The race-baiting spam lurking in your inbox
by Carmen Van Kerckhove
This email has been making its rounds, apparently. Disgusting. From Snopes via Rachel’s Tavern.
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Comments
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Here’s my rational response:
Oddly enough, my mom and I predicted several weeks ago that this would happen, namely that people were going to find family photos of Senator Obama’s African family and get their racism on, namely that Obama comes from “uncivilized and uncivilizable” folks and variations therof (people in jail, on the run from the law, participating in perceived abominations, i.e. “gay sex.”)
Damn, I hate to be right about the wrong thing.Here’s my emotional reaction:
Oh heeeeeyyyyyyyyaaaaallllllll no! -
Oh. My. God.
I just.. stutter… I don’t even know what else to say…
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I had a good ol’ laff at this photo. This is called freedom of speech. And I’m pretty sure Barack is prepared for this. Or his PR department is.
If this is his entire family, the guy is lucky that only one half is a bit “uncouth” - most of my family is living below the bread line and have children “out of wedlock” and are alcoholics, et cetera ad nauseum.
They guy’s lucky.
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The photo itself is no big deal — any decades-old family portrait is going to look a little silly to us now. (I still hate the way my hair looked when I was a teenager, 20-plus years later.) … The problem is in the text implying that *this* particular family isn’t right for the White House. And I hate that.
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Why am I not suprised?
Despite all of Obama’s rhetoric about “one America”, the fact is, White America has never accepted us, and, without a huge mass struggle that openly confronts White supremacism, they never will.
That’s one of the great things about the internet, it has a way of getting into this society’s collective unconscious, and we get to see what folks REALLY think, without the politness filters most folks put up when they walk out of the house each day.
And here is what White America REALLY thinks about Barack Obama!!!!
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Ugh. … I finally bothered to read the caption names below the photo.
Damn it.
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Wow. That caption is just disgusting. I read the real story behind the photo on Snope and its just so sick that people would make up such vicious lies..
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Tarah -
Please go read the snopes article. The captions were made up, based in black stereotypes.
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Pookie? Are they kidding me? They can’t make up a more racist slightly African name? Geeesh. And of course one of them has to be on crack.
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I guess Pat Buchanan’s myspace account was broken into.
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I LOVE IT!. I’m glad this is making the rounds. Let’s get it all out there. Let the maggots and grub worms of the country have their say. I want to know who they are and how many of them are out there. This will make for a great sociological experiment for our country here i n the early stages of the 21st century.
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Honestly, now. This would happen to just about any presidential hopeful, I’m sure. Perhaps not as steeped in racial stereotypes, but everyone’s got something to hide.
Not just black people.
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Oh, crikey. I guess I didn’t read the article. I’m sorry, I didn’t realise that and only read your comment now.
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First off, let me say that when you say “White Americans” I’m assuming you mean the racist white people. Please remember that there are a lot of “white” people like me that come from as varied geneology as other “non” whites, and many of those forefathers were and are still discriminated against. For instance, I look VERY white, but my background includes Wyandotte, Black Foot, and Cherokee indians (my mother looks Korean, but is actually showing her Amerind heritage), but I picked up the Irish, Dutch and German genes and look lily white (I burn and peel, never tan). Because of the amount of discrimination my Mom encountered being from WV (it is always open season on Hillbillies) and being part Amerind, she always taught us that we are all equal under our skin color, and she always went out of her way to be the first neighbor in our previously all white neighborhood to welcome the new “colored” family back in the 60’s and invite them to church and dinner. We were not very popular with our white neighbors and churchgoers. So please don’t lump all whites into the hated White Americans category!
While the definitions are bogus, the whole issue of if you run for office, then your whole extended family is game for the smear campaign, is disgusting. This picture is one reason I would never run for public office. You don’t get to pick your family. I’m from WV. I have family photos that include me and some of my cousins from the hollers of WV (hillbilly definition: hollers - roads that run up into the mountains where only family members go. “Foriners” get shot.). If someone defined my family members in a photo, it would go something like this: LaVern (currently serving time in federal prison for running moonshine and shooting a foriner who made fun of his name), me, Jimmy (coal miner), Grady (alcoholic circuit preacher), Judy (convicted prostitute), and Rowdy (corporate lawyer). Only there would be at least 40 people in the photo, and that would include a limited number of people on only one side of my family. When my family has family reunions, we have to rent out a state park.
I think no matter what they throw at Obama, he will rise above it. He has my (WHITE AMERICAN) vote.
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GAB, I agree with srbgr. The use of qualifiers when describing tendencies of a large group can go a long way to prevent a statement from alienating people
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@ Jack D. - Looking silly has nothing to do with it. Really, I don’t think they look silly at all - I think it’s a very nice picture of a dignified-looking family. I realize that you went back and took a second look - I just wanted to make this point explicit.
The issue is one of people planning on people’s ignorance and prejudice to take this family photo and conjecture negative things based on stereotypes that many people feel they are justified in clinging to.
A couple of people here have already had to do a double take (myself included) and pay attention to what this really means. Imagine what people who don’t know about Snopes.com, or who haven’t read his book.
Some of us looked at this and on second thought said to ourselves “C’mon, that’s a little far-reaching, isn’t it?” For many, many people there isn’t a second thought. Many of us see the ‘Flag Pin, National Anthem’ bullshit for what it is, but many people think that it’s true. Remember, a lot of people don’t yet understand that you can make real-looking news items on your PC, because maybe they can’t fathom how it’s done or why someone would lie on the internet (I’m not even being facetitious - I wish I was).
I’m linking to this on my blogs, on the off chance someone will take the second look and share it with someone who sincerely doesn’t know that this kind of stuff is crap. Spread the truth.
Atena
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Is this a fucking joke? I’m pretty sure half these guys are Harvard grads and all of them are successful doctors lawyers and multifucking millionaires
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Amen, srbgr!
As a blonde, blue eyed “White American” with liberal amounts of Mohawk, Chippewa, Maori, and Jewish blood whose aunt married a Nigerian, and sister married a Salvadorian, and who is currently dating a Palestinian, whose family is predominantly clearly non-white, and happened to get the recessive genetic odball I hate having the term “White American” thrown around as a replacement for “racist.”Just as not all apparently black people are all black, not all apparently white people are all white, and not all white people are racist! I personally didn’t have to suffer the racism of growing up with dark skin, but I’ve seen my beloved family members go through it and I’ve been detained at the airport with my partner for his dark skin and dreadlocks. I am a proud Obama supporter and this picture disgusts me. And no matter the color of my skin I have the right to be outraged by it.
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“Is this a fucking joke? I’m pretty sure half these guys are Harvard grads and all of them are successful doctors lawyers and multifucking millionaires”
Srsly. It’s funny how they evidently got stumped by what to slander “Timmy” with. “Hmm…. wholesome-looking, beaming kid in an argyle sweater — GAY PR0N!”
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Ugh. But, not surprising. Listen to hate radio (Michael Savage, Rush Limbaugh, and the rest of the syndicated haters). I am embarrassed to share a race with these people. The stuff that has gone on around Hillary has been unsavory in a different way. All the Democrats can muster is to call McCain an out-of-touch geezer (or out of touch dangerous loon, when he gets into his bomb-Iran mode).
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This is beyond disgusting, and I’m truly sickened by this. Makes me want to make another campaign contribution to Obama.
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And isn’t it funny how just a few months ago he was “too white”?
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And people wonder why Rev. Wright calls it AmeriKKKa.
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srbgr and Celeste,
I’m sorry, but White supremicist attitudes are common among many White Americans, and almost all White Americans are to some degree influenced by those concepts, since we live in a racist country.
So no, I’m not going to use a modifier.
srbgr’s post itself proves the point - he/she goes on at length about his/her having a small amount of Native American ancestry on his/her mother’s side and how his/her mother is from Appalachia, and tries to equate the minor amount of discrimination suffered by Appalachians with the 400 years of systematic persecutions of African Americans.
I would have had an easier time buying srbgr’s argument if he/she had been willing to admit that no, the hard times that his/her family suffered is not anywhere near the systematic institutional discrimination suffered by Black people in this country.
The cold hard fact is, we live in a White supremacist country, and every White American (down to and including the White man sleeping in a flophouse on the Bowery) has an advantage over Black people just because of their race.
That’s where the conversation on race has to start for it to have any value at all - because that is the truth!!!
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Jen,
The Alabama Highway Patrol standard of race applies here.
That is, despite your small amount of Native American ancestry, (or your Jewish ancestry for that matter - and, incidentally, by American standards Jews are White) and your relatives who are in relationships with people of color, if you were driving down the interstate, the state troopers would still see you as a White person.
And that would bestow certain real advantages on you.
For instance, you, as a White person (and let’s face it, that’s what you are - despite your small amount of Native American ancestry and the dating patters of your relatives) would be less likely to be stopped as opposed to a person of color.
So, if you’re doing 95 mph, and a Black person is doing 75mph, THEY will get stopped before you.
Even if you get stopped, you might just get off with a warning - and you certainly would not get your car searched!!!
You know that just as well as I do, so please come off it, admit the very real priviliges that you benefit from as a White person (the same race priviliges that EVERY White American benefits from!) and then the real conversation on race in America can begin!
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Without that red circle, there is simply no way that I could pick Obama out of that family photo.
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I feel weary. Just weary. Human nature is just sickening, I pray that if Barack is elected God will protect him. Some people are just evil!!
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The bottom line is that racism and ignorance is alive and well in America. Some white people don’t like barack because he is black, some black people don’t like him because he is light skinned. He is fighting an uphill battle.
may God bless him and keep him… -
juswt so you know, When a person says “WHITE AMERICA” they aren’t talking about white people. They’re talking about American culture which is based on white ideals and an underlying belief in “White Power”.
It has little to do directly with race and more to do with the racially oppressive culture of our nation. Where’s the photo of Hillary’s family or McCain’s with unflattering stereotypical captions? Why aren’t people making up similar lies about them?Think about it people and please actually read what people write. there is a difference between white americans and “White America”.
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It’s not that uncommon for White people to have a minor degree of American Indian heritage. And it’s almost universal for a White person to have someone, somewhere in his or her family who was discriminated against for ethnic, linguistic, or class reasons. Unless you’re descended from pure First Family of Virgina stock or something, SOMEBODY you’re related to was oppressed unjustly and for an arbitrary characteristic at SOME point. Really, that fact is just another testament to the ridiculousness of racial supremacy ‘theory.’
So Butler has a real point when he says that the Highway Patrol test is what actually matters. Whether or not I feel myself to be White, I am perceived as White and the advantages that confers come automatically. It does not matter how I feel about those advantages, because they’re built into the societal structure we all work within.
I really don’t think the conversation should begin, “I’m an anti-racist White because I, too! In some small way! Have also been oppressed!” It should begin “I’m an anti-racist White because racial discrimination is illogical and unjust, and the responsibility for changing the structures that support it in part lies with me.”
At the same time, I have to admit that I also bristled at reading from Butler that this is what “White America” thinks of Obama. Are Obama’s White supporters engaging in some Goldbergian mechanism of massive cognitive dissonance, if this is what they actually all think about Obama?
You can say that there is a difference between “white people” and “White America,” tracy, but how exactly is your average reader supposed to parse this out without further explanation? As far as I can tell, Butler seems to be talking about any American who is White. Implying the endorsement of every single White person in America of this repulsive and grossly manipulative lie of a picture just because some bigot spent a few minutes in Photoshop and then forwarded it to all his likewise retrograde best buds is one hell of a guilt by association. Black people already have to deal with that sort of ‘you’re collectively responsible for one person’s actions’ nonsense all the time. Why perpetuate it for White people too?
There are obviously a number of White people who think this manipulation is A-Ok. And all White people have their perceptions and perspectives influenced by the racist societal structure that informs the above-mentioned attitude, even if they don’t want that influence.
But there is an extremely significant gap between White privilege and every single White person actually thinking these things about Obama. We are not a monolith and we are not incapable of recognizing this for the injustice that it is. And at least some of us genuinely do want to see the end to a society where this picture would be an effective political strategy.
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Small amount? When did I say small amount? I am 1/4 Chippewa and a legal member of the tribe. My neighbor is 1/8 black and yet he is considered black, and suffers all the injustices that come with that classification. I stand out as the short, blonde, unable to tan woman, among my tall, black haired, and dusky skinned brother and sisters. So please don’t make assumptions about me.
My point is that America is not black and white, and neither is race, rather it is a spectrum of unique heritage and experiences. I think I am in a unique position to understand the racial divide in America since, unlike many “white” people I see how people treat me much differently, and with more respect, than my darker younger brother (when I am in a store with him we get tailed by the employees. when I am in a store alone I don’t). I do realize I have certain opportunities than I would have if I appeared more “ethnic” and it infuriates me to see. I read blogs like this one to get a more well-rounded view of the world.
No, dodgerdodger, I have not been oppressed based on race. “I’m an anti-racist White because racial discrimination is illogical and unjust, and the responsibility for changing the structures that support it in part lies with me.” This was exactly what I was trying to say, albeit less eloquently. I was bothered by the allegation that all white people see Obama this way and trying to make the point that judging someone who appears to be white as automatically racist is just as ludicrous as judging someone who appears to be black to be a stripper/felon/drug addict. How in the world could I be racist towards my own tribe, ancestors, and family?
And Mr. Butler, no, not all white people are white supremacists. What about my neighbor? At 1/8 he could have just as easily turned out looking like a brown haired white kid as a light skinned black kid. Would you then judge him to be a white supremacist?
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That’s one of the great things about the internet, it has a way of getting into this society’s collective unconscious, and we get to see what folks REALLY think, without the politness filters most folks put up when they walk out of the house each day.
And here is what White America REALLY thinks about Barack Obama!!!!
Um, I’m white America and I DON’T think anything like this at all. You can’t lump all of us together. That’s racism.
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Everyone has members in our family that isn’t perfect. Nobody’s perfect nobody’s lived the so called perfect life. I think if anything Barack’s story is inspiring because he rose above the problems other family members had in their lives and he achieved to make something out of his life.
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Orville,
That email is fake. The real names and identities of the people pictured are on Snopes.com.
I think was scares me the most is how many people on this thread fell for the forged captions.
I wonder how many people who don’t think about race and stereotyping on a regular basis also took this for the truth?
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re “I’m sorry, but White supremicist attitudes are common among many White Americans”: Even my headache has a headache now.
I give up. People suck. All of ‘m. Doesn’t matter what color their skin is.
I’m going to stay home and hang out with my dog and cat now…
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Jen,
I agree with you that many White Americans are anti racist - my dad for instance, was passionately anti racist, and I also work closely with many White activists who are very strongly opposed to White supremacism.
With that said, those very anti racist Whites would freely admit that EVERY WHITE AMERICAN - including themselves - directly and personally benefits from the SYSTEM of White supremacy.
It just doesn’t matter what you think about it - you benefit from it because it is a system of institutional racism.
Further, the ideas that back up that system of privilige influence every White American, no matter what they think about White supremacism.
So, it doesn’t matter that you have an ID card from a Native American tribe, or that your darker siblings get discriminated against (while you freely admit that you yourself do not - unless you are in their company).
This is NOT about personal opinions or attitudes - this is about Institutional Racism, and how you personally and every other White American personally benefits from it.
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Ooops I can admit I am wrong.
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Omg. I guess I’m late in seeing this, but WOW. Can’t decide if I’m more troubled by the fact that someone created this bogus family history or the fact that some people (intelligent and thinking people, too) didn’t know it was a joke!!! The latter saddens me more. It’s easy to let the bottom-feeders have their fun with a stupid joke like this, but it’s much harder to swallow that folks would buy into it so quickly. What is the solution to our knee-jerk stereotypes about Black people?
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Brigitte-
“Without that red circle, there is simply no way that I could pick Obama out of that family photo.”
whuh?
now, are you kidding or are you visually impaired? because, we all know in this day and age that NOT ALL BLACK PEOPLE LOOK ALIKE, RIGHT?
yeah. you were probably just kidding.
right?
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We should all be impressed by the courage of this young family. I am proud to know that they are sticking together in support of their family member. I am a Christian which means I am also part of the Obama Christian family. I feel a little of the hurt that the Obama family must feel.
We should not be naive to think that the ugliness stops at these kinds of published trash. In fact, I shutter to think of the hate mail, phone calls, and even threats that these family members endure.
I am reminded that there were other Americans of varied ethnicities recruited for presidential campaigns. However they did not step up to the plate. The fact that the Obama’s are standing in the mist of this kind of pressure gives me chills.
So, I pray for the Obama family as I pray for all of my family members. I hope that other people who believe that they are Obama’s will pray for the family too.
God has a way! Don’t sleep!
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¡Hijole….!
I much appreciate the many, many insightful comments left by all the above readers, but part of being active in community organizing around issues of race requires a response to part of the debate above.
It often times seems as though we get into an argument of competing oppressions. (Clearly forms of oppression or combinations of double/triple oppressions, etc. vary greatly in how they are accepted and enforced both internally and externally within the society at large… that’s not why I’m writing.) The most basic fact of the matter is that all of us, (oppressors included), are oppressed by the standards and stereotypes imposed living in an oppressive society. Flat out - allowing any exploitative expression of society to continue unchallenged is not acceptable in any form.
When we invest our time into debating whose oppression is most severe, we our losing time to act (although possibly increasing the potential of actions… reflection is necessary component of action - but, again, that’s not my current point). When assessing oppression, we can only speak from our own experience, not that of our brothers and sisters (in the larger, human context of the word). I can’t know whose oppression is worse (although statistics on incarceration, drop-out rates, or attempted suicides provides insight on the many forms of oppression’s many effects).
Ultimately, as the exchange above demonstrates, engaging in debate over whose oppression is worst is divisive. Societal (and, consequently, individual) liberation requires the efforts of all of us. To achieve our common goal we can’t question others’ understanding of their own experience. Devaluing another’s experience to emphasize our own is a constant threat to collective action. To effectively collaborate while addressing oppression we can only listen to others’ experience and understanding, do our best to empathize, and connect the dots to our own common experiences of exploitation.
Yes, African Americans are unjustly stopped by police. Yes, low-income, rural European Americans’ intelligence unfairly represented in media. Yes, mixed race families leave the whiter child alienated as they see the double standard that applied to their siblings within their homes and neighborhoods. We could ask which is worse, but we hopefully see that all are related, all deserve to be addressed, and all can be addressed together.
Collective action is necessary, effective communication is needed, and linguistic qualifiers definitely help in maintaining solidarity. And, given the racist ignorance that all of us our responding to in the initial photo, it appears as though their will be a lot of anti-racist work to engage in between now and November 6th, and hopefully over the next 8 years if we don’t get too wrapped up in placing ourselves in a single conservative-defined, progressive-dividing, racial/socio-economic/gender-identified/sexually-oriented/religiously-affiliated/etc. box.
Again, thanks to everyone for insight, I apologize for the length of the post, and keep struggling any way y’all know how!
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of 
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