GOP club newsletter sparks outrage

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Registered: 03-18-2000
GOP club newsletter sparks outrage
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Fri, 10-17-2008 - 10:23am

Altered Obama photo in GOP club newsletter sparks outrage
Illustration shows the candidate's head on donkey's body on a bogus $10 bill that says 'Food Stamps.' Leader of the Upland women's group denies racism, but a state party official decries the image.


A Republican women's club in San Bernardino County sent out a recent newsletter with a photo of Barack Obama surrounded by fried chicken, watermelon and ribs, sparking widespread outrage and rebuke from GOP leaders and Democrats.

The illustration shows the Democratic presidential candidate's head atop a donkey's body on a bogus $10 bill referred to as "Obama Bucks." Inscribed on the money are the words "United States Food Stamps" surrounded by stereotypical African American food.

The October newsletter went out to about 200 members of the Chaffey Community Republican Women, Federated, based in Upland.

"I apologize to anyone who was offended because that was not my intent," said club President Diane Fedele. "It was poor judgment on my part. It was strictly an attempt to point out the outrageousness of Obama's statement that he doesn't look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills."

The caption reads: "Obama talks about all those presidents that got their names on bills. If elected, what bill would he be on ????? Food Stamps, what else!"

Fedele said the mailer merely parodied the statements Obama made during a debate last summer and wasn't racist.

"If I was racist, I would have looked at it through racist eyes," she said. "I am not racist, which is why it probably didn't register."

Club member Kristina Sandoval agreed.

"None of us are racists," she said.

The use of watermelon, ribs and fried chicken was innocent, she said.

"Everyone eats those foods, it's not a racial thing."

That's not how club member Acquanetta Warren -- a Fontana city councilwoman and an African American -- saw it.

"My daughter who is 16 was standing over my shoulder when I opened the e-mail, and her mouth dropped wide open," Warren said. "I actually turned the screen away and sent her to her room so she wouldn't see. I don't want to talk to anyone; I want a written apology so the public knows that this is not right and this is not representative of the way Republicans think."

She's known Fedele a long time and is shocked by the newsletter.

"When she didn't see a problem with this, I knew something was wrong," said Warren, who is also vice chairwoman of the California Republican Party for the Inland Empire. "This is an isolated, crazy thing. Our chairman is outraged. We just don't do this."

Indeed, Fedele drew a sharp reprimand from Ron Nehring, California Republican Party chairman.

"Any material that invokes issues related to race is absolutely unacceptable, tarnishes our party, diminishes the hard work of the tens of thousands of volunteers who are working hard every day for our candidates, and must be condemned," he said in a statement Thursday. "This material I've seen inspires nothing but divisiveness and hostility and has absolutely no place in this election, or any public discourse."

His statement also referred to an image on the Sacramento County GOP website this week showing Obama in a turban beside Osama bin Laden with the words: "The difference between Osama and Obama is just a little B.S." The site also exhorted members to "Waterboard Barack Obama."

"I called the chairman and said, 'You need to take that off your website,' and he took it off," said Hector Barajas, spokesman for the state GOP.

Fedele and the others at the Chaffey Community Republican club are volunteers and can't be fired. Aside from politics, they also do volunteer and charity work throughout the community.

Gary Ovitt, a county supervisor and chairman of the San Bernardino County Republican Party, is scheduled to meet with Fedele on Monday to discuss the incident.

"He is disgusted and appalled by it, and he believes it is blatantly racist and offensive no matter what the intent was," said Burt Southard, Ovitt's spokesman. "These are individual clubs. This one in particular may be one of the largest in the state and is one of the most active."

A spokesman for the Obama campaign in California, Gabriel Sanchez, declined to comment.

State Sen. Bob Dutton (R-Rancho Cucamonga) represents the area, and his wife, a Latina, is a member of the club.

"I thought it was unacceptable and a failed attempt at humor," Dutton said. "My wife isn't taking it personally because she knows the people involved. I called Diane and talked to her and told her it was inappropriate. She is a sweet lady without a mean bone in her body. But we all have to be more sensitive." (Me: And apparently not a brain in her head.)

Democrats weren't as charitable.

"I think it's sad and unbelievable that they can't see how offensive this is," said Carol Robb, head of the San Bernardino County Democratic Party. "People are losing their homes, we are in financial chaos and the best they can do is a caricature of Obama on a donkey's body and food stamps. How out of touch with the 21st century can you get?"

Newsletter photo of Obama

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iVillage Member
Registered: 10-14-2008
Fri, 10-17-2008 - 6:18pm

Awwww, man, that's DEPRESSING. I can remember a few months ago, when the Democratic primary still loomed large and was unresolved. Al Jazeera posted about a five minute video clip which was a lot like the one you just linked to: it was shot in West Virginia, and it was dealing with the subject of race in the Presidential election (and secondarily of gender). The overwhelming sentiment expressed was a sort of furtive-yet-casual racism; people saying things like "I don't like the way George Bush has treated working folks in this country," whereupon the interviewer would ask the person: "so then you plan on voting for the other party, for Barack Obama?" And the response was "well, no, I can't vote for a black man for President.....I'm not a racist, but I can't do that." I'm paraphrasing, since I can no longer find the clip (I'm not trying very hard, it might still be out there).

But it literally blew me back into my chair like the old Maxell commercial to see people so freely admitting that. Different strokes for different folks, I guess....I just never thought I'd see it so flat-out as that. Now that I come to think about it (after viewing your Al Jazeera video link), I wonder whether that's actually MORE preferable to me than the sort of veiled, "dog-whistle" racism that more-sophisticated (or less honest, whichever) people employ when they want to express their feelings while being able to still have "plausible deniability" that they are racists. The people in the video that I saw were allowed to speak at length: there were no quick (and suspicious) cutaways that made the viewer wonder whether the intention of the interviewee had been intentionally changed by the reporter. It was just straight, unvarnished mulling-over of their ideas about the political/social issues. I found the casual, non-self-aware racism repulsive....but the honesty refreshing. At least these people outright SAID, straight-up, "I can't vote for a black man for President."

I have to tell you, after watching your link, I wonder how great a factor the "Bradley Effect" is going to be in this year's election.

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-14-2008
Fri, 10-17-2008 - 6:22pm

I think libraone and probably pretty much anyone else is well aware of what The Atlantic is.

Did that picture actually RUN in The Atlantic, or was it only one of the shots that the photographer took and played around with?

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-04-2003
Fri, 10-17-2008 - 6:24pm

If you don't pay taxes, how can you get a tax cut (even if someone desperately wanted to give you one)?


As for the racist vs non-racist angle....I'm curious as to WHY (of all the pictures someone could POSSIBLY have chosen to use) anyone would put watermelon and fried chicken on fake money.


iVillage Member
Registered: 04-04-2003
Fri, 10-17-2008 - 6:26pm

I agree....That's pretty horrible and totally tasteless. Did you find it on the official Democratic website?


iVillage Member
Registered: 10-14-2008
Fri, 10-17-2008 - 6:35pm
Racist can mean black people who don't like whites also can't it?


Sure it can. But, since the 2006 figures for America's non-hispanic White population is 68%....and that is the lowest in history (meaning previous years were an even higher percentage), I'd say that white people are the dominant skin color in America, pretty definitively, and the other 32% is a mix of ALL other ethnicities/skin colors. Black people never brought white people to America on slave ships to serve out their entire lives owned by black masters. Black people didn't institute poll taxes to prevent white people from voting in many parts of the country. Segregation - although it affected both groups (black and white) didn't favor black people, by design.

So if a "white guy" who was "pushing the same agendas" (though I'm not at all sure you and I would agree upon what specific "agendas" Obama is "pushing") were to be one of the major-party candidates for President this year, I doubt seriously that any white person would be making the connection that this "white guy" would be on a food stamp instead of a dollar bill, or that - if he was - he'd be surrounded by fried chicken, watermelon, ribs and Kool-Aid. Instead, the attacks would likely take the form of trying to ridicule that man's military service by demeaning the medals he won through a campaign of putting purple-heart logos on band-aids, to insinuate that the candidate hadn't really served his country honorably and didn't REALLY deserve the medals the military awarded him. Or they might criticize a windsurfing vacation he took to get away for a weekend from the campaign. Or say "he looks FRENCH" on TV.

Those are the attacks you'd probably see. But not his likeness on a food stamp, surrounded by ribs, Kool-Aid, watermelon and fried chicken.

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-14-2008
Fri, 10-17-2008 - 6:44pm

Just a quick note: it isn't "fake money." It's a facsimile of an authentic food coupon - what we call "food stamps" in the US. I'm explaining this because I know you're Canadian and might not be aware of the intricacies of our government's aid to the less fortunate. The program has existed for decades, it's commonly called food stamps. It's a way to give government support to those people who are SO poor that their very ability to purchase enough food to survive is questionable. I'm not an expert on the ins and outs of it, but "food stamps" has become synonymous with "welfare" in this country. Unfortunately, it is considered a sign of complete failure as a human being: you cannot even feed yourself or your family, and instead of viewing it as a hand up or a way to avoid even further ruin, many people view it as merely a stigma to be avoided at all costs.

As you might imagine, it disproportionately is collected by minorities. Sure, the greatest NUMBER of recipients are "white," but this only reflects the overwhelming percentage of "whites" in the general population. If you look at the racial breakdown of the United States in comparison to the racial breakdown of who receives government aid in the form of food stamps, a very different picture emerges. So food stamps are associated with minorities, for good or ill. That's why the Republican woman's inclination to even PUT Obama on a food stamp (instead of on money) is so offensive on its face. And - if you were tempted to give her the benefit of the doubt on the theory that she was only saying he should be on a food stamp instead of a dollar because he's such a "socialist," you can debunk that largesse by noting the foods that she chose to place around Obama: fried chicken, watermelon, ribs.....you know: "darkie" food. It's for those reasons that the entire tableau is so repulsive.

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-26-2008
Fri, 10-17-2008 - 6:47pm
Now we'll get someone on here
iVillage Member
Registered: 10-14-2008
Fri, 10-17-2008 - 7:15pm
Indeed I do.

And perhaps, in the spirit of that long-ago debate, it's time to resurrect this clip, from the cult-classic "Clerks 2," by Kevin Smith.

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-26-2008
Fri, 10-17-2008 - 7:41pm
Oh my - that is good - I hadn't seen it - thank you.....
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-11-2006
Fri, 10-17-2008 - 7:59pm

>>It's a reminder that hate and fear are still powerful force in America.<<

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRqcfqiXCX0

We need to be vigilant, it COULD happen here.

http://www.alternet.org/story/68399/?page=1

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