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
Thank you. I saw JR’s initial posting on this last night and was a bit taken aback, but the more I thought about it, and then saw this article today, a pattern begins to form; we have to all be wise and not allow ourselves to be drug into the Chicago way of thinking. We have to be smarter than that and keep our collective eye on the ball..
The racist intent of the comments seem quite exaggerated and frustration levels are justifiably very high for those who understand that Obama is not simply making rookie mistakes, but he's following a plan of neutralizing the last super power.
Having said that, we still should not use a standard of discourse, one that we expose and complain about all of the time, to justify a lower standard for our conservative debate. It's like the Rats holding up France as an economic standard to justify pursuing harmful policy changes in the USA.
Lambasting the kids for the sins of their parents does nothing to persuade the general public that conservative principles are a beacon of light and the cure for our current woes.
You really know your web site’s made it when the MSM start attacking you. Look for the next big sign: the word ‘Freeper’ appearing in the boxes of a crossword puzzle run by a nationally prominent newspaper. That’s when you know you’ve ‘arrived.’
Hmmmmm, methinks I have just been talked into another contribution...
Rah rah rah!
I think the Vancouver Sun should mind it’s own business and let Jim run Free Republic as he sees fit. And let the moderators moderate.
Amazing the number of people who will jump in line and want to appease someone in the media. As if they’ve gotten it right.
Don’t you have a computer game or something to play at the V Sun?
My best friend in the world is black as is my godson. We’ve spent countless hours discussing politics. She has slowly come to realize that many of the things she took as fact may indeed be wrong. I talk about this site to anyone who will listen, and send as many people here as I can to just have a look at the other side. When I see racial comments here, I feel like it pulls the rug out from under my arguments. Dem’s are making this about race. I realize that, but we need to show that for most us, it is not about color. This is about policy.
Hey, why don’t we all shut up and cower in fear while the left walks all over us.
This is getting ridiculous. Very few comments were about the Obama child...yet one would think they were.
Face it folks, its over, we ain’t fighters. We play the game by the rules they set. The rules are that they always win because they have no morals.
Over.
The left does this stuff on purpose so that we fight amongst each other.
Screw them.
Maybe that's because "one of the prime online locations for U.S. Conservative grassroots political discussion and organizing" is just too big and active for every offending post to be caught within minutes of appearing.
I'd say these people did the right thing by bringing it to the attention of the moderators. But that doesn't mean they can use it to tarnish the site, although that's exactly what they intend to do.
Like I said before, this is just tit-for-tat retaliation for Free Republic forcing the Huffington Post to pull an article and publicly apologize.
-PJ
My damned white MANAGER flashes me that gang sign. What the hell does it mean!?!?
And living up to his new name of Buttcrack 0bama.
That being said, the children should have been off-limits from the beginning and all postings concerning them immediately deleted by the Admin Mod.
You’d better hope that Jim Thompson paid his taxes on time.
She tweeted about her email to FR and posted on KOS about it. She spread it to the lefties of the world. Thus the so called reporter is just another KOS foul mouthed stooge.
I actually had a neighbor "of color" tell me, in front of his young daughter, that I am a racist because I admire Condoleezza Rice.
I've pushed the alarm button a couple of times myself, when I saw something I didn't think JimRob would approve, and the post in question was killed almost instantly.
Someone figures they can lie about Free Republic and no one will ever check it out, and the sad thing is that this is the case.
I’ve seen an errant comment or two in my time at FreeRepublic (5 years) but I have NEVER seen the type of here’s lies and then there’s damn lies. This is a setup attempt, nothing more.
Actually, it sort of does. All such comments should have been immediately deleted by the Admin Mod, as even those few seem to place us as equivalent to the sort of racist bigots the wankers on DU and HuffPo strive so mightily to paint us as.
Chris Parry,
I must have missed the thread you speak of, so I appreciate you taking the time to summarize and even quote what I missed.
Allow me to provide you with a few truths.
You worry yourself about the wrong things. People are venting and for good reason. You get hung up on what is being said in the light of day, when what should chills up your spine is what you are not seeing or hearing. Hearing a rattlesnake is nothing to fear, it’s the one you didn’t hear or the one whose warnings you ignored or the one you poked with a stick that deserves serious thought.
I would speak to you about the protections of our Constitution, but you wouldn’t understand as you didn’t fight for it and you lack a history to be proud of, eh. You don’t even have a Declaration of Independence to be proud of, eh.
Now about your references to racial comments. While there are times that it could be a close call in interpretation, most of the ones you refer to are simply American patriots calling a spade a spade. It is the Obama’s that are the true (white hating) racists and they will never wash that stench off. Perhaps you remember Rev. Wright and his white hate spreading carnival church.
I have never cared about the color of a persons skin and I don’t now, but thanks to what so many have taught me over the last two years, I am no longer insulted when someone calls me a racist. I am seriously okay with it now. It is THAT compromise that should worry the small brain droolers that you apparently represent, the libs.
As for being “right-wing”, Thank you. Heck, I am even okay with “extremist”.
My love for my country, and it’s history, is “right” and can’t be changed, or diminished by droolers such as yourself. My love for our Constitution is “extreme”, so extreme that like others before me, I am willing to fight and die for it. There are some things in life that cowardious morons shouldn’t test.... THIS is at the top of the list.
I would wish you a nice day, but you see, I don’t care about you, your insults, or even if your future.
One last thing. Did you know that you and your secret pal did not have permission to quote any of those posts, including this one. Okay, perhaps you didn’t understand, as indicated by your incompetent failure to even confirm the forum owners name.
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