It does, but to me it really comes across as poor journalism. Personally, I don't find it any different than everything that was done to mock Bush. But this journalist seemed to go out of his way to find the extreme right-wing idiots so that he could have a story when he hints at every other person, including officials and those in attendance, saying there wasn't anything racially motivated about it.
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Hey, mocking Bush? That's different because he's white!shimmy wrote:It does, but to me it really comes across as poor journalism. Personally, I don't find it any different than everything that was done to mock Bush. But this journalist seemed to go out of his way to find the extreme right-wing idiots so that he could have a story when he hints at every other person, including officials and those in attendance, saying there wasn't anything racially motivated about it.
(that's sarcasm)
I was disgusted when I read about the act, but (naively) caught off-guard when I heard people calling it racist.
I just think it's tasteless to be mocking the President of the United States at a state sponsored event. And I think the reaction of the crowd largely stems from political affiliation. And as you dig deeper maybe there's a race element to that, but I don't think the action in and of itself was racially motivated.
But again, I do find it disgusting and tasteless and embarrassing.
I just think it's tasteless to be mocking the President of the United States at a state sponsored event. And I think the reaction of the crowd largely stems from political affiliation. And as you dig deeper maybe there's a race element to that, but I don't think the action in and of itself was racially motivated.
But again, I do find it disgusting and tasteless and embarrassing.
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Bush was mercilessly mocked on TV and just about any other medium. Apparently it's racist to mock Obama but it was fine to mock Bush.
I'm not really a Republican or a Democrat. I just don't think this was really worse than what people said about Bush (or many other presidents).
Just because the target of the mocking is Black, that doesn't make the joke racist.
I'm not really a Republican or a Democrat. I just don't think this was really worse than what people said about Bush (or many other presidents).
Just because the target of the mocking is Black, that doesn't make the joke racist.
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^ Setting aside the issue of whether this was racist or not, the difference here is that this was not a Tea Party event or Move On demonstration or Dixie Chicks concert (talk about real backlash on that one for a singer merely saying she had a sad that Bush was from her home state) or late night comedian on tv; as jstiebel points out this was at a public event paid for by taxpayers where the president was wished ill harm. I'd like to hear of anything similar in the past. Just go through this exercise.... say '12 turned out differently and Mitt Romney won the presidency; Tuffie the Clown does the exact same routine at Romney's expense. Its captured on video. A stick up Romney's butt, other clowns playing with his lips, the voice-over ominously and weirdly saying, "We're gonna smoke you Romney! Romney, we're gonna geetch ya! geetch ya! geetch ya!" To not think this would have raised a stink and investigations as to how Nixon ever allowed such a horrible thing at the Missouri State Fair is beyond reason.
Now as to whether it was indeed racist, I think the jury is out.... not much seems to be known about this guy what his intentions were and I don't think it is quite as clear cut as the atty repping the innocent announcer who got all caught up in this said it was ("you'd have to be brain dead to believe it was not racist"). But the routine described above was just weird with the whole lip thing and and hard to imagine directed against a white president... to deny it to be a distinct possibility is silly and it is easy to see how it may have been racist. Certainly the good old boy from Higginsville who shot the video and posted it on You Tube thought it was and which drove the story initially. Completely disrespectful and inappropriate? Definitely. Racially motivated? Probably.
Now as to whether it was indeed racist, I think the jury is out.... not much seems to be known about this guy what his intentions were and I don't think it is quite as clear cut as the atty repping the innocent announcer who got all caught up in this said it was ("you'd have to be brain dead to believe it was not racist"). But the routine described above was just weird with the whole lip thing and and hard to imagine directed against a white president... to deny it to be a distinct possibility is silly and it is easy to see how it may have been racist. Certainly the good old boy from Higginsville who shot the video and posted it on You Tube thought it was and which drove the story initially. Completely disrespectful and inappropriate? Definitely. Racially motivated? Probably.