Of Racism and Waterfowl

I just read an entertaining and thoughtful post at Stephen Kruiser's that concludes the media -- MSNBC shows , in particular -- are responsible for contriving the ever-more-pronounced role that race plays in the expanding debate on healthcare (and countless other topics).

Interesting point.

Of course, the troll-ish commenters don't even pretend to address the premise of the piece -- they just want to hone in on a few fringe folks at the Tea Party gatherings and point to their signs as evidence of a massive racist current running through the heart of the conservative movement and its like.

Yawn.

There really will not be an end to the racist diatribe, will there?

Okay, I give up — a sign portraying Obama as a witch doctor suggests that its creator may have prejudiced leanings. So what? It’s A sign, carried by someone who has no authority or power to act upon his less-than-P.C. leanings. His Mama obviously didn't rear him properly (Note for those north of the Mason-Dixon Line: "rear" is a southern colloquialism for the raising and nurturing of offspring, not a reference to some odd "teabagging" endeavor).

That sign is also kind of clever in the respect that witch doctors, stereotypically, induce their “cures” through “magic;” through nothing of any real substance, or through mesmerization at best — which is precisely how Obamacare appears to be funded at this point.

Would it be preferable to see the Young President caricatured on a sign as the AFLAC duck? You know — a “quack?” Or would that, more insidiously, be evidence that: (A) Obama = duck; (B) duck = game waterfowl to be shot and consumed by the hunter; therefore, (C) Obama = target of gun-crazed cannibals and/or (D) Tea Party protesters are cannibals?!? (I can't figure out how to extrapolate them out so they become racist cannibals, but I'll keep working on it. Any suggestions?)

I suppose an ObamA-FLAC duck sign would bring the "no-guns-near-the-Prez-ers" out in full force, though, which could be problematic in a whole different vein.

Oops. Sorry, Second Amendment and TEA Partiers — I just gave MSNBC its next story line. My bad.

*UPDATE* -- the Greater New Orleans Tea Party group had a successful picnic yesterday at West End Park! We arrived a little late, so we missed the bulk of the crowd, but a book vendor reported running out of his 500-copy stash of The 5000 Year Leap, and the "Conservative Cone" Snowball vendor seemed pleased (there's no stopping those conservative entrepreneurs, is there!)! Not too shabby attendance for an LSU football day, especially with the game being played up the road in Baton Rouge. In one pic above, taken at the picnic, the diagram seems particularly apropos of the commenters I noted above; in the other, Bouie demonstrates his boredom with the whole racism thing. (click on the pic for a larger view)