Racist tone hurting country, not Obama

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BY JOHN BENDER

And so it begins with a T-shirt.

From the day Barack Obama announced his candidacy for president, we have wondered (but few have done so out loud) whether and when racism would manifest itself.

We thought, we hoped, that Americans could set aside Obama’s race and look at him as simply another American running for office. That’s how Obama has presented himself.

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John Bender

John Bender

Some folks, though, don’t want to look past Obama’s skin color. Mike Norman, the owner of Mulligan’s Bar and Grill in Marietta, Ga., is selling T-shirts with the slogan “Obama ’08” on them. The slogan isn’t the problem. It’s the picture above the slogan, the picture of the children’s book and cartoon character Curious George peeling and eating a banana.

In spite of the racist tone of the image, Norman is unapologetic. He insists there’s nothing wrong with depicting an African-American as a monkey.

Norman told the Journal-Constitution, “We’re not living in the ’40s. Look at (Obama) … the hairline, the ears — he looks just like Curious George.” The comparison isn’t original with Norman. Apparently radio commentator Rush Limbaugh made the same observation during a broadcast in early March. At least Limbaugh apologized to Obama the next day.

That willingness to flout “politically correctness” has won Norman a following among Atlanta-area customers, who describe Mulligan’s as a place where people can be honest and genuine without fear of offending anyone.

For the record, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, the publisher of the Curious George books, is offended by the use Norman is making of its character and is considering legal action.

The evidence of racist sentiments extends beyond T-shirts. The Washington Post has reported Obama workers are running into a wall of racism as they campaign for their candidate.

A campaign worker in Indiana making phone calls for Obama was told by one person, “Hang that darky from a tree!” The Obama campaign office in Vincennes, Ind., was vandalized and its American flag stolen.

And in Pennsylvania, a woman told a volunteer wearing an Obama shirt, “He’s a half-breed and he’s a Muslim. How can you trust that?“

Opposing Obama’s candidacy does not mark one as a racist. And no one should feel compelled to support Obama to prove one’s devotion to racial equality. But the racial slurs Obama campaign workers are hearing and the Curious George T-shirts recall the blatant racism of another era, the era of Lester Maddox.

Like bar-owner Mike Norman, Maddox was a Georgia restaurateur. In the 1940s, Maddox and his wife opened the Pickrick Cafeteria in Atlanta, which became popular for its skillet-fried chicken.

And like other southerners of his generation, Maddox opposed racial integration. After the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Maddox said he would close his restaurant rather than serve blacks. In July 1964, some balcks tried to enter the cafeteria. They were greeted by Maddox, carrying a pistol, and a crowd of people — mostly customers and a few employees — brandishing pick handles known as “Pickrick drumsticks.”

Maddox followed through on his promise and sold the Pickrick Cafeteria to avoid accommodating blacks. But his obdurate opposition to integration earned him enough support to win a term as governor of Georgia from 1967 to 1971, followed by a term as lieutenant governor under Jimmy Carter.

Mike Norman’s T-shirts may be less physically threatening than Lester Maddox’s pick handles, but the message is no less cruel. The victim of the cruelty is not Obama, however, who will have a fine life, thank you, no matter how many T-shirts Norman sells. The victim, if Norman’s view prevails, is the country, which is being told that it cannot escape its long history of racial division, no matter how hard it tries.

Bender is an associate professor of journalism at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he teaches mass media law and news reporting courses. He is lead author of a textbook on news reporting and writing.