Any way you look at it, Obama's going down!

[DerailAmnesty.com]

Originally Posted by Rim05

The shoe shine picture was meant to degrade Obama so let us not try to be cute about a bad supposed to be funny.

I agree. There is definitely a racial component to that photoshopped pic. The fact that the guy's been a disaster is unrelated to his skin color. That's about the same as having him appear as a lawn jockey.

I would consider it much more appropriate to have him dressed in a Chairman Mao outfit or wearing the battle fatigues of Fidel Castro. Those, at least, would be fair derision of his politics rather than his race.

[Ayatollahgondola]

I think the picture is no big deal, but to do that I had to remind myself that race is irrelevant. lots of presidents have been characterized in demeaning manners, and none of them ever had race as a shield. He's a public figure, and this photo is just another lampoon. If we start extending him special considerations because of his color/race, we might as well throw in the towel with the illegals right now.

[DerailAmnesty.com]

Originally Posted by Ayatollahgondola

I think the picture is no big deal, but to do that I had to remind myself that race is irrelevant. lots of presidents have been characterized in demeaning manners, and none of them ever had race as a shield. He's a public figure, and this photo is just another lampoon. If we start extending him special considerations because of his color/race, we might as well throw in the towel with the illegals right now.

Oh, please.

The entire gist/humor behind the picture is that the President is in a subservient position to Sarah Palin. Shoe shining (whether you consider it honorable work/honest labor or not) is a profession that was almost completely occupied by uneducated blacks. That picture is a jab at his race. The "humor" just happens to work because he's black. If we had an Asian president, the same thing could be conveyed by putting that person in a Chinese laundry situation or dressing him as Hop Sing from Bonanza. If he was Latino it could be a cartoon with the President using a leaf blower or mopping a floor. With Clinton or Jimmy Carter it could've been conveyed by having them lounging around a trailer/mobile home park with a can of beer in hand.

That cleaning, gardening, ironing shirts and shining shoes are respectable ways to turn a buck is irrelevant. They are positions of subservience accurately associated with members of certain ethnic/racial groups. The shoe shining thing wouldn't work with Bush or Clinton b/c shoe shining isn't associated with whites.

To pretend that these stereotypes don't exist is folly. And to disapprove of a jibe with a racial overtone to it is hardly throwing the borders wide open.

Obama is a bad president because he's bankrupting us. He's not a bad president because he's black.

[Ayatollahgondola]

Originally Posted by DerailAmnesty.com

Oh, please.

The entire gist/humor behind the picture is that the President is in a subservient position to Sarah Palin.

it's not a rembrandt or Picasso, and this isn't an art class or museum tour. You are allowed to interpret it in any manner you see fit. I chose not to give racial connotation a priority here. Toss out the race card and it may take on a different meaning to you.
I used to have a standing reply to some of my male employees back in the day, after they came crawling back to ask for work after having voluntarily deserted their posts without a word for some short term higher paying gig that didn't pan out.
I'd say: "I'm glad you're back; I can always use a faithful man servant to hand my undergarments to before my shower".
It was humorously demeaning, but never racially motivated. That's the way I saw this photo.

[Jeanfromfillmore]

Originally Posted by Ayatollahgondola

it's not a rembrandt or Picasso, and this isn't an art class or museum tour. You are allowed to interpret it in any manner you see fit. I chose not to give racial connotation a priority here. Toss out the race card and it may take on a different meaning to you.
I used to have a standing reply to some of my male employees back in the day, after they came crawling back to ask for work after having voluntarily deserted their posts without a word for some short term higher paying gig that didn't pan out.
I'd say: "I'm glad you're back; I can always use a faithful man servant to hand my undergarments to before my shower".
It was humorously demeaning, but never racially motivated. That's the way I saw this photo.

I didn't see it as racial either. Like I said, my brother shined shoes. Some of us grew up totally different and race was never a factor. I've mentioned that I grew up in a racially mixed society many times on this and the old board, and as a result I didn't see racial undertones in that picture. What I saw was someone preforming a service for someone else. It didn't have much of an impact on me. Maybe, and obviously, I just don't get racial humor. I don't find many things funny at someone elses' expense. But that doesn't mean others won't find it humorous. And finding that someone perceives honest work respectable is not irrelevant, because it allowed me to view that photoshop photo as nothing more than it was, that being someone preforming a service for someone else. The only humor I might get out of it was that Obama looks like he lost his job, which wouldn't be a bad thing. You see I don't think there are any jobs that are below what Americans will do.

[LAPhil]

I look at it this way: Am I personally offended by something which might be construed as racist? There are some things which I find racially offensive and some which I do not. My gut reaction to the picture was obviously a positive one, and since there is nothing in it I find offensive it would be hypocritical for me to label it as racist.

[DerailAmnesty.com]

From my perspective, you guys are denying what's plainly in front of you. Your lack-of-racial-undertone suggestions defy reality. If there isn't a play to the stereotype about blacks shining shoes, the picture isn't "funny." If it isn't about him being black in a stereotypical uneducated African-American position, what's the joke? Obama lost his job and is now doing this? He hasn't lost his job, Jean. He hasn't come close. There's nothing that has happened in the real world to make that the tie-in to the attempt at humor.

For those who have had little exposure to ethnic stereotypes, let me clue you in (I grew up with ethnic humor. My parents, who are from the East Coast, had children late and are closer to two generations older than me, than one):

Poles and Italians - Stupid, a step in "class" only above blacks. The latter are notorious for being involved with organized crime. The former work mostly in coal mines.

Irish - Commonly drunk, work as policemen and have a hardcore devotion to the Pope.

Jews - Completely dishonest, particularly in financial dealings.

Germans - Makers of lousy food and no senses of humor. Anal retentive and devoted to detail to the Nth degree.

Chinese - Found in two places: Chinese restaurants and laundries.

Japanese - Scheming backstabbers.

Blacks - The lowest rung in American society. Only fit for positions that entail physical labor (domestics, drivers, servants, laborers ... and certainly shoe shine boys, which were commonplace in large American cities during the first half of the 20th Century).

Are these dated stereotypes? Sure. But to deny them and their place in American culture is pointless. Particularly in view of the fact that the picture in question doesn't make any "humorous" sense otherwise. Whether you perceive it or not, the person who made the Obama/Palin pic intended it, because there's no other quickly understood "funny" reason to have a black president shining shoes.

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Do I think the pic is a big deal or something for which we all have to immerse ourselves in "sensitivity" courses about, or some other PC nonsense? No, of course not. But when a black woman in her 80's doesn't like it, I completely understand why. It's a cheap shot at the guy. The joke, at least in part, is about his skin color, no question.

OK, end of discussion on my end. You either get it or you don't and this topic really doesn't merit the time we've invested in it. Please excuse me now, I have to go lend money at exorbitant rates of interest.