July 7, 2014

Is depicting the "Obama Presidential Library" as an outhouse racist?

This miniature outrage arrives from Norfolk, Nebraska. A float in a 4th of July Parade had a fake outhouse labeled "Obama Presidential Library" and, standing outside it, a mannequin of a dark-skinned man wearing overalls.

Clearly, this is disrespectful, but there's nothing violent happening, so it doesn't implicate the concerns about presidential safety that bothered me during the 2013 mini-outrage over the rodeo clown who wore an Obama mask.

It's important to be able to express disrespect for the President, and race shouldn't immunize the President from criticism, though it's easy to see the temptation, for at least some Obama supporters, to push back critics by scaring them with accusations of racism.

Yes, it's a bad float, inappropriate for the 4th of July, but the only reason to pay any attention to this — what other bad floats appeared in local parades on the 4th? — is that the accusation of racism has been leveled.

What is racial about an outhouse? Outhouses are associated with poverty, and while there are correlations between poverty and race, the outhouse as a marker of poverty is associated with poor, rural white people. I think of the original iconography of Mountain Dew:
John Brichetto drew the first sketches of the original Mountain Dew bottle labels in 1948, depicting a character known as Willy the Hillbilly shooting at a revenuer fleeing an outhouse with a pig sitting in the corner. Below the illustration is the phrase “by Barney and Ollie”—as in FILLED by Barney and Ollie, a nod to the way a homemade jug of moonshine might be hand filled by the moonshiner. This labeling quirk was carried on until Pepsi Cola entered the picture many years later.
I think of Li'l Abner, the cartoon character:
A priceless rube, Abner was so gullible that he could be tricked by a small child. The loutish Abner typically had no visible means of support, but sometimes earned his livelihood as a "crescent cutter" for the Little Wonder privy company, (later changed to "mattress tester" for the Stunned Ox mattress company.)
Now, let's move on to the overalls. What does it mean that the figure of the President is dressed in overalls? The association is to rural poverty (or rural work), but is it racial?

Thinking about race and overalls, I heard the line "You wear overalls!" What was that? Some recording from the 60s... Ah! I was thinking of Carla Thomas, singing with Otis Redding, in the 1967 song "Tramp." At 0:37, you hear:
You know what, Otis?
What?
You're country.
That's all right.
You're straight from the Georgia woods.
That's good.
You know what? You wear overalls, and big old brogan shoes, and you need a haircut, Tramp.
And, again, as the song is fading out, at 2:42, Thomas harps on those overalls:
You a tramp, Otis. You just a tramp.
That's all right.
You wear overalls. You need a haircut, Baby. Cut off some of that hair off your head. You think you're a lover?
There is zero chance that Thomas's problem with Redding is racial. She's rejecting him because he's country. His retort: That's good.

So I think the float used the iconography of poverty to express the point of view that Obama is utterly lacking in achievement worthy of a presidential library. Maybe you could build an argument that because so many black people have been poor, any depiction of a black person as poor is intended to associate him with black people in general, and that is enough to warrant an accusation of racism. But I think this float belongs in the innocuous category of traditional American disrespect for authority figures.

Looking at it that way, I suddenly see how it might be exactly what is appropriate for the 4th of July:
The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States....

110 comments:

MadisonMan said...

And from whom does it draw criticism? The Nebraska Democratic Party!

Call me when someone without a vested interest in the President's abysmal record gins up the outrage. A single woman (single as lone, not unmarried) is also quoted -- but exactly why does she find the depiction offensive? She doesn't say.

This is a sorry sorry Country indeed if we cannot criticize the President in any way we like to.

madAsHell said...

Could we substitute George Bush in place of Obama?
Yes?.....then it's not racist.

Bob Boyd said...

Would a float depicting Hillary riding a giant beaver into the White House be sexist?

Anonymous said...

As with just about all other cries of racism when it comes to Obama, it's purely reactionary. It's the instinctive reaction of his supporters to cry racism when there's no justification for it.

I would love to hear the ONE woman who was offended and thought this float was racist, to actually explain HOW it was racist.

An outhouse for Obama's Presidential Library is perfect. A shitty presidency with shitty policies. Sums it up well, I think.

George M. Spencer said...

That's crap for groundlings.

Here's a far more interesting Obama story from May 21 of this year....

White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough and National Security Adviser Susan Rice met with a bipartisan delegation of senators late Tuesday for secret talks focused on foreign policy, several sources with knowledge of the discussion told Yahoo News.

Sen. Bob Corker, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, alluded to the meeting on Wednesday, as the panel held a hearing on whether and how to overhaul the signature law of the global war on terrorism.

“I know we both attended sort of a discussion last night that I found to be one of the most bizarre I've attended on Foreign Relations on foreign policy in our country,” Corker said at one point, referring to himself and Sen. Bob Menendez (D.-New Jersey), the committee’s chairman.

“I know several of us were involved in a very bizarre discussion last night. This continues a very bizarre discussion,” Corker said at another point.

The Tennessee Republican did not say where or with whom the meeting took place (or why it was bizarre)."

Wha-?

n.n said...

It's a visual metaphor of climate change if America does not change course. Obama is depicted as the current head of state of degradation.

Heartless Aztec said...

Though your reasoning is correct if searching, I see it as more of a response between rural and urban than of race. Some things just don't translate between those two worlds - never have, never will. But race in American will always be a cudgel there to pick up and use - though that says more about who picks it up than who laid it down.

The Crack Emcee said...

In this country? With it's history? You bet your sweet bippy, it is.

American whites learned nothing from the Nazi experience,...

Elmer Stoup said...

I thought first that the comparison was to a presential library and that other place where reading is done.

Michael in ArchDen said...

I was at a St. Patrick's Day parade in Denver many years ago where a small mountain newspaper used an outhouse on a float to poke fun at the mighty Denver Post. Still makes me chuckle...

LYNNDH said...

Maybe the person depicted is not Obama, but the American public, which is much poorer now.

Anonymous said...

Terrible Reading Comprehension Guy says:

I took it mean that Obama is presiding over a country going down the toilet. You know what else is going down the toilet? An artist's ability to create art without fear of the law: witness the Scarlett Johansson defamation case, where her lawyers are flushing an author's free expression down the toilet. I would like to say I am surprised that Althouse did not make this connection, but sadly I am not.

Curious George said...

EVERYTHING negative to Obama is racist. "Post racial" was "Pre-inauguration"

PB said...

Joliet Prison is currently not being used. Locating it there could also serve the needs of Obama staffers who get incarcerated and need to prepare their defenses.

kjbe said...

Stay classy, Nebraska.

Unknown said...

It has always seemed odd to me that blacks have allowed the president so much advantage by his race. He's only barely noticeably American and hardly any more black than he is American. It's amazing that a chameleon like Obama can excite racial solidarity in anyone. All I see is a cuckoo in the nest.

There were, early on, a few blacks making the same observation. The outrage game pays and so the outrage game is what plays. The rodeo clown flap was just as ridiculous as this one. Obama's race is like reverse Kryptonite but trying to turn this guy into Jackie Robinson just isn't going to fly. It's astonishing that he still has double digit polls.

machine said...

You stay classy San Diego!

Brando said...

Here's one way to determine whether such a display is based on Obama being half black: if this exact same display was used to lampoon a white person, would it make less sense because of their whiteness?

Consider a hypothetical where an impressionist is doing a sendup of Obama and uses slum patois (or Ebonics as some call it) in mimicking him. I'd say that would be pretty racist--partly because Obama of course speaks fine English with no trace of slum accent, and partly because the slum accent used in the impression would make even less sense if the president were white. In other words, the impression was basically mocking the president for his blackness specifically.

(This would be complicated further of course if Obama did speak with a slum lilt, and the impressionist could say he was just trying to accurately mimick the president.)

But outhouses and overalls are staples of rural poverty, both black and white. If anything, such a portrayal unites, rather than divides the races.

Whether the outhouse portrayal is "fair" is another matter--will the Obama presidential papers be deserving of outhouse treatment, or something loftier? Is this portrayal overly partisan? Either way though, to find the racism in this takes a real logical leap, and the Obamaphiles would do well to pass on this one lest they become the boys who cried wolf and eventually desensitize the world from charges of racism.

Brando said...

What exactly is the purpose of a presidential library anyway? Is it a place of scholarly work and research regarding the particular president's tenure? Or is it more a tourist and PR function for the president's supporters to try and bump up their image? I sort of would prefer if the president's papers were managed by the Library of Congress and any PR boosterism were kept separate.

The Drill SGT said...

Althouse, I see it your way I think. The outrage is manufactured and partisan...

For most America if you say "poor white" the image is of "poor rural white hillbilly". See the abuse of West Virginia and Scots-Irish by our betters in the coastal elites. See "American Gothic"

For most America "poor black" means "poor urban black", add "single mother" as an optional label

Sure there are poor urban whites and poor rural blacks (though a lot fewer after the Pigford giveaway, but I see a Rural Obama image as counter to the normal racial and racist image.

SJ said...

For what it is worth, some of my relatives (in rural Ohio) used to keep an outhouse.

The older part of the family lived in the farmhouse. The farmhouse had indoor plumbing installed sometime after the 1950s. (My dad remembers when the plumbing was new, and he was born in '50.)

Another part of the family lived in a newer structure-in-progress at the back end of the farmland. That building didn't get running water supplied to it for a long time. So there is an outhouse there that I used several times in the '90s.

Almost all members of that branch of the family were white-skinned. (Except for a Black in-law, who was a teacher; he was better off than most of that branch of the family.)

When I think "outhouse", I think of poor, rural whites. Possibly because I have never known a poor, rural Black family.

samanthasmom said...

To the Perpetually Aggrieved any criticism of Obama is racist. Or of his wife. Who cares what they think anymore? It's just background noise at this point.

sojerofgod said...

Really if this weren't so serious it would be funny. Or pathetic. Obama's party cries racism at every turn, every criticism of the President or his policy because that's all they've got left. Nobody makes a serious argument on the merits of his actions anymore. They know what he is doing is wrong and indefensible. they just don't care about that.
Party uber alles is the order of the day.

Drago said...

Crack (7/7/14, 8:58 AM): "American whites learned nothing from the Nazi experience,..."

Well, yes we did.

We learned that the dark night of fascism is always descending in the United States and yet lands only in Europe.

We also have learned that cracks islamist pals happily aligned with the nazi's.

Further, we know that the lefties in the US have happily aligned with those same islamists.

And we also know that some white lefties have no problem drawing racist caricatures of blacks who don't toe the "crack line" on policy issues.

http://www.conservativedailynews.com/2012/11/flashback-do-you-remember-those-racist-condi-rice-cartoons/screen-shot-2012-11-24-at-5-34-52-pm/

The circle will be complete as soon as crack offers up his latest hilariously pathetic defense of white leftist cartoonists creating racist cartoons against blacks.

in 3, 2, 1....

paul a'barge said...

It's important to distinguish between disrespect for Barack Obama and disrespect for the office of the US President.

Here is your hand guide:
1. Disrespect for Obama - who could possibly respect this man? He is the chief clown in the clown car.

2. Disrespect for the office of the US Presidency - guess who is the chief disrespecter of the Presidency. Oops. Yep. You guessed it: Barack Obama. See #1.

paul a'barge said...

By the way, guess where Obama pooped during the many years he grew up in Indonesia?

Yep. You guessed it. An Outhouse.

donald said...

Crack is whack.

Insufficiently Sensitive said...

the outhouse as a marker of poverty is associated with poor, rural white people.

I think the author of that appraisal should learn more about life outside the ivory tower. It appears her knowledge base is limited to Lil' Abner comics.

Whereas the outhouse, whether or not as a marker of poverty, is an equal-opportunity, racially neutral, affordable solution to human waste disposal in distant rural-agricultural locations.

traditionalguy said...

Maybe that was the float entered by Joan Rivers. Can't people enjoy a laugh about Obama's horrible reality anymore?

Obama has smugly arranged a children's invasion from central America, a crippling of the Electrical generation system of the country by EPA to stop faked co2 pollution, and last week set in place new EPA regulatory authority that will stop farmers from using water without permission.

So creating a sick and starving third world peasant colony here must be Obama's goal.

MadisonMan said...

American whites learned nothing from the Nazi experience,...

I imagine someone doing this kind of thing in the mid-1930s, with Hitler on an outhouse, in a parade.

I suspect the outcome then would have been different.

John henry said...

Madashell asked:

Could we substitute George Bush in place of Obama?

Yes?.....then it's not racist.


Been there, done that.

Moe Lane has a picture of an outhouse/Bush Presidential Library on his site today.

The Bush pic was an editorial cartoon from Mike Lukovitch, Atlant Journal Constitution, 11/29/06

Good for the goose, good for the gander.

See it at

http://moelane.com/2014/07/07/outhouse-presidential-library-george-w-bush-barack-obama-racism/

John Henry

tim in vermont said...

No. Next question.

Left Bank of the Charles said...

Depicting the Obama Presidential Iowa as a Nebraska outhouse is racist. Depicting it as an Iowa outhouse would, of course, have been a very high compliment.

tim in vermont said...

"I suspect the outcome then would have been different"

That zing sound you heard was this comment going right over somebody's head.

Fernandinande said...

The Nebraska Democratic Party also issued a statement...

At least they're predictable.

The float was a good idea because the Obama library and an outhouse will contain the same ...stuff.

tim in vermont said...

If a person may not be criticized, that person does not meet the nation's needs for a President of the United States.

JSF said...

Crack, going full Godwin at 8 AM.

All because his wife ran away with his best friend and he still harbors anger for that.

And what a way to make friends, call names and blame them for something that never occurred in their lifetimes (save for Africa and the Arab countries)

n.n said...

Outhouse in the village. Port-a-potty in the city. It's about environmental awareness. Specifically about liberal waste... of water.

The Crack Emcee said...

After hundreds of years of KILLING us, when they say "We're just plain'!", whites expect us to trust their word.

To understand THEIR desire - for freedom.

How cruel is that to their victims? Is "How callous can whites get?" a contest in their culture?

And how stupid is it? Why not check themselves? How difficult is it for whites to find their humanity? To understand how important it is to their character?

They love quoting MLK's line about character, but they only use it to judge others - when King was also talking about how WHITES are looked at - and, from THAT viewpoint, they fail miserably.

Whites look like murderous monsters - literally - whether they accept the portrayal or not. And changing that perception is only up to them.

No one else can do it for them,...

lemondog said...

Bush floats

lemondog said...

Obama Outhouse not original:

Bush Outhouse

The Crack Emcee said...

Eustace Chilke,

"It has always seemed odd to me that blacks have allowed the president so much advantage by his race. He's only barely noticeably American and hardly any more black than he is American."

Does it seem strange because whites made these racial constructs? That - before they decided different - Italians, Jews, and the Irish weren't "white"? "Odd" no?

It's not blacks or Obama who "allowed" this, it's those who thought it was a good idea to begin with,...

MathMom said...

Brando -

Obama speaks fine English without a trace of a slum accent?

Dude. This video clip shows Barack can pander to the "ignant" whenever necessary.

I am offended for these suckers, because they want to believe in the charlatan so much that they do not consult a freaking calendar and use their brains, and discover that the events in Selma didn't happen until some years after Obama came down among us from the heavenly realms.

They are being had by one of their own.

The minute or two before it gets really thick will give you time to don your hip waders, because you will be wading through Grade A Bullshit by the end of his speech.

lemondog said...

Oo, oo.....does O have picture perfect toilet paper?

John henry said...

Crack said:

After hundreds of years of KILLING us, when they say "We're just plain'!", whites expect us to trust their word.

How many blacks have been killed by whites in the US? How many by other blacks US? You can pick the time period. past 50 years? Past 150? Past 250?

How many blacks have been killed by blacks in the Congo in the past 10 years? I've seen numbers as high as 6 million.

So much for black solidarity.

I have no idea what this has to do with the Obama presidential outhouse. Or the Bush Presidential Outhouse either. Talk about threadjacking. Wow! This is outlandish even for you, Crack.

John Henry

garage mahal said...

Obama has smugly arranged a children's invasion from central America, a crippling of the Electrical generation system of the country by EPA to stop faked co2 pollution, and last week set in place new EPA regulatory authority that will stop farmers from using water without permission.

Hahaha. Picture perfect wingnuttia right there.

RonF said...

Of course it's racist. It criticizes President Obama, doesn't it? Well, then, it has to be racist.

RonF said...

Of course it's racist. It criticizes President Obama, doesn't it? Well, then, it has to be racist.

RonF said...

madAsHell, #3:

"Could we substitute George Bush in place of Obama? Yes?.....then it's not racist."

Nope. Not according to the left. Obama was once depicted as an ape. This was proclaimed to be outrageously racist. I pointed out - with pictures - that George Bush and even Presidents as far back as Lincoln had been so depicted. No good, I was told. It wasn't racist to present them as such because they are white. But because Obama's black, it's racist.

Sebastian said...

It's not hard.

Anything that can be construed as racist, will be.

(Anything that serves the progressive cause, of course.)

MountainMan said...

I have lived my entire life in GA, TX, and TN, with most of that in TN. I think anywhere across the South if you draw an association with an outhouse it is to Ozark or Appalachian hillbillies - along with shotguns, moonshine stills, overalls, and ZZ Top beards. Blacks in Appalachia are an extremely low percentage of the popultion and outside the larger cities and towns non-existent. It's one of the whitest places in America. I would say where I live here in northeast TN we probably have more Asians or Latinos than we do African-Americans. In fact, in the office complex where i work (700-800 people) of the 5 blacks I deal with on a regular basis one is from SC, one from LA, and the other three are from Nigeria, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. And I interact more with Chinese and Indians every day than I do with anyone that is black. The outhouse on the float, I think, is a comment on the library and its contents, not anything to do with Obama's race. At least that is my view from Hillbillyland.

chillblaine said...

The idea of an Obama Presidential Library is ludicrous. Will it contain his college transcripts? The reason he surrendered his law license? The suppressed Rashid Khalidi video? Pretty thin gruel.

tim in vermont said...

Basically, it turns out, everything you criticized Dukakis for, as a candidate and a liberal, for example, and the reason you didn't vote for him? Well, it was because Obama was black.

tim in vermont said...

Maybe Democrats can present a list of acceptable metaphors to use to criticize the President?

This is about Democrat will to power, nothing else.

exhelodrvr1 said...

Duh!! It's supposed to be a compliment - outhouses are green!! Totally in keeping with his pro-environmental policies!!

donald said...

Crack Mahal.

Mr. D said...

Variation on the joke that Clinton's presidential library was going to be an adult book store.

Anonymous said...

The Obama Library will house a collection of crashed hard drives which formerly contained his official correspondence.

The Crack Emcee said...

John,

"I have no idea what this has to do with the Obama presidential outhouse. Or the Bush Presidential Outhouse either."

"This" is whites joking around, and ignoring how they look, after centuries of exploiting and killing people for the color of their skin. That's what disgusted me during Trayvon - the callousness of whites, laughing at his parents, while misunderstanding everything they saw - and it continues to be their M.O.:

Make fun of those they've historically oppressed.

It's funny they're poor - because whites made them that way - laugh it up!

It's hilarious the first black president doesn't meet their standards - racist whites never thought he would and, even said they hope he fails, and tried to help - everybody gather 'round!

It's a real knee-slapper that anyone could think this country has to change fundamentally - when it's never come close to being what it claims it is - you'll scream so hard you can't breathe!

Fuck this - the Germans keep reminders of what they've done in their faces - that's what American whites need, nationally. Laws aren't enough. They don't get it.

Pointing at others isn't going to change history,...

Humperdink said...

Crack-O-Matic said: "After hundreds of years of KILLING us, when they say "We're just plain'!", whites expect us to trust their word."

In other news, 60 people were shot in Chicago over the holiday weekend.

Ann Althouse said...

"ROY AND ABO BOTH woke up with bad headaches, and along with Kezia stayed in Kendu for another day. In slightly better shape, I decided to make the trip back to Home Squared with Sayid and Bernard by bus, a decision I soon regretted. We had to stand for most of the way, our heads forced down by the bus’s low roof. To make matters worse, I’d come down with a case of the runs. My stomach lurched with every bump. My head throbbed with each wayward turn. And so it was in a cautious trot that I first appeared to Granny and Auma upon our return, offering them a curt wave before racing across the backyard, around an errant cow, and into the outhouse.

"Twenty minutes later I emerged, blinking like a prisoner in the light of the early afternoon. The women were gathered on straw mats under the shade of a mango tree while Granny braided Auma’s hair and Zeituni braided the hair of a neighbor’s girl."

Obama, Barack (2007-01-09). Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance (Kindle Locations 6929-6936). Random House, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

iowan2 said...

Who cares?

Or to quote a more scholarly person
"What difference at this point does it make?"

Titus said...

It's ok, it is rural Nebraska....they have an excuse.

Titus said...

There is a democratic party in Nebraska?

The Crack Emcee said...

Ann Althouse,

"And so it was in a cautious trot that I first appeared to Granny and Auma upon our return, offering them a curt wave before racing across the backyard, around an errant cow, and into the outhouse."

What that has to do with American whites, killing blacks for centuries and now expecting us to understand them teasing us, I don't know.

What part of "STOP" don't whites understand?

Clyde said...

The Obama Presidential Library should be symbolized by an empty table in front of an empty chair.

tim in vermont said...

Isn't Auntie Zeituni the one the millionaire Obama allows to live in public housing in Boston?

I guess she was good enough to use for a cameo in his bestseller though.

southcentralpa said...

Sweet fancy Moses. About the only way you could've overthought this whole issue more is to have parsed out whether the teen girl overall craze from the 80s was somehow germane. ("Is depicting the incumbent Presidents as a high schooler sqealing over Duran Duran racial ...")

I would strongly urge you avert your eyes when they show Fasching floats featuring the incumbent President from Muenchen ...

hombre said...

Crack: "Fuck this - the Germans keep reminders of what they've done in their faces - that's what American whites need, nationally. Laws aren't enough. They don't get it."

Is there some pretext by someone that this puling race baiter actually has something to add to the conversation?

hombre said...

"What is racial about an outhouse? Outhouses are associated with poverty, ...."

Oh, come on. Outhouses are associated with shit. The outhouse theme is similar to: "The seepage from the sewer that is the Obama White House" if used to describe the evidence of ongoing corruption and scandal generated by the Administration.

The Crack Emcee said...

“‘Away with it,’ said some members of parliament. Others said, ‘That too belongs to our history,’” recalled Rita Süssmuth, a doyen of German postwar politics and the president of the parliament at the time. “Some said, ‘No way, we can’t let ourselves be humiliated again. This is over, and it mustn’t become visible again.’ They were more on the right, but all the way through [the political spectrum]. ... But I always said that this makes us stronger, not weaker. It makes humanity stronger.”

Known Unknown said...

If I were President, I would forgo the library and open up my own Presidential Amusement Park.

Ann Althouse said...

"What that has to do with American whites, killing blacks for centuries and now expecting us to understand them teasing us, I don't know."

It's just the passage from his memoir that has an outhouse, which someone upthread referred to (and placed in Indonesia).

donald said...

Nope Hombre. Not at all? Just some dimwit trying to matter and being indulged by some hippy dippy nice old lady who thinks she's down wit the peeps.

Matt said...

"What that has to do with American whites, killing blacks for centuries and now expecting us to understand them teasing us, I don't know."

Who's this "us"? The float teases Barack Obama. Are we not allowed to criticize the President, especially his competence? In this case, I have no idea why anybody other than the President should take it, well, personally.

The Crack Emcee said...

Ann,

Sorry. I'm so used to whites changing the subject to Africa, as a distraction, I almost forgot someone could do it innocently.

I used an outhouse as a child, in Texas, and they were always seen as a symbol of white America's South Africa-style enforced poverty. Just as ghettos are and all the rest are.

Everything could be different, if whites wanted it, but they need to laugh at others instead. Their laughter at someone they've historically abused is, presumably, the highest ambition they hold. Despite all their accomplishments, they're still so inwardly small and petty that to stop harassing "people of color" - simply to stop the cycle - is unimaginable.

Who are white people, and what is white culture, if they're not using it to bother someone?

Disrespecting the first black president doesn't fit with Republican ambitions, intentions, or history, and yet some racist keeps thinking it's a good idea to keep "the party that freed the slaves" involved in it. They sully the grandeur of the country's moment, AND the traditional conservative principle of respecting the office, when doing so - and, at the same time, think they wear a cloak of invisibility when publicly breaking their most supposedly-deeply-held principles. Racists never have, and they never will.

In case no one's noticed, this heading-into-America's-future stuff is becoming serious business, so what could white wise-cracks add to this important discussion but forever reminding others of what awful "fellow citizens" American whites have been so far?

Their actions won't bring a single new voter to the Right side of the aisle.

And BTW - TWB @ 8:40,

Until white people understand they're moving through HISTORY - so there's a 400 year CONTEXT for their sections - they'll continue falling into the traps their racist ancestors set for them, which blacks understand (and have had to internalize) while y'all "don't even THINK about race." That dismissive attitude, towards one of America's most oppressed people and one of her most important issues, now puts whites at a distinct cultural disadvantage.

Capishe?





jr565 said...

It may be insensitive to call the library an outhouse, but how would it be racist?
And is same outhouse that Larry Flynt said Falwell had sex with his mother in.
That was ok, even funny! Ed Norton and Wood Harrelson will be in a movie about that outhouse comment talking about how it's freedom of speech and Larry Flynt is a hero! But this? R A C I S M!

Sometimes I think the left just inserts the word racist mad lib style into any argument they have about their opponent when they can't think of an adequate word to describe how they are mad at a comment.

Michael said...

Two old farmers, white farmers, are sitting in a two holer out-house in the country. One man finishes his business and when he stands up some change falls out of his pocket and down in the hole. He calmly pulls on his overalls and then reaches into his pocket and extracts a hundred dollar bill which he drops into the latrine. What in the hell did you do that for, the other fellow exclaims.

I am not going down there for thirty five cents, he replies.

jr565 said...

TWB wrote:
I would love to hear the ONE woman who was offended and thought this float was racist, to actually explain HOW it was racist.

This reminds me of the case from a few years ago where the college student got accused of racism because he called a black woman a water buffalo. How is that racist? Would it be racist if some liberal called Ann Coulter Horse face? She has a longish face! it would not be the first time I heard the word horse face and Ann Coulter in the same sentence.
Would it be insulting? Yes. But racist? Or sexist? How? What does a horse have to do with Ann Coulters race or sex?

Gahrie said...

I used an outhouse as a child, in Texas, and they were always seen as a symbol of white America's South Africa-style enforced poverty. Just as ghettos are and all the rest are.

Everything, literally everything is seen as "a symbol of white America's South Africa-style enforced poverty" by pathetic, race-obsessed hustlers like you Crack.....that's why you will never accomplish anything.

Gahrie said...

That's what disgusted me during Trayvon - the callousness of whites, laughing at his parents

Bullshit. Who was laughing at them? Cite some evidence.

I was angry at them, for doing a crappy job at raising their son, and sad for them because they lost their son...but I never once laughed or heard anyone else laugh.

Evidence asshole.

sakredkow said...

Is that kind of stupidity and offensiveness supposed to be mitigated by the fact that the conservative Republican perpetrators didn't intend for it to be racist (or so some of you say)?

If the GOP establishment is so crippled that it has to use these poor idiots as a belt to hold up their pants, then screw 'em. They deserve their demise.

jr565 said...

It's racist because it uses racial code words. You see the word "outhouse" is actually a stand in for the N word. Because back in the day blacks used outhouses, and you do number two in outhouses. And number two is dark and dirty just like black folks. Also, number two is behind number 1, so it signifies that blacks are always going to be behind whites who are number 1.


And.. ok, I just made that up. I have no idea why calling the presidential library an outhouse would be racist.
I think what the float is saying is that Obama is full of shit, just like an outhouse. and so his library would be the equivalent of an outhouse full of Obama's shit.

Can you call the president full of shit? Of course you can.

jr565 said...

Drago wrote:
Further, we know that the lefties in the US have happily aligned with those same islamists.

We also know that the lefties only turned on Hitler when he stabbed Russia in the back by breaking the pact.

jr565 said...

Crack wrote:

And how stupid is it? Why not check themselves? How difficult is it for whites to find their humanity? To understand how important it is to their character?

You better check yourself
before you wreck yourself....

jr565 said...

Crack wrote:
They love quoting MLK's line about character, but they only use it to judge others - when King was also talking about how WHITES are looked at - and, from THAT viewpoint, they fail miserably.

Judge people by the content of their character not color of skin.It's either true or it isn't. If it is then you're wrong since you are judging the whole white population on the color of their skin.
ANd if it isn't, then why would you expect whites to judge you by anything but the color of your skin?

jr565 said...

Crack Emcee wrote:
I used an outhouse as a child, in Texas, and they were always seen as a symbol of white America's South Africa-style enforced poverty. Just as ghettos are and all the rest are.

They were also seen as bathrooms for when we used to not have plumbing and so people took dumps in them so they weren't taking dumps in the house.

MathMom said...

I used an outhouse and chamber pots at my German Grandma's house in Nebraska. There was no running water in the house. My mom, who, being German, is white, grew up without running water, using an outhouse. Many of my Nebraska uncles and aunts had outhouses, and we were mighty happy to visit the ones with indoor plumbing when I was a kid.

My husband who grew up in rural Nebraska 10 miles from where my mother grew up used an outhouse until he went to college. The house he grew up in had indoor plumbing, but only one toilet, so with six kids, the outhouse was in constant use.

You don't have to be poor or black to use an outhouse, and it's a helluva lot better than in the Middle East, where they just squat by the road and crap. By comparison, an outhouse is a luxury.

jr565 said...

"You don't have to be poor or black to use an outhouse, and it's a helluva lot better than in the Middle East, where they just squat by the road and crap. By comparison, an outhouse is a luxury."
When I went to Greece in Highschool we went to a restaurant in Athens and I went to use the bathroom. Which consisted of a floor that sloped downwards towards a drain in the center of the room. No stalls. Just a floor. with feces on it.

jr565 said...

phx wrote:
If the GOP establishment is so crippled that it has to use these poor idiots as a belt to hold up their pants, then screw 'em. They deserve their demise.

It's a single dude with a homemade float. How is it any different than some lefty walking through an antiwar convention with a picture of Bush and a chimp.
WHere are you seeing racism? I can certainly see disrespect but where is the racism?

CWJ said...

PHX wrote -

"Is that kind of stupidity and offensiveness supposed to be mitigated by the fact that the conservative Republican perpetrators didn't intend for it to be racist (or so some of you say)? "

I'm not in the juvenile behaviour defending business, but no it's not racist. Its just stupid, juvenile, bad taste, etc. Take your pick.

Your second paragraph ascribing this exclusively to the GOP rather than poor taste political theater generally tells us all I need to know.

averagejoe said...

Lots of outhouses in Alaska, and everyone always says "This is just Amerikkka making us suffer in South Africa-like apartheid because RACISTS!!!!!"

Unknown said...

Please, God, Crack. Move to Liberia if you want a country governed by black people. If this is such a terrible country, and you hate white people so much, please, please, please LEAVE. Otherwise, please contribute something other than incessant victimhood to the discussion. It is tiresome beyond measure.

CWJ said...

The Crack Emcee wrote -

"Pointing at others isn't going to change history,..."

Yes! Absolutely true and that's why I won't take any demand for reparations or any other "final remedy" seriously. Because whatever is done, whatever is paid, the "400 years" will still exist, and you or some8ne else will cite it once again that more should be done and more should be paid.

As I said back in the 70s when Affirmative Action was gaining steam, how will we know when it has accomplished its goal? Statistical equality? And if some years later a statistical disparity should reappear, then what? Is this evidence that the racism that AA had been instituted to correct has magically reappeared needing a reinstitution of AA?

No, historical reasons are the worst reasons. Because if you don't erase the facts of history, you can't erase the reason. And you can't erase history and be honest at the same time.

exhelodrvr1 said...

Crack,
What were outhouses a symbol of in regions where there were no blacks? For instance, on the farms in North Dakota where my mom and her extended family lived?

I pray that your attitudes are not typical of the attitudes of the majority of black Americans, because if they are, the situation vis-a-vis "racism" is hopeless.

sakredkow said...

It's a single dude with a homemade float. How is it any different than some lefty walking through an antiwar convention with a picture of Bush and a chimp.

It's a FOURTH OF JULY PARADE! Jesus, can't a family of Dems go out to the parade honoring our country without having this rubbed in their face?
If it were an anti-Obama rally, or a Tea Party rally, no problem.

WHere are you seeing racism? I can certainly see disrespect but where is the racism?`

Okay, let's grant there is no racism intended. How does that make this insult better? Some things can be worse or as bad as racism - including sheer stupidity.

sakredkow said...

I'm not in the juvenile behaviour defending business, but no it's not racist. Its just stupid, juvenile, bad taste, etc. Take your pick.

I'm okay with that interpretation without having any more information.

Your second paragraph ascribing this exclusively to the GOP rather than poor taste political theater generally tells us all I need to know.

As I said, if the mainstream GOP establishment continues to kowtow to a base now almost totally unmoored (IMO) from common sense, decency, and reason, than they're gonna own it.

Sorry for the reasonable people still hanging on in the GOP trying to fight the good fight, but that's the way it goes.

Drago said...

phx: "If the GOP establishment is so crippled that it has to use these poor idiots as a belt to hold up their pants..."

Whoa.

Is phx really claiming that the GOP establishment did this?

Of course he is.

Remember, one of the iron-clad "rules" of modern politics is that every conservative/libertarian/republican is personally responsible for any/every action taken by any conservative/libertarian/republican for all eternity.

Conversely, leftists/communists/socialists/liliberals/democrats are not even personally responsible for their own actions.

phx is simply following the gameplan.

Drago said...

Oh, I forgot to add that, over time, the left will also spin the responsibility for leftists actions onto the right as well.

One of the more amusing ones is how Stalin was really a "conservative", just like the ayatollah's, just like Putin, etc.

CWJ said...

phx wrote -

"It's a FOURTH OF JULY PARADE! Jesus, can't a family of Dems go out to the parade honoring our country without having this rubbed in their face?"

Oh my goodness, grow a thicker skin. Yeah, I wish I had a nickel for every time my beliefs and values were publicly mocked by those who not just disagreed with them but thought their disagreement demonstrated their moral superiority. BTW, I suspect even some Nebraska Democrats have grown tired of this administration, and got a chuckle over the float.

More to the subject, your original comment implied that you had read this thread. And yet you somehow missed the Mike Lukovitch editorial cartoon to which John Henry referred at 9:59 this morning which I suspect was seen by far more eyes than a rural Nebraska parade. So this particular field has been plowed from both ends od the political spectrum. Save your preening and give it a rest.

Guildofcannonballs said...

That quite from "Obama" is disgusting. Yet entirely.

sakredkow said...

So this particular field has been plowed from both ends od the political spectrum. Save your preening and give it a rest.

Preening comments this thread by phx: a couple or a few.

Preening comments this thread by arrogant, self-satisfied, conservative arbiters of patriotism: almost all the rest.

The Crack Emcee said...

All these people asking about my outhouse comment, and mocking my South Africa comment, don't understand what it's been like to live under poverty enforced by the American government. Because they're white and the government didn't do it to them. But they support the government's actions.

Despicable,...

Known Unknown said...

Now, a fried chicken stand or barber shop might have been actually more racist than an outhouse.

Laura said...

Flyover country rubes just don't know how to make "appropriate" satirical scatalogical art: http://www.clarkmade.com/exhibits.html.

As the Democrat press release published by BH Media Group illustrates, with no NEA grants or showings in acceptable art houses, such political commentary is obviously illegitimate.

The long and colorful history of skewering presidents and powerful political figures? Best left to those on the "right" side of history...

hombre said...

"All these people asking about my outhouse comment, and mocking my South Africa comment, don't understand what it's been like to live under poverty enforced by the American government."

That would be the government that you and your brethren vote for, near-unanimously, rather than give up the largesse. Pardon me if I don't shed a tear.

Drago said...

phx: "It's a FOURTH OF JULY PARADE! Jesus, can't a family of Dems go out to the parade honoring our country without having this rubbed in their face?"

LOL

Michelle Obama: "Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed."

John henry said...

Re the toilets in Greece:

I went on a cruise in the Mediterranean in 1969 (haze gray and underway, as the saying goes). Over 6 months we visited a number of ports including Spain, Malta, Italy, Greece. I do not remember ever seeing anything that we would recognize as a toilet other than in the RN's Gibraltar dockyard. (not in the town)

Most looked something like this:

http://ts3.mm.bing.net/th?id=HN.608030956862048590&pid=15.1

A ceramic hole in the floor with some footplates to squat on.

One bar in Jerez had a door that opened and you pissed out of it into the yard.

A restaurant in Malta had a bucket in a closet for a urinal/crapper.

Growing up in Virginia and upstate NY, I saw and used my share of outhouses.

So no, Crack, just because you know what an outhouse is doesn't make you God's special snowflake. You are a unique piece of work but not for your familiarity with outhouses.

John Henry

The Crack Emcee said...

hombre,

"That would be the government that you and your brethren vote for, near-unanimously, rather than give up the largesse. Pardon me if I don't shed a tear."

You would be commenting on the government AFTER we got our hands on it - and, no, we're not letting go now. That real "largesse" is waiting for us.

Now - stop playing the victim and watch us go to work:

Because - when it comes to America paying for our victimization - we're not playing,...

The Crack Emcee said...

Drago,

"Is phx really claiming that the GOP establishment did this?"

No - he's claiming the GOP does nothing to stop it.


All the while claiming they desperately need black votes.

Fucking nutty as a fruitcake,...