• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

Racist or not Racist.

Which of these pictures are Racist?

  • Total voters
    49
jallman said:
There is a segment of our society who will never move on because they cannot market their ideas to any sensible body of listeners and so they need the racism crutch to shout down and vilify their opponents. They'll never let it go until it stops working for them which is why I, as one lone person, simply refuse to acknowledge their idiocy any longer.

I wish the rest of the country would do the same.
Click to expand...
I'm with you.
 
jallman said:
So are you of the porch monkey or the yard ape family? :2wave:
Click to expand...
Probably more along the baboon category or even howler variety, I was an energetic little ****.
 
Tucker Case said:
I don't get offended if anyone calls me anything. Whether it is about race or small penis size or my inate stupidity or whatever.
Click to expand...

Neither do I, actually. I'm Jewish (sort of white, sort of...not, I dunno, it's confusing), and it takes a lot more than words to really offend me. More like words spoken by hundreds of people in German outside my window at night. Yeah, that would probably do the trick.

But that's kind of the point, also. I'm not only nowhere close to being in any danger of that, there's no one I come into contact with who harbors any ill will or contempt towards me (except for in "Deliverance" country, of course, but who wants to go there). It's easy to claim to not be offended if insults have no weight behind them. There is no institutionalized racism (overt or covert) for either of us to deal with, so how can you say for sure?
 
Last edited:
LaMidRighter said:
It's all about context. If you are saying that a monkey could do the persons job, or a better job than said person, you are making the distinction that that person is an idiot, or that someone is behaving like a monkey, in other words unruly, I am half spanish, half european other and characterized as caucasian and was called out for "acting like a monkey" all the time by my grandparents, should I take that as a racist statement?
Click to expand...

http://www.debatepolitics.com/polls/44382-racist-not-racist-4.html#post1057937922

(first paragraph).
 
Cardinal said:
Neither do I, actually. I'm Jewish (sort of white, sort of...not, I dunno, it's confusing), and it takes a lot more than words to really offend me. More like words spoken by hundreds of people in German outside my window at night. Yeah, that would probably do the trick.
Click to expand...
Yeah, the Jewish faith has historically taken alot of crap over the millennia, but good point, armed racism is definitely different than the plain variety.

But that's kind of the point, also. I'm not only nowhere close to being in any danger of that, there's no one I come into contact with who harbors any ill will or contempt towards me (except for in "Deliverance" country, of course, who wants to be there).
Click to expand...
I'm surrounded by swamp, well, technically outside of the city I live in and haven't seen it, doesn't mean the whole back area doesn't harbor something, but being X faith or Y race isn't really that bad in the south, most racism here is overt, so at least a person knows where they stand.
It's easy to claim to not be offended if insults have no weight behind them. There is no institutionalized racism (overt or covert) for either of us to deal with, so how can you say for sure?
Click to expand...
I think there is some covert racism out there, whether it is subconscious or known to the practicioner, it's hard to tell in the P.C. age what percentages there are because just about everything is considered racist these days. If someone hates me because of my race, sex, religion, etc. I don't have a problem with it, just put it on the table so that I know what I am dealing with.
Click to expand...
 
I'd say in general neither, as context is needed.

Are you calling Obama a Monkey because he's dumb like a monkey or because Blacks are historically considered such? Then yes.

Are you calling Obama a Monkey because he has big ears and you get a shot of him with his lips in the right way? Then no, its the EXACT same kind of thing as Bush.

Are you calling Obama a Monkey because you think he's an idiot and doing the job a monkey could do? Then no, its the EXACT same kind of thing as Bush.

Intent matters.

Its the same thing as that idiotic Stephen A. Smith started saying this cover was purposefully racist:

lebron-gisele.jpg


cause it depicts the big, angry, black man looking like an ape hording over the white woman. Where as to me, I saw a clever play on the masculenity of a physically amazing person in LeBron with the feminitiy of one of the biggest models juxtaposed in a picture leading one to remember the famous images from King Kong, allowing the viewer to feel a bit of familiarity in the photo. But oh, Kong was an ape, so naturally the entire point of the cover was racists :roll:.
 
Zyphlin said:
I'd say in general neither, as context is needed.

Are you calling Obama a Monkey because he's dumb like a monkey or because Blacks are historically considered such? Then yes.

Are you calling Obama a Monkey because he has big ears and you get a shot of him with his lips in the right way? Then no, its the EXACT same kind of thing as Bush.

Are you calling Obama a Monkey because you think he's an idiot and doing the job a monkey could do? Then no, its the EXACT same kind of thing as Bush.

Intent matters.

Its the same thing as that idiotic Stephen A. Smith started saying this cover was purposefully racist:

lebron-gisele.jpg


cause it depicts the big, angry, black man looking like an ape hording over the white woman. Where as to me, I saw a clever play on the masculenity of a physically amazing person in LeBron with the feminitiy of one of the biggest models juxtaposed in a picture leading one to remember the famous images from King Kong, allowing the viewer to feel a bit of familiarity in the photo. But oh, Kong was an ape, so naturally the entire point of the cover was racists :roll:.
Click to expand...

I remember seeing that photo, thinking how brilliant it was. It portrayed Lebron as an overwhelming force of nature, and the Giselle positively scrumptious, like her dress would just blow away at the slightest breeze. And yes, I remember it caught a lot of flack because the pose was indeed inspired by King Kong. In my opinion it was used for the effect of virility and presence, not so as to state that black people are apes.

Intent does have a place in the topic, as you already pretty much said above.
 
You know, when that cartoon appeared my mother brought it in and showed it to me. I snickered. She asked, "Don't you think that's racist?"

Me: "Why would I think that?"
Her: "Well, it's comparing Obama to a monkey... "
Me: "Did Obama write the stimulus package?"
Her: "Well... I think so."
Me: "Did you assume that because when you saw the picture of the monkey it made you think of Obama immediately?"
Her: "Well, I think it was supposed to."
Me: "Maybe it's not the cartoonist that has racist tendencies then... "
Her: "What did YOU think when you saw it?"
Me: "That the cartoonist was saying a trained monkey could have written the stimulus bill. I actually have no idea who technically wrote the thing. They likened Bush to a monkey all the time, though."
Her: "Yeah, I guess so... but I think it's different now."
Me: "Why should the press put on kid's gloves just because a black man is president? If they can compare Bush to a monkey, they can compare Obama to one - IF that's even what they were doing."
Her: "I guess... It just seems borderline to me."

She then shows the cartoon to my father and asks, "What does make you think immediately?"

He answered (without having heard our conversation), "That a monkey could have written the stimulus package... ?"

She shook her head and said, "Okay, maybe it IS just me... but I really saw it as racist."

I told her I thought she, and plenty of others, were LOOKING for 'racist' things to see, and if you look for racism in everything, you're going to find it all over the place.

Anywho... long story short, Neither of pics are racist. And, I will not tolerate the bull**** 'racist' whining a moment longer in this country. It stopped on Nov. 4th.
 
rivrrat said:
Anywho... long story short, Neither of pics are racist. And, I will not tolerate the bull**** 'racist' whining a moment longer in this country. It stopped on Nov. 4th.
Click to expand...

I think I am gonna start a cause on Facebook.


Join my cause: My tolerance for the racist whining stopped on Nov 4, 2008.
 
talloulou said:
As far as I'm concerned Obama finished it. He got elected. We elected him. An African American person can become anything even President. So it's over. I won't tolerate any more whining, I refuse to walk on egg shells, you don't get to be a victim anymore unless the offense against you is blatant and obvious. We're even steven. It's over. Finished. White people can now just drop the guilt. Put it down and walk away. African American men have now surpassed women. You don't get to whine no more. Done.
Click to expand...

Racism is not finished and Obama being elected does not erase the fact that black folks are still discriminated against. :(

The past should never be forgotten either. It will never be over because it is always there.
 
Here’s an old mans take. I believe that they all are derogatory to a certain age group (mine),but the first one would be considered to have a touch of racism in it.

Now, I hope we can get to the point after that comparing someone to a monkey is just considered derogatory. It took a few decades (in my case at least) but I feel I can spot a dickhead regardless of race.

Oh, by the way rev, congregations on a pretty good thread. Got the ole brain cell kicked into second gear.
 
Technically, humans are primates but…
Black people are compared to monkeys to denote their race is inferior to basically white people, thus Picture A would move toward racist.
Bush is compared to a monkey as a knock on his intelligence not because of his race thus is not racist.
 
peepnklown said:
Black people are compared to monkeys to denote their race is inferior to basically white people, thus Picture A would move toward racist.
Bush is compared to a monkey as a knock on his intelligence not because of his race thus is not racist.
Click to expand...

But what if the person doing the Obama one did it as a knock on his intelligence of economics in regards to the stimulus package? Essentially the same sort of reason for Bush. Why would it be racist?
 
Zyphlin said:
But what if the person doing the Obama one did it as a knock on his intelligence of economics in regards to the stimulus package? Essentially the same sort of reason for Bush. Why would it be racist?
Click to expand...

You can spin any racist comment or epthet to mean something else more innocuous, and I believe that deep down you don't really buy that for a second. (And I'm referring to the Obama/monkey montage -- the political cartoon is just too weird for me to make any sense of).
 
Last edited:
To me it seems those who think it is racist harbor more racist feelings than those who don't
 
Cardinal said:
You can spin any racist comment or epthet to mean something else more innocuous, and I believe that deep down you don't really buy that for a second. (And I'm referring to the Obama/monkey montage -- the political cartoon is just too weird for me to make any sense of).
Click to expand...

I think that people who cry racism over nothing deep down know that it is they who are the real racists.

If that picture invoked any ideas of racism in a person, it's because they were projecting their own ideas onto that of the cartoon.

I know I don't immediately think "black person" when I see a monkey. Why do you? Hmm?
 
jallman said:
I know I don't immediately think "black person" when I see a monkey. Why do you? Hmm?
Click to expand...

Exactly. That's exactly what I was trying to convey to my mother. *I* didn't immediately think "Obama" when I saw the cartoon. But she did. And yet felt that *I* was being racist by finding the cartoon amusing. :lol:
 
While there a lots of interesting perspectives in this thread, what I find most astonishing is that so many people don't seem to know the difference between a monkey and an ape. Either that or they seem to think it's important to make a distinction.

I'm just picky about things like that for some reason.

:rantoff:
 
Kali said:
Racism is not finished and Obama being elected does not erase the fact that black folks are still discriminated against. :(

The past should never be forgotten either. It will never be over because it is always there.
Click to expand...

:baby2:baby1:baby2

I'm over it. :yawn:
 
Grateful Heart said:
While there a lots of interesting perspectives in this thread, what I find most astonishing is that so many people don't seem to know the difference between a monkey and an ape. Either that or they seem to think it's important to make a distinction.

I'm just picky about things like that for some reason.

:rantoff:
Click to expand...

I'm just racist against monkeys, that's all.
 
This all depends on how you look at the pictures. There is too much emphasis on trying to be PC these days...
 
Neither is racist, nor funny for that matter. However, the first picture - and practically any comparison of Obama with a monkey - is something much more complicated and absurd: A comparison for the sake of hoping someone will claim it to be racist, so that the provider of the picture can assure the accuser that it is not, and in fact he or she is the one who is racist. It's a very silly game. Perhaps it is not racist, but it is, intrinsically, much more concerned with race than the Bush comparison, which is not nearly so convoluted (bush r dumb and monkeys r dumb lol).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom