tting me?! Porchmonkey is racist?!"
However, I'm aware of the racist comparisons. It just doesn't usual come to mind for me unless pointed out.
Monkey? But Obama's not Japanese.
Bring it back, porchmonkey 4 life.
Racist toys, jesus.
Same.
Making the comparison between black people and monkeys has a long history in racist iconography. I tried doing a google search for some examples, but unfortunately when I ran a few searches all I found were thousands of links to blogs discussing the current controversy. (My google fu is not good)
It's somewhat on the edge because of the monkey is such a popular image for a lot of other things, but if it wasn't on the edge we wouldn't even be discussing it.
Does that mean that my school was being racist by having monkey bars for kids (some of whom could be black!) to play on during recess?
If they made it a stuffed bear, would people think they were calling Obama a large hairy gay man?
It's a cute toy, people need to calm the hell down.
Has Obama made any sort of statement about it?
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No. But there's no history of caricature of monkey bars used in racist imagery. Context counts. A picture of fried chicken is not associated with racist iconography. A picture of a slice of watermelon is not associated with racism. Yet both are used as elements in racist imagery like that found here.
Had they made an Obama bear I don't think there would have been any issue because traditional racist iconography didn't use the bear.
What if it was a chocolate bear?
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Chocolate and bears together don't have much of a racist context, and it's not inherently racists to compare individuals to animals. We talk about this or that person "having the heart of a lion" or "He's a big bear of a man." Lions and bears aren't associated with any traditional racist iconography. Had American racists not spent decades portraying black people as simians (among other lovely images like the picaninny shots I linked to), there wouldn't be any connection to make now.
They're apparently not going to make it, so my question becomes purely hypothetical:
If there was a simultaneous release of a "McCain Monkey", would the public reaction have been the same? What if they released it later (or someone else did)?
If I'd known it was harmless, I would have killed it myself
Probably not. But it also wouldn't have sold as well as the Obama monkey will sell among a certain segment of the population.
Maybe they should do McCain flip fop sandals.
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McCain kickable bucket?
McCain Clapper?
Being fangoriously devoured by a gelatinous monster.
McCain life alert.
"Help I fell down on my morals and my career and I can't get up!"
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maybe if the released the McCain action figure
"Also, I have four legs and am covered in wool. Baa!" *Legion* reveals his inner furry.
I'm with Funken on this one. Moreover, however oblivious posters here may be of the racist context involved in this latest contraversy, it really isn't up to us. If someone is insulted and has reason to be insulted by historical context, claiming ignorance of that context doesn't diminish the insult. All it does is highlight our particular historical ignorance -- not particularly praiseworthy btw.
This reminds me of a photo ad campaign that ran in Taiwan for about a week. It was for some German made appliance and featured a triumphant Hitler with a caption stating something about German efficiency brings great products.
It didn't take long for the international media to latch onto the extraordinary ignorance of this campaign and how incredibly inappropriate it was. Taiwanese interviewed, however, mentioned that they didn't have a particularly negative view of Hitler and had only a vague historical knowledge of his murdering 6 million Jews.
Claiming ignorance of a cultural or historical context (especially in our own country) of as egregious an insult as the monkey-negro connection isn't a virtue. If anything, the language defending it stinks of "get over it" historical amnesia.
There is only an up or down--up to a man's age-old dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order--or down to the ant heap totalitarianism,... those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course.
Kinda surprised so many people were not aware of this context. I pretty much had the Dave Chappelle reaction.
There is no appropriate analog to McCain because he is white. Whites being in the politically dominant position have no equivalent racial insult. These racial images like black=monkey are designed to enforce a racial hierarchy and illustrate a sort of racial caste system.
But if you must know how hurtful some folks will take this Obama monkey image, imagine, if you will, someone marketing McCain dolls donning white hoods and carrying hangmen's nooses. They are not direct analogs, but they hit similar territory. One enforces a racial heirarchy in which blacks should know their place as inferior creatures to superior whites. The other defines an individual as a monodimensional, genocidal monster.
And yes, it IS that powerful.
There is only an up or down--up to a man's age-old dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order--or down to the ant heap totalitarianism,... those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course.
This all reminds me a bit of the Fox News "Obama's baby mama" Michelle Malkin extravaganza.
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baggachipz: Who cares about Japan, let them have their silly pointless dog games and countless re-hashes of anime-based dragon princess super lucky crapitty crap.
Why is it that whenever someone is aware they're being insensitive (or an asshole) they try to justify it by saying they're "telling it how it is?"
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I liked some comments on a blog that showed a picture of the doll:
"Where's his flag pin?" and
"Is there a female monkey he can terrorist fist bump with?"
I'm ready to believe these people are idiots, but my initial reaction was in the "Chappelle" strain.
I guess this is similar to literary concerns over whether or not an author intended symbolism and meaning. The thing is, just because an artist thinks he's painting "bluish red" doesn't mean he's not painting purple.
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Funny, but to me this is in the same category as when Howard Cosell said, 'Look at that little monkey go' on MNF. Might be racist, might not be.
I don't take it as such, mainly because I don't think of black people as monkeys.
"It's so much easier to suggest solutions when you don't know too much about the problem." - Malcolm Forbes
Yup. My lithmus test is this: whenever someone prefaces something by saying "this may not be the most politically correct thing, but...." you know he's about to say something offensive and thinks of you as a coconspirator.
Also, when white folks say they don't think this Obama = monkey thing is racist because they don't see it that way, it makes me think of my Tennessee dairy farmer friend who uses the N word ALL THE TIME and doesn't consider himself a racist.
There is only an up or down--up to a man's age-old dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order--or down to the ant heap totalitarianism,... those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course.
If we were talking about a journalist or politician being called racist for saying something like "Obama is a clever politician. He fended off Clinton's attacks with the agility of a monkey," I'd come to the guy's defense. Monkeys are well known for their agility and race isn't being invoked.
But here there doesn't seem to be any connection between Obama and a monkey beyond the racist connection.
So when does a racist symbol lose meaning? When everyone forgets that it was racist? If so, why wouldn't it be praiseworthy to have more and more people be ignorant of the racist context?
For example, I'm knowledgeable about the various racist depictions of blacks. I grew up in the South. But doesn't it say something good that I didn't think of that automatically when I saw the Obama monkey, but instead thought "heh, yeah, make fun of the poor guy's ears why don't ya?" That and I thought it was strange to see an Obama monkey doll and not a Bush monkey doll, since old Dubya is a dead ringer for a chimp if I ever saw one.