Curious George – Obama 08 T-Shirt: Publisher Mulls Legal Action

Marietta (Georgia) bar owner Mike Norman may get hit with copyright infringement by the Curious George publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt over his Obama 08 t-shirt.

Norman, the owner of Mulligan’s Bar and Grill in Cobb County, “designed” the Curious George Obama 08 t-shirt but claims it isn’t racist. He did mention that he was “saying out loud what everyone else in town whispers” and also, according to the Atlantic Journal, “acknowledged the imagery’s Jim Crow roots but sees nothing wrong with depicting a prominent African-American as a monkey.”

Norman went on to say “we’re not living in the 1940′s. Look at him (Obama)… the hairline, the ears, — he looks just like Curious George”.

Is Norman correct, that a t-shirt depicting Senator Obama as a monkey albeit Curious George, isn’t offensive and can’t be construed as being the same ilk as the extremely racist and highly offensive Jim Crow charactertures from the recent past?

Norman himself answered our question when he intimated that his t-shirt was something that “everyone else in town whispers”. Protesters have lined up, such as the virulently anti-semitic Nation of Islam, to call Norman’s Curious George Obama 08 t-shirt offensive and racist.

President Bush is not immune from comparisons to a monkey. How is comparing Bush to a monkey different than Norman’s Obama as Curious George?

Granted you can’t call these photos racist but are they insensitive and/or offensive?

While the Bush-Monkey comparisons could be construed as offensive, they’re not racist. Norman’s t-shirt is racist.

Racist stereotypes come in many shades and can range from subtle to outright offensive. The use of Curious George on Norman’s t-shirt can be seen as subtle because while Curious George is a lovable monkey he’s a monkey none-the-less and that’s why Norman chose it. We have no doubt that Norman knew exactly what type of connotation his t-shirt would conjure up, that black people are akin to monkeys. If Norman had no idea his t-shirt was extremely offensive then his reaction would have been different. He would gotten rid of it and apologized, instead he justified the t-shirt by claiming it was something “everyone else whispered about”.

The problem with racist imagery is that if we do not protest against it or call it for what it is then this is construed as acceptance on our parts. Racism still exists in our country and Norman’s t-shirt is proof.

Norman’s Right to Free Speech

While we believe Norman’s t-shirt is offensive and racist we also believe Norman still has the right to free speech. He is one who chooses how he wants to voice his views, such as his Curious George-Obama 08 t-shirt. Norman admitted that he knew the t-shirt raised the old Jim Crow stereotypes of comparing blacks to monkeys. We have our own right to free speech allowing us to voice our opinion that Norman’s t-shirt is offensive and racist.

Six Degrees of Racism

While we find Norman’s t-shirt offensive we found the fact that one of the groups protesting Norman, the Nation of Islam, very ironic, as the Nation of Islam is known as virulently anti-Semitic, its leader, Louis Farrakhan, has been very vocal through the years calling Jews “evil” and various other derogatory sundries. We found a couple of Farrakhan quotes on the Jews. The man certainly has a fixation.

The Jews don’t like Farrakhan, so they call me Hitler. Well, that’s a good name. Hitler was a very great man.Louis Farrakhan Source – Brainy Quote

Why would Louis Farrakhan call Hitler, perhaps the world’s most prolific monster, a “great man?”

“You say I hate Jews. I don’t hate the Jewish people, I never have. But there [are] some things I don’t like. ‘What is it you don’t like, Farrakhan?’ I don’t like the way you leech on us. See a leech is somebody that sucks your blood, takes from you and don’t give you a damn thing. See, I don’t like that kind of arrangement. You become our manager, you become our agent. Every one of us that got talent, we can’t make it because you opened the door, and when you opened the door you get and we end up dead with nothing, owing the IRS.”

8th Anniversary The Holy Day of Atonement speech at Mosque Maryam, Chicago, 10/16/03 Source – Anti-Defamation League

The words of Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam, one of the groups down in Marietta, Georgia, protesting Norman’s Curious George-Obama 08 t-shirt.

Strange bedfellows indeed.

Two negatives do not make a positive. Norman’s t-shirt is offensive, Louis Farrakhan’s many statements calling Jews various names is offensive. The Nation of Islam protesting Norman, hypocritical. Images and cartoons of President Bush as a monkey, to some pretty funny, to the ever dwindling crowd of Bush supporters, offensive. The state of racism in America, not as black and white as one may think.

By LBG

Image – Jim Crow
Image – Bush – Planet of the Apes
Image - Bush – Monkey
Image – Atlanta Journal
Source - Atlanta Journal
Source – DBKP – Curious George Obama 08 T-Shirt : Nation of Islam Protests

Tags: Curious George Obama 08 t-shirt, Georgia, Jim Crow, Mike Norman, nation of Islam, Obama 08, Racist