African Americans Only

I don't know if I'm just paying attention (as I rarely do) or if there really is a recent influx in the news lately, but I keep reading about things that seem to have a double standard attached to them. And I keep trying to figure out why some things are OK and other similar things are just so NOT OK. I've come up with no answers. Only examples. And today's example comes straight from our very own President Barry's re-election campaign. Or something like that

Over yonder at barackobama.com, there is a short blurb by a one organizing fellow Adrenis Hook. (I wonder what an organizing fellow does. Would it be the same as an organizing chap? Would it be the same as an organizing gentleman? Hmmm. Adrenis appears to be a chick, so I guess that last one is out. But I still have no idea what that means.) The purpose of the blurb seems to be to tell us how President Barry has kept some of his promises and that we should continue to support him. Oh, wait. Unless you're white. Or anything besides black. I can only make that assumption since since she's asking for people to sign up to be volunteers over there at African Americans for Obama.

Oh, for cryin' out loud. Are you kidding me? How are we all supposed to be united and get along when people keep separating themselves off into groups? Seriously. Why does it have to be African Americans for Obama? Why can't it just be Americans for Obama? What's wrong with whitey? Never mind all of that. Let's look at it from a different perspective. What if I started "Only Whites For Obama"? Oh, I can practically hear the uproar and the cries of "Racism!" But it's just fine the other way around? What gives, President Barry? What gives, Adrenis?

Look, if folks want to rally 'round and take up President Barry as their cause, I'm all for that. What I am not all for is dividing people out by race. Because quite frankly, I don't give a fat rat's ass what race you are. It isn't a factor in how I determine which decisions I am going to make in every situation where I have a choice. NEVER. It's never factor. But for some people (I'm guessing like African Americans for Obama) it seems to always be an issue!

I don't understand this and I'm not going to pretend that I do. But I'd like it to stop. Or at the very least, I'd like some sort of explanation as to why African Americans for Obama is even "necessary" when you could just as easily go with Americans for Obama and not be all inclusionary and what not. If I was actually a little bit more for Obama, I might actually make "Whites For Obama". Just to see what would happen (even though I'm not sure I want to know).

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More Double Standards

I was thinking about yesterday's post in regard to double standards and it made me think about all of this Jeremy Lin nonsense that's been happening. It made me really wonder why poking fun at some stereotypes is OK, but poking fun at other stereotypes is totally off limits. I don't mean a little off limits. I mean WAY off limits. Like so far off that you're assumed to be a Klan member if you even take a whiff in that direction.

Let's look at this sign below that showed up at a Knicks game last week when Jeremy Lin was right in the middle of his hot streak. Behold!

Now, I don't know if the fact that it's being held up by an Asian has anything to do with it being OK. I wonder what the reaction to this would be if it was a white guy holding it up. I haven't seen anything against this particular sign. No one has said that it's "racist" or that people shouldn't "stereotype" (or some sort of utopian drivel). It seems to be just fine to have that kind of a sign. As it seems OK to have this kind of a sign as well...Behold!

Again, I haven't heard of any backlash over this particular sign either. I don't know if the person with this sign was Asian or not. All I know is that no one was having a cow over it or anything. And that bring me to my question. What if someone in the stands at a sporting event had a sign that referenced a black stereotype with a black player? Like, let's say that Kobe Bryant and the Lakers were playing a team that had previously beaten the Lakers by over 70 points. And let's say that the next time that Kobe faced off against that team, someone in the stands had a sign with a picture of Kobe Bryant eating fried chicken? And the caption read "What's the matter, Kobe? Chicken?" And let's say it looked like this...Behold!


Oh, COME on! You didn't really think I was going to include a picture of Kobe Bryant eating fried chicken, did you? Are you kidding me? I'd never hear the end of something like that! Can you imagine the self-righteous outrage?! Well, I could! And that's why I gave you a picture of a cute puppy instead of one that would make even me cringe at the sight of it. (His name is Bob Barker. How cute is that?!) But that it's OK for the Jeremy Lin puns and signs to dabble in racial stereotypes all the while it is so NOT OK to dabble in anything racial in regard to those who are black? That perplexes me. I wonder why it's like that. Not just for the Asian stereotypes to be "OK", but for people to think that they're "OK"

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