Republican staffer emails racist Obama photo

Bigotry is still alive and well in America. It breeds in Washington and infects the whole country.

You don't have to be stupid to do something foolish.  None of us selected our biases nor our fears.  Please try to tolerate the intolerant.  They need toleration as much as any.

Really offensive email, though.

I disagree! I won't tolerate these idiots!

Will our intolerance increase their tolerance?  Will they stop doing offensive things because we threaten them?

We need to make it so that intolerance is embarassing to the intolerant, so that they "lose face" by showing intolerance.  Attacking them only makes them defensive.  (If you have raised teen-agers you know what I mean.)

I'm with you Savo. If it is recognized to be biased and offensive to many the perpetrator is easily aware of it and should not be tolerated.

We do select our biases and fears. We can choose to buy into what we're raised around or we can stand up and think rationally for ourselves.

The way I was brought up, I should not be living the life I do. I walked away from that mindset and choose my own course.

It's a good thing this woman is exposed and shamed. Perhaps it will cause her to reflect and discover where she got her attitudes.

We want to change the way of thinking of the "perpetrator" not just get revenge.  We will only strengthen the attitudes and anger and fear of the sender by taking revenge.  Look how the South treated the freed slaves after the pain and revenge of the Civil War.  All that punishment did nothing to change their way of viewing the former slaves.  It just created the professional haters of the KKK.

EM JAY...Conservatives have been exposing and shaming liberals for yrs and yrs, and has it caused them to reflect and discover where they got their attitudes? NOPE! Does it make them worse? YES! A joke is a joke...let it go! The more you dwell on it, the more of it you will get...it seems liberals can insult or poke fun or say and do anything they want to and about conservatives, but liberals are APPAULED at a simple joke? SHEESH! Get over yourselves!

That's just a joke to you?

I laugh at a lot of twisted humor, but when it comes to making racial humor, you need to part of the crowd to make it or pass it around.

I'm not going to call the media and scream about like a certain Alaska governor, but the impression the Tennessee state rep and her employee made on me is not a good one.

I think you have a point, Larry, but I never thought about it in quite that way.  If we're showing intolerance to someone who is intolerant, are we really any better?  Good question.  Thanks for that.

Since when is firing someone for obviously un-professional and unethical behavior equal to 'revenge'?  People at businesses are fired for this type of crap every day.

Stop the double-standard, GOP.  If you want government to be efficient and ethical and more like private industry, then stop making excuses for behavior like this.   Private industry wouldn't, I can assure you.  At least not the large corporations I worked for.

It is not about revenge, but firing somebody who is obviously racist from a job they should not have! I agree with Sheryl.

Sheryl,

I was not talking about the boss of this unfortunate bigot, I was talking about the attitude of those of us who judge her.  We are the ones seeking revenge and I believe that is counter-productive.  It will just make the problem worse.  Just like insulting and making fun of those who disagree with us politically does nothing to convince them of the error of their ways.  Of course, if we like playing the bully and are trying to intimidate those who are spectators then revenge, insults, and derisive humor are just the thing for the internet.  But playing the bully doesn't solve problems, it makes them worse.

There's a huge difference between maintaining ethics and standards in workplace behavior and changing someone's personal biases, Larry, I agree.  And speaking out about the fact that there should be standards and they should be enforced is important and has nothing whatsoever to do with 'revenge' or 'bullying'. 

Changing the woman's beliefs is a whole other story.  But, I can tell you that losing her job due to her racist behavior will more than likely make her think about what she actually did and take it more seriously next time, whether in a workplace environment or simply in her personal life. 

I would expect it to make her more careful to not be caught or to chance the places she spreads her ideas of "humor" around, yes.  I also agree that workplace standards should be clear and enforced.  But we don't know the situation with regards this woman.  All we know is one thing she did.  Foolish, yes.  Hurtful, yes.  Unacceptable, absolutely.  But there's a good chance that this woman is every bit as moral in other areas as we are and every bit as deserving of retaining her job as we are of retaining ours.  We just don't know.  So to be demanding that she be fired and ignoring everything else that may be true about her case is, on our part, simple revenge for having afronted us.  That is the point I was making and still hope to get across.

Changes in the law CREATE changes in social values - a primary reason that the Culture Wars always involve struggles over legislation.

The most-researched evidence of this has to do with the swift constellation around new norms that accompanied the enactment of the Civil Rights laws of the 1960's.

Researchers found that the same groups of people reported different feelings and different values related to Civil Rights in 1962 and in 1968.

Peter,

(love your name, reminds me of Agatha and Miss Marple.)

I agree that changes in the law create changes in social values.  Look at what the War of Drugs has done to respect for the law.  (Just an example of a law that had an effect quite different from the intended effect.)  But in the case of civil rights law, there were many things happening at that time which contributed to the change in norms.  I was in college at the time studying Sociology (all but dissertation, sigh) and we grad. students, living in the South, paid quite a bit of attention to it.  One suspects that the astute leadership of King and others showed the ugly side of bigotry to the nation in a most graphic way.  One might speculate that such images had as much or more to do with the change of norms than did the change in the law (Brown vs Board of Education).  I also suspect that the Viet Nam war had something to do with attitudes toward Civil Rights.  Nothing like a draft to get one's attention.

// But, I can tell you that losing her job due to her racist behavior will more than likely make her think about what she actually did and take it more seriously next time, whether in a workplace environment or simply in her personal life.//  I disagree.  Losing her job over this sophomoric and racisist "joke" could "prove" to her that the "leebruls" are out to get anyone who's NOT a member of a minority.

Let her keep her job, but counsel her on why the "joke" was so offensive.

Elizabeth, "conservatives have been exposing and shaming liberals"?  I thought it was the other way around.  And the next time you object to Bill Maher doing the same to Rush Limbaugh, don't be surprised if the liberals you know say, "Get over yourself!  It was just a joke!"

Let's see.  Hitler was pretty intolerant.  Yeah.  I guess we should have tolerated him.  Imagine.  He killed millions but if we just tolerated his racism, he would have never known of our disgust and intolerance of his hideous acts.  He could have lived a long and happy life.  It's all our fault he didn't.

R.F. do you really think that the staffer has the power to do harm that Hitler had?  Do you really think that you know this individual well enough as a person to declare that she can never be "reformed" to overcome her intolerance?  Do you think you should have the right to decide her fate based on the tiny amount of information we have?

Larry,

What I think is that there is a slippery slope when it comes to tolerating bigotry.  I can't judge whether or not this particular person can find the error in her/his way, and I don't pretend to make that judgment.  But in general, I believe it is fair and a duty for society and individuals to be intolerant of acts of racism and bigotry.  When we become tolerant of racism we open the door and put out the welcome mat for the next Hitler.  I assure you, there are plenty of people ready and willing to play that role in America.

I quite agree that no one should tolerate bigotry.  I agree that we should all be intolerant of acts of racism and bigotry.  What is that to the point?  My point has been from the beginning that the person who sent the email should be tolerated.  She needs help with her problem (and at this point we really don't know what her problem is.  We know only one symptom of her problem.  We don't know anything about her mind or her understanding.  We really don't.  We can stereotype her and treat her as if she was just like all the other [fill in the blank] people in the world but that doesn't solve any problems.  It might make us feel sanctimonious or "holier than thou" or that we had gotten revenge but that does not set her on the path to a healthier view of other people.

Do you know what the Christians mean by hate the sin and love the sinner?  I think that taking that point of view in this case will help you to understand what I am saying.  From your comments you would appear to think I am saying that bigotry is all right and that is not the case at all.

Sorry, Larry. I have no patience or level of tolerance for bigotry.

Debra, I am pleased that you have no patience or level of tolerance for bigotry.  What does that have to do with my comments above?  Have I said the bigotry is acceptable?  Have I asked you to be patient with discrimination?  Have I asked you to in any way accept the unfairness of the world?  I don't think so.  I can't see any reason why you would think I had done so. I don't understand why you would read that into what I wrote.

that's really offensive. It's also very revelatory. These people look at Obama and do not see a person. They only see a black face and big white eyes. So they do not need to think rationally about policy and legislation.

Why is republican racism such a big surprise?

Hey Don,  I just saw your tagline for the first time.  It's great.

Larry, grain of truth there, attacking these people accomplishes little. But sharing the email widely was fine, it needed to be public.

Deplorable

Interesting; it didn't look racist to me.  Offensive and insulting, but I didn't immediately see how two floating eyes was per se racist.  There is no excuse for it.  None. 

Unbelievable.  What other explanation could you attach to two floating white eyes in a box of black?  Is she commenting on his excessive use of Visene? 

Do you people even KNOW the meaning of the word 'racist'?  And if you do, do you find ANYTHING racist offensive?

On the forum of an online game that I have been playing for years, one of the moderators (at the time only moderators were allowed icons) had an image of two floating eyes that blinked (or did they wink ... I forget).  As far as I can recall there was nothing racist in her postings or moderation.  To me it's the eyes more than the background, so it suggests "Big Brother is watching you."

Yes I do know the meaning of the word, and I do find a lot of racist things offensive.  That photoshopped image of pumpkins growing on the White House lawn was blatantly racist and offensive.  I just don't associate a back background with African Americans. 

Does the context mean anything to you, Christopher?  I guess if I just came across a picture of a black box with white eyes, it wouldn't strike me as particularly meaningful.  Put it in Obama's picture's place in a line-up of American Presidents' pictures/portraits and I kinda get another feeling about the intent, don't you?

What if they had a photo of a monkey instead of George Bush? How come that the only president who is not portrayed as a human on the photo happens to be black?

I'm not disagreeing with the context; the context is to deliberately insult the current President of the United States.  I'm certainly not going to argue that point.  My point was that I saw the floating eyes and saw that as somehow implying he is less than human.  I did not per se take the background as a factor in that determination; black is a common backdrop to make something stand out.  Had the background been dark red it would have been just as insulting to me.

Had George W. Bush been portrayed as a monkey I would have been insulted, but less so than the floating eyes for President Obama.

It is a common practice for liberals (who generally tend to be the most bigoted racists when it comes to those not liberal; just ask any conservative African American) to always play the race card for any reason whatsoever.  There may be a racial motivation in this attack; I just didn't see one on first glance.

"Big brother is watching". Wow racist are pathetic. You guys are losing your collective shit now that a black man is in the white house.

(From Wiki - honestly how can a fictional person protrayed as a white Hitler sort of guy be "racist."  I just don't understand liberals.  Or perhaps they don't understand HISTORY!)

Big Brother is a fictional character in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, the enigmatic dictator of Oceania, a totalitarian state taken to its utmost logical consequence - where the ruling elite ('the Party') wield total power for its own sake over the inhabitants.

In the society that Orwell describes, everyone is under complete surveillance by the authorities, mainly by telescreens. The people are constantly reminded of this by the phrase "Big Brother is watching you", which is the core "truth" of the propaganda system in this state. Big Brother's physical characteristics are intended to resemble Joseph Stalin [citation needed] , although in the film his moustache more closely resembles Adolf Hitler's.

As bigotry is alive, who would have thought that this wouldn't be done by a Republican staff person from Tennessee? 

That's how they are and that what they do.

This is a normal response and should have been expected.

Trust me, Richard, racism is alive and well in places other than Tennessee.  Take it from someone who has, for most of her life, lived within 40 miles of the Aryan Nations compound in Idaho.

The American south is not the only region where you can find such racists... I met many similar people in Minnesota...

Oh come on! Why are conservatives the only ones who are supposed to be able to take a joke?

Did this hack get Geico's permission to use the eyes from their commercial?

Elizabeth since when did the GOP know the difference between a joke and bigotry?

Well, Golly-GOSH! Elizabeth M...

Nobody was talking about political parties till you brought it up here.  This is about personal, societial, and community.  What is acceptable, an it harm none---and what is really unacceptable, because it harms others. 

This is one of those, it ain't cool to do this anywhere--no matter who you are--especially if you're supposed to represent the people.

Fire her.  Today.

I'll agree to fire her when all of you agree to fire Letterman.

Since when are the standards of a government employee equal to the standards of a talk-show host/comedien???????  Honest to god, do you people even know the difference now in the GOP?

Letterman's neither an elected official nor a member of an elected official's staff.  Anything coming from a govrnment employee is seen as having the government's stamp of approval.

Or do you think the government SHOULD approve of such a scurrilous attack on one of its leaders?  What if someone replaced, say, Ronald Reagan's picture with one of Mr. Magoo?  It wouldn't be racist, but it would be just as disrespectful.

Christopher B:  You might need to sharpen up your racist identification policy skills.

Seriously, you don't see the scope of the insult?  Really?  This woman needs to be fired, she would be--in my office.  Not reprimanded***chortle***chortle***with a letter.  I'd like her to meet Prez Obama face to face.  THAT is the beauty of bigotry and racism.  It simply can't stand up to actually getting to know people.

Wilka

I suppose I do need to sharpen up on those skills.  On second though perhaps not.  I'd rather be blissfully ignorant than seeing racial insults in every potential image I see.  I do agree, she should be fired.

The woman should be fired.  Were this to occur in the private sector, a written reprimand would be sufficient for a first offense.  But this is the office of an elected official who is supposed to be representing ALL the people in her district.  This incident casts a shadow on her judgement and her ability to do her job properly.

A person can't be fired for holding those kinds of attitudes and opinions. If that were the case, maybe I wouldn't have to work with a woman who said loudly over the phone in front of me and a gay co-worker, "I don't know what's worse. That my daughter is gay or that she's with a white woman."

She also said to my face that she didn't approve of interracial relationships after she found out my partner is a black man. I took it to the boss and was told I probably took it the wrong way. WTF?

EM Jay - a person certainly CAN be fired for using governmental or company property to desiminate their racial bigotry on the job.  Absolutely. 

Stop making excuses for this woman.  Cut and dry - she should have lost her job with a letter in her file outlining exactly the reasons why for future reference from future employers.

I know that one too, Em Jay. There's not much to be done about it. (Saying it to your face is probably better than a bunch of them discussing how the brothers are selling out and marrying white women while you're sitting there as family, visibly pregnant...

Hey, even I think this one is blatantly racist....

(And that should tell ya something!!)

Good article, Savo.....

Noted, Berf. :-)

One of the factors to be considered is the intent of the picture.  The intent is to diminish the role of the current president.  The way it is being done is to use a picture that is a commentary on his race.  Since it is a comment on his race, it is racist. 

The person who created the picture created a racist commentary, the person forwarding the picture is promoting racist commentary.  If the person who is forwarding the picture works for someone in the United States government, there is tacit approval from the employer, this is an acceptable commentary, since this was done in the workplace.

A reprimand is not enough, fine, suspension, being fired seems much more appropriate.

Excellent discussion of the core issue, Grems.

Thank you Peter.

The only thing worse than being this stupid is expecting others to be stupid enough to accept it. She should be fired and Diane Black replaced in the next election.

"The only thing worse than being this stupid is expecting others to be stupid enough to accept it."

I agree entirely, Sandy.

I call it "arrogant".

Sandy, that was a great way to put it!

The Republican Party will never admit it but this is what makes up the core of the GOP.

It does not make up the core.  But it does make a large "chunk" of the party that most of the party would be really glad if we never saw them ever again.

I agree that the core of the GOP does not include attitudes such as these.  But when you have such a strident "God, guns and gays" message, you shouldn't be surprised if people think you agree with all the hate speech these pinheads produce.

This is the voice of the party. This is how the party operates. This is what the party represents these days. It makes no sense to me why anyone who knows this is still affiliated with that party. It is a choice, just like identifying as a Christian is a choice.

When a person chooses to remain affiliated with groups of ugly people (core or not), I believe that means the person chooses to accept the reputation that goes with that choice. I'm confused by people who continue to support groups that has lost their way and then argue that they are not like those people.

Considering that the GOP currently dominates only in the states of the Old Confederacy, racism and arrogance thrive within the party. 

And since the rascist feelings are entwined with historical diminishment of their financial power, it will take many, many generations to breed this kind of racism out of people.  Slavery may have been banned in the 19th century, but the southern states found many ways to get around it and maintain their economy after the war, well into the 20th century.  Forced labor in work camps/prisons was very prevalent.  They continued to enslave blacks and some could say that our justice system still supports that concept, except now the tables have turned and it's costing society millions and millions of dollars.

I hate to raise the issue, because it suggests that there is an equality of consequences to the slave and the slave-owner, but slavery was devastating to the culture of the South.   

Devastating to individuals, and devastating to the social order.

There has never been an oligarchical, land-monopolizing, hierarchical-sensitive class of slave-owners who exhibited any of the strengths or virtues to which they pretended.

Slavery warps the social fabric in horrifying ways -so that superficial tol;erance and "good manners" try to cover horrifying cruelty and ruthlessness.

And the ability of people to buy into these moral delusions ("the strengths and virtues to which they pretended") and mentally block the reality of the cruelty and ruthlessness is the scariest thing of all, Peter.

Those who condemn the photo have won.

That's just fucked up, all I can say

If I hadn't been told that the last picture in the grid was supposed to represent Obama it would have taken me a while to figure it out.  The intent is pretty clear, even if I'm kind of thick.  Stuff like this reinforces my belief that the GOP's real base is people who resent the wave of social change that swept the US beginning in the 50s.

One thing that gives me hope.  I'm 62.  Most of the people in that demographic are older than I.  The GOP base is shrinking every second.

//If I hadn't been told that the last picture in the grid was supposed to represent Obama it would have taken me a while to figure it out.//  Excuse me?  Given a lineup of pictures of 42 American presidents, you couldn't guess immediately that the 43rd pic was supposed to represent #43?  That koolaid must be delicious.

Like I said, I was a little bit thick.  Visual stuff is rarely obvious to me.

Frankly I dont have the words to begin this picture is totally offecsive is too light of a word the ironic part being logically she should be fired yes but then all the specifics were not stated it got sent to co-workers but was it done at work and dont get me wrong I am not in support of her but if this is the case ironically she is insulting the same positiion which she is trashing for although very disturbing it still is freedom of speech but on the other side of it I am thinking some kind of charge of treason could be more probable I dont know the legalities but she is trying to racially motivate a revolt on the president which leaves the country in a distress when  lets face we are already screwed in more than one way

But honestly the reason she keeps her job is if any of them fires her I can bet she has a lot of skeletons in a closet and in the end alot of people would be changing office  People want to believe racism does not exist whether delusion or blind the plain is it does I mean look at cops being able to profile someone baseed soley on what they look like simply a black person gives them opportunity to pulll over and harass whoever they want and it is legal and trust me resist for your rights and you will pay I have seen it happen time and time again

People have reason they are covering old girl butt I truly believe they are not doing it to protect the 1st admendment  either they have the same views ir they have the need to keep the delusion going that what is really out in the world they need to think it is not real it never is until it happens to you

As far as the one who saw nothing racist in that OMG is all I can say and it is not a matter of seeing racism in everything for some of us it is a very real thing thing we have to deal every day I am a white woman yes it is true when I am alone I have less to fear than when I am with my daiughters father for then I have fear the police and others it is not fair it is not seeing racism everywhere it is REALITY FOR TOO MANY OF US!!!!!!

Even Letterman said his joke was in poor taste, but not this staffer.

It's HUMOR -- get over yourselves. Humorists make fun of all races. Yes -- I said it --- amazing that none of you have ever heard race used in the context of HUMOR. I don't know what planet you're from. You probably never heard of Richard Pryor, Chris Rock, Dice Clay, etc....

Enough with the thought police. The only thing you libs care about is getting your teeth into anything you can to take a swipe at Republicans.

If you want to complain about racism, lets start here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI77cU3jsFs

Or how about this....

“I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion [as a judge] than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.”

Ah, your poor white males, yes you were always oppressed... poor you!

Exactly... I DON'T CARE. Why is it that you guys love race humor against YOURSELF, WHITES and everyone else when it's your own people, but the second a white guys does it.... OMG, CALL IN THE THOUGHT POLICE -- THIS WON'T STAND.

Grow a spine.

I see, you think you deserve my support only because you are white... sorry, I don't like rednecks, to say the least....

CLEARLY, YOU REPUBLICAN HATERS PICK AND CHOOSE WHERE YOU SEE RACISM.

And I could care less about Obama's comments, Sotomayor, or what Chris Rock, Richard Pryor, Dave Chapelle say.... in fact, I welcome it and enjoy it.

Go back to hymietown... you damned interlopers.

Charles,  I love cats, too.  But I don't rely on Rocky Balboa for my philosophy.  :-)

F'ing racist republiSCUM.  The entire human race will be moved forward exponentially on the evolutionary scale the moment the last carcass of those worthless, filthy pieces of dung is fed to the maggots. 

The only racists I see in numbers are liberals -- always playing the race card. Republicans are color blind -- we just don't give a damn one way or the other. Martin Luther King said to judge a person based on the content of their character, not the color of their skin. It just so happens, that LIBERALS scream bloody murder if you do that because they wrongly assume race is at play. The human race will be moved forward when we start having sensible people discussing ideas and not having libtards telling us how to think.

In other words, one can't judge the character of a black person negatively because dumb libtards automatically accuse you of being racist and never entertain the thought that maybe the person in question is indeed lacking.

Clearly, I win. Clarky, you are just a shallow reactionary -- as usual.

Oh, get over it people! It was JUST A JOKE!

Just like all the other jokes (that are a WHOLE LOT WORSE) that come out of the leftists' mouths and no one seems to notice!

I have NEVER once heard of a liberal getting fired or seen any of them give a decent apology for the crap they spew, so just do us all a favor, and crawl back into the hole you guys slithered out of...

Good Grief, Charlie Brown, don't you know sarcasm when you hear it???  What is wrong with you people?

http://patterico.com/2007/03/05/leftist-hate-speech/

The GOP is the party of racism and racist scum, and always will be branded as such, until the pathetic disease of a party is finally buried and gone, which I predict will be within 10-15 years, if not sooner.  The world is soon to be relieved of the republiSCUM curse. 

The surest sign that the GOP is a walking corpse right now is the combination of the FACT that demographics are shifting, and whites will SOON be the minority, and republiCONs are entirely oblivious to the FACT that their party is the party of racists and racism.  Works for me.  Good riddance, asswads!  Don't let the door slam your anus shut on the way out!  LOL!!!

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