Question

[chasovschik.livejournal.com]

Ladies and and Gentlemen,

I need some help. From discussions here I have got an impression that reference to a monkey is racistic. Various posters and signs featuring monkeys were more than once presented here in order to prove the racist nature of anti-Obama movement.

Being born far from here, I'm not sure I fully understand this cultural reference.

Here are two pictures:



First one is from Liberal Street Fighter, 2006, second one is from here, found via Google.

I will highly appreciate the comprehensive explanation: are both pictures racist? If only one, which one and why?


UPD: Thanks everybody, I got it. Could have guessed actually.

Comments

[saint-monkey.livejournal.com]

By the way... you should completely follow this up with a post asking why black kids can call each other ni**a in polite conversation without being racist, while white kids can not.

Yeah, that'd be AWESOME!

[saint-monkey.livejournal.com]

Yes and reclaiming the stereotype, etc etc. (I was bein sarcasic, and trying to draw attention to the absurdity of "see bush was a monkey too, therefore saying obama is a monkey != racism," but the internet, she robs me of subtlety.)

My favorite counter to this specific question is "and where exactly were you planning to use ni**er in polite conversation, mr. white man?"

[ladypolitik.livejournal.com]

1) Black people don't have a unified opinion on the subject of saying nigger in-group.

2) Context (!). A lot of white people use redneck or white trash in-group all the time and proudly so. If someone out-group used it in a derogatory manner they'd probably get pissed off, and rightfully so.


Bingo. I never understand, for the life of me, why people pretend to not be aware that the in-group vs. out-group factor cuts across every culture and runs generations.