Can you imagine the uproar if a major conservative publication ran an image like this?
The image is from New York Magazine, however, and it’s in support of gay marriage, so the response will be muted, Obama Gay Marriage Evolution Watch: Day 468.
A writer at WaPo does take some offense:
In the illustration’s determination to be provocative and edgy, the moral high ground [writer Dan] Amira strives for is muddled in an image that recalls the old reliable slur against African Americans, that we are closer to ape than human on the evolutionary scale thus less deserving of equal treatment and respect. It’s a sentiment that has persisted, recently applied to President Obama, his wife and family, launching millions of derisive emails – followed by a mere handful of apologies — and selling much merchandise to people seemingly unaware of how unoriginal the insult is.
But then she made this point:
The historical throwback has gained considerably more traction than the sometimes simian slurs against President George W. Bush.
As Ben Smith points out on Twitter, the claim that “simian slurs” never gained traction against George W. Bush is contradicted by, well, reality.
The NY Mag column is offensive in other ways, particularly the presumption that supporters of traditional marriage are primates, but it is NY Mag, so it’s to be expected. And will pass with little outrage.
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“Can you imagine the uproar if a major conservative publication ran an image like this?”
Well, I guess you’re going to find out, lol. I’ll bet someone somewhere takes LI to task for reposting the image.
Reminds me of the heat Rush took for his ‘Barack The Magic Negro’ bit, which he did not originate – I believe it was the LA Times and/or Al Sharpton. However, nobody minded when it was Sharpton/LA Times, but oh, the uproar when Rush repeated it. Racist… Racist!
I always felt Jane Goodall was a racist.
It’s so easy to make an image these days…what can you really do about it in the end? Getting outraged is getting old.
PhotoShop the flag…replacing it with a hammer & sickle.
Then see what happens…!!!
Genome research appears to be discovering that Europeans didn’t evolve later in the out-of-Africa theory, but instead are part Neanderthal.
Hell, that’s what all the wimmins tell me…
Thus in my youth my love of going clubbing, especially Nightclubbing, when the most delicious nocturnal creatures in the forest could be captured with the most primitive of tools like drink and sweet talk.
Wow. If we could only evolve beyond homosexuality and leave all of the monkey business behind.
Actually, shouldn’t there be a straight white male tea party guy holding an American flag as the first image? And a smelly, lazy, whiney, Occupy Wall Street hipster with a self-righteous sense of hip irony and entitlement as the last image?
LukeHandCool (who, kidding aside, thinks Kyle Maynard is the ultimate in evolution. May we all be so lucky to come anywhere near that stage of development).
My understanding is that California’s black voters favored Proposition 8 more strongly than white or Latino voters did. I suspect that NY Mag is making a deliberate racial insult though they will of course deny it.
Just when its prospects were looking up for November, this kind of thing is an unforced error by the Leftist coalition. It follows a previous one, i.e. the administration’s intention to force religious institutions to fund contraception even if it goes against their tenets.
The Smirking Chimp is a blog that was named for George W. Bush.
Link: http://smirkingchimp.com/
That image doesn’t surprise me at all. It is the progressives who are the racists in this country. Just look at their history.
And if a black person happens to step outside of the Democratic plantation, they are labeled Uncle Tom.
Look at how they’ve treated people like Condeleeza Rice and Thomas Sowell.
That kind of image is par for the course for the left.
Which is why they aren’t shocked or appalled by it.
Where is the Charles Johnson outrage! It is a great post and I will link it to the one I did on the hypocrisy of Obama on same sex marriage (remember when he said it was “one man, one woman” and it should left to the states to define it).
Meanwhile, I was feeling good about things after seeing Grover Norquit’s speech at CPAC yesterday and then I saw this at Instapundit.
http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/137026/ I hope this is a misquote. He does not need to alienate Boortz and Reynolds. He needs to reassure them that he is not the nanny state scold that the left would love to describe him as.
I am dumbstruck Rick Santorum would say something like this. I really am. Maybe he is being misquoted (not the first time for Rick Santorum). Jim DeMint warned we had to reach out to libertarians. So did Sarah Palin. If Rick thinks he can win this thing without them…he is wrong. http://evilbloggerlady.blogspot.com/2012/02/warning-to-gop-candidates-no-nanny.html
I know the chance of Santorum getting the nomination is slim, but I was hoping he could rise to the occasion and be a voice of maturity and could move this debate back to core tea party principles (even if he is not a tea party candidate). Unfortunately, he wants to go back to that guy from Pennsylvania who lost by 19 points as an incumbent.
If this is true, that leaves me to choose between Mitt and Newt. Sorry, those two remind me of these two “kids.” http://evilbloggerlady.blogspot.com/2012/02/newt-gingrich-attacks-mitt-romneymitt.html
Gotta at least enjoy the subliminal “pitch” that attempts to make the issue seem like a natural progression….like walking upright….and to resist the change means obviously were still crawling on all fours. Amazing.
Really, this would only be offensive to those pre-programmed to reject a scientific orientation for a racist one — that is, progressives. The graphic indicates that Obama’s evolved, as man evolved, not that he’s a black man, but that’s the left for you.
Comparing the President to a monkey is a long established tradition. The Dems did it to President Lincoln.
I find it a bit unsettling to realize that if we share 97% of our genes with chimpanzees, that means we share as much as 70% with Keith Olbermann and Michael Moore.
LukeHandCool — ahahahahahahahaaha
I think what we are seeing here is the, ahem, “evolution” of the Left’s hierarchy of victimhood.
The Left has always defined certain groups as “victims,” for the purpose of pushing through their radical agenda. That is why women are to be preferred over men, and why black is to be preferred over white.
So when you had 2008 come down to 3 candidates: a white man, a white woman, and a black man, there was never any question that the white man (Jonathan Edwards) had no chance, and that the black man (Obama) would prevail over the white woman (Hillary), because being black was higher in their hierarchy of victimhood than being a woman.
Up until now, being black trumped being gay, but now I see a shift. It seems that gay is now becoming the highest spot in the Left’s hierarchy of victimhood. I suspect this is due to the Left realizing that they can now use the gay agenda to do the most harm to society.
Is there an up and coming black lesbian politician on the scene?
I’d like to befriend her early and see if I can get an ambassadorship to Tahiti out of it.
I’m tellin’ ya, if you think the Left is cultish in their devotion to Obama, just imagine if they had a serious Democrat politician who was a black woman lesbian Muslim. She would have the “victim” gender, race, sexuality, and religion all in one – that’s the Left’s ideal candidate right there.
You’re preaching to the choir, Astroman, my friend. I know exactly what you mean.
Yes, CNN recently fired ‘African-American’ Lefty Roland Martin at the bequest of GLBT Grievances Brigade; over a quazi non-sensical pink superbowl tweet.
Those who believe themselves do-gooders by thinking that if you just give Leftists what they want then they will go away, are responsible for creating this monster.
If we give Lefties ‘gay marriage’ then they will moveon.org to some other Cause they have created out of thin air.
End this cycle of violence, Stop giving the Left what they want!
Great observation, I had forgotten about that!
Yep, the Left’s victimhood hierarchy has come a long way since 2008, where the gay agenda got dumped in favor of getting a black man elected (Obama through gay marriage to the curb during the election so he could win). Now Obama is starting to face pressure from the gay agenda. “Gay is the new black.”
They DO know that Obama is against gay marriage, right? Right?
Perception influences reality, and, hopefully, through emotional extortion will establish it.
Obama is opportunistic. His lack of support for this agenda would suggest that the opportunity lies elsewhere.
His, their, real agenda is challenged by competing interests. The homosexual subset is merely exploited for leverage over these interests. Their behavior follows from either delusions of grandeur or insanity.
I have reconsidered my characterization of these creatures. They either oppose evolutionary fitness or they define its fitness function in a way which is incompatible with its fulfillment.
They are not simian derivatives. There is no evidence that the simian creatures which populate this planet reject the natural order. While there is objective and progressive evidence that there are humanoid creatures seeking a confrontation with the natural order.
Actually, they are regretful simian derivatives who are challenged by life, fearful of death, and choose to run amuck.
I think you all are reading the picture backwards. He is moonwalking.
There are simply two questions:
1. How did we ever arrive at this point of insanity?
2. What can we do about it?
Answer to question #1:
The evolution of this problem started with The Banana Splits … and ended with The Banana Splits.
Creating a generation of little Saturday morning racists.
Who then evolved into these creatures.
Answer to question #2: What can we do about it?
Reach out to all the name-calling leftists and calmly explain how their calling us names like “racist” makes us feel.
LukeHandCool (who sometimes feels like the missing link in the bridge of friendship between the left and the right).
The NY Mag’s illustration alludes to Obama’s closeted position on gay marriage, referred to for years as “evolving”.
[…] out”, being “too white”. And that is something we have deplored. [By the way, anyone want to see Barack Obama compared to an evolving monkey? Check out the racist New York magazine […]
What? Sarah Palin Killing Whitney Houston?
LOL.
I think I killed Elvis.
They removed the image.
“Editor’s Note: This post originally used a variation on an iconic illustration of the evolution of man, known as the ‘March of Progress’, which concluded with an image of President Obama holding a rainbow flag. The illustration was intended simply as a symbolic representation of the President’s self-described “evolution” on gay rights, but has been criticized for its similarity to various racist depictions of the President and African-Americans in general. While that was not the context of the image (in fact, Daily Intel has criticized such representations before), we recognize that images of this nature do carry troubling associations, and so it’s been removed from the post. We apologize for the offense it has caused.”