Cobb bar protested as racist for Obama T-shirts | ajc.com
Marietta tavern owner Mike Norman says the T-shirts he’s peddling, featuring cartoon chimp Curious George peeling a banana, with “Obama in ’08” scrolled underneath, are “cute.” But to a coalition of critics, the shirts are an insulting exploitation of racial stereotypes from generations past.
“It’s time to put an end to this,” said Rich Pellegrino, a Mableton resident and director of the Cobb-Cherokee Immigrant Alliance. It was among the organizations planning to gather outside Mulligan’s Bar and Grill Tuesday afternoon to protest the “racist and highly offensive” shirts. “There’s no place for these views, not in this day and age,” he said.
Just down the street from Marietta’s famous Big Chicken, Mulligan’s has carved a provocative niche in an increasingly multicultural area, thanks to its owner’s ultra-conservative political views. If you live in Marietta, it’s impossible not to know what’s on Norman’s mind, as he posts his views on signs in front of Mulligan’s.
Among his recent musings: “I wish Hillary had married OJ,” “No habla espanol — and never will” and the standard “I.N.S. Agents eat free.”
I believe it was one of Rush Limbaughs’ minions who started this nonsense, so its a case of monkey see monkey do. As tasteless as this is, we still do support free speech, right?
Just another average American who swears he hasn’t a racist bone in his body.
Just in his head.
Nobody can seriously think for an instant that this speech is not political, tasteless, and protected.
The only appropriate response is to call the douchebag out on it, picket his places of business with counter signs/teeshirts and castigate him for being a dope.
Your only have to moderate your righteous indignation when you are right. ((When you are wrong==you need to wise up.))
Racism is part of free political intercourse. And like intercourse, who you get in bed with can be very damaging. Let the dope be socially ostracized==and all his customers too.
Heh. I guess the guy had a “macaca moment”.
Sure, we support free speech, and we also support the freedom to eat where we want. Should I ever mind myself in Marietta, I certainly won’t be eating at this knuckle-dragger’s greasy spoon.
Yawn. Another distraction from the real issues.
#4–Mark==you don’t think overt racism is an issue in USA? Why is that? Something besides your moniker tells me you aren’t a minority==just part of the problem.
Good boy.
As tasteless as this is, we still do support free speech, right?
Free speech can’t change the subject matter of the speech. This is still hateful and not funny.
More than free speech though, it shows the immaturity of the commenter. I hope it is just coincidence, but Mike Norman just could be one of our resident wing nuts.
Well, if the sitting President is frequently depicted in a similar manner (no matter how low his rating is) not only on T-shirts but in mass-media as well and no one protests (I strongly believe there would be protests if anyone wanted to prevent it) – why not the potential President, particularly if he lays claim on “post-racial” politics.
My “post-racial” interpretation of this T-shirt is illustration of Obama’s ineptitude for the office (not that it prevents similarly apt people from actually already being there).
Free speech for Jackasses! 🙂 That would be a good shirt to wear to that place. 🙂
Outrageous! Simply outrageous. Obama doesn’t even like bananas.
Too bad there’s no link to buy the shirts. That’s funny.
Free speech does not equal speech without consequence. While this should not be outlawed, this guy ought to deal with the ramifications of what his message brings. As disgusting as this message is, it’s still protected. As are the people that wish to confront him on it in a civilized and orderly manner. If you say something stupid, expect to be called out on it. We all have the right to say something that offends those around us, just as those around us have the right to let us know that what we say will not be tolerated while we’re around.
He’s getting exactly what he wanted, attention. With a history of such incendiary messages it sounds to me like his audience and market, whomever they are, support him and reinforce to him that these types of messages are not just OK, but supported. I think the real message is that this type of thinking is still quite supported in today’s world, maybe not by the masses, but by enough people to allow him to continue to run a business while being so vocal with them.
I personally would never knowingly step foot in his establishment nor would I financially support him in any way. That’s my right, free speech or otherwise.
#10 – Bob, I’m sure you can get similar items here:
http://www.knightskkk.com/KKKStore.html
How do I get one?????
Hey McCullough,
Might want to do a little fact checking first before you make statements you have no basis in making.
Rush didn’t start it. A caller called up and made the statement, not Rush.
here’s a play by play
http://matthewsumpter.com/?q=node/9
Lol, I find it so funny that everyone turns this into such a racist act. If someone did the same thing for hillary, using a sheep instead, no one would say a word about racism. Get a life hippies! Go hug a tree or something.
this mike norman a-hole probably _is_ rush limbaugh. i mean, it could be anybody under that white sheet.
>>Rush didn’t start it.
Rush doesn’t really have the mental horsepower to start much of ANYTHING. He just farts out of his mouth on the radio every day, and his “dittoheads” breathe in deeply.
Just because I’m a moron is no reason to get pissy. What the hell does “play us out” mean? F*ck it, we’ll do it live!
Looks more like a copyright infringement issue than a free speech issue.
The media went into a tizzy because Mike Huckabee had a bookcase that looked like a cross, but no comment about Obama’s ad with a cross in it. Now people complain about this. Apparently anything bad about Obama is off limits. I am enjoying that this is happening to John McCain, who is the architect of banning negative speech against politicians. As Rev Wright said, ‘the chickens have come home to roost’
Explain to us unread persons how exactly this is Rush Limbaugh’s fault?
>>If someone did the same thing for hillary,
>>using a sheep instead, no one would say
>>a word about racism.
Hey brainiac, maybe that’s because nobody uses sheep as a derogatory reference to white people. On the other hand, if someone started selling Hillary t-shirts with something like this on the front:
http://tinyurl.com/ywlhg2
I’ll bet people might take issue with the sexist nature.
Are you really as dumb as you seem, Bob?
[NSFW! – ed.]
Mustard,
Hatred – be it backed by righteous indignation or (in your case) a misplaced sense of moral or intellectual superiority – is still hatred. It’s not more refined, it’s not more glossy, it’s still hatred. Your constant references to right-wingers as knuckle-draggers or some such childish moniker, really just shows a weak man, espousing a weak argument. Go on over to crookandliars.com or moveon.org. I’m sure you’ll find plenty of like-minded individuals just as full of hate as you are.
#14. Yup, your correct it was started on his show, by one of his racist minions. Doesn’t take away from the fact that he is one of the biggest hypocritical assholes on the radio.
[Comment deleted – Violation of Posting Guidelines. – ed.]
#15–Bob==are you as stupid as you post?
You see, monkey==obama==racist.
Anything with Hillary has to be – – – -wait for it, NOT RACIST, because she isn’t black. No, in her case, you would use a sexist symbol.
You get the difference here? Obama is the mixed race candidate and Hillary is the female candidate. To that point, your use of a sheep is quite appropriate.
Seems a young man about your age/intellect signed up for a long ocean duty. After a few months he asked his mates what they did for sex. The answer was that in another few months, they would port at “sheep island” where all the man had their way with any of the many sheep that populated the island. No guilt, no shame.
Well, this young lad, lets call him Bob just for this tail, was DISGUSTED!! Imagine having sex with hillary////I mean sheep. Not possible.
But a few months later with sheep island on the horizon, young Bob was plenty ready to have sex with a picnic table or bicycle seat if that was all there was. As soon as the ship docked, bob leapt off and screwed the first sheep he came across. After finishing, he heard some laughter, he looked around and saw the entire ships company pointing and laughing at him.
He had been made a fool and ran off into the jungle to hide his shame.
The ship blew its parting whistle and Bob owned up to his beastiality and got on board not looking at anyone.
Later that day, bob asked his friends how they could have lied to him so. His friends looked at him in puzzlement which only outraged our young bob. YOU KNOW==you made me think having sex with a sheep was ok, and then you laughed at me.
The reply came==oh we weren’t laughting at you screwing sheep, but rather that you chose the ugliest one on the island.
So, make sure your Hillary Sheep symbol is correctly chosen, because you got pretty close in your udnerstanding of the stereotypes at play, even though you totally fucked up what you chose to post.
>>I’m sure you’ll find plenty of like-minded
>>individuals just as full of hate as you are.
We don’t hate son. We just pity. As I pity you.
>>Thinks Mustard is a Douchebag
Wow. Now there’s a post worth reading. Jesus.
[Comment deleted – Violation of Posting Guidelines. – ed.]
I’ve always loved how liberals are tolerant of just about everything except conservatives. The sad truth is that linking a redneck idiot’s sale of racist tshirts to Rush Limbaugh effectively turns off the half of us that are conservative leaning but also call for the condemnation of this redneck idiot. It’s always about blame and equivalence with you guys, not about fixing the problem.