A local man makes his living selling political propaganda, including campaign buttons. Like a mercenary soldier, he plays all sides. He feeds off bumper sticker philosophy, thumb-your-nose attitudes, and mocking humor. It's not exactly the world's most useful occupation, certainly not among the more charitable. But from the reaction to his "If Obama is president, will we still call it the White House?" button, you'd think Jonathan Alcox was a substantially lower form of life than drug pusher or Mafia don, just barely above child pornographer.
Barack Obama does not deny—indeed, he profits from—his partially African heritage. I fail to see anything at all racist about that button; if being aware of someone's ancestry is racist, then we all are, including Obama's supporters, and the term has no meaning other than as an epithet to throw at our opponents when we run out of rational arguments. If truth is no longer a defense, what hope have we for justice?
In the interest of full disclosure, I love word play, and am thus predisposed to finding that button amusing. I wouldn't wear one, but can see the humor and not the offense.
Alcox has other buttons that I find far more beyond the pale. For example,
Another one that Alcox said sells particularly well features George W. Bush next to a chimpanzee beneath the words "The dangers of cloning."
If the same button sported Barack Obama instead of George W. Bush, it would be no less offensive—but also no more. Yet selling that button would push Alcox below the child pornographers in some eyes.
Now that's racism.
