No monkey doll for you
Once again Utah proves to the world it is, if not racist, astonishingly—spectacularly— stupid.First, we have Chris Buttars denigrading a bill in the Legislature by comparing it to a black baby. Now, a couple sets up a business in West Jordan selling Obama monkey sock dolls. (Production of the dolls ceased over the weekend.)
Of course, people everywhere (that means outside of Utah) are appalled by the obvious blacks-as-monkeys sneer.
But David and Elizabeth Lawson plead naivete:
We simply made a casual and affectionate observation one night, and a charming association between a candidate and a toy we had when we were little. We wonder now if this might be a great opportunity to take this moment to really try and transcend still existing racial biases.Does Utah have force field around it that deflects centuries of racial history?
Charles Henderson, a black Democrat running for the Utah House, is not buying it:
When have you ever seen another presidential candidate depicted in such a manner? This has been around for 100-plus years, how can you not be aware of that? It just blows me away that this would happen. Here we are in 2008 and some people still haven't gotten it.The "Sock Obama" is no longer for sale and the website now carries a typical Utah non-apology apology: "We are very apologetic to all who were upset by our toy idea."
5 Comments:
Either these people are complete idiots, or (barely) closet bigots.
I don't buy the feigned naivete.
I suppose they will next produce a "white and delightsome" (as the BOM used to say, prior to its latest PC revision) McCain doll.
Glen, I think you had it right in this blog entry's lede: Utahns are spectacularly and astonishingly stupid. I've never seen anything like it.
While I agree that this is a completely idiotic and racist thing to do, it does bother me that people are acting as if this has never been done before. Henderson says"When have you ever seen another presidential candidate depicted in such a manner?" Um, for the last eight years, President Bush has regularly been depicted as a chimp. Bagley in the Tribune depicts Utah legislators as monkeys. While these representations do not have the same racist history, the motive remains the same: to dehumanize and demean. Isn't it time that we all develop respect for each other, whether we are black or white (and even if some people don't necessarily deserve respect)?
Hey I've got a great idea - lets make this blatantly racist idea even more visible by publishing images and links to the website!
Patrick, think their idea was to hold these tards accountable.
But I forget, sometimes, that I live in a state where the main religion likes to lock up troublesome historical documents in the church office building vault.
Better buried, eh?
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