Any way you look at it, Obama's going down!

[DerailAmnesty.com]

From my perspective, you guys are denying what's plainly in front of you. Your lack-of-racial-undertone suggestions defy reality. If there isn't a play to the stereotype about blacks shining shoes, the picture isn't "funny." If it isn't about him being black in a stereotypical uneducated African-American position, what's the joke? Obama lost his job and is now doing this? He hasn't lost his job, Jean. He hasn't come close. There's nothing that has happened in the real world to make that the tie-in to the attempt at humor.

For those who have had little exposure to ethnic stereotypes, let me clue you in (I grew up with ethnic humor. My parents, who are from the East Coast, had children late and are closer to two generations older than me, than one):

Poles and Italians - Stupid, a step in "class" only above blacks. The latter are notorious for being involved with organized crime. The former work mostly in coal mines.

Irish - Commonly drunk, work as policemen and have a hardcore devotion to the Pope.

Jews - Completely dishonest, particularly in financial dealings.

Germans - Makers of lousy food and no senses of humor. Anal retentive and devoted to detail to the Nth degree.

Chinese - Found in two places: Chinese restaurants and laundries.

Japanese - Scheming backstabbers.

Blacks - The lowest rung in American society. Only fit for positions that entail physical labor (domestics, drivers, servants, laborers ... and certainly shoe shine boys, which were commonplace in large American cities during the first half of the 20th Century).

Are these dated stereotypes? Sure. But to deny them and their place in American culture is pointless. Particularly in view of the fact that the picture in question doesn't make any "humorous" sense otherwise. Whether you perceive it or not, the person who made the Obama/Palin pic intended it, because there's no other quickly understood "funny" reason to have a black president shining shoes.

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Do I think the pic is a big deal or something for which we all have to immerse ourselves in "sensitivity" courses about, or some other PC nonsense? No, of course not. But when a black woman in her 80's doesn't like it, I completely understand why. It's a cheap shot at the guy. The joke, at least in part, is about his skin color, no question.

OK, end of discussion on my end. You either get it or you don't and this topic really doesn't merit the time we've invested in it. Please excuse me now, I have to go lend money at exorbitant rates of interest.