Is this t-shirt racist?

[emzie]

Drudge had this up yesterday and a follow up today.

Spoiler :

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is considering legal action against a Georgia tavern owner selling T-shirts depicting presidential candidate Barack Obama as the Curious George monkey character.

In a statement, the Boston publisher, which owns the book rights to Curious George, said today the firm finds the T-shirt “offensive and utterly out of keeping with the values Curious George represents.”

The statement, issued by Houghton spokesman Richard Blake, added: “We are monitoring the situation and weighing our options with respect to possible legal action.”

WGBH-TV, which co-produces a “Curious George” children’s television show, has also denounced the use of Curious George in the controversial T-shirt.

A tavern owner in Georgia has been peddling the shirt with a picture of a happy Curious George eating a banana above the words “Obama in ’08.”

The tavern owner, who some have described as an “ultra-conservative,” has denied to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the T-shirt is racist. But protesters outside his tavern say the comparison of Obama, who is an African- American, to a monkey is an old racist stereotype.

http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1094037

While I have no clue if this guy was playing into the old stereotype, I do think the shirt itself is offensive (though kinda funny).

 

[Brighteye]

Could you explain what curious George is, and the characters involved?

 

[Beaver Cleaver]

It would be different if a black man was showcasing the shirt. Or a comedian such as Dave Chappele or Chris Rock.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Curious George is a monkey.

Yes, the T-shirt is both racist and offensive.

 

[El_Machinae]

I think this beloved children's character would be a better mascot than curious george

 

[Tycoon101]

I can see the lawsuit about the usage of the character, but not the racism.

It is rasism, though.

 

[emzie]

Could you explain what curious George is, and the characters involved?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curious_George

Curious George is a children's character that is used to tell basic stories, often through his, well, curiousity.

 

[Beaver Cleaver]

Drudge had this up yesterday and a follow up today.




While I have no clue if this guy was playing into the old stereotype, I do think the shirt itself is offensive (though kinda funny).

Unless he has been living in a cave in all of his life, he would not know the historical ramification of racial stereotyping of Africans in United States.

He is a tavern owner, and was probably engaging a marketing gimmick in order to appeal to people who find racism something of a laughing matter.

 

[emzie]

I can see the lawsuit about the usage of the character, but not the racism.

It is rasism, though.

Africans have often been potrayed as 'monkeys'

Here's everyone's favourite godhatesfags doing it

And if you remember Senator George Allen's 'macaca' line --

Macaca is a pejorative epithet used by francophone colonialists in Central Africa's Belgian Congo for the native population

 

[JollyRoger]

I think it is offensive to put a cartoon of Bush on an Obama t-shirt. Why tie Obama to bi-curious George?

 

[Luckymoose]

It is not racism, all humans come from ape ancestors.

 

[emzie]

It is not racism, all humans come from ape ancestors.

Yeah, when was the last time a white person -- because they were white -- was called an ape as an insult?

 

[bigdog5994]

yes it is and if you were a white guy living in the south you wouldnt even be asking this question

 

[JollyRoger]

Yeah, when was the last time a white person -- because they were white -- was called an ape as an insult?

To be fair, Bush is often called Chimpy.

 

[LucyDuke]

It's rasist.

But I'm fully in favor of making rasism as visible as possible, so I wouldn't discourage anyone from producing, selling, buying, or wearing it.

 

[emzie]

To be fair, Bush is often called Chimpy.

Not because of his skin colour! But touche.

 

[West 36]

Curious George is cool though, so maybe it's just a weird show of support. From an ultra-conservative. In the sou- ok, it's racist.

 

[AL_DA_GREAT]

Only if you think negroids are monkeys.

 

[Masquerouge]

In that context, yes, it's racist.

 

[nihilistic]

Yeah, when was the last time a white person -- because they were white -- was called an ape as an insult?

Actually, when that movie came out, Curious George and something, I was swearing that the monkey was meant to satirize Bush.

I used to be liken to a monkey because I used to be very very skinny.

I'm guessing whoever made that t-shirt meant to say that Obama, a Harvard grad, is 'primitive'? I think it's stupid but too preposterous to be insulting.