https://contemporaryracism.org/2760/planet-of-the-apes-or-the-obamas/ An academic blog about whiteness, implicit bias, and systemic racism Sat, 24 May 2014 00:49:51 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://contemporaryracism.org/2760/planet-of-the-apes-or-the-obamas/comment-page-1/#comment-426 Sun, 04 May 2014 23:49:12 +0000 http://contemporaryracism.org/?p=2760#comment-426 Thanks for posting this, Chelsey. I think you make some really good points and noticed some really important things about the photo and article. First of all, you are completely right when you say that depicting a white person as an ape and depicting a black person as an ape are two very different things with very different connotations and messages. I also really like your point that ties the article to our discussions on associations of blacks with crime. You did a great job picking apart this article and wrote a great post.

]]> https://contemporaryracism.org/2760/planet-of-the-apes-or-the-obamas/comment-page-1/#comment-419 Fri, 02 May 2014 04:59:32 +0000 http://contemporaryracism.org/?p=2760#comment-419 Being that there are countries in europe that sell weed and others that don’t fully criminalize the drug and addiction, like in Portugal; I think its so interesting that once a black president is in office and weed begins to be sold it becomes some ironic joke. The picture is truly appauling and the fact that Obama was set to visit the country right after shows how much respect people truly have. But the comments, I don’t understand. Things don’t always have to be racist? Take a joke? Then don’t say racist things, don’t joke about racial issues if you aren’t prepared to face backlash from the culture you are writing about. I personally think labeling anyone as an animal particularly an ape is disgusting and distasteful. The historical contexts behind this really does matter and it’s not something to joke about.

]]> https://contemporaryracism.org/2760/planet-of-the-apes-or-the-obamas/comment-page-1/#comment-413 Fri, 02 May 2014 00:51:06 +0000 http://contemporaryracism.org/?p=2760#comment-413 This is a phenomenal example of a microinvalidation. Playing the cartoon of the Obama’s as apes as “just a joke” is a great example of someone ignoring racism as a factor in the situation. Another person stating that Bush also has been told he looks like an ape is another way of downplaying racism through invalidation of the comics that have very clear racist motives. The newspaper is also jokingly claiming that the cartoon is from Russia, what screams racism more than that?

]]> https://contemporaryracism.org/2760/planet-of-the-apes-or-the-obamas/comment-page-1/#comment-371 Mon, 07 Apr 2014 03:02:22 +0000 http://contemporaryracism.org/?p=2760#comment-371 Good post! I absolutely agree with you – depicting a white person as an ape and depicting a black person as an ape are not the same thing. For some reason, people don’t seem to understand that history matters.

]]> https://contemporaryracism.org/2760/planet-of-the-apes-or-the-obamas/comment-page-1/#comment-359 Fri, 04 Apr 2014 17:53:44 +0000 http://contemporaryracism.org/?p=2760#comment-359 Besides the picture itself being horribly racist and blatantly equating black people to apes, I have to say that I was almost more appalled at the comments and reactions than the article itself. I would think that an offensive article published like this, would receive a lot of negative attention and backlash. Reading the comments, yes there were some people arguing against the publication, but there were a significant amount of people making up excuses for the image. People were saying, lighten up its only a joke, or it was in the satire section, or racism is in the past so it is okay to joke about….the comment section was full of aversive racism, with people just making up excuses for why this picture wasn’t actually racist.

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