Posted on 08/16/2013 6:44:34 AM PDT by Altura Ct.
The President of the Missouri Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) says a rodeo clown act depicting President Barack Obama at the Missouri State Fair Saturday night was a hate crime.
“I think that a hate crime occurred,” Ratliff told KXNT Radio in Las Vegas Thursday. ”I think a hate crime occurs when you use a person’s race to depict who they are and to make degrading comments, gestures, et cetera, against them.”
Ratliff says it’s an outrage that taxpayer dollars were used to disrespect the president.
“We are taxpayers in the state of Missouri,” Ratliff said, “and when taxpayer money is utilized to discredit and be disrespectful to our president, whether he be black, white, Hispanic, Latina… it is an outrage.”
Ratliff says that is why her organization is asking the Department of Justice to conduct an investigation. She has also asked the Secret Service to investigate the incident in Sedalia.
“With all of the hateful and mean things that are happening and happened in Missouri here at the rodeo, we believe that the Justice Department should look into the discriminatory practices against our sitting African-American president,” Ratliff added. “In this country, discrimination is still illegal.”
The Missouri State Fair on Monday barred the rodeo clown, Tuffy Gessling, from performing at the fair. Mark Ficken, the announcer at the event, resigned this week from his position atop the Missouri Cowboy Rodeo Association, a position he held for only two days.
The incident Saturday night drew national attention and almost unanimous bipartisan condemnation from Missouri’s politicians and congressional delegation. While few have gone as far as Ratliff in denouncing the show, many in the state’s African-American community have viewed it through a racial lens.
U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-St. Louis, said he was “amazed that in 2013 such hatred, intolerance and disrespect towards the President of the United States could take place at the Missouri State Fair.”
“Our fair is supposed to showcase the best of Missouri, instead, it showed an ugly face of intolerance and ignorance to the world,” he added.
Missouri Rep. Steve Webb, D-Florissant, said he was “incensed” and referred to the incident’s racial undertones in a statement Monday.
“Sometimes apologies just won’t do. While I do not believe this represents all of rural Missouri, the racial undertones of a taunted rodeo clown dressed as our nation’s first black president is what the nation woke up to this morning,” Webb said.
State Sen. Jamilah Nasheed, D-St. Louis, called the event “racist and degrading.” Rep. Gail McCann Beatty, D-Kansas City, added, “I am angered and disgusted by the blatant racism that was displayed at the Missouri State Fair.”
Meanwhile, a “Support Tuffy Gessling” Facebook page created Monday had over 65,000 “likes” by Wednesday night.
What’s the difference between the Rolling Stones and the NAACP?
People actually pay money and want to hear the Rolling Stones play a 50 year old song.
The Dems don’t like it when their guy is the butt of a joke. Why so serious?
Screw that sick bunch of black fools the NAACP.
Someone ought to ‘take him to school’ before he makes himself any more ridiculous
And where was this nitwit when far worse hatred, intolerance and disrespect was directed at George W. Bush? Oh, that's right. Bush was a Republican, and those showing the visceral disrespect were fellow liberals. Free speech for me but hate speech by thee. It's the liberal mantra.
These people need to be sued.
The only crime being committed here is the violation and intimidation of the First Amendment Rights of a US Citizen.
WE need to stand-up against this crap once and for all. Slandering someone with accusations of this stuff should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
What about all of BOzos hateful racist comments made over the years. Mmmmm...let me see, “ My grandmother was a typical white woman comes to mind.”
Starting to get ridiculous? It’s been ridiculous since the very beginning. Particularly when you consider the things that were said about Bush and how fond the left was of doing things like depicting him hanging from a noose, or dressed up as a chimp, etc.
I’m not sure exactly what their endgame is, though. Do they plan to get some sort of laws passed prohibiting ridicule of The Won, or perhaps even prohibiting public criticism?
From now on, all people should be portrayed in all media as smurfs.
“The existence of the NAACP itself is a hate crime. The organization exists solely to promote racism and bigotry.”
Isnt the term “colored people” considered a slur?
Get a life you screw balls..
King Won the First
Would masks that depict Obama as a white person be banned? He is, after all, half white.
Ha! I’ll be using that joke in the future.
I call the attack on the white kid in Florida by those three teenage thugs a hate-crime but for some reason,The Police Chief there said it wasn’t.
The Race of the attackers was purely coincidental.Now if that isn’t a load of crap.I guess what the blacks have been saying is true.Only whites can be racist’s.Then the race is never a coincidence.
Just come out and admit it NAACP, y’all hate everything about white people. It insults our intelligence to pretend that you don’t.
Every single hour of every single day, the Obama mal-administration uses taxpayer dollars to 'disrespect' the American people, and this guy was not, and is not, "outraged" about it, so I don't want to hear from him now.
So very true. Politics has ALWAYS been blood sport and in large measure today’s discourse is tame compared to a century and a half ago.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.