A racist joke told at a California rodeo targeted First Lady of the United States Michelle Obama. Now it's under scrutiny, and for damn good reason. The blatant racism and hate shown on the far right under the guise of "humor" needs to be pointed out each time it happens, because it's simply unacceptable.
"Playboy is offering Ann Romney $250,000 to pose in the magazine, and the White House is upset about it because National Geographic only offered Michelle Obama $50 to pose for them," said San Luis Obispo County rodeo announcer Ed Kutz.
It's reported that at least one member of the Creston Classic Rodeo has called on him to apologize—and he should. The off-color joke was absolutely unnecessary. Just because it was a rodeo doesn't mean it was okay to make racist quips and anti-political statements. It was tasteless and insulting not only to the First Lady, but to people who were in attendance at the rodeo.
Photo: Wikimedia
Crime analyst and profiler Chelsea Hoffman can be found on The Huffington Post, Chelsea Hoffman: Case to Case and many other outlets. Follow @TheRealChelseaH on Twitter or click here to contact Chelsea directly.
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Comments: 99
I believe that not until all Americans truly disavow the racially biased thought patterns of past generations, and thereby, stand up for equality of all people, we will be relegated to the continued division of our peoples. As a nation of Constitutional laws, which legislates and guarantees equality and justice for all, it is ever American citizens' moral duty to bring such hurtful incidents to light and to denounce all racial denigration and those who espouse such garbage.
Ignoring the incident as though it never happened, for me is assuming the position of a fence walker. A person who does want to see the repulsive ugliness of the occurrance for what it truly is and chooses not to personally get involved. A person who is content, to pretend in their own mind that the incident never actually occurred and if it did, it's best to not discuss the incident for fear, that bringing the incident to the forefront, would only make it/things worse. I would ask, worse for who, certainly not the person or people who were the object of the discriminatory remark, so who ? I'll tell you who, only those who want to pretend to themselves that racism in our modern culture no loner exist.
I would ask all Americans, to consider, what if the joke was directed at you or those of your race or ethnicity, would you be unoffended and just ignore the assault upon your person and your rights as an American ?
Chelsea, once again, Thank you for another thought provoking article.
Good point. And very thought provoking. And one of the thoughts it provokes in me iis that it would probably have been more effective and accepted as a joke if it had been about one of the first children being found inflagrante at the rodeo in an empty horse stall with one of the bronc riders.
Another, more realistic and heartfelt thought it provokes in me iis that the remark was not only racist, insensitive and nasty and should never have been related in front of chilfdren or ladies (and I use the term not simply to describe the women who may have been in attendance but to describe those womwn who are truly ladies) or most men; but it bespeaks a lack or twisting of the moral foundation of the speaker and anyone who laughed at it simply because it put two (not just one) upright women in the position of being seen as someone who would or might be amenable to any slimy outreach by Playboy in any case.
Bad enough to include Mrs. Romney in the joke but to put the First Lady in that position is crass and disrespectful by itself even without the racist aspect of it.
I was referring to a joke someone else made about someone else's daughter a long time ago. Â Many progressives thought it was hilarious at the time so, because of the example those people gave at the time I didn't think it would be a stretch to imagine that even if the adult lady was off limits, perhaps it was still okay (in their minds) or more acceptable (in their minds) to pick on the children.
I was being sarcastic about the original joke by Letterman by couching the current joke in similar terms. Â Your question seemed like the perfect lead in to it. Â +shrug+
Note my next comment: "Another, more realistic and heartfelt thought it provokes in me iis that the remark was not only racist, insensitive and nasty and should never have been related in front of chilfdren or ladies ..."
In fact, I agree that the rest of your comments totally apply to the person (and all who thought it was funny at the time) who made the original joke (along with many others by other people at many different times) about a Palin child, as well as to anyone who would make a serious sexual joke or comment about the First daughters.
Scott H. Sep 18, 2012, 7:15am EDT
Lee
more effective and accepted as a joke if it had been about one of the first children being found inflagrante at the rodeo in an empty horse stall with one of the bronc riders.Â
Your attempt at humor is even more sick than that of the rodeo clown. For you to use the POTUS's daughter as the point of a sexually exploitation/pedophilia joke, is the depth of depravity.
It's people like you, to which my first comment was directed. The only difference being, in addition to your insensitivity in sexist and racial issues, you have also demonstrated yourself to be without any moral decency or personal principles.
A person such as you, who allows their political ideology, to become so mind rendering, that they decend into the realm of satans' abyss, a place where you have gone, is without a doubt, a mentally deficient individual, a person who has loss all sane reasoning.Â
Althought I have reread your comment for the forth time I still can not see how you would have meant the statement in any other way. I will except your explaination as truthful and retract my posted comment.
Why is it always a 'two-wrongs-make-a-right' defense with you people? Why can't you just come out and denounce something that you know is wrong without invoking the memory of some other situation that may or may not have occurred? Is it really that hard?
It would serve you well to do a little research before you open your queen size, bad breath mouth and make another ass of yourself. Had you done so this time. you would have known that I always condemned all such inappropriate speech no matter who it comes from.
As to you even challenging my original posted comment on the article, it demonstrates your inability to see things for what they truly are. Rather than the hostile envirornment surrounding politics and those in the political spectrum as you always seem to do.
Reread my comment and then tell me where I suggested that David Letterman or any other such person who writes, speaks or illustrates pedophilia or child exploitation, as either one, being better than the other.
As opposed to you, a person who is hellbent to turn everything into a political argument, I view all such garbage in speech as just that, garbage. Neither, do I see race, ethnicity, creed, age, genda or political affiliation when it comes to a childs' safety and wellbeing.
For your feeble intelligence, let me state clearly, I am personally offended by racist, sexist and homophobic jokes of any kind regardless of who tells the joke or who the joke is intended to refer to !!!
I know it's hard for you, but just try to keep up with and comprehend that which I posted as a comment to the article.
Without a doubt, the best comment about this matter in the entire post (imho)!
You missed the whole punchline of the supposed joke altogether. Both women were used as the subject of a racist and sexest joke, but the punchline was at the expense of Mrs. Obamas' dignity.
Reread and you will find that the rodeo clown said that Mrs Obama was offered the $50.00 by "National Geographic Magazine" code for and implying that, a person of African decent is worth less than a person of caucasian decent.
If after rereading the remark, you still can not see this as being a blatant racist and sexest remark, then I truly feel sorry for you.
But I don't see anything about race at all as the SAME EXACT joke could have been said about ANY two politician's wives whether they were both white, both black, mix and match, or even green.
"The racist part was saying playboy offered Ann Romney money to appear. That is rude and disrespectful! The whole joke was idiotic!"
And this is what we're dealing with in regard to common sense. Somehow, it wasn't Michelle Obama that was a racial target, it was Ann Romney. Simply stunning.
Well, I'm glad I'm not the only one who picked up on this, and had to wonder, why is it OK to expose black boobies and not white boobies??? As much as I respect & hold in high esteem NG, I kinda figured out the answer...because these (darker)cultures don't hold the same reverence to boobs as their lighter counterparts. The same goes for sex, big difference between black & white perspectives~trust me, I know!
Heck, truth is I'm not even buyin' it from the under 40 bunch.
I also think is a stretch to say "The blatant racism and hate shown on the far right under the guise of "humor" needs to be pointed out each time it happens, because it's simply unacceptable."
It was one loser.
I would not think to say that Democrats were all racists over Senator Lornna Soto's remarks at the DNC.
But then, you'd have to examine whether or not she said it in the first place. Apparently, the accusation was based on hearsay.
I wouldn't call the whole Democratic party racist over this either - another Democrat - she sent a tweet to President Barack Obama urging him to buy the first lady a double-banana sundae and take her to Kenya.
And I wouldn't accuse the entire Democrat party over Zaida “Cucusa†Hernandez’s ugly tweet, either.
Same goes for the party in your second link, and there is some question as to whether she even tweeted the pic.
Regardless, I guess I missed the part where someone said the entire Republican party was racist.
Regardless, I guess I missed the part where someone said the entire Republican party was racist.
It is a pathetic, constant, groundless drumbeat. Needed by the elite democrats to be kept alive.
"Well, they much be republicans since the comments were racist."
So far, it seems like a drum only being beaten by you.
Bullsh*t
African-Americans SEE IT FOR THEMSELVES....is...the....point.
And for you to believe otherwise does not give any particular group--who determines their own political support--credit for their own cultural analysis....
Take the Consider the Democratic Party Website, which FALSELY states:
"For more than 200 years, our party has led the fight for civil rights, health care, Social Security, workers' rights, and women's rights."
They use Woodrow Wilson and FDR as examples but fail to mention that Woodrow Wilson was a complete racist, who screened the KKK movie "The Birth of a Nation" (originally called "The Clansman") at the White House. Woodrow Wilson's daughter, Eleanor Wilson McAdoo, was married to Wilson's Secretary of the Treasury William Gibbs McAdoo, one of the presidential candidate Front-runners at the 1924 Democratic National Convention, also known as the "Klan-Bake," due to the fact that it boasted a large concentration of KKK members. Wilson's prized employee and son-in-law, William Gibbs McAdoo had the support of most the KKK delegates.
After Woodrow Wilson, the Democratic Homepage proudly states, "In the 1930s, Americans turned to Democrats and elected President Franklin Roosevelt to end the Great Depression." FDR, who appointed two segregationalist judges to the United States Supreme Court, including KKK member Hugo Black (Who successfully represented Edwin R. Stephenson, a fellow KKK member who killed a Catholic priest for marrying his daughter to a Catholic Immigrant from Puerto Rico), and spoke at the above mentioned "ClanBake", also created internment camps for Japanese and Italian Americans during WWII. The American citizens were forced to give up their property and move to concentration camps, living in horrible conditions for four years.
The liberal Icon, FDR, also snubbed black athletes after the 1936 Berlin Olympics, although the white American athletes were invited to meet Roosevelt.
Malcolm X recognized the lie.
Malcolm X recognized that the black vote was extremely important; and that is the only reason Democrats were courting the black population.....for their vote.
In his "Chump" speech, Malcolm X said,
"They see that the whites are so evenly divided that every time they vote the race is so close they have to go back and count the votes all over again. And that...which means that any block, any minority that has a block of votes that stick together is in a strategic position. Either way you go, that's who gets it. You're -- You're in a position to determine who will go to the White House and who will stay in the dog house."
Anytime you throw your weight behind a political party that controls two-thirds of the government, and that Party can’t keep the promise that it made to you during election time, and you’re dumb enough to walk around continuing to identify yourself with that Party, you’re not only a chump, but you’re a traitor to your race. - Malcolm X
You should be admitting to completely ignoring my questions and instead offering up a profane, one word, unsubstantial response. But you did that on purpose, because you can't answer my questions about Bill Maher and Janeane Garofalo.
Now you've gone completely off the rails with comments about FDR and Malcolm X, as if that has anything to do with the modern day racism we see from racists today. No matter how much you try to deny that racists on the extreme right are being unfairly accused, they provide the proof to the contrary on a daily basis.
What did I say that was not factual?
Please allow me to ask you a question:
Do you think there is more racism in the Democratic Party or the Republican Party? OR, is there just some stupid racists in America, having nothing to do with party.
And, that, my friend, is why I am trying to explain that this statement is a filthy lie, perpetuated by the elite in the Democrat Party.
Precisely their modus operandi. And a damned and pitiful shame that so many Blacks have succumbed to the deception.
Bullsh*t
"So than you recognize that the Democrats of old were racist?"
And you yet again ignore everything I said and continue to deflect from the original conversation. But then judging from this thread alone, that's all you do is ignore and deflect.
" When did any of the people you named ever claim that all Republicans were racists? Examples?"
Strom Thurmond represents, symbolically, a transition of the so-called racist Democrats--who changed parties and became Republicans.
The point is that Lincoln, today, would have been a Democrat....
IS THE TRUE POINT of your subjective TWIST.....
Additionally, Malcolm X is sort of like a Black Man's Noam Chomsky:
Just like Chomsky sees everything wrong with America, Malcolm X saw his own race as fault-filled and flawed....aside, of course, from seeing the White Race as hopelessly oppressive.
Because every time he counters with his drivel, it shows him up for what, and who, he is; and for what, and who, his political kind is.
" `Tis better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt."