Obama Ugly Slave Tee: "But It's Not About Race"

In the wake of the flap that followed the New Yorker's intended satirical cover art last week, a shock anti-Obama t-shirt has made news. The shirt raises questions about whether the provocative message it bears is ironic or just plain ugly. The designer makes no bones, however, about his intent.

Apollo Braun is selling the shirt emblazoned with the words "Obama Is My Slave" from his Manhattan boutique. The shirt was designed by Braun.

According to blogsite livesteez, Braun claims the shirt does not reflect his views but those of "ordinary WASPS."

"For a lot of people, when they see Obama, they see a slave. People think America is not ready for a black President," he said.

Braun says he believes Obama is Muslim and that Obama also "reminds [him] of Adolf Hitler." "I can't stand Obama," says Braun, although he adds that none of his dislike for the candidate has anything to do with ethnicity.

Braun and his shirt made news when graduate student Nathanaeli Nassimi bought one of the $69 "slave" shirts and was wearing it as she walked through Union Square last week. Four African-American teenage girls took notice . According to Metro, the girls cursed at Nassimi about the shirt, shoved her, pulled out her earphones and spit in her face.

Nassimi has now decided to sue Braun. Braun's lawyer assures him that he has nothing to worry about, that the First Amendment protects his right to make the shirt and Nassimi's right to wear it.

Braun has designed and sold other anti-Obama shirts. The slogans he has used on those shirts have included "Jews Against Obama" "Obama = Hitler" and "Who Killed Obama?"

Follow Earnest Harris on Twitter: www.twitter.com/earnestharris

Comments

[SeanGardner]

As sad as this is, I do believe it is just the beginning of what we're going to see as election day draws near.

Months ago, a bar owner in Marietta Georgia was attacked by media outlets, including CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, and by the NAACP, for selling a shirt with Curious George peeling a banana with "Obama 08" underneath. Here is an article on it: http://thinkprogress.org/2008/05/14/curious-george-shirt/?sortby=toprated

Then, a short time later, The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation in Washington DC received a similar shirt with the Curious George likeness in the mail recently, with racially charged wording on the back: http://thinkprogress.org/2008/06/06/congressional-black-caucus-foundation-receives-racist-obama-t-shirt-in-the-mail/

And now this.

I'll tell you this, such racist T-Shirt controversies will likely ensure a massive, eye-popping turnout of African-Americans nationwide that will shake the political foundations of this country forever. Moreover, young people in general (18-35 years old), who have helped power Obama's historic candidacy seem to be increasingly intolerant of intolerance. And their voices will be heard on these and other bigoted matters as well.

So if anyone thinks these T-shirts are funny, just wait until election day...to see the hysterical laughter in the massive, multi-racial turnout of voters that these T-shirts will inspire.

[dr4Will]

Free speech in our country does not end because somebody does not like what is said or pictured--because you are black does not mean the rules should be any different than for any person who is the subject of word or picture in our democratic society--

[dollphingurl]

one thing i will say for europe - they learned enough about intolerance in the last century to appreciate the wisdom of erring on the conservative side of free speech.

[SeriousBlack]

Not many people (at least not me) are saying the shirt should be censored - the only action that would lend any credence whatsoever to your post.

But by the same token of the intent of YOUR post, "free speech in our country" also gives the vast majority of us that are responding to this idiocy the right to state how absolutely idiotic it is.

Got it?

[MissDirection]

Obviously, someone is dying to create a story out of thin air.
Misaligned block lettering for 69$..
The REAL story here is that Americans are now so culturally destitute that they have begun serving sh*t on a shingle at unbelievably outrageous prices.

[Garioch]

Yup, what would it be to make your own, $12 or something in that region?

Ok $12 and a couple of thousand for the lobotomy to achieve the required reduction in I.Q.

[veracity]

"CULTURALLY DESTITUTE AMERICA" - well said, MissDirection!

It is beyond amazing how our entire "national narrative" is so totally a fouled product of Right-Wing _propagand­a._

Righties pour scorn on "Big Govt. SOCIALISM!" when our public, SOCIALIZED interstate highways and road system is the foundation, the bedrock, of our entire American (automotive) culture, and the bedrock of our entire economy. Billions of dollars in SOCIALIZED govt. road and highway spending, has created TRILLIONS of dollars of business in the auto, trucking, construction, real estate, oil, tourism, and other industries, which are now all to a huge extent _dependent_ on that "big government SOCIALIZED" spending.

Not to mention, Righties drool at the prospect of billion-dollar Taxpayer SUBSIDIES for those huge corporations, whether Bush post-9/11 $13 billion airline subsidies, his $13 "prescription drug 'reform' package" to benefit of Big Pharma, billion-dollar oil co. cubsidies, etc. (Most all of the above at the EXPENSE OF alternative energy and public transportation investment. For example, it is a national DISGRACE that America does NOT have a high-speed NY-Boston-DC rail line.)

When Righty radio hate-mongers and 'news' writers tout "FREE MARKETS!" and "private property capitalism", what they MEAN is the EXACT OPPOSITE: GOVERNMENT ENFORCED MONOPOLIES and RIGGED MARKETS such as the Seven Major oil companies CONTROLLING the US gasoline market, of Ernon RIGGING the West Coast electricity market (under WH and government protection), of oil industry KILLING the electric car industry, etc.

[JohnCheney88]

Just wanted to say "THANKS FOR STATING THE OBVIOUS!" Unfortunately, the people who need to see this aren't reading this blog.
John Cheney (no relation, believe me, I checiked!) 88

[JLee]

People pay $69 for *that*? A fool and their money, whatever.

[Earnest Harris - Huffpost Blogger]

An update: It is reported that this guy Braun may have made up the part about a woman getting assaulted by "four black teenage girls." Which makes this story even more egregious, that he would then play further into racial stereotypes, about angry, uncontrollable black teens.

The important part of this story isn't any publicity he may have generated. It is that he would think making or selling something like this is even appropriate at all. Does he not realize this kind of political or social statement, even for publicity, is way out of bounds?

It is outrageous in every way.

[Deaninphilly]

I disagree it is also about publicity and you are giving it to him. In particular if he made up the story about the four teenagers. Here you are writing about him and giving him exactly what he wants and more. He wanted a rise out of you, you gave it to him. He wanted you to write about him and you gave it to him.

[Earnest Harris - Huffpost Blogger]

Publicity cuts both ways though. It looks like the publicity he's getting is not the publicity he may have wanted. Sometimes it is more important to shine a light on stupidity than to ignore it, particularly when it is important that people like Braun can get the message of where the boundaries are.

[Ides]

It's not about ethnicity! But he's my slave.

[rigveda]

I am an ordinary WASP and I don't think of Obama as a slave. I don't think of anyone as a slave (unless they actually happen to be one - sadly the institution still lives in some backwards parts of the world)

[scottarino]

That's just lame.

[PepperK]

There are so many things wrong with this story:

A young guy who truly believes Osama is a Muslim.
The assumption that all WASPS are hicks.
A racist, ugly shirt with off centered block letters that costs $69.
A girl who buys said racist ugly shirt, gets beat up, then sues the maker!

I just don't get it...

[bluestatelib]

Actually, I think Osama IS a Muslim ;-)

[DMSmith]

Um...think­ing has nothing to do with that.

[mouselion]

Put some text on a T shirt and it's called design? Never mind the ignorance of the individual, why are saying he "designed" it?

[LiarLiarIraqsOnFire]

Obviously the inability to follow the simple centering instructions on top of 'the big hot iron thingy' at the T-Shirt kiosk has been mistaken for artistic vision.

[CEKChuck]

The lead in for this story says: "raising questions about whether the provocative message it bears is ironic or just plain ugly." After reading it it's obvious that there is no nuanced position behind this whatsoever; the guy is a racist and speaks for those who, like him, grab on to any false absurdity ("Obama is a Muslim", "Obama = Hitler") as a poorly and thinly veiled attempt to hide their hatred of black people. As a gay man, I regularly avoid reading anything Jerry Fallwell, Pat Robertson, and their ilk have had to say about me. I'm not sure what benefit you derive from lifting up the rock that Apollo Braun is sliming under other than to give his particularly ugly bigotry a spotlight.

[donitacurioso]

Wait, that chick's a dude?

[homerun]

I bet he doesnt wear that shirt out in NYC streets.

[oncesung]

Spoze he wears his sheets in NY streets?

[LiarLiarIraqsOnFire]

Not on the streets, but definately in the closet.

[StillIRise]

Once again, I will point out what is now obvious. Reverend Wright said that America is racist. America reacted with outrage, and labeled him as a racist for saying this. However, as the election draws near, we have witnessed for ourselves the depth of racism that exists in our nation; yet the outrage that was so vociferously directed toward Reverend Wright is silent. And it is our silence that has given people like Braun the license to shamelessly perpetuate the racist mindset that has stained the consciousness and character of our nation for generations. Braun is just 25 years old. He's not part of that old generation of racists who are still stuck in the past. He represents many young people today who are just as stuck in ignorance on matters of race as their forebearers are, and who will simply pass it on to their children and their children's children, as it was passed onto them, keeping racism alive and well in America. Martin Luther King once said that the people of good will who did nothing were just as responsible for the racial injustices and indignities that occured in our nation as the people of ill will. It's just a tee-shirt, but we need to stand up and speak out against this travesty as loudly and as intensely as we would any other blatant racist act, whether in word or deed. America can be better than this, but it's up to us to make it so.

[Destin]

Awesome post! Marked as favorite. HuffPo should make that a Top Pick or whatever their thing is called. :)

[NTO08]

There can be no defense for anything Reverend Wright says, except one item, when he spoke the truth about Obama: that he is a politician.

Ironic that so many Obama fans want to think that racism has been licked in America...­here is nice example of how it hasn't...t­his is mild in comparison to some of the garbage going on around the country.

[scrutiny1]

Excellent post. I agree with you 100%. America is in such denial about its racism that it can't stand to hear the truth, i.e., Reverend Wright. It's easier for the nation to assault the messenger than take a hard and honest look at itself.

[rupert12]

The words on the shirt in the picture are photoshopp­ed...badly­. I doubt the t-shirt even exists.

[Destin]

I was thinking that too, since the lettering faces the viewer, even tho the front of the shirt does not. As if the lettering is morphed/mashed around to look like there's wrinkles where none exist.

In the end, probably not even a picture of the guy in question, probably some enemy of his.

[NTO08]

Now that's a curious observatio­n...