Posted on 10/14/2007 8:15:46 AM PDT by jimbo123
A RACIALLY insensitive moment from Bill Clinton's boyhood is coming back to haunt him. It's a postcard the future president sent his grandma Edith Cassidy in 1966 showing a black youth eagerly polishing a gigantic watermelon, titled "Hope, Arkansas - Home of the World's Largest Watermelon." Clinton, 19 at the time and a sophomore at Georgetown University, wrote: "Dear Mammaw, Thought I would send you one of your cards just to prove I'm using them! My tests are over and I'm just starting the second term. Hope you are well and happy . . . Love, Bill." Online auction house rrauction.com, which is selling the card Wednesday, calls it "a throwback to the outrageously broad portrayals of African-Americans of a century earlier." It notes Clinton wrote it "in the midst of the most active civil-rights movement in American history," and would go on to become "one of the greatest champions of racial minorities among modern American presidents." A Clinton spokesman didn't get back to us.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
I’m no fan of The ‘Toon’s, but what is racist about the postcard? The only thing racist about it I can see is that some are calling it racist, which gives me insight into their minds which appear to be racist.
[ . . .(Clinton) would go on to become “one of the greatest champions of racial minorities among modern American presidents.”]
LOUIS FARRAKHAN: . . .”Although black people looked at Bill Clinton as a black president, he did less for black people than other presidents. We lost the safety net under his administration, for welfare mothers. We lost a lot. But his charisma, no one can take that away from Mr. Clinton. His ability to use language in many ways has attracted the hearts of black people. And the more the establishment beat up on him with his inappropriate behavior, the more black people understood his weakness, and forgave him, and came around him.”
http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/story?id=2938016&page=2
In other words, Clinton was considered black because he was a dynamic communicator and was corrupt. Never mind that he balanced the budget* on the backs of African Americans.
*He also balanced the budget by dangerously reducing the military.
Wait, this can’t be true. As a little elementary school kid, he and a friend rode in the back of the bus to support Rosa Parks. There is not a hint of prejudice in Bill Clinton. He had sex with black crack cocaine hooker Bobbi Williams. That has to say something.
I don’t get your point.
And no, it’s not funny. Not even clever.
But I don’t see the connection you’re making to my comments.
It’s an ugly card both on the social and the artistic levels. As nice as it was for Clinton to try to please his grandmother, he was old enough to know how awful the card was for anyone to see. Imagine what the black post office personnel thought of the sender and receiver of the card.
Who’s that chick? She’s kinda cute!
Exactly. It shows further what a pathetic liar Billy and Hillary are. All the rot he said about riding in the back of the bus, and the church burnings were just ways to ingratiate himself with his current audience. Just like Hilly with her baby sitting Mexican chilrun as they worked in the horrible agricultural fields in Park Ridge Il.
What’s wrong with a picture of a black kid polishing a watermelon? It’s a huge melon and he obviously wants to sell it for more $$. People still clean and polish pumpkins for the same reason - guess they’re victims, too.
So now there’s something wrong with a cute girl dressing up like Aunt Jemima? On FR, no less?
History is a nightmare, we are just trying to awaken it.
I agree. Conservatives can beat the Clintonistas on ideas. We don't need to resort to trying to grasp at straws. It makes conservatives look desperate.
What is it with you people who read racism into everything?
We can’t spend our time polishing the past any more than this illustration represents polishing oppression, black caricatures were rampant at the time the grandmother actually purchased the card in question.
The lad in the picture is cleaning the watermelon to prepare it for display, you can find similar images among Rockwell’s work.
I wouldn’t answer something so idiotic either. Why does he have to answer to anyone in the first place? He is a private citizen.
I wouldn’t answer something so idiotic either. Why does he have to answer to anyone in the first place? He is a private citizen.
How does one get on the “Hey you guys!! Someone just posted something bad about Bill and/or Hillary!! We’ve got to get in that thread and defend them!!” ping list?
The history of both men is there for all to see and cheap shots won’t change anyone’s opinion.....Rush supports the military out of gratitude. Clinton supports blacks to keep them on the plantation. How many blacks were in cabinet positions during his administration? One?
CBS spent five years ans millions of dollars trying to prove G Bush missed a flight physical 30 years ago in the TNG, and remember the October surprise 30+ year old DUI when Bush ran against Gore? it almost worked. Clinton as a youth was also a protege of Orville Faubus in Arkansas, a noted segregationist. Funny things, straws.
Who cares if Bill made some racially "insensitive" comment or postcard decades ago? Who hasn't?
Drop this stupid topic. This "race-is-everything", race: the sacred cow crap is getting REALLY old!
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