cornball humor!  next...

White people...I swear!! Do they not have common sense or is it that they've always been "allowed" to be idiots?

some scary sh*t. i feel ya.... ray bradury's butterfly and its flicker can affect the fabric of a distant galaxy.

AprilLynn, I think it's both.  I can almost, sort of, not really see how he might've gotten the idea from the jackasses who were waving "IRON MY SHIRT" signs at HRC rallies.  But sweet buggering Christ.  How can someone be that dumb and not have been killed in traffic already?

AprilLynn, please leave the "White People" out.  This is two morons, I know that there are more but the generalization is really counter productive.

PingBack from http://publicmindshare.com/movin4/1969/12/31/obama-is-my-slave-t-shirt-gets-the-beat-down/

Look, guys, white people will NEVER change.  We need to focus less on them...actually not focus on them at all...and focus on US.  Young black men are slaughtering each other in major cities across this country...and many innocent folks are getting caught in the crossfire.  Black folks are losing their homes in droves.  People can barely afford to gas up their cars.  The HS dropout rate amongst African American children (particularly boys) is increasing.  More black men are in prison than in institutions of higher learing.  F**k white people.  Long as they're not putting their hand on us, or standing in the way of our successes or accomplishments, we should really ignore them.

AprilLynn, we've always been allowed to be idiots. But hey, I would have joined in the 4 girls in the beat down! that dumb girl deserves it, then I would have gone to the store and gave an intense lesson to the dumb*** who put that on the shirt in the first place. I am an Obama loving girl, I have to defend my candidate!

justawhiteguy:  It is a specifically white kind of dumbness, though.  The kind that makes people who REALLY THINK WHAT THEY'RE SAYING IS A COMPLIMENT say *** like "Oh, but I don't mean YOU [meaning "a black person I actually know personally"].  I never think of YOU as a black person."  Privilege means never needing to think about how a non-privileged person might interpret anything.

I do not excuse the white girl's dumbness either.  She saw nothing morally wrong with buying and wearing such a shirt.  Edgy, sure.  Wrong, gracious no.  After all, she's a NICE girl.  Wouldn't ever be a RACIST.  Doesn't have a racist bone in her body.

Except, y'know, that she does.  Two hundred and six of 'em.

((Census Note:  kaninchen is painfully white.  She has, however, tried to educate herself some.))

poor grad student.   I swear, higher education is so overrated.  

Patra,

I have mentioned "shock value" in some of my posts on roots.  I think its unfair to point fingers and make generalizations about an entire race.  Meaning, your point that white people will never change.  What are white people supposed to change?  F white people?  What is that?  Comments like that make you just the same as the low life in the picture.  Raise your hand if you like the Chicago CUBS!  I do!  Have you ever seen the T-shirt that says Zombrano mows my lawn.  Also racist.......right?  Exactly.  Now I am not trying to hate on you because I can understand your anger.  But lets not go so far as to say F-white people.  How about F-you?  Yup, not nice at all.  Obviously this goes back to my point of shock value.  I think we have inherited this from our media.  We never see anything on the news thats good natured, nice, happy or any of those things.  Nope, we don't see them because people want to see the blood, and gore, and destruction of humanity.  And that is what is going to happen if we can't all come together.  And yes that means blacks and whites, and yellows, hell can't leave out the purples. You don't have to like white people, you don't have to like anyone you don't want to like.  But obviously that is racist

So much could be said on this one, starting with, Wow, some grad students are really stupid. (I guess there's 'education' and education).

Between this week's New Yorker cover and this, so much for Obama running a 'post-racial' campaign...

firstly, i think both parties involved in the fight are in the wrong. the hipster grad student for buying and wearing this shirt (though i suppose she's just exercising her right to freedom of speech). and the girls who initiated the fight because...well, i think that's obvious.

but what concerns me most is apollo braun's collection of anti-obama pieces. (there are others equating obama to hitler) if you haven't, read his reason for his stance. (http://gothamist.com/2008/05/12/apollo_braun_de.php).

i shudder to think that there are many more, though not necessarily the new york jews he speaks of, who share his narrow-minded views. i e-mailed him to ask what exactly the 'obama is my slave' message means. i don't expect a response...but does anyone here know?

On a side note about this guy. You would think that throughout all the historic persecutions and enslavements of jewish people, this guy would be more interested in tolerance or at least educating himself about Obama's religous views. But I could be just painting all jewish people as thoughtful and wise. This guy needs help, his brains are missing.

I wonder what type of media attention a TV would get if it said, "McCain is my rapist Massa. And my brother oddly looks like him..." But no matter the historical truth behind this statement (not in regards to McCain, but to slavemasters), who in their 21st century right mind would create a t-shirt and sell it for $70? Someone who knows that there's a small population dumb enough to buy it and flaunt it like racism died at the end of the civil rights movement.

AprilLynn: He's clearly not white. He's Israeli. You would think that all Jews would have a significant amount of respect and commonsense dealing with racial oppression (given their horrendous history spanning almost 4,000 years, give or take), but... there are a few who fall through the cracks. Like this dumb*ss.

What many fail to realize is that Jews will never let anyone at any point forget the injustices that they have suffered.  In addition, they will close ranks on the world to protect an individual or their culture.  There is a national Holocaust Museum.  Yet, there is  the usual struggle to get African Americans to contribute to the Museum of African American History.  As a unified community, Jews would have demanded that all of this merchandise be destroyed and an apology be extended to the Jewish American community.  We see it and say someone should do something.  Who are we expecting to save us.  Those sisters from Bed Stuy may reflect many of the negative values that we would like to change in our community.  However, they are proof that we have not lost the ability to fight.  We should be be standing tall saying "Hell no, we're not going to take it anymore".  Reach out to these young sisters and guide them into the positions of positive leadership.  They have already shown that they are willing to stand.  Let us help them and guide them.  Remember, the Jewish community will never let you forget the Holocaust.  They do not wear this experience like a badge but they carry it everyday just as the concentration camp survivors carried their numbers to their graves.  We may not have any survivors of slavery that were branded but we know that it did happen.  We  should never forget or try to minimize the effect of slavery on our culture.  Just as the Jews do not use it as crutch but as a foundation to build better and stronger communities, we should do the same.

All we need is the address of the boutique

Who didn't know that something like this was going to happen sooner or later.  See it for what it is. This guy is a poor (literally) masochistic version of Paris Hilton... a publicity ***.  Most people of his ilk fall into this category.  Let's not paint all pseudo-white people with one broad brush.

 Although I thought he should have had the decency of allowing someone w/ a hood to do it first.

wow this is terribly sad. I will say this, As much as i'd like to fight both of them in an ally ( or on the street, around the corner etc.) i really don't think this chick has a leg to stand on legally. You don't wear certain things without thinking of the reprecussions. Yeah he's an A** but no one told her to buy an extremely expensive, extremely  racists shirt and wear it out in public.(wear his very vocal supports could whoop that a**).  I'm sorry but she went out looking to start some controversey and when she got it from the "wrong" people she couldn't handle it, now she wants to sue. Foolish!

on another note I am surprised that this level ot antics is coming from a foreign born- israeli, A people with a history of being enslaved and whatnot. Maybe I'm just being naive but i thought this would have come from some Klan member first.

The assault on Sen. Obama's campaign by prominent Jews (Jackie Mason's YouTube screed, Sen. Lieberman's abandonment of the democratic party, anger among Florida primary voters and other democratic Hillary-backers, and a flurry of articles and editorials authored by Jewish people) has been a sad, albeit not unexpected diversion. But now an Israeli is getting in on the bashing?

Forgive me, but the green-eyed monster is wearing a yarmulke.

Sen.Obama was not anointed, Hillary was. The young upstart pulled ahead of the filly bred to win, and a lot of folks got caught looking. Those who are loyal to the democratic party will remain so, the others will leave in a huff. This happened before when Pres. Carter was abandoned by the Reagan democrats in 1980.

Black Americans and Jews split during the SNCC days, and again during the affirmative action wars. We are no longer reliable allies (they were happy with the Giuliani administration in NYC, while Black civilians were being shot dead by police and enduring stop and frisks and racial profiling). If we cannot support each other--surely they realize they are due for  political payback when they run for office--so be it. But producing racialist t-shirts is hypocritical, and if it were the other way around, if Black entrepreneurs created and sold anti-Semitic shirts and videos, the howls of protest would be deafening.

I was really concerned about what happened to the young Black women that supposedly beat the t shirt wearer down...but I'm hearing that the whole thing was a publicity stunt?  Has anyone heard any details since the original story broke?

www.blacksuperwomen.com

I was really concerned about what happened to the young Black women that supposedly beat the t shirt wearer down...but I'm hearing that the whole thing was a publicity stunt?  Has anyone heard any details since the original story broke?

www.blacksuperwomen.com

Noli.  Hey.

I will check into the publicity stunt claim.  That would actually be crazier.

This man does not speak for ALL Jews, nor all Israelis. Your anger is justified, because this man is an ignorant idiot, who happens to be Israeli. The stereotypes and the quickness to attach this man's idiocy to all Israelis and all Jews is itself ignorant and unjustified. Please don't speak for me. i can express myself. I may not be a powerful jewish man, or a dumbass israeli, but I'm a half-israeli-American jewish woman, and I condemn this man's ignorance, and I will continue to do so. However, just as any minority would not want to be blamed for something ONE person of their minority group does, do not blame Jews and Israelis for this ignorant actions of this man. Thanks

White dumb people?, white idiots???, I am white but I condem this type of behavior or intentional disrespect to the admiration of people about a Leader or someone who is not afraid to tell the truth and be himself while trying to be elected to be president, yes, its dumb and provocative to  wear that or any type of clothes to offend someone ebven in a Country where you can exercise freedom (but there are limits, dont expect to insult and not to be insulted back)but also is kind of sad that people (people, not black, white, chinese, ect...PEOPLE) will discuss this type of abuse being racist. Yes, I am white, No, I am not stupid, Definitely I believe wearing that type of shirt was provocative and an insult.Watch what you say, making a racist comment does not make us unite, just pull us apart.

Some of the comments below are as racist as the T-shirt above  …the divisiveness of some of those racial blanket-statements.

I agree with justawhiteguy. These two DO NOT represent me or any other white person I know. They are just MORONS. I personally find the shirt appalling and am personally offended by the designer's statement.

Are black people incapable of understanding free speech? Or are you just prone to violence?

As someone who lived in Israel for several years, I will tell you that many Israelis have no self-respect as Israelis or as Jews and therefore have no concept of people who do have self respect and in turn expect to be respected by others (and many of those types of Israelis leave Israel and move here to New York). This is what enables this dumbass to make and market such a t-shirt. The woman who bought it is probably just a stupid American closet or not so closet racist and is suing Braunstein because she now feels guilty for buying the shirt which led to the (much deserved IMO) beat-down. Kind of like suing McDonald's for making you fat. I wouldn't be surprised if she felt a little guilty pleasure when she bought it and is likely not surprised that she was attacked.

As someone who lived in Israel for several years, I will tell you that many Israelis have no self-respect as Israelis or as Jews and therefore have no concept of people who do have self respect and in turn expect to be respected by others (and many of those types of Israelis leave Israel and move here to New York). This is what enables this dumbass to make and market such a t-shirt. The woman who bought it is probably just a stupid American closet or not so closet racist and is suing Braunstein because she now feels guilty for buying the shirt which led to the (much deserved IMO) beat-down. Kind of like suing McDonald's for making you fat. I wouldn't be surprised if she felt a little guilty pleasure when she bought it and is likely not surprised that she was attacked.

my favorite shirt to date was worn by a white male on the USC campus (Univ. of Southern California) with obama's face on it that read...

"he's black and i'm proud."

but this story is way wronger.

However, it's ok when black comedians make whites the butt of their jokes? What if there were some "historically white college", how would you react? It's ok to be black with gold fronts and baggy jeans but not white? get over yourselves...

um, afeliciano, u need to chill. u make no sense.  who ever said it's wrong for white people to weasr baggy jeans? it's a look, and if you like it, heck, go ahead. and there's a reason why they're called historically black colleges. if you don't know why, maybe you should inform and educate yourself on the matter.

This is not the first insulting T shirt ever worn by an insensitive twit in the wrong neighborhood...  This is not the first fellow who realized that twits will pay good money for crude, insulting, tasteless shirts, caps, bumper stickers, etc....

Wanna bet the grad student thinks the worst thing about Obama is that he's a Democrat? (Or did, until someone expressed another opinion)

I understand you write to "reach black people" as you mentioned in another blog...but how about a blog talking about rampant reverse discrimination? I'm third generation Irish-German American and tired of hearing how my ancestors were slave owners and I owe  something to the black community, etc. My family wasn't here. I certainly wasn't here. So why do I get generalized as a descendant of that awful part of American history....oh, that's right. It's because I'm white, isn't it?

Let's quit tearing our society apart with references to "the black community", "the asian community", "the white community"...etc and just be one nation, undivided. I, for one, have *NEVER* heard a white person say "We need to do this for our white community". We'd be taken out back and shot...or at least called racist and taken to court.

I'm tired of the division...can't we all just get along?

Even though I do not care for Obama (the same I do not care for McCain), that is just a stupid shirt.  And anyone that wears is is just being just as stupid!

Couldn't find andyconfirmed sources but did find this:

http://gawker.com/5027320/source-metro-editor-fired-for-obama-is-my-slave-publicity-stunt-story

but seriously.....really think this is a hoax, definitely would need some sort of legal document a la "Inside Edition" style.  Have to admit my first thought was to go Do tha right thing on his store front window but that wouldn't solve anything would it?