I missed the Million Teabagger March in DC last week, but it has been all over the news. Part of the fun has been reading all the deranged signs various protesters brought with them. Ignited by Rep. Joe Wilson's outburst, some of the controversy has been over how much of the opposition to Obama has been motivated by racial animosity and how much is just genuine political difference.
Unlike Jimmy Carter, I'm willing to give most people the benefit of the doubt. My second favorite Avenue Q song is "We're All A Little Bit Racist". Nothing in American discourse is completely divorced from racial issues, but we can do our best to keep things in the background.
So I have come up with a new game. I'm going to show a bunch of photos from the 912 protest and you have to decide whether the sign holder is racist or just plain crazy. Again, I admit that these are taken wholly out of context and are probably not representative of most Americans or even the majority of Glenn Beck listeners.
1. Oprah The Puppet Master
2. African Lion:
4. Santa's Little Helper
4. Kenyan Birth Certificate
5. Trigger Happy
6. Spreading The Wealth
7. Unarmed and Dangerous
8. Strange Fruit and the Liberty Tree
9. Cap And Trade
10. Mr. President
11. Mein Fuhrer
12. Where's The Beef?
Hat tip to Malnurtured Snay who saw these guys on the Metro. Methinks they doth protest too much.
All photos are from this Flickr account and are copyrighted by the original photographer.
Thanks for playing our game at home and come again.
9 comments:
That's a real eye-opener, Yellojkt. THAT wasn't part of the media coverage.
Nice of you to be fair-- more fair than those photos merit.
I tend to think that racism doesn't have much to do with it. It's foul, in my opinion, but probably not racist. Clinton illicited the same kind of hatred, as did W. It's just the whacky opposition.
'elicit', not 'illicit'. That would be something else entirely.
The only one I'd consider overtly racist was the African Lion/Lyin' African. There are a couple of others that ride the line, but I'll give benefit of the doubt, because I'm that kind of a guy.
A few years back I visited Plymouth, MA on Thanksgiving Day and there was a protest march by local Native Americans. I had the same feeling then that I did about this: that these people who are protesting can't seem to get their act together with regard to what it is exactly that they're protesting. So even if they have a legitimate gripe, the messages are so diverse and so diluted that they just wind up looking like a bunch of barely-organized crackpots.
Why you button-pushing... ;-)
Do protests really change anything?
Its people like that, that really make me ashamed to call myself an American. Oh wait...they are probably republicans and NRA members..those people make me ashamed to be an American all the time.
The one that really offends me is the desecration of Santa Claus. Everyone knows elves do not stink.
Hello nice postt
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