2008 Woodie Awards
Curious jerk
Nate Whitney - The Daily Iowan
Issue date: 5/15/08 Section: Opinions
Many of you will leave the Iowa City area this week. Classes will end, and you'll head home or take off for a vacation. You may need it. I certainly did, which is why I'm writing this column from Siesta Key, Fla., and doing my best to rub it in for my colleagues. (He's doing a great job. -ed.)
It's good to get back down here, enjoy the change in culture and (most of all) the change in weather. Iowa City and the rest of the state have many redeeming qualities, despite what you might hear from Andrew Swift, but I'll take cheap imported rum, humidity, and Gulf breezes over miles of empty fields any day. Not a soybean to be seen down here, just fields of tourists and greenish waves lapping at the shore.
The Midwest and the South both have their share of nuts, too, and I don't mean the kind they hand out on the plane ride down here.
I picked up the local rag today to get my FDA-recommended daily value of news about the latest efforts of Sarasota's boy scouts and the spreading plague of wildfires. I read over breakfast, but I lost my appetite and couldn't finish my grits when I came to a story about T-shirts.
A bar owner in Marietta, Ga., is selling shirts with a picture of Curious George eating a banana, and the words "Obama in '08" written below. Good old boy and utter jackass Mike Norman, peddler of the tumble-dry ignorance, doesn't see a problem. He says they aren't meant to offend.
They aren't meant to offend? Then what is the purpose? Just to have some good old fun? Surely, Mr. Norman, you're not supporting Obama? You're not donating money to his campaign through the sales of these dishrags, and reports describe you as "ultra-conservative." So what, if not offensive, blatantly racist, and just plain dumb, is the motivation behind your efforts?
"Look at him," he told the *Atlanta Journal-Constitution*. "The hairline, the ears - he looks just like Curious George." Yes, I'm sure it's that simple.
Norman, from watching the media clips, seems competent. He's obviously a successful businessman. He talks with a folksy, soothing drawl, a man who regularly deals with customers on a personal basis. The guys not dumb, much as I'd love to call him that. He knows damn well the underlying Jim Crow message behind his supposedly harmless shilling. His ignorance at their effect is almost as potent as his larger ignorance. In fact, he's even unaware of his supplier. He told reporters he didn't order the shirts but just got them in the mail. He doesn't even know who they came from: "Probably a customer, I don't know," he told the *Journal-Constitution*.
It's good to get back down here, enjoy the change in culture and (most of all) the change in weather. Iowa City and the rest of the state have many redeeming qualities, despite what you might hear from Andrew Swift, but I'll take cheap imported rum, humidity, and Gulf breezes over miles of empty fields any day. Not a soybean to be seen down here, just fields of tourists and greenish waves lapping at the shore.
The Midwest and the South both have their share of nuts, too, and I don't mean the kind they hand out on the plane ride down here.
I picked up the local rag today to get my FDA-recommended daily value of news about the latest efforts of Sarasota's boy scouts and the spreading plague of wildfires. I read over breakfast, but I lost my appetite and couldn't finish my grits when I came to a story about T-shirts.
A bar owner in Marietta, Ga., is selling shirts with a picture of Curious George eating a banana, and the words "Obama in '08" written below. Good old boy and utter jackass Mike Norman, peddler of the tumble-dry ignorance, doesn't see a problem. He says they aren't meant to offend.
They aren't meant to offend? Then what is the purpose? Just to have some good old fun? Surely, Mr. Norman, you're not supporting Obama? You're not donating money to his campaign through the sales of these dishrags, and reports describe you as "ultra-conservative." So what, if not offensive, blatantly racist, and just plain dumb, is the motivation behind your efforts?
"Look at him," he told the *Atlanta Journal-Constitution*. "The hairline, the ears - he looks just like Curious George." Yes, I'm sure it's that simple.
Norman, from watching the media clips, seems competent. He's obviously a successful businessman. He talks with a folksy, soothing drawl, a man who regularly deals with customers on a personal basis. The guys not dumb, much as I'd love to call him that. He knows damn well the underlying Jim Crow message behind his supposedly harmless shilling. His ignorance at their effect is almost as potent as his larger ignorance. In fact, he's even unaware of his supplier. He told reporters he didn't order the shirts but just got them in the mail. He doesn't even know who they came from: "Probably a customer, I don't know," he told the *Journal-Constitution*.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 3
taco
posted 5/15/08 @ 10:19 AM CST
"The truth is that bigotry isn't region-specific." OK, fair enough.
But: This is a matter of political caricature and satire, and our current president GW is has also been portrayed as a money in political cartoons. (Continued…)
MrPaladin
posted 5/16/08 @ 10:11 AM CST
Bush - Monkey Comparisons... Website Dedicated to it
http://www.bushorchimp.com/
Bush - Directly inserted into a Curious George type story
http://home. (Continued…)
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