Insensitive speech is nothing new in political arena
I’m Just Saying by Austin Rhodes
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Let’s go ahead and get this out of the way right now.
Under no circumstances may a white person make any comparison or suggestion that a Black person has anything in common with an ape, monkey, orangutan, chimpanzee, gorilla, or Bigfoot.
Furthermore, a white can in no way infer that a Black person likes bananas, swinging in trees, or dancing in front of an organ grinder.
It can’t be done. Ever.
Back in 2008, Marietta barkeep Mike Norman pulled a major league no-no when he decided to market a t-shirt with a picture of Curious George eating a banana (two mistakes in one!) over the slogan Obama ’08.
Shame, shame, shame!
The story made “The Drudge Report,” and it exploded. Apparently, it becomes big news when a nationally known figure is ridiculed in such a way.
I guess Drudge had never heard of the Bush vs. Chimp memes. No one ever fussed about it for sure.
In total, there were more than 20 pictures of the 43rd president being compared to any number of chimpanzees.
A quick Google search also reveals hundreds of comparisons between Curious George and George W. that exist in cyberspace – many of which are genuinely funny.
But that’s okay, because GW is a white guy, and we all know that you can pretty much say whatever you want about white guys. Kinda like the rather interesting caricatures of yours truly once put on social media by an anonymous crank. In one cartoon, he has me wearing a Hitler mustache, a Confederate flag diaper, and leading cavemen in lock-step parade. For good measure, this guy also had three of my co-workers in the same garb in the same picture. In another cartoon, he had me encased in what he calls “Bottled Cracker.” I am in good company on that one as well, he had every white member of the Augusta City Commission in it, along with former Mayor Deke Copenhaver.
Since the artist is supposedly a white guy, I will assume he has nothing against white people in general, he just didn’t like us. Fair enough. But if you are going to start calling folks cracker, don’t claim outrage when other nicknames (and caricatures) are tossed around at you, a few of which might make your skin crawl.
I have waxed long and eloquent through the years about the huge double standard that exists in this country when it comes to political speech and even humorous rhetoric and what those on the left can get away with versus those on the right.
Former Senator Trent Lott was shunned and run out of his Senate leadership position because of a tongue in cheek reference to Strom Thurmond’s former stance on segregation at his 100th birthday party, but Rev. Jesse Jackson was none the worse for the wear when he referred to New York as Hymietown during his 1984 presidential campaign.
Rush Limbaugh was excoriated for running a parody song called “Barack the Magic Negro,” while his critics fail to mention the song’s title and theme was taken from a March 2007 Los Angeles Times opinion column, of the same name by David Ehrenstein, a well-known liberal editorialist.
Dare we mention the pass the late Democrat Senator Robert Byrd got on his days as a member of the Ku Klux Klan.
The Left is replete with examples of duplicity on issues of real racism.
They can dish it out, but God help the Conservative who gives as good as they do.
I say all that, to say this: There is a difference in being outrageous, insensitive, or boorish, and being a genuine racist.
The Marietta bar owner apparently didn’t care if he was labeled a racist, but some of us who frequently shoot the rapids of unpopular speech and insensitive metaphor – that would be me – do object to the label.
Did George W. Bush resemble Curious George? You decide. Did Barack Obama? That is your call. I will venture to say that most of you who actually ponder the question are no more racist than Mother Teresa.
At this point you may be wondering why I have taken the time and effort to discuss the bigotry and animus that has been directed at politicians whose careers played out and largely concluded years ago. Simple. In 2024 many have preached that we have never seen the level of negativity and outright hatred between the partisans that we are seeing right now.
That sermon is wrong. I checked it out.
Virtually every Republican nominee since Goldwater in 1960 has been called a fascist by their detractors and, conversely, every Democrat nominee during those same years has been labeled a socialist. The amplification of multiple media personalities and social media overload certainly make it seem as if 2024 is some type of antagonistic anomaly, but alas when it comes to over-the-top rhetoric and political bigotry, there is, in fact, nothing new under the sun.
Past American presidents and their challengers have 64 years of receipts to prove it.