I’d like to think those who dislike Obama simply have differences with him over economic and social policy. I’d like to think that in 2012, people don’t hate based on skin color.
Then I see something like this:
I’d like to think those who dislike Obama simply have differences with him over economic and social policy. I’d like to think that in 2012, people don’t hate based on skin color.
Then I see something like this:
Wow. Wow! Disheartened, angry, sad… over a bumper sticker on the vehicle of an idiot. Ugh!
Bill is this a picture you saw on the internet or something you saw in person? Hard to believe someone would actually put this on their car.
It’s from the Internet, but to me it’s the same problem, whether the sticker is real or someone concocted it online: There are still people out there who would create and advertise this stuff.
So?
At most, you have evidence of one racist idiot. Or of a hoax.
Go reread your post, in which you just tarnished everyone who disagrees with him.
By that standard, every Democrat is a misogynist (see also, Bill Maher).
Why does this matter?
I don’t believe I tarnished everyone who disagrees with Obama. I don’t think everyone who disagrees with him is a racist. Hell, I don’t agree with a lot of what he has done.
I also don’t see this as a Democrat vs. Republican thing. I see this as how people act when they let their politics get the better of them. I get just as disgusted at how people on the left behave, including Maher, who to me is nothing more than a bomb-throwing idiot. I find his anti-religious tirades particularly offensive.
After Hurricane Katrina, people on the left were saying Bush’s racism was the reason for the lackluster federal response. The response was tragically flawed, but for people to chalk it up to racism was outrageous to me. Bush is not a racist. Hell, his secretary of state was an African-American.
Was this a hoax? The picture on FB might have been, but the stickers were real, sold on a site called Stumpy Stickers — an operation that sold a variety of racist stickers. Fortunately, the furor over that FB photo led to that site shutting down. Details here: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/03/dont-re-nig-in-2012-maker-of-racist-anti-obama-sticker-shuts-down-site/
Why does it matter? To me this is an issue of how people express their differences to each other, which is a relevant topic for this blog.
Lori MacVittie made this observation on Facebook:
As I don’t know the people with the car, I can’t make a real judgment – this person may indeed be a racist -but are you sure the sticker was chosen because the owner is racist or because the owner is angry and expressing his anger with mean words? Because people often use harsh, angry, hurtful language when they’re mad to express their feelings and to try to hurt the “other” person – because they feel hurt themselves. That isn’t necessarily an indication the person is racist (or a man/woman hater, or – it just indicates they are angry and hurt. Kids who yell “I hate you” at their parents don’t, but they do feel injured and are lashing out. Same thing happens to adults – it just manifests differently.
One bumper sticker, one name called in anger, one vulgarity does not offer any particular insight into the views of another human being -particularly when such words are yelled in anger.
My response was:
I don’t disagree about that, but when someone puts a sticker on their vehicle with something that’s going to hurt a lot of people, even if only out of anger and not out of raw bigotry, it says something about the person. I see this stuff on the left and right. I thought some of the Bush-bashing bumper stickers were out of control too. But in this case the N-word has been tossed out there, which takes the discussion to a whole new level. How we express our anger is important.
Just wanted to clarify.
Bill, idiots abound. Racism exists on both sides. But this kind of thing is used to throw doubt on people who have honest and real objections to President Obama’s policies, and that is unfortunate. Those who want President Obama to leave office based on sound judgement of his actions as POTUS are seeing more and more that charges of racism are leveled against them. Why? Because of a bumper sticker? Stereoypes are typically lambasted by all unless it fits their world view.
I do agree it’s a problem on both sides. There’s no question people on the left level baseless accusations of racism when they don’t agree with Obama critics. In my mind, though, that picture is more blatantly racist — or at the very least in poor taste.
I too would like to concur with Michael. Frankly, I am sick and tired of personally being accused by the left of being racist simply because I disagree with the President’s policies or his vision for America. It’s pathetic and lazy and ignorant. And it happens all the time.
Discrimination won’t end until we stop endorsing state-sponsored racial inequality–I don’t care if affirmative action is a laudable public policy goal–it treats people based on skin color, not the content of their character, in the paraphrased words of one notable American. In this day, it is laughable that Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act is even considered appropriate, based on things that happened 50+ years ago.