Posted on 07/10/2009 9:53:00 AM PDT by Jim Robinson
Yesterday, theHalfrican posted a link to the Free Republic Website where several of its regular members were bashing Malia Obama for wearing a peace symbol t-shirt. The thread had several derogotary, racist, and sexual remarks about Malia. It also included a picture of Michelle Obama speaking to Malia that was accompanied with a racist caption.
I wrote the media contact at Free Republic yesterday, kristinn@bellatlantic.net, questioning the nature of the posters and the site:
Hello. I am an independent writer developing a book about the grassroots conservative movement online, of which your site, Free Republic, is included as a primary online gathering place for conservatives.
Could you please tell me how the owner of the site feels about posts like this one:
http://www.freerepublic.com/...
...in which conservatives who post regularly at the site make several racist statements about the 11-year-old daughter of President Obama for wearing a t-shirt adorned with a peace symbol? Remarks included the following:
"We’re being represented by a family of ghetto trash." "Looks like a bunch of ghetto thugs. A stain on America."
"Looks like a typical street whore."
"What we now are sending the ghetto over to represent us. and if so who the hell is that flea bag who looks to be dragged from the trash dumpster."
"you could go down any ghetto right now and see exactly the same."
"could you imagine what world leaders must be thinking seeing this kind of street trash and that we paid for this kind of street ghetto trash to go over there"
"the world must be laughing like mad right now at that we have this kind of street trash in our white house."
"Wonder when she will have her first abortion."
"sad isn’t it that we now have ghetto street trash over there representing us in Europe."
"This disgusting display makes me more and more eager for the revolution.
"They make me sick.... The whole family... mammy, pappy, the free loadin’ mammy-in-law, the misguided chillin’, and especially ‘lil cuz... This is not the America I want representin’ my peeps."
In addition, the thread includes a picture of Michelle Obama speaking to her daughter with the caption, "To Entertain Her Daughter, Michelle Obama Likes to Make Monkey Sounds."
Before you dismiss this as only a minority of posters at the site, out of 100 posts on that thread I found only 1 that criticized such remarks. This is not the first time I have seen such an exhibition of blatant racism at Free Republic by members who regularly post there.
Here are my questions:
Does Free Republic condone this type of exercise in free speech?
Are these the type of participants Free Republic is happy to have posting at its site?
What is Free Republic's policy about posting racially offensive comments?
What is Free Republic's policy about making sexual insinuations about minors (particularly relevant in light of the David Letterman/Sarah Palin brouhaha)?
Does Free Republic believe its membership accurately represents the conservative movement?
Does the owner of Free Republic believe this kind of discourse is helpful to rebuilding the Republican Party and furthering its goals?
Thank you for your time, and I look forward to your responses.
went back to the site today and saw that the offending thread has been pulled "pending review."
http://www.freerepublic.com/...
I do note that Free Republic has a disclaimer on the first page that claims it does not condone this type of post; however, I am not sure when the disclaimer was added. Does anyone know?
From the disclaimer:
Opinions expressed on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Free Republic or its operators.
Please enjoy our forum, but also please remember to use common courtesy when posting and refrain from posting personal attacks, profanity, vulgarity, threats, racial or religious bigotry, or any other materials offensive or otherwise inappropriate for a conservative family audience.
Free Republic is a site dedicated to the concerns of traditional grassroots conservative activists. We're here to discuss and advance our conservative causes in a more or less liberal-free environment. We're not here to debate liberals. We do not want our pages filled with their arrogant, obnoxious, repugnant bile. Liberals, usurpers, and other assorted malcontents are considered unwelcome trolls on FR and their accounts and or posts will be summarily dismissed at the convenience of the site administrators.
Free Republic does not advocate or condone racism, violence, rebellion, secession, or an overthrow of the government.
So, the site will readily delete posts from liberals just because they are liberals and therefore everything they say is automatically considered "arrogant, obnoxious, repugant bile."
But comments calling an 11-year-old black girl "ghetto trash" and a "whore" are pulled "pending review." What is to review? Your site either supports that kind of rhetoric or it does not. Which is it?
If the Free Republic's "conservative family audience" consists of people who say such things as they often do (like yesterday), how conservative are they? And how family-oriented are they? Where were all the posts from other Free Republic regulars or from the owner of the site decrying this kind of racism directed at a child for no apparent reason than the fact that a peace symbol t-shirt inflamed their hatred to disgusting depths, like a red handkerchief in front of a mad bull?
Conservatives continually reinforce the fact that the only families they care about are conservative ones; the only troops they support are ones that do not vote democratic; the only children whose lives they value are the children of conservatives or unborn. How many of those aborted fetuses they claim to hold so dear would they trash had they been born and grown into a pre-teen who wore a t-shirt with a peace symbol or supported a liberal president? Or was gay?
The truth is that conservatives do not know the meaning of Jesus' words despite how much they love to use them when it suits their inner hatred of all those who are different. Worse, they lack basic human decency, as they demonstrate time and again.
As Robert Prosky said in Michael Mann’s film THIEF: “It’s not the kid’s fault his mother’s an a**hole!”
That double standard doesn't fly.
Public criticism is rarely constructive
Yes, for some strange reason that I just can't put my finger on, the threads about the Obama's never include pictures or quotes from The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, or Petticoat Junction. Just shows like Sanford and Son, The Jeffersons, and Good Times. Why not Magnum, PI or Hawaii 50? Hmmmm, what single trait does Obama share in common with just those sitcoms he's compared to?
And if the people on DU or DailyKos started posting pictures from The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, or Hee Haw in a thread about Sarah Palin and her family and how they dress, and the people started calling her kids trailer trash and meth addicts, that wouldn't be a cheap and stereotyped shot at her class and rural background, right? (And, yes, I'm sure you can find examples of them doing exactly that.)
Kristinn should have replied by asking this “author” whether or not is was O.K. for the DUmpsters, KOS clowns, and Huffers to savagely smear Sarah Palin’s kids, especially infant Trig?
Keep in mind, everything Obama does is carefully scripted.
That includes putting his daughter out in the public eye, wearing a controversial T-Shirt.
She’s making a political statement and is fair game.
“Child” or not, Obama is using her to make a political statement.
We’re not going to win back the WH by playing by a different set of rules.
The left says despicable things about the Palin’s, then they cry “racism” when someone criticizes the Obama’s?
Sorry, I’m not buying the false outrage. Not for a second.
You want racism? How about those Black Panthers intimidating voters in Philadelphia, then the Obama administration refusing to prosecute them?
Or Rev. Wright, or Father Plegler?
Or Obama “typical white person” himself?
The Republicans in Congress & the Senate are wimping out with your same excuses...we have to be nice & above the fray.
You're kidding, right? Are you actually saying to be strong and be a winner we need to behave like trash?!
No more double standards. Equality for all, good, bad or ugly.
I’m not asking you to go along to get along. I’m asking you to not be a monster to try to slay a monster. Our only two choices are not kissing them or fighting just like them. If you can’t figure out any way to criticize Obama without criticizing his race or his family, then I wonder how sound your cause is. The left resorts to Alinsky tactics because they can’t win honestly and out in the open. Poeple will reject them if they understand them. We don’t have that problem and have no reason to fight like them. Yes, we need to fight. That’s true. But we don’t need to fight like them.
EXACTLY.
That’s because those of us with experience and maturity stay away from threads like that.
Yeah. There have been a lot of things said about Bristol, etc., but I’ve never seen anything as ugly as what I saw in the thread about Malia’s shirt.
The conclusion I’m forced to reach is that Obama Derangement Syndrome is real, and it’s starting to make Bush Derangement Syndrome look tame.
I’m sorry, but I don’t give a crap about t-shirts, mustard, arugula, orange juice, pizza deliveries, Michelle Obama’s purse and shoes, a dog that wasn’t from a shelter, a DVD gift set.
Some of you don’t realize that obsessing over mindless bullcrap is going to push the Republican party further into exile. You are overseeing the destruction of the conservative movement.
So you want to be just as bad and ugly as they are?
i didn’t see that the examples cited were racist, unless it is assumed that the word “ghetto” and “whore” are exclusive to blacks. Are they?
However, some of the comments were certainly unfriendly and at times tasteless. Nothing compared to DU and MSM comments about conservs, tho.
A KOS operative?
This "technique" is really getting old...
Carter Country was set in the fictional small town of Clinton Corners in Georgia (presumably near the part of the state from which U.S. President Jimmy Carter hailed, thus the title), and featured Victor French as police chief Roy Mobey and Kene Holliday as city-bred, college-educated, African-American Sergeant Curtis Baker.
It also featured Richard Paul as Mayor Burnside (who coined a minor catchphrase with his manic, "Handle it, Roy, handle it!", sometimes referring to his way of dodging a parking ticket fine), Harvey Vernon as officer Jasper DeWitt, and Barbara Cason as town employee Cloris Phebus. Additional comic support was provided by Texas-born actor Guich Koock who played the part of goofy deputy Harley. Vernee Watson rounded out the cast as the mayor's secretary. The plot centered around the stereotypical racism of the Deep South, and was often characterized as being an irreverent, comedic version of the movie In the Heat of the Night.
Nothing on that thread even approached what passes for "civil discourse" on those sites.
That includes putting his daughter out in the public eye, wearing a controversial T-Shirt.
She’s making a political statement and is fair game.
“Child” or not, Obama is using her to make a political statement.
*******************
Exactly right, which is why the criticism should be directed at Obama.
Pardon me. Have you any Grey Poupon?
I agree that the writer has a point and if those comments were posted by FReepers and not trolls trying to incite then I am truly embarrassed. However, the writer loses all credibility when including blatant opinion based on absolutely no proof or actual research.
Before we even know who posted the link, is he a hit-and-run member, and which Freepers actually responded to the link?
If it was dealt with, I think it was a manufactured crisis best ignored.
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