Michelle Obama Watch

I saw this over at JJP about 30 minutes ago. I did a post on it, but I’m still so goddamned mad I could spit. All I can say is thanks for blogging it and spreading the word on this racist nonsense.

Well the artist did everything but give Michelle an enormous azz…this is just pitiful.

I’m extremely sensitive to any remark made about the Obamas that feeds into this horrible racism and sexism that is poisoning the campaign, but I just don’t understand the uproar over this simply BECAUSE it is making fun of all those ignorant people. It’s highlighting the complete absurdities of all these racist assumptions; by drawing it out like this, it’s showing how bizarre, unfounded, and stupid things are… in plain sight. No one is suggesting this is how it really is/should be.

That said, if it is truly upsetting people then I’d really like to understand their points.

GIA,
Satire is lost on people who really don’t give a crap about logic and reason anyway. This cover isn’t for The New Yorker’s regular subscribers. Watch what happens this week – and I assure you they anticipated all of this.

This is Hilary country. So, I’m not surprised folks are still pissed. But this is way out of line.

Gia,

I get what your saying, but my visceral reaction to this picture is crazy. I am literally on the verge of tears. I just think this is ridiculous. I get the satire, I do, but the artists new what he was doing. He knows the types of things that Obama has had to go through. So why not make the point in a different way. Why not just write a really insightful article about the stereotypes, and take the media to task for perpetuating them. They did this for the readership, plain and simple. This is about money. And I call bullshit.

The Obamas aren’t safe. Between so called supporter Jesse Jackson talking about how he wants to cut Obama’s nuts off, and now the “liberal” media doing an offensive satire, I feel like Obama can’t trust anybody. This is just remarkably sad to me.

Here it comes again. I find myself shamed by people who supposedly share my views. It’s this sort of tone-deaf “social commentary” that makes white liberals look ridiculous and clueless and their sympathies feel skin-deep. The unacknowledged racial divide within the progressive movement. People got to get a little humble and admit what they don’t know to close that gap. This type of thing has always been a sticking point for me feeling comfortable on places like Kos or Huffington. I like Michelle Obama Watch, poster here have sense.

If you don’t have the sense or should I say feeling to intuit that we don’t need more images like that out there (especially for what we call “low information voters” who may take the image at face value) then I think you need to get back in touch with your commonsense. Dredging up inflammatory images lightly just injects them right back into the public discourse. We want this stuff off the table, not recycled and made into talking points. You’re not “confronting racism”, your ideas aren’t that strong or new, they don’t merit this type of racial hyperbole.

You’re an artist, you’re creative, why not make a new face, a new lens through which to see the future first lady and President through. Make something productive, something we need. Although if you don’t, that’s just fine, they’re crafting it themselves by just being themselves. (Mr. & Mrs. are going to be two of the most powerful icons of our century)

People get so carried away in cold-eyed theories that they completely miss the red-blooded, real reactions of human beings and sore nerves. Satire is only done well by the few. When it’s done wrong it can affirm the ideas you’re trying to undercut.

Stuff like this always reminds me of a story my husband told me. He was raised by so called “right-thinking” hippies. Cool with feminism in theory, but he noticed that the women did all the cooking and housework while the men sat around the table talking “revolution.” If you pointed out this disparity they would say “Huh, yeah I guess that’s true.” Then go right back to what they were doing! If you haven’t felt it, internalized the respect for other people’s feelings, you don’t really get it. Just knowing it isn’t enough, you gotta go deeper.

When I saw that picture, and the pulp-style branding of Mrs. Obama, I had an uncomfortable visceral reaction. Literally, my gut squirmed. It was painful. This is the reaction that the artist should have had or had and foolishly stifled with the words “Well I’m fighting these perceptions with this work so it’s okay.” This “work of art” is the product of an adult who has lost touch with their intuition, dare I say their emotional humanity. The world is a cold set of 1’s and 0’s of right and wrong, missing the heart. They figure, “Well because my intentions are good, this isn’t harmful – you see I’m actually making fun of this sort of mentality.” But they don’t get that they are adding to a landscape already glutted with harmful caricatures and stereotypes and ignorant responses without adding to the dialogue.

I swear it’s a generational thing. Baby boomers love the dramatic gesture. The “die-in,” dressing up like a loon and screaming in protest, pouring pigs blood on the vietnam war memorial; not exactly like the awe-inspiring solemnity of the dignified protests of their predecessors, MLK. Thank god our generation takes a more sensible stance (well, mostly).

The fact that this guy feels he has the “right” to use this type of imagery himself just shows his blindness to his white privilege. You can’t just go throwing around potent, provocative images like this one and not expect to hurt people. He’s like the guy who keeps bringing up bad news. We don’t want to hear it anymore, okay? There is a point when the frequency of mentioning something actually perpetrates the problem further instead of solving it, more harm than good. Besides, those images are so outdated, do they really think that most adults of 2008 see their anxieties about race through that lens? A Black Panther guerilla-fighter,a Jezebel style lynching victim and an America-hating Muslim? Come on. This stuff is circa 1960’s and before. It just points ever more to a generation who’s past their sell by date.

If you don’t have the sense, the emotional sense when you put pen to paper and think of drawing a lynching “ironically” and something painful in your stomach doesn’t twinge and make you say “Hey, I feel terrible just thinking about it, I feel wrong, I’ll make my point in a way that doesn’t feel so wrong or hurtful.” I think you’ve internalized racial privilege to the point of arrogance and it’s time to check yourself. As other posters have said, sometimes it can be worse than the people on the “other side.” You know not to expect anything from the other side. At least they don’t pretend to reach out a hand in friendship and then suddenly turn on you when you say you don’t feel comfortable with a particular tactic, one that effects you deeply (okay not all, but a lot). The response is often a quick “Hey, you should be grateful I give two shits about you in the first place!” Well, excuse me for forgetting to bow on my way out the door!

It seems to me the attitude of a person who feels justified using the extreme imagery of other people is pretty impressed with themselves. I think it gives them the all-important feeling of edge. “Oh you don’t like it? You just can handle my edginess, man. I guess I’m just too real for you to handle, pssht, you just wouldn’t understand, go back to your illusions.” I’m gving myself NYU, hipster flashbacks with all this talk. Over-privileged, white (well, not always white), wealthy (why are they ALWAYS wealthy?) kids so impressed with themselves and their liberal ideas that it was actually offensive. I was seen as a specimen, along with all the other people they deemed “other” (we all got along just fine, us unenlightened children of blindness and ignorance), because I came from a poor background. They would proceed to piss us all off by telling us how it is to be us! If we corrected them, they would get nasty and haughty and come back with the attitude of you’re all too ignorant to know your own circumstances, you need people like us to explain it to you. Can’t believe my own eyes, but I can believe their 5 minutes of thought. Asinine. But now these are the people getting jobs as cartoonists and opine-ers at places like the New Yorker, apparently.

I swear it’s a liberal form of machismo: the ability to wield and control severe and terrible weapons of social discourse to their own purposes. But it’s all an illusion, They can’t control it as much as they think they can. Therein lies the problem, overestimation of their own abilities.

People get so high on their on their know-it-all abilities, they don’t ask other people how they feel about things more directly related to them. They think they know already. They thought wrong. Don’t go waiving other people’s painful past around as your protest flag. A little decency please, people. Now take off that “ironic” trucker hat with the confederate flag on it, you’re not so obviously racially sensitive that the idea of and “enlightened” guy like you wearing the “stars and bars” is in itself ridiculous. We don’t live in your head. We are still very much in a world of people not hip to your sense of irony. Our feelings are not your canvas. Stop living in a bubble. Stop involving people you don’t care to know or listen to in your own political agenda and fluffing your own ego at another person’s discomfort (which you are oblivious to).

Want to know the funny thing about all this? If you voice dissenting opinion about being deeply uncomfortable with this image or images like this one, you’ll get called “clueless” and “probably a racist because you can’t handle it.” I know. I’ve had it thrown at me so much, I just don’t post on those sites anymore.

This is really, truly reprensible. I cannot even begin the fathom this.

I am disgusted, and at the point of vomiting. The New Yorker should be ashame of themselves, stupid fools, I spit they honor to the floor. This is the type of racial divisive attacks, inhumane attacks that we should never expect from the “left”, I expect fox and their little accomplishes to come up with something like that.

The New Yorker, It is not Obamas fault that the young, unprejudiced American want them as their next first family. Sorry if you can not overcome your prejudices, please keep your ignorant, classless, and offensive views to yourselves and your employees and friends.

Both The New Yorker and the National Review depictions of Michelle Obama are disgusting.

But let this be a lesson. Those of us who took no exception to the same misognism when it was directed at Clinton have little moral gorund to stand on now that it’s directed at Michelle Obama. We weren’t outaged when it was Clinton on the block, the media noticed and aren’t trembling at our outrage now.

James Baldwin was right when he worte Angela Davis back in ‘7a explaining why it was important to speak up for while she sat in jail waiting the government’s trial against her: “If we know, then we must fight for your life as htough it were our own…For if they take you in the morning, they will be coming for us in the morning.

http://www.somethingwithin.com/blog

RJWeems: But let this be a lesson. Those of us who took no exception to the same misognism when it was directed at Clinton have little moral gorund to stand on now that it’s directed at Michelle Obama. We weren’t outaged when it was Clinton on the block, the media noticed and aren’t trembling at our outrage now.

Nichelle (Anovelista): There were many Black women – myself included – who absolutely noted the sexism directed at Hillary Clinton. HOWEVER – and it is a big, long, historically-based however – we took greater exception to the dog-whistle race-based incidents that originated from her campaign.

Also, it didn’t help having prominent feminists like Gloria Steinem and Erica Jong completely ignoring the history of Black women in this country in their widely-read and distributed op-eds in support of Clinton. Don’t forget that Steinem stated that “Black men were given the vote a half-century before women of any race were allowed to mark a ballot” without a hint of irony in the New York Times for all to see.

http://55secretstreet.typepad.com/anovelista/2008/01/all-the-women-2.html

Remaining silent on those things is akin to co-signing my own invisibility and I am not having it.

THIS IS TO ALL THE BLACK MEN WHO SUPPORT BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA , AND YES I DID SAY HIS FULL BIRTH GIVEN NAME, NOW SINCE I HAVE THAT OUT OF THE WAY I WOULD LIKE TO INFORM YOU THAT THEIR ARE BLACK MEN, AFRICAN AMERICAN MEN OF SLAVE DESCENT ON THE WESITE ATTACKING MR, OBAMA; AND OH YES THEY HOLD THEIR HEAD UP HIGH WHEN THEY DENOUNCE HIM AND MICHELLE OBAMA ; AND OH THEIR IS ONE THAT HAS MADE IT HIS MISSION TO SMEAR MICHELLE , THIS IS UNBELIEVEABLE IS IT NOT. WELL LET ME JUST SAY THAT WHAT MY EYE HAVE SHOWN ME OVER THE MONTHS HAVE REALLY INTRODUCED ME TO A WHOLE NEW WORLD , AND WE CANNOT PUT THIS ONE ON THE RAPPERS, LOOKE AT THESE WEBSITES . NAMES LARRY ELDER. ERIK RUSH, HE WAS THE ONE THAT PUT OUT THE YOUTUBE ABOUT REV. WRIGHT , WHO BY THE WAY IS A AFRICAN AMERICAN IS HE NOT, ERIK RUSH FOUND IT HIS GOD GIVEN RESPONSIBLITY TO SHOW THE U,S,A, REV , WRIGHT AND HIS CHURCH DOCTRINE NOW IS THAT GODLY, AND IF THAT IS NOT ENOUGH MR . ERIK RUSH PROCLAIMS TO BE A CHRISTIAN . THESE BLACK MEN ARE BEYOND DISILLUSIONED AND I REFUSE TO USE THE WORD UNCLE TOM. THE WORD IS FEAR , INSECURITY, AND LETS NOT FORGET THAT THESE BLACK MEN STILL HAVE A SLAVE MENTALLY ; THEY ARE FEARFUL BCAUSE IF BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA BECOME PRESIDENT OF THE U, S, A, THE FEAR IS THAT THE WHITE WILL COME AFTER THEM. BUT WHAT THEY FAIL TO REALIZE IS THAT WHEN GOD SETS YOU FREE YOU ARE FREE INDEED . AND THAT’S SOMETHING REV; WRIGHT AND BARACK REALIZED A LONG TME AGO; AND THAT’S WHY BARACK IS RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT. SIGN >> THE PROPHET >> WATCHMAN,

RJ Weems, I not sure if your post is in topic here.

I am not sure what you talking about.

GOD IS IN THE MIST OF EVERY THING THAT IS GOING ON WITH THIS BLACK COUPLE. THIS NATION IS IN TRANSITION, AND THAT’S WHY THE MEDIA IS GOING CRAZY; LETS NOT FORGET. WHEN YOU HAVE BEEN IN POWER FOR YEAR’S IT’S HARD TO LET GO. SO WHAT WE SEE IS FEAR. OBAMA IS A VERY COMPLICATED MAN AND HE LIKES IT THAT WAY, REMEMBER REV, WRIGHT WAS HIS MENTOR; AND REV WRIGHT IS SITTING BACK LOOKING AT HIS PUPIL AND WATCHING EVERY MOVE THAT HIS PUPIL MAKE’S, THE KEY WORD HERE IS STRATEGY, REMEMBER BARACK IS A LAWYER AND HE PLAY’S BASKET BALL, SOMETIME WHAT WE SEE WITH OUR NATURAL EYE’S IS NOT REALLY WHAT IS HAPPENING, JESSE JACKSON MADE A STATEMENT LAST WEEK , HE SAID WE FOUND OUR MAN> NOW PAY ATTENTION PEOPLE; TAKE HEED AND LISTEN, JESSIE JACKSON IS A SMART MAN HE’S BEEN AROUND FOR ALONG TIME, SO LET’S BEGIN TO LISTEN MORE CLOSELY, AND REMEMBER REV, WRIGHT CAME OUT WHEN IT WAS NEEDED ` FOR BARACK’S GOOD, AND REV WRIGHT FADED BACK INTO THE BACKGROUND, REMEMBER REV WRIGHT WAS CALM COOL AND COLLECTIVE ON BILL MOYER, AND AT THE PRESS CLUB A DIFFERENT REV. WRIGHT CAME ON THE SCENE; AND I HAD A LAUGHING GOOD TIME> PEOPLE THESE MEN ARE BRILLANT, THEY CAN DO THE DANCE, AND BARACK OBAMA CAN TAKE LICKING AND KEEP ON TICKING > AND SO THE ATTACK CONTINUE’S AND IT WILL CONTINUE> BUT JUST REMEMBER THIS > BARACK IS IN THIS RACE TO WIN, AND NO SMEAR CAMPAIGN FROM THE NEW YORK TIME’S OR ALL THE OTHER PLAN’S FROM THE PIT OF HELL WILL STAND, BECAUSE BARACK OBAMA WALKS IN > POWER > STRENGTH > AND AUTHORITY. > SIGN < THE PROPHET

thank you >ADMIN PROPHET<

The only reason that this Mr. & Mrs. Obama satire DOES have impact — and may very likely spread — is because like all good satire, or good humor for that matter, there’s more than a germ of truth in it. Otherwise, the satire would utterly roll off the Obamoids’ backs, having no impact.

All I can do is just sigh and say ”white people…” Always with the racial comedy at the expense of people of color rather than themselves.

If they’re suppose to be satirizing people who are worthless enough to believe such about the Obama’s then they should be satirizing those people to begin with.

*shakes head* Gotta love the supposedly ironic bigotry of white hipsters that is nothing but bigotry in the end and proclamation of satire as a get out of jail free card.

*shakes head* White people…

Check out my visual suggestion for the New Yorker. All the cover lacks is context. The Obamas aren’t the joke, people who believe the rumors are the joke. But the New Yorker should have done a better job making that clear to us.

http://heatherleila3.blogspot.com/2008/07/what-they-should-have-done.html

^ ^ ^ ^
*rolls eyes*

Seems you haven’t the slightest clue as to what road you’re driving on. Racist humor =/= humor. Tasteless humor =/= humor. Offensive humor =/= humor.

Obama for 16 months attacked like a mad pitt bull Hillary Clinton, he was the classic WOMAN HATER and now he is very sensitive about the attacks on his wife, he doesnt like that the Right zeroed in on Michelle calling her an angry black woman that hates white people, they like to play the victim now and call anybody a racist if you dare to question him about any subject.
They dont want to be call black….but they call white people whitties, they associated with radical elements, racist separatist that hate this country and now OBAMA is running for “GOD” calling blacks awol fathers…when the real awol was his poligamyst father that deserted him when he was 2.

And for liberal demacrats that want rediculous and stupid gun control for everybody except for themselves and the privlaged liberal moonbat jerks