Opinion

Why some people want to make a monkey out of Michelle

By Earl Ofari Hutchinson

11:40 AM on 03/10/2010

READ MORE: Barack Obama, First Lady, Michelle Obama, Monkey, Racism, Walt Baker

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President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama arrive for a ceremony honoring women from around the world and their achievements for International Women's Day in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Monday, March 8, 2010. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

The worst thing about the CEO of the Tennessee Hospitality Association Walt Baker's silly, sick, demeaning depiction of first lady Michelle Obama as a chimp ironically is not the depiction. It's Baker's clueless defense.

The instant the storm broke, and Nashville's mayor, the state's GOP leaders denounced him, and the contract was summarily yanked from his marketing firm, Mercatus Communications, to help promote the city's new convention center, Baker predictably wailed that he's not a bigot, racially insensitive, and the cartoon was nothing but political humor.

He fervently believes that. He just as fervently believes that lampooning Michelle Obama, and President Obama as a monkey, ape, gorilla is just 'can't you take a joke' fun and games. He and the pack of race baiting websites, chat rooms, and of late, college frat parties, and student websites that ridicule the Obama's (and African-Americans) in assorted off beat, crude, vile cartoons and always with the vile depiction as monkeys or apes is by now standard fare. It's no accident that it is.

The long, sordid and savage history of racist stereotyping of African-Americans has been the stock in trade of race baiting and racial ridicule and for more than century. A few grotesque book titles from a century ago, such as The Negro a Beast, The Negro, a Menace to American Civilization, and The Clansman depicted blacks as apes, monkeys, bestial, and animal like. The image stuck in books, magazines, journals, and deeply colored the thinking of many Americans of that day?

In the movie version of Rudyard Kipling children's classic, The Jungle Book, the Disney Studios in 1967 graduated from the other standard animal depiction of African-Americans as black crows to depicting African-Americans as the Monkey like jive, gibberish blathering King Louie. The film was remade in 1994.

Fifteen years later, New York Post cartoonist Sean Delonas ignited a firestorm with his casual depiction of President Obama as a monkey. He did it precisely because that image didn't die a century, half century, a decade, or even a year ago.

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The worst thing about the CEO of the Tennessee Hospitality Association Walt Baker's "silly, sick, demeaning depiction":http://www.thegrio.com/specials/web-rundown/ceo-compares-michelle-obama-to-chimpanzee.php of first lady Michelle Obama as a chimp ironically is not the depiction. It's Baker's clueless defense. The instant the storm broke, and Nashville's mayor, the state's GOP leaders "denounced him":http://www.thegrio.com/specials/web-rundown/obama-chimp-e-mail-costs-walt-baker-his-job-business-partner.php, and the contract was summarily yanked from his marketing firm, Mercatus Communications, to help promote the city's new convention center, Baker predictably wailed that he's not a bigot, racially insensitive, and the cartoon was nothing but political humor. He fervently believes that. He just as fervently believes that "lampooning Michelle Obama":http://www.thegrio.com/news/sc-republican-issues-apology-for-michelle-obama-gorilla-comment.php, and President Obama as a monkey, ape, gorilla is just 'can't you take a joke' fun and games. He and the pack of race baiting websites, chat rooms, and of late, college frat parties, and student websites that ridicule the Obama's (and African-Americans) in assorted off beat, crude, vile cartoons and always with the vile depiction as monkeys or apes is by now standard fare. It's no accident that it is. The long, sordid and savage history of racist stereotyping of African-Americans has been the stock in trade of race baiting and racial ridicule and for more than century. A few grotesque book titles from a century ago, such as _The Negro a Beast, The Negro, a Menace to American Civilization_, and _The Clansman_ depicted blacks as apes, monkeys, bestial, and animal like. The image stuck in books, magazines, journals, and deeply colored the thinking of many Americans of that day? In the movie version of Rudyard Kipling children's classic, _The Jungle Book_, the Disney Studios in 1967 graduated from the other standard animal depiction of African-Americans as black crows to depicting African-Americans as the Monkey like jive, gibberish blathering King Louie. The film was remade in 1994. Fifteen years later, _New York Post_ cartoonist Sean Delonas ignited a "firestorm":http://www.thegrio.com/news/news-corp-agrees-to-form-diversity-council-after-meeting-naacp-over-controversial-ny-post-cartoon.php with his casual depiction of President Obama as a monkey. He did it precisely because that image didn't die a century, half century, a decade, or even a year ago.