TeaParty.org, a Houston-based group founded by Dale Robertson, has decided to further play the race card by sending out an e-mail portraying President Barack Obama wearing a pimp hat, with a mustache painted on his face. The hat has zebra stripes and even includes a feather. The subject line of the e-mail states, "Obama Pimpin Obama-care, one last time!"
Robertson's group was taken to task recently for a sign that the founder held up at a rally that used the word "niggars" in reference to tax payers under the regime of the Obama administration.
When you have outlandish protesters like Robertson, it's difficult to believe that the tea party protests against the president aren't at least a little bit racist. I am sure that every legitimate protester, who at least thinks that race has nothing to do with his or her disdain for Obama, is disgusted by the actions of Robertson. To that effect, many other tea partiers are partying as far away from Robertson as they possibly can.
But events like this do beg additional questions regarding just how much race has to do with the extreme hatred being shown toward President Barack Obama. Do they just happen to hate the president because they think he is too liberal or because they are not accustomed to dealing with African American authority figures? Many black scholars document fundamental disrespect in the classroom from white students who've never had a black teacher before. The disrespect from students is heightened when your teaching style differs from what students are accustomed to. It is not inconceivable that many people who hate Obama because he's black are not even aware that race has something to do with their disdain.
While we will never know the origins or the intent of the tea party protests (they seem to be more determined to undermine Obama than to sway his opinion), we do know that protesters like Robertson are not good for our country. At the same time, I'm sure that the president knows that these kinds of attacks simply come with the territory. I'm sure he can handle it, and so can we.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here. 


Comments: (221)
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By: JustSaying... on 2/01/2010 4:24PM
This latest salvo is just another disrespectful sign of the ignorance of this TeaBagger (or whatever they call themselves)crowd. They will never miss an opportunity to insult this President personally, and with a vehemance which surpasses simple racial ignorance. By painting themselves into such an extremist corner, it's easy to blow off their occasonal racial insults, but I still pray for our Presidents' safety.
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By: Mimi on 2/01/2010 7:38PM
PRESIDENT OBAMA MADE IT CLEAR THAT HE IS TIRED OF THE MEDIA POUNCING ON SOUND BITES AND BASICALLY B.S. FROM THE RIGHT...AND SO AM I AS WELL AS OTHERS.
QUIT POSTING THIS CRAP BY THOSE RACIST EVIL HATEFUL RETARD TEA BAGGERS. THEY WANT AMERICA TO FAIL THEY BELONG TO THE PARTY OF "NO". SO STOP POSTING THEIR HATEFUL MESSAGES.
I VOTED FOR PRESIDENT OBAMA TO CHANGE IF NOT ALL AT LEAST SOME OF THE WRONGS THAT TOOK PLACE DURING THE BUSH ADMINSTRATION. THIS IS 2010, THIS IS PRESIDENT OBAMA'S SECOND TERM. LET'S NOT WASTE IT ON EVIL HATEFUL SICK MINDED TEA BAGGERS.
THEY WANT TO SAY PRESIDENT OBAMA IS A PIMP AND I SAY THE TEA BAGGERS ARE BLUE EYE DEVILS SO THERE WHAT ABOUT IT.
LET'S MOVE ON AND STOP WITH THIS STUPID SH-T!
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By: Mimi on 2/01/2010 7:40PM
THIS IS PRESIDENT OBAMA'S SECOND TERM. LET'S NOT WASTE IT ON EVIL HATEFUL SICK MINDED TEA BAGGERS.
THEY WANT TO SAY PRESIDENT OBAMA IS A PIMP AND I SAY THE TEA BAGGERS ARE BLUE EYE DEVILS SO THERE WHAT ABOUT IT.
LET'S MOVE ON AND STOP WITH THIS STUPID SH-T!
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By: Sally on 2/05/2010 1:08PM
To Mimi, whose using sound bites now?? You need to think for yourself.
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By: John Lindsay on 2/01/2010 11:09AM
More ignorance.
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By: sharkchops on 2/01/2010 11:19AM
Who cares? That's part of the package of being president. You get lampooned. They photoshopped Clinton into an image of a drunken W.C. Fields among other things when he was in office. Bush jr. was pictured into a chicken suit with a dunce cap. No sense taking it personal. Anyone who voted for Obama should have known this would eventually happen no matter how well he was doing in office. BV needs to get better topics than re-running the same piece of lame news week after week. Stop chasing after every piece of crap media that insults the president. Unfortunately there'll be more but that's the price of being the most important man in the world. They did Jesus dirty too.
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By: Bill Schrier on 2/01/2010 7:58PM
Of course, every previous president has been lampooned. But although it's perfectly okay to lampoon white presidents, you never never can do it to a Negro ... that would be racist. This is just more of the same old double standard, whites have to walk on eggshells in how they portray or talk about Negroes, but Negroes are free to portray or talk about whites in the worst ways.
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By: Bill Schrier on 2/01/2010 8:04PM
Here's another example of the double standard:
No longer can whites put on blackface and do minstrel shows.
BUT blacks can put on white makeup and do a mockery of whites ... remember the Wayan's brother's 2004 movie White Chicks? How is this Negro movie making fun of whites any different than the following 1942 clip, which is now considered to racist to be included whenever the full movie is aired:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAHSTbD4A5M&feature=player_embedded
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By: Watcher Watchmen on 2/04/2010 5:05AM
Once again you're bastardizing the facts and trivializing the point, which was clearly made. (A commonly known practice of your ILK).
What's missing here is the underlying connotations that you two are deliberately over looking, as you reach for excuses to pacify yourselves on the matter.
(Seeking an exit)
Whites, known historically as the oppressors, has positioned and programmed the people at large in such a way as to have their negative mockeries laughed off, more so, than those same but relative mockeries of blacks, which is likely and often more damaging.
Blacks are more likely haunted by negative propagandas than whites would be and therein lies the fundamental differences on the matter which those of your ILK has long since orchestrated, not the blacks.
(Feel free to Read/Review your own damn history books!)
Also, Whites "Black Facing" themselves had many underlying reasons for doing it, but more often because it was better received as slap-stick entertainment for the stage act than to have a REAL black person playing the part in an audience packed with psychotically racist trigger-happy whites. Go figure!
(Read/Review your own damn history books!)
And if the wayans brothers had made that exact same film/movie (you’ve referenced) back when whites were doing all the frequent but yet to be prosecuted drive by shootings and a host of other insanely criminal acts they were not found guilty for, the wayans would have long since been lynched and I KNOW YOU ALREADY KNOW THIS, yet you proceed under equal comparison, which self testifies what you folks made of.
And about Jesus getting the same treatment? Well the difference is, HE rose from the dead on the 3rd day, but everyone else are still in their graves.
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By: tps364 on 2/01/2010 11:33AM
There are many more characatures that could be used to portray Obama. Boyce loses phd credibility by stereotyping all "teabaggers" as racist after the actions of one individual. It's idiots like Boyce that do nothing to help relationships between blacks and whites. If Boyce were to attend a few Tea Party meetings, he'd find genuine Americans who just want freedom from tyranny and slavery. Maybe some of you get it. Obviously Boyce does not.
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