In a utopian world, one would have expected the election of an African-American president to have spelled the end of the race debate in America. But ironically, it only appears to have stoked new flames.
Barely has the national burp of President Obama’s beer-diplomacy—brokered to ease racial tensions between Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates and police officer James Crowley—subsided than another incident has everyone talking.
This one revolves around a poster, found plastered a few days ago, on a nondescript Los Angeles wall. Next, it began to pop up in other public places, in other cities. Before soon, it was spreading like a Prairie fire through the blogosphere before being picked up by mainstream media outlets.
This is the first time that a negative illustration of President Obama has received such attention as well as the Right wing's successful use of political street art.
The portrait in question is that of President Obama, with his face smeared with white paint. A wide, red gash of a mouth running across it, apparently in an evil grimace, is clearly intended to evoke the imagery of the villain of the 2008 blockbuster “The Dark Knight,” the Joker. Beneath the visage, runs the word “socialism” in black lettering.
From The Guardian:
First spotted as early as April, the poster is apparently based on an image by Chicago student Firas Khateeb, uploaded to Flickr before Obama was even inaugurated. Only now, with Obama's healthcare plans becoming a focal point for opposition, it has caught on.
The intended message, one can surmise, is that President Obama is an agent of anarchy and chaos who will unleash these forces through the instrument of “socialism.” To most Americans, “socialism” alone, has an offensive sting to it.
"Depicting the president as demonic and a socialist goes beyond political spoofery," president of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable reportedly said. "It is mean-spirited and dangerous."
It is “dangerous” perhaps, because the image has the potential to ignite afresh racial sentiments.
It is reminiscent of the blackface minstrel show, which surfaced in the 1820s, where white men would have their faces blackened by a coat of burnt cork (and later, greasepaint or shoe polish), pad out their lips and often wear wooly wigs.
A minstrel show poster showing the transformation from white to black
This theatrical art form with its exaggerated makeup style is regarded as America’s first popular culture. But it also has the dubious distinction of embodying stereotypes that played a significant role in the cementing and proliferating racist images, attitudes and perceptions of blacks worldwide.
About author: Alakananda Mookerjee is the Associate Editor of USARiseUp.