Bizarre, Politics, Society

Republican Official Sends Racist Pictures of President Obama

This clearly racist photo was sent by Marilyn Davenport – an elected member of the central committee of the Republican Party of Orange County and Tea Party activist with the caption “Now you know why – no birth certificate!” Davenport insists it is not racist, just humorous.

The picture was sent in an email from Davenport, who expressed surprise that it offended people. She said “I simply found it amusing regarding the character of Obama and all the questions surrounding his origin of birth . . . In no way did I even consider the fact he’s half black when I sent out the email. In fact, the thought never entered my mind until one or two other people tried to make this about race.”

To their credit, various Republican leaders have denounced the picture. She, however, remains on the Central Committee and GOP officials have expressed doubt over the ability to remove her under their bylaws. I find it odd that a political organization cannot remove someone who has espoused racist or hateful views to the embarrassment of the Republican Party.

Source: NY Daily News

100 thoughts on “Republican Official Sends Racist Pictures of President Obama”

  3. Swarthmore mom:

    I had to borrow a bit of your post.

    “more common than you think.”

    “who expressed surprise that it offended people.”

    Case in point:

    I once worked with a guy who could not believe that I had never had sex with sheep.He was from the South and felt that all Black guys engage in this practice,even telling me about the use of hip waders to restrain the animal.

    He was truley shocked that I had no idea what he was talking about.So this ladys attitude dosen’t really surprise me.

  5. The Bush-Obama analogy regarding the monkey depiction is a faulty analogy. Depicting Obama as a primate has racial overtones in that historically African Americans as a people were said to have descended from apes, swung from trees like apes in “deepest darkest Africa” and whose intelligence level only reached the level of an ape. You might say, but apes are very intelligent creatures. Apes for the most part are good at mimicking. Blacks were seem as having made no cultural or intellectual contribution to American society. Whenever someone pointed out those who did, the response was always that those contributions were mere mimics of white society (or that the person really wasn’t Black because they were of mixed ancestry). Oh and did I mention that one of the prevalent myths in American society was that Blacks have tails? You will not believe the number of stories I have heard from African Americans who complained that some “foreigner” requested if they wouldn’t mind showing them their tail. Hence, while the depiction of Bush as a monkey is equally distasteful, it does not carry the same meaning or conjure up the same history as it does with Obama. It simply amazes me that there remains so much racism in America, but no racists. How is that possible?

  6. The last lynching in the US was in 1981. Is not lynching an extreme form of bullying?

  7. Bob, esq. It is “racist crap” like this that makes me determined to vote for Obama and stop the Tea Party Express.

  8. I’m still not sure how this conversation turned to
    “magic-thinking.” I just know the man who made this speech would disapprove of the idea that “magic-thinking” inevitably results in racism or any other act of hostility, or that it should be swept from this earth as something… well, as something as backwards and unintelligent as a chimp.

  9. It’s racist crap like this that distracts the public’s attention from things like this:

    Obama v. Obama on signing statements

    By Glenn Greenwald

    The issue of signing statements is more complex than the political controversy over them suggests. When condemning Bush/Cheney lawlessness, I rarely focused on their use of signing statements. That was true for several reasons.

    There’s nothing inherently illegitimate about a President’s expressing his view on various laws. It’s vastly preferable for a President to openly declare his intent to violate the law than to do so secretly. Signing statements themselves are just instruments for conveying constitutional views of the law; whether they’re truly odious depends upon the view that is being expressed (what made Bush so radical were the theories of executive omnipotence he embraced, not his use of signing statements to express those views).

    And a reasonable argument can be made (though it’s not one I share) that a President’s duty to uphold the Constitution can sometimes be advanced more by refusing to execute an unconstitutional law than by enforcing it; that view, at least for some, is a critical part of the formal definition of the “unitary theory of the executive” and is something right-wing theorists (and now Obama supporters) have long maintained (I ultimately reject that view because the constitutionally legitimate means for a President to object to an unconstitutional law is to veto it, not violate it; moreover, the power to declare laws unconstitutional lies with courts, not the President). But all of those issues introduce nuance into the question of signing statements that is often lacking in the political discussions they’ve triggered.

    But there was no such nuance present when Barack Obama, during a 2008 campaign rally, made his position known on signing statements. After being asked by an audience member whether he would “promise” not to use signing statements to override Congressional statutes, he stated simply “yes,” and then elaborated as follows:

    (continued here)

    http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2011/04/17/signing_statements/index.html

    The man’s hypocrisy is sickening.

  11. mr. ed and mespo are right

    “Marilyn Davenport is a staunch, ethical Republican lady.” … I’m sure she is just as I am certain that all staunch, ethical Republican ladies find this cartoon as funny as she did.

  12. anon nurse, Not if you are gay or black or mexican. I think people at least acknowledge that bullying exists. You could not come out if you were gay in the past except in very exclusive communities.

  14. …and the quality of bullying has changed. Some refer to it as “bullying on steroids”…

  15. Swarthmore mom,

    re: “I think bullying has always existed.”

    I agree but, IMHO, it’s worse now.

  16. This lady is an example of the underlying racist theme that the Obama campaign and now Administration have had to deal with. I believe the birther movement is also based on racism. If this lady couldn’t understand this after all these years, she is more than just an idiot. she is a racist idiot. I get some of these emails from friends and I don’t even reply to them anymore. Another category is pictures of the First Lady from behind complaining about her big behind or lack of fashion taste.
    Swarthmore,
    I too have seen a change in the younger generation’s co-existing with minorities so there is hope.

  17. anon nurse. I think bullying has always existed especially for gay people and minorities or for that matter for anyone that was considered to be “different”. The difference is now people are getting called on it. I see a change particularly among younger people.

  18. aha! I posted before reading your post AY…thank you for the info on Invidious discrimination….thank you very much!

  19. W=C,

    You mentioned “bullying” on one of these threads, but I can’t seem to find it.

    Bullying has indeed become an epidemic… We’ve got goons on our streets bullying good and decent people — the “vigilante thug” class… No one will touch them. It’s “hands off”… They act with impunity. One of these days, the truth will out.

  20. the veil between the self and the world is the heaviest to lift…

    “quaint and rapidly failing notion that we do not call out others on their magic-thinking when they insist on assaulting the public square with mean-spirited nonsense.”~James in LA 1, April 18, 2011 at 10:43 am

    so true!

    and yet the reality of the current oppressive regime is ignored? Maybe we need a little magic to survive the present day reality….maybe the most we can hope for is to not cross paths with those who see kindness as weakness and integrity or fair dealing as an invitation to impoverishment by denial and/or systematic theft…

    at the end of the day we can’t blame magic…and we can’t blame people for needing to survive and for believing they can be allowed to do so without being victimized or victimizing others….what the hell is the price to the square here in America? In China it is bulldozers and armed guards…in Iraq it is the existance of the entire Country…hows that for reality?

    Magical thinking is the life raft of the drowning man…and a drowning man is not likely to see a Sarah Palin for what she is…they will see her as a bright shiny pretty thing…not a dangerous entanglement.

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