You got that right! Thanks! And I might add: Woo hoo!! Go Sarah!!
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
Sarah Palin offered $2 million to appear in porn film
Husband Todd offered $100,000 and a snowmobile if he’ll co-star, says Florida adult film producer
Chris Parry, Vancouver Sun
Published: Friday, November 07, 2008
Porn director says he has “wiggle room” in $3 million offer to Sarah Palin
Chris Parry, Vancouver Sun
Published: Thursday, November 13, 2008
You got that right! Thanks! And I might add: Woo hoo!! Go Sarah!!
Kinda like a Vichy Free Republic. Cool.
“You are falling prey to a common liberal trick. And that is, if you harshly criticize minorities and criticize them enough using much the same language as you would criticize any other, then there has to be a racist element to your criticism.”
I don’t think I’ve “fallen prey to a common liberal trick.” I challenge you to read my previous posts to see if I ever considered general criticism of a black person to be racist. There’s a difference between holding to certain moral standards and being the dupe of your opponents.
No, it was pulled as inappropriate for FR. The hypocritical Marxist criticism came later.
Good grief. I am surprised at the number of posters here who are essentially agreeing with the author of this article. Posters on this site are NOT members of the press who are writing supposedly hard news stories and posters on this board are not even editorial journalists who write their opinions for the MSM. What they are are individuals who are expressing their own opinions, not the opinions of Jim or this site. How many times have our courts come down on the side of free speech when there is a question as to whether to allow “offensive” speech? And ask yourself when the last time was you heard anyone in the MSM complain about user comments at DU or Daily Kos, both of which typically have more incendiary comments that those found here. In my view, the most important principle to keep in mind is free speech. If you don’t like what someone else has to say or can’t respond to in in a civilzed manner, either ignore it or don’t read it.
Every color of people live in ghettos.
As MLK wanted, success isn't about the color of one's skin, but the content of their character.
‘When I click on a thread and see that it’s dominated by stupid, rude comments, I’ve tended to just deal with it by hitting the Back button and going to another thread, unless I see something that is in very explicit violation of FR posting rules (advocating violence, explicit racial attacks, etc). But I think perhaps it’s time to start being more proactive about posts that are just mindlessly rude, vaguely racist while being devoid of any substantive thought, etc. This forum has become really huge while still being run on a shoestring budget, and the little crew of volunteer moderators can’t be the first line of defense against the heavy volume of trash-posting that damages FR’s reputation.’
I paraphrase... Someone once said that ‘evil will always win if good people (FReepers) stand by and do nothing.’
The small group of volunteer moderators can't police this entire huge forum without our active assistance. WE need to hit the Abuse button when we see things that need to be deleted.
All it takes is money, people, for more help, more programming aids, more technology. Freedom isn't free. Keep the donations coming. Wish I could do more.
Short and sweet; this is the best summary of the problem.
The only moral and smart move is to leave the kids out of it. Anything else is counterproductive and wrong. No matter how you slice it, it's lose/lose. Leave the kids out of it.
Beyond that, FR tolerates more far more ugly, non-conservative commentary than it should. I'm glad that it's showing up quoted in the MSM, and hope that the moderators crack down harder on it. You're never going to attract people to the ideas of conservatism if they think the members are of the same mind, but hostile to their DNA. What some here see as a 'criticism of urban culture', others interpret as racism.
The solutions? Don't say ugly things. Don't talk about politicians kids. Maintain a level of decorum appropriate for the exchange of ideas.
Fail to do so, and expect more MSM articles like this.
Too right, Dobie!
Yes I do and especially when the one that emailed Jim Robinson, causing the thread to be removed when it shouldn't have been, has a photoshopped picture of Palin's Piper flipping some other kid off on his website. His intent was to silence, he hunted and pecked to find something he could say was racist. There are blacks in the White House. This racist thing is so yesterday. Get over it.
As a former Vancouverite, let me tell you something about the Vanc Sun and Chris Parry..
Chris Parry hates Americans. Always has. And nobody “reads” the V Sun because of the free rags in socialist Vancouver. The V sun has an average of 20 pages of nonsense..like the NYT. But at least the NYT has a semblance of substance while the Sun has absolutely nothing to offer.
It’s birdcage material.
I have always said since day 1 that Vancouver is so anti-American they make San Francisco look like Oklahoma.
Yes, I remember. I did not think that was proper either. What about My comments makes you assume that?
We do have posted standards for this forum. If you are posting a comment, you will find the following very simple guidelines under the “word wrap on” button:
“Please: NO profanity, NO personal attacks, NO racism or violence in posts.”
Apparently not.
While I find enough about the Obamas to dislike without bringing up that he is half-white, I do think the kids should be off limits.
Liberals would use just one snarky comment to justify a lifelong crusade/tirade against all of Sarah Palin's (or nayone else's) children.
As for the cultural aspects, I guess folks will just have to link to hip-hop You Tube videos in the future so all that can come straight from the culture. Besides, the performers have no limits on the perjoratives they use and thus are more free to explicitly express their cultural views/attributes directly, although I don't believe they speak for all of any group any more than anyone else does.
Don't forget the 'foul language' warnings...
As FReepers, we should feel free to comment on the first family's fashion sense and behaviour, after all, whether or not we like it, they represent the USSA at home and abroad, and as difficult as it may be, we need not make sweeping statements offending ghetto culture.
No I was just making an observation...that’s all. The death of this country will be the doing of the mediaPUKES and it’s liberal leaders!!
God... Total babe. My ex- would kill for half her looks and charm, not to mention charisma.
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