Anti-Obama Images Circulate (PHOTOS)

*See images below*

Just as President Obama is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize -- drawing rebukes from critics on both left and right -- anti-Obama images are swirling around the social Web, on blogs and social networking sites.

On Thursday afternoon, Boing Boing posted a marked-down price of a 3 foot-by-5-foot heavily-creased flag in heavy polyester material with an image of Obama next to a confederate flag. The original price of $24.95 was marked down to $12.95.

Some of the comments on Boing Boing read:

I'm pissed off as hell about this.

I'm white and from Texas and this flag disgusts me. Why do you think Georgia changed their flag to remove the Confederate part? It's an unspoken law that you can tell when you're around rednecks based on the number of Confederate flags you see. It isn't a symbol of heritage or history, it represents slavery, lynching and legal segregation for hundreds of years.

I live in southern Louisiana, and find the Confederate flag to be a dead giveaway to anyone who is a narrow-minded, prejudice redneck. Ask them if they're racist and they'll deny it (ask if they're xenophobic, and you'll receive a blank stare), spouting some pseudo-justification behind the "real" intentions of the Confederacy, but listen to them for 10 minutes and you'll find otherwise.

Other anti-Obama images online depict Obama as a "communist," "fascist," and "socialist," all seemingly drawing from the Democratic president's economic policies.

But in analyzing the image of Obama as the Joker -- his face painted in white, red lipstick splashed all over his mouth with the word "socialism" spelled below -- Philip Kennicott of the Washington Post argued in an essay that the image and message of "Obama is a socialist" can't be divorced from the image and message of "Obama is a black man." Kennicott, a culture critic at The Post, wrote this past summer: "The charge of socialism is secondary to the basic message that Obama can't be trusted, not because he is a politician, but because he's black."

This latest anti-Obama image featuring a confederate flag bolsters that argument.

*Share your thoughts and comments below*

Comments

[walruswheedchick]

02:50 PM on 10/12/2009

I say eye for an eye! All artists that are anti-right should come up w/ more offensive images of right wing heroes and circulate them all over the net.

[Jim Knight]

09:13 AM on 10/12/2009

The irony is that those that cite history as their concern by showing the President with the likes of Hitler as well as Lenin and Marx don't understand that communism and national socialism (the Nazis) were mortal enemies and have completely different philosophies. While their tactics may have been similar at various points, their stated goals were much different. If you are going to cite history, try to understand it first.

[AlDavidson]

10:34 PM on 10/10/2009

It is sad, but as long as the U.S stays divided as they are now, it will be very difficult to make any real change, do you think just maybe the people behind all the disinformation want it that way?

[zerotimes10]

04:06 AM on 10/12/2009

The people behind the disinformation are making money on those that they are manipulating. Always follow the money. "There's a sucker born every minute." P.T. Barnum

[Kris Semelka]

06:28 PM on 10/10/2009

I'm greatly disappointed in these people.

But, it is their right, stupid as it is.

[medic628]

04:55 PM on 10/10/2009

A clear and concise comment and opinion about this article is scrubbed. The inflammatory comments that have been presented are displayed? "There is freedom of speech as long as you don't say to much."

[Bogstomper]

05:00 PM on 10/10/2009

""There is freedom of speech..."

Private forum, freedom of speech doesn't apply. Although I agree that the moderation seems weird some times.

[medic628]

05:10 PM on 10/10/2009

If we had expressed our selves during the Bush depression that agents would be at the door. It has always been as I quoted in this country

[duhtruth]

04:50 PM on 10/10/2009

Hate mongers never added one dreamlet to the American dream. They bring us down as a people and will eventually turn us into a BANANA REPUBLIC which it is starting to sound like we deserve to be.

[MrsFonebone]

04:41 PM on 10/10/2009

And Anti-Bush images circulated. And Anti-Clinton images. And Anti-Bush the First...and so on, and so on and so on.

[MrsFonebone]

04:39 PM on 10/10/2009

So let's see...although EVERY OTHER president has been viciously characterized and parodied, Obama will not be because he's black. Well, half black, but everybody leaves that out. Would it be ok to make fun of the white half of him?
This is racism, folks: it's special treatment based on race.
Presidents get burned in effigy and hung in effigy. Terrible caricatures. It goes with the turf.
Bush was made into a monkey and that was just political comment; if Obama is made into a monkey, it's racist and cannot be done.
Hyper-sensitive as the Taliban, these Obama worshipers and racial apologists

[Meah]

05:09 PM on 10/10/2009

Now we know what every day African Americans go through. White people for the most part are oblivious. Now we all get to see racism on a daily basis, up close and personal. Our president is maligned because he is black. He is also half white and he was raised by white people. But that does not matter. It's the "One Drop Rule".They simply cannot stand that he has this power. Ask them why? They will all lie. And why are they racist? Because that is how they were raised. This is the tragedy of our country. Children are raised to hate those who are not like them. The only people who are beyond wise are those who see that what their parents have taught them is wrong.

[moutonnoir]

05:57 PM on 10/10/2009

Pretty simplistic. Some awfully good people had terrible parents.. Some terrible people had great parents..

[MichaelMcKLA]

04:22 PM on 10/10/2009

These characters need to go back to school and learn a few things, or at the very least go to dictionary.com and look up a few words. Ignorance abounds with these people.

[ascotp]

04:13 PM on 10/10/2009

The United States of America still is the strongest nation on earth, but the direction it's current government is going, not for long. It's strength was based on the *freedom of every individual to pursue his/her own happiness and a long life fulfilled. This is of course based on the principle that the individual is responsible for all his/her own actions to achieving these goals and equally responsible to not mess up once chances. Some find wealth, others find spiritual happiness, others something else again. Based on the principles of the Bible, Government is there only to establish some of life's additional game-rules, and maintaining international relations, nothing else. Sadly this is a notion long forgotten by generations of nanny-state interference, watering down the responsibilities of the individual, while Government is getting more and more powerful. For those who still live by the simple principles of the founding fathers, they will fight with their lives to keep their individual *freedom. (*read freedom as responsibility). The direction the USA is going currently is simply going to end up in a civil war of some description, unless the USA embraces the principles of the founding fathers once again. Government health-care does not feature in these principles of individual responsibility. Socialism and Fascism are governing systems guided by a central leader. Obama is a central leader, he sounds like a socialist, he acts like a socialist, so he must be a .......

[Realitylost]

04:36 PM on 10/10/2009

There is no point in refuting your statement. Your post has so little basis in logic or historical fact you must be basing it on a belief system you have faith in rather than any rational conclucions and arguing against someones faith is a waste of time.

[ascotp]

04:47 PM on 10/10/2009

Faith. That's it, I have Faith.

[Gmoney1]

04:43 PM on 10/10/2009

You need quite a bit of help - any time someone rattles on like that it's very clear what their issues are -

[kinnycut]

03:46 PM on 10/10/2009

No images of any sitting President was ever as bad as these period. With these pictures they have called President Obama everything under the sun, but the "N" word, and in my opinion the use of the "N" word by comparison would be far less repugnant, and distasteful than these vicious, and idiotic representations. Any person that would applaud, or carry anything like this of our President is pure "black" by definition for they are devoid of both light and conscience. "America home of the free and the brave," not to mention the intolerant, petty, fearful, and utterly ignorant. "God Bless America"

[Bogstomper]

04:02 PM on 10/10/2009

"No images of any sitting President was ever as bad as these period."

They weren't as bad, or they didn't offend you as much?

[kinnycut]

08:17 PM on 10/10/2009

I think what people like me choke on with these images is not so much the offensive nature of them as it is the sense that they may indeed be imbued with an unseen element of hatred. To call anything here racist would be a leap I wouldn't be quite willing to take, but it does conjure those feelings, and brings back memories of a level of intolerance that many of us thought we, as a people, had moved far from.

[haval2]

03:45 PM on 10/10/2009

White racism and hatred is all that flag is about. Anything but that is Christian hypocrisy.

[flossophy]

03:33 PM on 10/10/2009

The guy who did the Obama-as-J0ker image is a Pa|estin|an Kucin|ch supporter from Chicag0.

[Chris Savage]

04:04 PM on 10/10/2009

flossophy wrote:
"The guy who did the Obama-as-J0ker image is a Pa|estin|an Kucin|ch supporter from Chicag0."

Really, flossophy? I thought he was a gay baby whale who heads up the ACORN office in San Francisco and is the president of the local Communist Club. Weird.

[flossophy]

04:43 PM on 10/10/2009

My assertion is not hard to fact check.

NPR covered this.

[Bogstomper]

04:51 PM on 10/10/2009

The story is pretty interesting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama_%22Joker%22_poster

The guy who made the main image wasn't making a political statement. He was practicing graphics techniques. Someone added the "socialist" caption later.

[flossophy]

05:04 PM on 10/10/2009

He made some statements to the press after it received widespread exposure. Something to the effect that he lamented the fawning ad0ration of Obama by his followers.

He didn't think much of the President... Considered him a lightweight.

[So Calif Indpdnt]

09:48 PM on 10/10/2009

Can wiki still be changed by anyone that wants to change it?

[NeoLiberal]

03:26 PM on 10/10/2009

Pigs.

[Bogstomper]

03:00 PM on 10/10/2009

I don't understand the problem with the Obama picture and the Confederate flag. I don't know what the intention behind it was, but my first impression of it is that someone is saying that the Obama/hope side is pushing the Confederate flag side away. (Notice that the flag is a little tilted and cut off.)

The other pictures don't leave much room for doubt, but that one looked pro-Obama to me at first glance. It still does after subsequent glances.

[Nonpartay]

03:07 PM on 10/10/2009

Well, that's an interesting twist on the meaning. Now, if whoever made that image up would come forward and tell us what he thinks it means, I'd be interested. Somehow, I'm not too sure it was meant to be complimentary. The kinds of images people have come up with that praise the president don't seem to be much about confederate flags.

[Bogstomper]

03:21 PM on 10/10/2009

"Well, that's an interesting twist on the meaning."

It's kind of like those old lunar photos where craters could appear convex or concave depending on how you look at them.

"Somehow, I'm not too sure it was meant to be complimentary."

You might be right. Or it might just be a product of some Chinese manufacturer who isn't well-versed in American symbolism. (I saw some Chinese Halloween decorations recently that had pictures of things like butterflies and hedgehogs.)

[NoSandwiches]

03:37 PM on 10/10/2009

Well, I needed someone to clarify for me that it was the confederate flag. There are many symbols and words and phrases that have meaning only among those who have lived in the South. I know that where I live, if you say someone is a redneck, it is an insult. If you suggest that someone in Texas is a redneck, they grin and think it is a compliment (at least that is the experience I've had with people in our Texas branches at work.)

When someone is accused of being racist, we often hear them protest that they didn't mean it that way or didn't realize. We just don't study race relations or get into that part of history enough for everyone to have the same sensitivities to the historical context of symbols and phrases.

Think of the imagery of a noose. What does it mean to you? To me, it may mean a Halloween prop in a haunted house. To others it is clearly a symbol that reminds them of lynching.

We need to have more conversations about these parts of our history and the realities of the consequences on today's race relations.

[Bogstomper]

04:31 PM on 10/10/2009

I guess my other reply to you was modded out. I'll try again.

You make some good points about symbols and context. I think the Obama/rebel flag is included here simply because of the presence of the rebel flag. But it's not just the presence of the symbol, it's the context.

The more I look at it, the more I'm convinced that it's a pro-Obama image.