How many here think this "Who IS Barack Obama"? meme is subtlety racist?

[Carol]

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whathehell (114 posts) Mon Oct-06-08 07:21 PM
Original message
How many here think this "Who IS Barack Obama"? meme is subtlety racist?
Advertisements [?]McCain is sounding this one again..."I mean do we really KNOW Barack Obama"?!

I mean, please..The guy's written two books and has been campaigning for EIGHTEEN months!...If you don't "know" him now, when will you?

I've never heard this meme about ANY other candidate and, considering the above, it makes me wonder.

I think there's a racial subtext and it goes something like this: "WHO is this Black Man who wants to be president"?.."We (the white majority) don't really KNOW Black people"...and you can believe many of them really do NOT know any Black people, especially these small-town repukes

I believe it's a deliberate strategy -- A way of playing into the "alienation" and/or "distrust" many whites (especially small-towners) feel about African Americans.

Of course most say that it is "overt" racism.

tom_paine (1000+ posts) Mon Oct-06-08 07:28 PM
Response to Original message
4. Jon Stewart already answered this question: he is the man who wants to enslave the caucasian race.


But seriously it is a strategy designed to appeal to the "codeword racist" (which is pretty much all of 'em these days).

And it will. Sadly...it will.

Funny how it's only the liberals who know the "code words", and who makes decisions about which words are "code words" and which ones are not.

cyberpj (1000+ posts) Mon Oct-06-08 07:28 PM
Response to Original message
5. It's short for: WHO DOES HE THINK HE IS? (that uppity n-----) That's my first impression. nt

whathehell (114 posts) Mon Oct-06-08 07:48 PM
Response to Reply #14
21. I do know that socialism isn't communism...but anyone even fairly
objective knows that his record -- and the platform he's running on -- is moderate.

I would bet that even here most would not call him "progressive" -- Kucinich, yes, Obama, no.

Of course it's relative. In "Right Wing World" they keep mentioning his "liberal" record, but these jerks think anyone left of George Bush is a "liberal" or maybe even a "socialist".

wtmusic (1000+ posts) Mon Oct-06-08 07:32 PM
Response to Original message
11. Appealing to a very ugly, visceral side of human nature
"He doesn't look like one of us...what is he doing here...what does he want from us"

Yes. Racist.

Clovis Sangrail (1000+ posts) Mon Oct-06-08 08:02 PM
Response to Reply #11
27. who said "he doesn't look like one of us" ?
that *does sound racist to me... but that's a LOT different from "he's not like us".

Look at John McCain.. with his 9 homes and 13 cars... he's NOT like us.
(us being the average American with a household income of ~ $47k/year)
There's nothing racist about that statement.

Obama is more like us... definitely seems to care more about us... but he's NOT like us either.
People with household incomes of $48k don't live in houses like his.
I don't even know anybody that lives in that big of a house.
He's a lawyer and his wife is a lawyer. Regardless of political success they're likely to be in at least the top 5% of average household income for the rest of their lives.
( > $200k/year )
Obama is currently in the top 1.5% of earners(this is 1 similarity Obama and McCain do share)

I'm not referring to race and it's not racist for me to say "he's not like us" about either candidate because race is what comes to somebody else's mind.

Why, Clovis, it was OBAMA who said that conservatives were going to say that. So far, even with all the news I watch and read, OBAMA is the only one I have heard say it.

aint_no_life_nowhere (1000+ posts) Mon Oct-06-08 07:46 PM
Response to Original message
19. It's just a short step to "What is Barack Obama"?

[jinxmchue]

I think they are more racist at the DUmp for thinking up such stupidity. Honestly! Who but a racist views things that way?

[Zeus]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWw7Q...thread-40.html

[AmPat]

It walks like a Duck, talks like a Duck, and acts like a Duck, therefore Uh-Bama is an America hating, Socialist and a Communist/Terrorist sympathizer.

[AmPat]

In "Right Wing World" they keep mentioning his "liberal" record, but these jerks think anyone left of George Bush is a "liberal" or maybe even a "socialist".

Close butthead, close.

[Dan D. Doty]

Moonbat think that if you scream some kind of " ism " when a question comes up, they can shut down the other person.

Sooner, or later all questions get an answer; Moonbats aren't going to like the day when everything comes out.



Keep your powder dry.

[FDK]

I wonder what "typical white person" is code for?

[AmPat]

I wonder what "typical white person" is code for?

Cooter, bubba, Big Un, Tiny, Booger, John Boy and quite possibly Carrot Top.

[Goldwater]

I don't know about racist, but this "who is he" thing is weird, if you don't know him by now, you're an idiot.

[crockspot]

My teacher friend in Ohio is voting for Obama. She will not listen to anything bad about him, to the point of actually putting her fingers in her ears and yelling LALALALALA. Her father is a die-hard Democrat, but is not voting at all this year. He refuses to vote for McCain, because he is a Republican, and he refuses to vote for Obama, because he is black. I would hazard to guess that he is typical of older-generation Ohioan Democrats, and she is typical of younger-generation Ohioan Democrats.