In what can only be called a recurring theme, another Republican/teabagger/conservative idiot has failed to recognize that racism against black people is not a universally accepted tenet, and that not everyone welcomes emails depicting the Obamas as pimped-out, watermelon-eating, simian-looking members of a race too lazy to flee from hurricanes. It’s happened in California, Florida, Texas, and now, Tennessee.
This go-round featured the following email from Walt Baker, CEO of the Tennessee Hotel & Lodging Association and Principal of a group called MERCATUS Communications, going out to “[Nashville Convention & Visitors Bureau Pres. Butch] Spyridon, Nashville Mayor Karl Dean’s legislative liaison, public relations executives and members of the Nashville media.”
From: Walt Baker < wbaker@mercatuscom.com > To: Albie DelFavero, Bruce Dobie, Butch Spyridon, Joe Hall, Peter Heidenreich, Terry Clements, Toby Compton, Chuck Creasy, Rob Moorefield, Ken Whitehouse, Paul Brown, Bob Davis Date: March 4, 2010 9:18:29 PM CST
Quoting Larry the Cable Guy…I don’t care who you are, this is funny…
I was at the store yesterday, and I ran into Tarzan! I asked him how it was going and if he was into anymore movies.??
He told me that he could no longer make any more movies as he had severe arthritis in both shoulders and could no longer swing from vine to tree.
??I asked how Jane was doing, he told me she was in bad shape, in a nursing home, has Alzheimer’s and no longer recognizes anyone, how sad. I asked about Boy, and he told me that Boy had gone to the big city, got hooked up with bad women, drugs, alcohol, and the only time he heard from him was if he was in trouble or needed something.?
I asked about Cheeta, he beamed and said she was doing good, had married a Lawyer and now lived in the White House!!!
And here are the accompanying graphics.
Turns out he should have cared who you were. Despite his defense of the email as “political humor,” Baker’s company has been dumped by the Convention Center.
The Nashville Convention & Visitors Bureau on Saturday dropped its contract with Baker’s marketing firm Mercatus Communications. The firm had received almost $50,000 to market the new convention center and money that came indirectly from Metro to market the annual Music City Bowl.
In his “apology,” Baker, who showed true obliviousness for a man with a porcine countenance in comparing the First Lady’s face to a chimp’s, demonstrated how profoundly he doesn’t get it.
In an e-mail sent to Metro Council members Saturday, Baker suggested the message was intended as a joke but was misinterpreted:
“I did not think or consider its implications, other than that it was political humor. I am saddened that anyone misinterpreted the sentiments behind the e-mail.
“I deeply apologize to anyone who is offended by this action. I hope that those who know me realize that the message was not intended to be malicious or hurtful in any way and can find it in their hearts to forgive me.”
If there was a shred of political humor in this gag, I missed it. The punchline says Michelle Obama is a chimpanzee. The attached photos compare her to a chimpanzee. And the political aspect in that is…? Didn’t think so.
Baker wrote the five-year marketing plan for the State of Tennessee in 1986, under Republican Gov. (now Senator) Lamar Alexander.
This certainly does not make me want to visit Tennessee if this is the kind of people they have. I hope Baker never gets another job/
Look, the office of the President is above preferences about appearances or ethnic slurs. I don’t care who is personally in the office. I care about the process that gets them there, what they commit to doing and their track record. To ensure they can ge things done, it is very important to have a degree of respect for the office, the the same way you have respect for any other public offficial trying to do their job. They’re all hard jobs, and slurs or insults don’t make it any easier. So just grow up and have respect for your fellow man.
When a set GWB’s various pictorial expressions were compared to a set of chimps, we all enjoyed it (especially me) and no one lost any contracts, but now a guy forwards a funny joke and eveything goes to hell in a handbasket!
Tsk, tsk, I guess life just ain’t fair, eh, Mr. Baker?
P.S. RIGHT ON Nashville Convention & Visitors Bureau!!
Agreed, Nikolai, but the Walker email photos are different from the Bush-chimps photos in that the Bush photos were not about his race, and they did not depict his wife. When she was First Lady, Laura Bush was, broadly speaking, not a subject of ridicule in these pages and on the left. We did point out that, as a teenager, she was the driver in a car accident in which another young person died. This was a fact, unlike the assertion still made today by wingnuts like Joseph Farah, the publisher of World Net Daily, that First Lady Hillary Clinton had her friend Vince Foster murdered.
Mrs. Obama is not the President of the United States. Baker is a dirty fighter and I don’t need to know him to revile his infantile use of email to mock the first lady using racial epithets. There IS a difference between GWB as a chimp and Mrs. Obama as a chimp. Anyone who cannot discern that difference is quite simply vacant of intellect. I had planned A LARGE extended family trip to the Great Smoky Mountains but we cancelled it this morning. There MUST BE consequences to actions of this nature. Mr. Baker should have learned THAT at his mother’s knee.
Folks, PLEASE try not to equate all of us Tennesseans with that guy’s senseless f’up. I know, it’s hard not to, especially with so many knuckle-dragging dickheads from here making the news. If you cancel plans to come here, or you simply wish to fan the flames, write the TN Dept. of Tourism and tell them why; keep collective heads rolling. http://state.tn.us/tourdev/contactus.html
Years ago I visited some friends in Tennessee. Their use of the “N” word knows no boundaries. I was astounded that these people were so bigoted and loose with their racial slurs against blacks, hispanics and anyone who wasn’t a “real” homegrown, patriotic, southern white person. This man from Tennessee is not sorry, his words were not taken out of context and he is truly a scrounge as a person.
Mr. Baker must have reason to believe the persons who received this email would enjoy the slur. Racism is seldom the product of a single individual. Posting a picture of a pig next to his picture is only a little less offensive. Maybe you, like Baker, think you know your readership but I think both of you need to go back to school and get a real education. You are no less an extremist than he is. Neither of you have added much to help make our civilization more civil. I am a liberal but I will not be bookmarking this website.
Reed – Trish’s graphic was brilliant, though slightly offensive to pigs. That said, we fundamentally disagree with you about how to deal with right-wing racists and bullies. Appeasing them does not work. The Clintons tried it, and the result was impeachment. Similarly, Obama has gone much too far out of his way to try to deal with them and the results on health care reform have been disastrous. At best we’ll end up with a reform bill that is fatally flawed by changes meant to appease that right, but that will end up with not a single Republican vote. The only way to get through to right wingers is to reflect their own behavior back at them — but, since we are liberals, to do it with facts instead of lies. Our model is a quote from Harry Truman in response to the catch phrase, “Give ’em hell, Harry.” Truman said, “I never gave anybody hell. I just told the truth and they think it’s hell.”
“Years ago I visited some friends in Tennessee”
I don’t know who your friends are, but they don’t sound like anyone I ever interact with here in Nashville.