Posted on 07/11/2009 12:01:08 PM PDT by buccaneer81
Conservative Free Republic blog in free speech flap after racial slurs directed at Obama children
By Chris Parry, Vancouver SunJuly 11, 2009 11:01 AM
This photo of U.S. President Barrack Obama's daughter Malia, wearing a peace-symbol t-shirt touched off a storm of epithet-laced comments on the conservative 'Free Republic' blog
"A typical street whore." "A bunch of ghetto thugs." "Ghetto street trash." "Wonder when she will get her first abortion."
These are a small selection of some of the racially-charged comments posted to the conservative 'Free Republic' blog Thursday, aimed at U.S. President Barack Obama's 11-year-old daughter Malia after she was photographed wearing a t-shirt with a peace sign on the front.
The thread was accompanied by a photo of Michelle Obama speaking to Malia that featured the caption, "To entertain her daughter, Michelle Obama loves to make monkey sounds."
Though this may sound like the sort of thing one might read on an Aryan Nation or white power website, they actually appeared on what is commonly considered one of the prime online locations for U.S. Conservative grassroots political discussion and organizing - and for a short time, the comments seemed to have the okay of site administrators.
Moderators of the blog left the comments - and commenters - in place until a complaint was lodged by a writer doing research on the conservative movement, almost a full day later.
"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?" wrote one commenter.
"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," wrote another.
Such was the onslaught of derision on the site that the person who originally complained about the slurs, a Kristin N., claims only one comment in the first hundred posted actually criticized the remarks as inappropriate.
A note on the front of the blog reads, "Free Republic does not advocate or condone racism, violence, rebellion, secession, or an overthrow of the government," but one comment on the thread read, "This disgusting display makes me more and more eager for the revolution," while another read, "I never actually wnated [sic] to be a pistol before but..."
After attention from other blogs, the thread was suppressed and placed under review, but before long it was returned to the site intact, and attracted a new series of racial slurs when the original complaint email was posted publicly to the site, with the sender's email address intact.
"The writer has a point," wrote site owner Jim Thompson sarcastically. "We should steer clear of Obama's children. They can't help it if their old man is an American-hating Marxist pig."
"I agree Jim," wrote commenter, by the nickname NoobRep. "The kids didn't pick their commie pinko pansy of a father. Nor did they choose to be put into the spotlight. But Obama/Soetoro is fair game and so is his witch of a wife."
"Poor kids. I hope they're not 'punished with a baby'," wrote another. "Hopefully they won't deal cocaine like the Kenyan."
"DIRTBAGS! All of them. Our [White House] is now a joke to the rest of the world. We have no respect and this is not going to turn out well, mark my words. We will be hit, and much worse than last time. We are now seen as weak and vulnerable. Ghetto and Chicago thugs have taken over."
Only after significant negative attention from a host of left wing political blogs did the maintainers of the Free Republic site place the thread under review for a second time, before finally pulling it.
In the wake of the controversy, some Free Republic posters complained about the vitriol.
One poster by the name of "fullchroma" wrote, "To Jim Thompson: The recent uptick here in racist vitriol, aimed at Barrack, Michelle and their children has made me wonder if I belong. My objection to Obama has nothing to do with skin tone. Is the ugly stereotype of Conservative racism true?"
Another, going by the name of TChris, wrote, "Free Republic is a political discussion forum. It SHOULD be beneath us as a group to stoop to such juvenile tactics as I see increasing here lately. Do we REALLY have to insult Mrs. Obama's appearance like a clique of nasty 14-year-old girls?"
But such opinions were not shared by all. Said Roses of Sharon, "Poor libs .... Too late, the battle has been joined." © Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun
You said, in part:
“Don’t start censoring FR to please the libs! It will just encourage the left...
Don’t allow the LEFT to dictate the “RULES” of FREE SPEACH...”
My response:
I am not letting the left dictate my speech. This is a conservative forum, and we ourselves adhere to certain standards.
I associate with conservatives largely because I believe they adhere to certain values which I hold dear. There are compelling reasons I affiliate with Free Republic and not DU.
Those values, and common decency, dictate my speech, not the left. Common decency requires that all children of politicians should be off limits. They do not become acceptable targets just because some children of our own have been attacked.
We do not need to adopt the hateful gutter tactics of the libs to make our point. We make our point when, by actions and speech, we make it clear we hold to higher standards.
You guys are starting to remind me of the diversity boards in the multiculturalism class I just was forced to take for my master’s degree. Everyone groveled right on cue.
People routinely tore down their own ethnic group and wrote the usual academic diversity twaddle. I wrote what was on my mind to keep my sanity, called the textbook author an idiot in congenial terms, and factually demonstrated where he was wrong.
By the end of the semester, the instructor was thanking me for not writing the same boring stuff as everyone else. I took a chance. No one else did. Freedom involves risk.
This is an attack on Free Republic and we already have people rolling over like pups and decrying what goes on here. I often see sarcasm and stupid posts, but that comes with free speech. John McCain adopted this play nice, on the defensive attitude last year. You saw what happened to him. They ran over him like a doormat.
Jimrob is a great man. He will do the right thing. Stop the sniveling. The left isn’t about logic. They attack. And once they do it doesn’t matter whether we are mean or nice. We are attacked because we ARE. Get used to it.
Draw your swords and use them on the enemy. Stop falling on them.
At the very least, the children should be off limits - on both sides. Two wrongs don’t make a right. Yada yada.
world leaders are reading this site!
even bloggers in Vancouver
and “lodging complaints”
Being the good guy does not mean not fighting back. It means not being a monster when you fight back. If someone shoots your children, it makes sense that you'd want to get them in retaliation but it would make no sense to kill their innocent children just because they shot yours. At that point, you become a monster just like them.
Being the good guy does not mean not fighting back. It means not being a monster when you fight back. If someone shoots your children, it makes sense that you'd want to get them in retaliation but it would make no sense to kill their innocent children just because they shot yours. At that point, you become a monster just like them.
Excellent post!
Jim has always censored FR in accordance with his rules and level of tolerance for jerks. It’s his site, he’s free to do with it whatever he wants.
It seems to me we have liberal perps causing all of this racism to discredit this conservative site. Robert Byrd type democRats if you ask me. That’s how liberals play the game. Just ask Ginsburg who said abortion is about population control.
“Draw your swords and use them on the enemy. Stop falling on them.”
I tend to agree with you, and would only add that we use those swords to attack enemy combatants, not innocent bystanders.
As much as some seem to want to make it something else, that is the point many of us have been trying to make on this thread.
I agree what they said was wrong....But I still don’t want to let the LEFT tell FR what they can and can’t say. I’m sorry but I don’t buy the argument “Don’t sink to their level”.
It itsn’t even about winning an argument or being right or wrong. It’s about what WE can say on a private board....While the left will be happy to act high minded and preach about what’s RIGHT. They will completely debase any Republican in the most disgusting ways..Sexism.Racism..bad taste mean nothing to these people.
No matter how NICE we are how we follow their RULES..the LEFT will ALWAYS hate us. Might as well be FREE to speak you mind while your being hated....
Thanks, Luke21!!!!!
You’re probably right. I’m betting he’s never commented on any of it.
Is this a blog now?
“...and if we want to take this country back, we do need to be the good guys.”
I’m not sure, I’m not sure. I think remarks like the ones quoted are over-the-line, and those posts probably should have been pulled. (I didn’t see this thread, so that’s all I’m going to say) David Letterman is a despicable person, and I’ve thought that for at least 25 years. He deserved whatever vitriol came his way over his “joke” about Piper Palin. (Of course it was about her, not Bristol, although I’d be willing to concede the writers of his show were apathetically confused about which daughter was at the game).
But I’m not sure being the good guys has done our side any good at all.
This is mashed up in my mind with thoughts about my own life and has being good really gotten me anywhere. I feel like it’s gotten me screwed over a couple of times and I am not seeing an up side.
Of course, I’m a Catholic, I don’t long to be bad, and in fact I think I could never really be truly bad (except for some blood revenge thing, which luckily I’ve never had to even consider). And of course I know the reward for being good does not come in this life time.
But politics is not about eternal salvation, so while I don’t think there is any profit in making jokes about Obama’s daughters or even Michele My Belle (who is certainly not going some Hillary Two-for-One route, at least not yet), I’m not sure that the moral high ground is really the most strategic place from which to fight.
Not, at least, while we have the likes of Peggy Noonan sniping at our ankles.
Must be. I mean, the Vancouver Sun says it is.
People should temper their remarks and think whether letting off some steam is worth giving our enemies some juicy quotes. To use against Jim Robinson and Free Republic
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