A poster showing President Barack Obama as Heath Ledger’s “Joker” character from “The Dark Knight” is creating a stir on the streets of Los Angeles where the image began appearing over the weekend.The Obama-Joker poster shows President Obama with white face paint, dark eye shadow and smudged red lipstick and also has the word “socialism” printed in bold, dark letters under the image of his face.It’s unclear who created the image and who is posting it across the city. Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable President Earl Ofari Hutchinson is calling the depiction, politically mean spirited and dangerous. Hutchinson is challenging the group or individual that put up the poster to have the courage and decency to publicly identify themselves…””We have issued a public challenge to the person or group that put up the poster to come forth and publicly tell why they have used this offensive depiction to ridicule President Obama.”
Golly, the head of the “roundtable” is upset. Hey. It’s a comic book character for chrissakes. Watch how this mimics the outrage over the Mohammad cartoons from Denmark. I wonder why nobody stood up over the Bush posters depicting him as the anti-Christ. After all, the four horsemen never showed up.
Found by Keith Ray.
388–Hey Joe==I’m taking a flyer here. Just how republican are you? On a scale? or religious?
It the repukes and religious conservatives who like to frame otherwise debatable issues as involving the “hate” of something.
They live in such a polarized universe. Id say it was hateful if the term had any meaning for me.
L.A. does not apologize…
#88
Joe
I am very liberal. I think the poster is stupid and vaguely racist, but it is just free speech. I don’t hate being criticized.
Joe. No one called anyone a terrorist or un-american in any post. John made the silly prediction that this would end up as a terrorism charge. But no one else (except for his parrots) brought it up. So what are you talking about?
#90
I have taught for more than 20 years in nearly all black schools. Most of my colleagues are black and I live in a neighborhood that is all black and I am finding the opposite reaction. I know of know blacks who think the poster should be illegal, but by far the majority think it is vaguely racist (but admit that it is not that big of a deal–in other words, they have seen worse.)
I am posting here primarily because it came up in our lunch room yesterday at a teacher meeting I went to. A number of the black teachers thought it was dumb, but they did bring up the racist depiction of “white face”. Most did admit that the artist may not have meant anything by it.
what does vaguely mean in a context such as this?
Don’t have the interest/intellect/curiosity to figure out whether it IS racist or not?
An actually deeper understanding exists that it is not racist at all but adding vaguely allows some notion of being sensitive to the issue?
I’m not vague about this at all: the poster is NOT RACIST. Pulease! Lets have more than 3 labels we review every issue with.
If Chris is a teacher it’s no wonder our kids can’t write! “I know of know blacks who think the poster should be illegal” should be “I know of no blacks who think the poster should be illegal”.
#95:
Welp, looks like we have conflicting anecdotes!
My black friends say it’s bad!
My black friends say it’s funny!
dur dur dur
Any black peeps reading this blog?
This is a bullshit issue, give it up. Who cares? Anyone going nuts about this has no perspective. I support Obama and know idiots will attempt to smear him in any way possible. This isn’t even that creative.
#97–Aaron==you post like you were one of his students.
Beyond ignorant to confuse grammar/spelling with typos don’t you think? or don’t you think?
Heh, heh.
Stupid posing as educated.
#97
Aaron,
Well, I deliberately included the typo substituting “know” for “no” because I wanted to see if the class was paying attention.
Besides, I am a math teacher. My own research indicates that while proper grammar and spelling make up 15% of a good education, strong math skills make up the other 90%. 😉
Benji–speaking of BS, have you ever thought that if your statements of political analysis were pants you could be arrested for indecent exposure?
No?
Yes.
John D on #83 comment:
I doubt Axelrod would do this. Obama made it a point to ignore race during the campaign and after, unless it was used to attack his opponents.
To Greg Allen and similar:
I think it is (vaguely) racist to talk about how black people, as a group, will respond to anything. The dirtiest racial jokes I’ve heard recently were told by a black guy. Most racial humor in TV and movies is by black comics. Am I drawing a broad conclusion from that? No.
Hilarious. Just hilarious. The poster is hilarious, the outrage is hilarious, and the comments by Greg Allen and other Obama sycophants is hilarious. I guess the President is fucking sacred because he is black. The joke is the JOKER is running things, and not all of us are missing the point. Liberals. Poke fun at BO,they instantly pull out the race card. Crawl back into your holes.
#2. Mr Greg Allen. Uh, excuse me, but weren’t Intelligence tests to prove you are smart enough to vote kind of racist?? Besides, if that standard had been in place last year, these posters would not exist now.
Faxon.
Nailed it.
“Besides, if that standard had been in place last year, these posters would not exist now.” /// THAT sounds vaguely racist.
John C Dvorak, you sure know how to stir the pot. God love ya’ man…
Let us all learn something from this.
Nearly all Extreme’s on both ends don’t understand these simple concepts:
“What goes around comes around”
“Bad Karma”
Now it’s the Liberal’s turn to get what they gave.
The difference between wingnuts and liberals is not just in their political beliefs, but their mindsets. wingnuts are black and white thinkers, and assume everyone else is too. Thus, they worshiped Bush until it became obvious what a f*ckup he was. And they hate Obama, and hated Clinton too. Liberals, on the other hand, have “shades of gray” thinking. Thus we can support Obama overall, but criticize him for continuing Bush’s detention policies and covering up Bushco’s sins in the name of executive privilege.
But wingnuts assume that liberals worship Obama as much as they worshipped Bush. Thus we get comments like “Obama sycophants”.
I’m a liberal, and overall I like Obama. Some things I don’t like about him, but most things I do. I don’t worship him. And that concept is something wingnuts just don’t seem to understand.
Chris,
OK, Just reminded me of English teachers and how that would be something they’d pick out.
#110 How do you arrive at THAT? Is being stupid a trait of a particular race? If you believe that, I am sure you will agree YOU are the racist here. Bobbo, you stepped into your own poo on this one.
#113. Perhaps you should visit the Bay Area, where he is the fucking Messiah.
#114 Improbus, the R’s got nothing; they’re reduced to yelling “LOOK OUT THE BOOGEYMAN’S GONNA GETCHA!” There are a lot of ignernt people out there, it may work for them. We’ll see…
The great thing about artistic expression and freedom of speech is it gets people talking and can start vigorous debate.
The artist did his job.
Hyyylarious!
After 8 years of BushHitler/BushSatan?CheneyDracula posters, the Left gets a taste of their own medicine and THEY DON’T WIKE IT….MOMMY MAKE THE BAD MAN GO ‘WAY!
I’ll quote my lefty neighbors on this one…”it’s just a poster, grow up”.
And racist? That’s become nothing more than a standard attack on any comment against Obama. It shows the artist hit a nerve.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
John… How much does the Republican party pay you to make these anti-Obama blog postings? Is it enough for you to make a living?
Once again at the first sign of criticism a certain group screams racism.
I said it was hilarious in the very first response and 116 posts later it’s still funny.
If it had been Obomba in whiteface swinging from a noose THAT would have been racist and blatantly offensive.
But alas, it was just one big eared goober made up to look like another goober.
We must apologize to the Joker and all the real clowns of the world for associating them with this jerk!
And just who is Greg Allen? The resident Communist enabler?
John… How much does the Republican party pay you to make these anti-Obama blog postings? Is it enough for you to make a living?
Jager, have another swig…80% of his political postings are anti-Republican. You people just cannot take it….whiney little babies, all of you (no wait, there were a couple of Dims who said it was nasty but free speech, good for you).
And not funny, or lame? I guess that’s why it’s gone viral. You can be pissed at it and admit it’s striking and effective..oh, wait, no you can’t. It’s against Obama, so it’s automatically racist.
I’m glad I don’t live there anymore.
In a country where you have the Constitutional Right to be faced by your accusers, should you have the right to be an anonymous accuser?