An interesting situation is brewing in Philadelphia regarding this "lovely" image to the right.It was given to a middle school algebra class on a math worksheet to illustrate an assignment question.
The image itself is hideous. The problem was exacerbated by the fact that the there is only one black student in the algebra class. And to make the situation worse, the student was teased by another student who asked was the man in the image his father.
Of course the black student's mother is livid over the entire situation.
But the real story to me is reading some of the ignorant comments left on a message board. Apparently some folks got angry because the mother dared to complain and dared to call the NAACP:
This is ridiculous!! Everyone has seen that picture online or in an email. The only people encouraging racism is the "subgroups" as this lady puts it. What ever happened to having fun. Enjoying life? Why make an issue out of every little thing? Some people just need to get a life!
Just another racist , hollering racism. How many white folk would have complained if it was a toothless old white man?Orientals if it was a toothless old oriental man?Indians? Get a life, lady . Every time a black , excuse me , must be politically correct, an African American, is shown in a less than desireable image, someone always screams racism. Ive got the solution, since everybody in the whole world , seems to be so damn sensitive nowdays, just outlaw showing photos of any race that may be less than flattering. Whoops , that may go against the right to free speech. Oh well , if it means we don't have to hear all the whining anymore , maybe it'll be worth it....NOT!!!!! GET A LIFE! Get rid of your antiquated way of thinking , we have a black President , do you really think that could happen in a predominately racist society.
Sometimes things are just what they are..........
just a question why is it always racist when ever something happens to a black???
gets arrested its racist
gets stopped driving its racist
brings home homework its racist
cuts in line at a store its racist
can't land a job its racist
only time i hear its racist is if something happens to a black person and they cry racist
I AM A DENTAL HYGIENIST AND TO BE QUITE HONEST 85% OF THE BLACK POPULATION ARE MISSING TEETH....I CONSIDER IT THE NORM....
It seems the Racist here is the mother. What is she teaching her son by keeping him home. She is waiting for Sharpton, Jackson and the others who come out of the woodwork for crap like this. When she files her lawsuit and makes her apperance on Oprah she will be to busy spending the money to worry about her son's feelings. Were they born in africa if not they are American. When you hyphenate your nationality it means you were born in that country. If you were born in the U.S.A. you are AMERICAN.
So sick of everyone calling everything racist. Get a life...
I don't see what's racist about the photo. If you had a picture in your hand of my toothless grandma (who is white) I would not call you racist. It's a goofy picture. I'm sure the man in the photo would think it's absurd of someone to call his picture a racist picture. It's a picture of a man being silly. Sometimes teachers add goofy pictures to assingments to keep the childs attention. Get over it.
Un-freaking-believable. People are just looking for something to get pissed about. Poor kid's going to grow up with the victim mentality his mother is choosing. Lighten up.
All you idiots that dont have anything better to do than play the RACE card at every available occasion..need to get a life. I saw the picture and it was not intended to offend anyone.You people need to stop wearing your feelings on your shoulder and get a LIFE!!! If that offends you...............then deal with it!!!!!!!
what has this country become but a bunch of whiners and jerks. its just stupid to get that upset over a picture. my grand-children are bi-racial, they get called zebra, oreo and they think its quite funny. if you say merry christmas your wrong, santa cant say ho ho ho anymore, and God has been around alot longer that all this politically correct crap. my child has to learn another laungage in order to graduate, why ,she lives in America, home of the free. now we cant talk right, we cant show pictures, where is it going to stop?
And just in case you are wondering, some of the most interesting comments (ones I omitted) had to do with Barack Obama. Also as you saw with one comment, the four magic words that are sure to conjure up white resentment - Al Sharpton/Jesse Jackson - are mentioned.
It's interesting to me how some people can pick out reasons to demonize Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton even in situations that have nothing to do with them. It's like Pavlov's dogs with some folks. Just mention those names and watch how quickly the droll of white resentment comes dribbling out.
I can't say that I am amazed over these comments. It just brings home something that I've already known.
I am sure everyone knows about the Confederate flag mess here in South Carolina but very few talk about the statue of Ben Tillman that also adorns the State House.
Tillman was a governor of the South Carolina and he served in the United States Senate.
And he was one of the most virulent racists in the history of this country.
In 1901 when President Theodore Roosevelt invited black educator Booker T. Washington to the White House, Tillman said:
"The action of President Roosevelt in entertaining that nigger will necessitate our killing a thousand niggers in the South before they will learn their place again."
He was responsible for the 1895 state Constitutional Convention that disenfranchised South Carolina's African-American citizens and even bragged about it in 1900:
"We have done our level best [to prevent blacks from voting]...we have scratched our heads to find out how we could eliminate the last one of them. We stuffed ballot boxes. We shot them. We are not ashamed of it."
So basically we are talking about a man who openly advocates murder and brags about breaking other laws.
But yet when black South Carolinians complained about the presence of his statue on the State House grounds, we were accused of being overly sensitive, politically correct, and playing the "race card."
We were told to "forget the past" or "move on."
But in order to "move on," we would have to live with this man's presence on our State House grounds - which we also pay for, sugarcoat his history to our children if we ever take them to tour the grounds, or somehow explain to them why such an ugly racist has an honored place in South Carolina.
So basically when some folks say "why can't black people get over it," they usually mean "why can those ni&^!@ shut up and stop ruining our fantasy that this country solely belongs to us."
It probably never occurred to them that black people can't "get over racism" because it's thrown in our faces so often.
"race card"-like it's a game or something.
ReplyDeleteThe sheer ignorance of those comments-not to mention parade of straw men trotted-is kind of jarring to me. How can people be so lacking in self-awareness? And how can they be so stupid that they couldn't even recognize the racism of handing out an image like that to a class in which there's only ONE African-American student? There's no way the teacher didn't know how this would be received. None. It was deliberate.
Word. When we moved here the first thing we saw was demonstrations at the capitol filled with "white Power flags" (as we had always known them), and we knew we had gone thru a time warp.
ReplyDeleteYou could have come up with a million other examples. My favorite is the plantations down here. If carolinians had preserved Auschwitz, it would be a tribute to Rudolph Hoess, showing his life story, entire geneology, how much cotton he'd produced... yeah.
How ugly.
ReplyDeleteThe teacher responsible for distributing this thing needs intensive counseling. Unfortunately, the lone black student almost certainly needs counseling now, too.
(By the way, uzza, that never occurred to me about showplace historical plantations vs. concentration camps. I think that is an important insight. Thank you.)
The teacher should be fired whether or not the person in picture was a black or white person. And, I must state that southern plantations were not extermination camps. The peculiar institution of slavery in these United States was just that .......peculiar. Let's all thank God that it came to an end in 1865.
ReplyDeleteRegardless of race, the photo just didn't belong there.
ReplyDeleteThere was no need to bring up Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson -- they don't represent all black folks, and I've noticed that, really, they only get into these debacles for the attention. If they were serious about changing things, and made serious efforts, instead of shouting the same old tired rhetoric about racism every time something happens, we white people would take them seriously.
What sort of depraved idiot would think an image like that would be appropriate, and be surprised when people were offended?
ReplyDeleteI don't necessarily think it's about "getting white people to take them seriously."
ReplyDeletejackson and sharpton have enough credibility in the black community and despite their seeming faults, they do a lot of good for many people.
Can someone please explain to me how this image is in any way racist alone on itself?
ReplyDeleteMaybe I'm missing something, or a key part of the facts needed to understand why this image alone ( without all the other bull ) is racist...
Is it because there are equations and somehow this can be determined that the person is somehow ignorant when it comes to math, by saying "NO WAI!"?
But "no wai" is a common thing in internet slang, so unless the origin image has any true meaning, then .. I'm not really seeing anything wrong with the image o.O
So if there is nothing wrong in the base image, If it was a white person, there'd be no complaints about the image at all, so are we being a bit too overly sensitive about the image itself simply because the guy is black?
Maybe I just don't understand stereotypes based on race well enough... So many times I'm like "huh" when someone says one or I read one online @__@
ReplyDeleteThe image is racist because it reinforces stereotypes of black men being lazy and shiftless. It wasn't that long ago when this image populated television, motion pictures and other public fields in overt manners.
ReplyDeleteTo me it is no different than a picture of a young woman stereotyped in a manner that makes her less than bright or an image that appeals of the stereotype of Jewish people being "monetarily inclined."
Added to the problem is the fact that there was only young black man in the class. What image does that send to him. Let's change it a bit. What if it were an ignorant image of a gay man - stereotypically "nelly" with a flowery shirt with feminine mannerism, so to speak. Do you see how offensive it would be, especially if there were only one openly gay child in that class?
"jackson and sharpton have enough credibility in the black community and despite their seeming faults, they do a lot of good for many people."
ReplyDeleteSure, as long as there's money and attention in it for them. Once, just once, I'd like to see them do something good without making a huge media circus over it.
Media circuses are media circuses. If Jackson and Sharpton actually cause media circuses, then they are no different than any other public figure in the country.
ReplyDelete