In the first column, we see Barack Obama holding his head, as if he's got a headache.
The middle column shows 2 politicians, both governors, gesturing outward, not holding anything.
The third column shows a bear holding a slice of watermelon and George Bush holding a little African orphan, grasping his/her head.
That is to say, the outer columns feature hands (or paws) holding something, and in 2 of the 3 pictures, what is held is a black person's head, and in the other what is held is watermelon.
ADDED:
.@annalthouse You forgot to mention that the governors are pointing up, which is code for "uppity." althouse.blogspot.com/2012/07/hands-…
— James Taranto (@jamestaranto) July 7, 2012
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42 comments:
He's not holding his head, he's doing his "Amazing Karnak" impression.
It's a stretch.
Drudge (aka John Peter Zenger reincarnated) was composing the page as an artist. And artists can't always articulate why they do what they do. A lot is intuitive. Some things just look "right". And no, Drudge isn't a latent racist.
I usually buy most of Althouse's Drudge analysis...but not this time.
Must be the wine and heat. Where's edutcher when you need him?
I gotta wonder if Althouse avoids watermelon altogether for fear of racist allusions. Hell, I bought two of 'em in Wisconsin and gave them away.
Sorry Althouse, you're showing your age. The whole black people and Watermelon is such an outdated stereotype no one under 50 gets it, which probably includes Drudge.
The middle column shows 2 politicians, both governors, gesturing outward, not holding anything.
Jerry Brown is in the act of giving the finger to the taxpayers of California. Chistie is obviously ordering one with chilli and onions.
Chistie is obviously ordering one with chilli and onions.
One? I don't think so!
Althouse is seeing something that isn't there. Period.
Me? I love the GWB picture -- and that one where he hugs the girl who lost her mother in 9/11.
There is a depth to the man.
Racist bear
"The whole black people and Watermelon is such an outdated stereotype no one under 50 gets it, which probably includes Drudge."
Ask Dan Rather. He had to apologize for mentioning Obama and watermelon in 2010:
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/geoffrey-dickens/2010/03/08/dan-rather-articulate-obama-couldnt-even-sell-watermelons
So, narcissist do apologize. But, it's usually all about them anyway.
Touché Taranto.
The whole black people and Watermelon is such an outdated stereotype no one under 50 gets it, which probably includes Drudge.
All those stereotypes are just southern food anyway. Does it really say something bad about anyone if you think they like watermellon? I have never gotten that at all.
Watermellon is pretty much amazing in every way. Nothing bad comes of it and that bear is lucky. Lucky!
What I see in the photo of Jerry Brown is the Dictator Hails A Cab pose that you see in statues of everyone from Saddam Hussein to Kim Jong Il.
Chris Cristie? Could be a Nazi salute!!
Obama? It says to me, "if you can't stand the heat, get out of the White House!"
Bears will be bears, and George W. Bush puts his heart into what he believes. Yes, I do miss GWB.
Ask Dan Rather. He had to apologize for mentioning Obama and watermelon in 2010:
Yes, and only people over 50 watch Rather, so it still holds. (People who make their living off of the grievance culture don't count.)
Gov. Brown: "Please give us more free money."
Gov. Christie: "You're going down in November!"
Went with everybody else and picked 3.
The only thing to take away is that everybody but Choom is doing something in which they're being assertive.
Choom is trying to figure a way to snow those people because he sees it ain't working.
ndspinelli said...
Must be the wine and heat.
Couldn't agree more. nd needs to lay off the booze and get out of the sun.
Yeah, this is another one of your "nig" on the jammies moments.
Sometimes, ann, a cigar is just a cigar.
"Ask Dan Rather. He had to apologize for mentioning Obama and watermelon in 2010"
Dan Rather is 81, and his audience is made up of Senior citizens - which rather proves my point.
BTW, am I the only one who thought Dan Rather was dead? Is Walter Cronkite still alive too?
Its a pyramid scheme on its side.. with two of the governors that backed it, point to the head.. while Bush and the Bear.. reference an obscure international connection.. or something.
What i dont see is any analysis of the top shot, Obama drinking a beer with a woman on the campaign trail, not that it matters as this is obviously a nothing to do on a Sat. afternoon post. lol
All I see is GWB being the class act that he is.
The bear is being a bear.
If Obama is ever photographed eating Watermelon, it'll present quite a challenge to the media.
Damn.
Althouse broke the code.
Drudge is how the KKK communicate with each other.
Everyone told him the watermelons would tip it...but would he listen?
Noooooo!
OK, here's my analysis of the piece, IT's all about heat. THe country feeling the heat because of the temperature and the country feeling the heat because of Obama's policies.
"Most people will remember that I tried real heard offset by him drinking a beer, meaning, that's an example of him "trying hard. Christie and Brown are both pointing to him saying it's your fault. ANd he's holding his head because he's feeling the pressure of the summer and the failure of his policies. The bear is feeling the heat of the summer. His eathing of watermelon is simnply incidental to the overall theme of feeling the heat. It might be more racist if it was of a black man eating a watermelon, but the watermelon beaing eaten by a bear in a pool of water, is just a vivid example of feeling the heat.
OH, and George Bush holding the chlds head, could also be viewed as him trying to protect the child from the heat, but also from Obama's policies.
The pointing of hands and the holding of things is an incidental metaphor. The lnking of feeling the heat to Obama's failings as a leader is not.
Or maybe it is. Trying to find some concrete meaning from how Drudge lays out photos is a fools game. THe most you'll get is abstractions and theme and implication, almost never a case where there is a meaning that can be gleaned, merely interpreted. YOur interpretation is as good as mine, and both of us may be finding significance in things Drudge never intened.
I would think that it's more an example of how Drudge is good with layouts, and making your eye move down the page through clever use of placement of pictures. But the pictures themselves don't necessarily mean that much.
Isn't this kind of like finding clues that "Paul is Dead" on the cover of SGt Peppers?
How about the caption Next: head mounted iphone? and underneath is a picture of Obama holding his head? Is that a critique of the idea of a head mounted Iphone by Drudge? Is Obama in pain because he's wearing a head mounted iphone? Maybe Christie is pointing at him because he's wearing a head mounted iphone.
Maybe Bush is recoiling from the idea of a head mounted iphone in the future and is trying to protect the child from that. Maybe Jerry Brown is talking with Obama on his own head mounted iphone. And maybe the bear is just saying "These humans are dumb, I'm just going to eat this tasty watermelon. Man, it's hot!!!"
George Bush is like a Russian bear. No. George Bush wants to eat Africa. No. George Bush is a big man who cradles a small African boy who needs help, kind of like a bear eating a watermelon. No. George Bush is a big man who cradles a small African boy who needs help, and he's enjoying helping the boy, like a bear enjoys a nice helping of watermelon, and the right-wingers have Nazi salutes, or at least right-wing salutes, and the left-winger has a left-wing headache, almost like his African head is being eaten by the big white Republican bears, who are definitely not Communists. Or black for that matter. Wait, the black bear is Obama, who is eating watermelon. Shit, now I got to start over.
George Bush is a big man who cradles a small African boy who needs help, because he's not getting any help from the big black Obama bear, who is a greedy watermelon-eater and has a left-wing headache from all those damn right-wingers.
Yes!
So it's really about school choice in D.C.
Oops, Christie has a right-wing Nazi salute. Jerry Brown is more like, "Help us, Obi-Wan, you're our only hope." That's what I get for not enlarging the picture.
Okay, so the black watermelon-eating bear has a left-wing headache, possibly brain-freeze related, and I am now eating frozen watermelon as I type this, but he's definitely trying to soothe his brain with his left hand, total Commie, and he's under pressure from the needy, like those damn Californians, and he can't help the poor, not like Bush can, so he has a headache, and Christie the right-winger is mocking him with a right-wing finger point. And the Russian Commie bear is eating watermelon! So you're both a racial stereotype and a fucking Commie. Glad we straightened that out.
Glad I voted yes. You dare doubt Althouse on the juxtapositions! She's got mad skills.
See, this is just the sort of underhanded bigotry that Obama fabricated for his memoirs.
The governors are pointing their fingers at Obama, laying the blame for recession, etc...at his door. The bear represents a bearish market, which is only to be expected with the current job numbers. George Bush and his hugging of the child takes us back, nostalgically, to the good old days when we felt like we were in good hands.
OR nothing at all.
Taranto has it right.
It would have been racist if showed a black bear eating watermelon. Far too often, grizzlies are depicted eating campers. This picture works to diminish that harmful stereotype and to add dimension and texture to our image of grizzlies.
"Jerry Brown is in the act of giving the finger to the taxpayers of California. Chistie is obviously ordering one with chilli and onions."
Both Governors are ordering the thing that's gonna kill them.
It would have been racist if showed a black bear eating watermelon.
Oh shit, it's not a black bear? I thought it was a black bear. You're right. It's not black enough. It's a not-quite-black bear. By god these juxtapositions are cruel.
Far too often, grizzlies are depicted eating campers.
Grizzlies! Basketball team. Now we're on to something. Okay, here we go.
A watermelon eating, basketball playing not-quite-black-Obama-bear, who is definitely a Commie, or at least symbolic of Russia, has a headache on the left side of his brain, the thinking part of his brain, and he's rubbing it with his left wing, because he cannot help the poor starving children of Africa, not like George Bush can, don't you want a hug from George Bush? But Bush is so far away, on the far right of the page, across the world in Africa, helping the poor, Christianity, and Obama the basketball-playing, watermelon eating, Russian bear, is stuck on the far left, with a left wing headache, that damn needy Governor of California, who has his hands out, begging, begging, just begging for money, can I have some of that Hollywood money you've been raising, and the right wing one-finger Nazi salute from New Jersy, you think you can help the poor but you're just uppity, that's what you are, and let me google this, yes, you suck at basketball, too. And, wait a second, the New Jersey Nets basketball team has a Russian owner! And he ran for President of Russia! Not sure how that fits. Hold on, the Nets are in Brooklyn now anyway. Skip that last part.
Althouse is correct, Drudge is being mischievious with the watermelon. The grizzlie represents Palin. Christie is pointing at Obama in derision, Brown is beholding him and saying, alas poor Yorick, I knew him well. Bush is holding Obama and saying, there, there, little president, I've been there.
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. Sometimes symmetry is just symmetry.
Drudge is widely recognized for the genius with which he layers meaning into his overall page by the juxtaposition of photo-caps, but in this case, I see artistry, not bigotry.
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