My Instinct Was Wrong? Right!

Here’s a photo I received in my email today. This is a perfect example of an attempt at humor gone bad.

The Queen

On the surface, given the title of “The Queen”, it seems to perhaps dig at Palin and her “holier than thou” attitude. But the racist aspect is glaring – a stereotypical depiction of Obama as a “shoe shine man”.

I can’t speak for the author of this digitally altered photo and what his intent is, but the racial slur, as it were, is disrespectful and not funny to me.

<rant>
It’s part of the problem with America (and perhaps the whole world) today. We, regardless of our skin color, perpetuate racism and this “photo” is a good example of that. Another example – it’s ok for black comedians and musicians to call each other “nigger” (oh God, I said the ‘N’ word), but it’s not ok for me to say that word.

The whole ‘N’ word concept – especially as it applies to whites – is just ludicrous. Because of skin color, it’s ok for a one man to use the ‘N’ word, but not another? There’s some kind of twisted logic there – talk about racist.

I get po’d at my wife when she refers to the newest family on our block as “the black people”. Geez, they’re just people – what does their skin color have to do with it? What happened to the “new kids on the block?” Or the people who built that new 2 story home over there?

IMO, racism is something we have to fight from all fronts of the skin color spectrum. On the other hand, racism may be one of those human traits that is so ingrained that we may not ever rid ourselves of it.

This photo would have been funnier if it was Biden or maybe even McCain shining her shoes.

</rant>