18 Responses

1. CalifLady36

   June 13th, 2008 at 2:11 pm

   1

   Since when has obama been “elected” as the nominee for presidency? When was the election and why was I not permitted to vote? If you are going to print articles at lease have the decency to be correct. Obama is the “PRESUMED” Democratic Nominee for president of the USA. The GENRAL ELECTION in November will determine the next President of the United States of America.

   P.U.M.A.

2. Cory Perry

   June 13th, 2008 at 2:22 pm

   2

   @CalifLady36:

   Obama was “elected” as the nominee in this little thing we have in this country called a PRIMARY. I am sure you have heard a little about over the last few months.

   Notice in the post that I said “electing Barack Obama as the first African-American presidential nominee”. In other words, through a primary contest, America elected him to be the Democratic nominee for president.

   –Cory

3. Nick

   June 13th, 2008 at 2:36 pm

   3

   Hey Cory,

   Don’t get too worked up over the old cougar. They’re nasty old yentas that can’t be reasoned with, you cant expect her to be able to grasp simple concepts and/or sentence structure.

4. sensico

   June 13th, 2008 at 3:29 pm

   4

   Obviously, CalifLady36 is still hung up on the fact that Hillary might come out of nowhere and suddenly have the nomination but anyways, I e-mailed the company hoping for a response. Sometimes people just don’t know whats considered racist but, its still hard to believe depicting Obama as a monkey was some sort of mistake. Obama did win Utah (thats where the company is), so not all is bad.

5. Al

   June 14th, 2008 at 11:08 am

   5

   Yeah, it’s a stupid idea. But racist? Bush has been called “chimp” for the last 8 years. Is that considered racist?

6. Cory Perry

   June 14th, 2008 at 2:59 pm

   6

   @Al:

   No, that is not considered racist, because white people in this country have not been called “monkeys” or even more specifically, “porch monkeys” for the last 4 decades. Both of these are horrible terms that have been used to describe African-Americans, not white Americas.

   –Cory

7. Jimmy Knecht

   June 14th, 2008 at 3:39 pm

   7

   I have never seen a White or Albino Monkey. Did anyone cry racist over the ‘Rally Monkies’ of the Anaheim Angels or any of the other baseball teams. Come on folks…we all need to lighten up…get a life and be concerned over things such as feeding the needy and helping them that need help. Monkies are black…last I checked…unless of course it is a ’snow monkey’ as we called them in Nagano Japan. They are a light brown…but still brown.

8. Al

   June 14th, 2008 at 5:55 pm

   8

   I understand that Cory … but that doesn’t make it right. For 8 years it was okay to say that about Bush (even a CNN reporterette recently did it). I say if you can’t can’t take it, don’t dish it out.

9. Cindy

   June 14th, 2008 at 6:03 pm

   9

   I am a Hispanic American living in Europe. I am also a McCain supporter. I believe this “toy” supposedly depicting Obama as a monkey is totally unacceptable. Though I am not black I think it is important for us “non-blacks” of all races to see this for what it is. Blacks have been put down and ridiculed and called “monkeys” in America for a very long time. It is not the same if whites we called chimps, etc… They (whites) have never experienced racism like black people and I believe that all need to understand this. It is wrong and degrading. We are ALL made in the image of God, “male and female HE made THEM…in HIS image…” Genesis. This is really wrong and for someone to compare Obama to a doll they played with when they were little is offensive. When did they play with that toy? Back in the 50s? It is easy for a white person to say that but they were not the ones that had to put up with so much humiliation. White people will never fully understand this. However, I also think it is important to acknowledge the immense amount of racism that exists between black-black and black on white. It is everywhere. So before blacks start throwing the first stone they should really make sure in their hearts that they are not harboring this same spirit of hatred, superiority and pride. This is a condition of the human heart. No matter what color we are on the outside, all our hearts are red. Our differences are more based on our cultures, tranditions, etc… and not on our skin tone. I am very upset about this supposed toy monkey. However, I do not feel Obama to be ready to take over our country as president. I believe that if he doesn’t or does become the next president, it should be based on what he has achieved and on what his principles/experience and judgment can provide. I do not feel he is equipped at this time for the job. I also find him way too liberal. That is not good for America.

10. Cory Perry

    June 14th, 2008 at 6:27 pm

    10

    @Al:

    I understand what you are saying to a point, however, I still cannot directly relate the two scenarios, as to me they are completely different. If President Bush were black, I could relate the two but since he is not, the Obama toy to me seems a much larger racial issue.

    –Cory

11. Michael

    June 14th, 2008 at 8:36 pm

    11

    AI is wrong. Although he may not have seen white monkeys they do exist. Just as there are albino monkeys. Having said that we are all derived from monkeys. The majority are black, but in terms of excessive body hair and thinness of lips caucasians and arabs can also resemble monkeys. The sockmionkey is racist by virtrue of the fact that over many years blacks have been unfairly labelled as monkeys. Cory is therefore right that there is a difference between what has happened here and calling Bush a chimp. There ought not to be, but there is.

12. tazz

    June 14th, 2008 at 8:49 pm

    12

    This really ticks me off, The only thing racist here is you!
    Black jokes = racist
    White jokes= ok

    Honky is not racist huh?
    Blacks are the most racist people on earth, Why does every statement have to be called racist, Black comedians telling racist joke to blacks are acceptable, Whites telling black jokes are considered racist, You people make me sick.
    As you leader says: Why can’t we all just get along?

13. Lacist

    June 14th, 2008 at 9:10 pm

    13

    I feel like the difference between calling Obama a monkey and calling Bush a monkey is that we called Bush a monkey because he’s essentially an idiot savant in both mannerism and his atrocious bastardization of the English language, and while this particular internet myth has since been debunked, at the time we were all still convinced that his IQ was the lowest of any president in the last fifty years.

    Likening Senator Obama to a monkey however, despite his eloquence, his charisma, his staggaring intelligence and his already apparent ability to galvanize this nation, is a completely different issue altogether. It becomes one of a misconstrued PHYSICAL similarity.

    The last time I checked, that was racism.

    Vincent Chin (who was of Chinese decent) was murdered in Detroit by Caucasian employees of the Chrysler company who thought he was Japanese and therefore was deserving of a beat down because “his kind” was taking away “their jobs”. A man who was completely innocent of any wrongdoing payed the highest price for looking like something he was not. This in the land of the free. That’s a hate crime. That’s racism. And while I have no desire to make light of that truly horrible moment in American history, I will still say that at least in THAT scenario, he was likened to ANOTHER HUMAN BEING.

    Calling Senator Obama a monkey is even more demeaning than that. And in this age of instant information, I find it highly unlikely that the people behind this thing’s creation were not in any way aware of what they were invoking. It’s dispicable to have done it, and it’s dishonorable to have not taken responsibility for it.

14. CAGirl

    June 15th, 2008 at 9:45 pm

    14

    The monkey has used to dehumanize black people for a very long time. Dehumanizing people is one of the prerequisites to horrible racism.

15. Carrie

    June 16th, 2008 at 5:18 pm

    15

    Sadly, the people who concocted this monstrosity did it in HONOR of Barack Obama. They were in SUPPORT of the man as candidate, and apparently they are as old as my grandparents who also fondly remembered the stupid sock monkey doll from their youth.

    The Repubs had nothing to do with that ghastly toy. Conservative outlets were running stories galore against this toy, calling it every appropriately insulting adjective in the book(vile, racist, hateful, insensitive, insulting…)

    Once upon a time many decades ago, the sock monkey was a fun thing to have. This company combined its support of Obama with the fact that his first name ‘Barack’ rhymes handily with ‘the sock’: Barack Obama becomes The Sock Obama. Astoundingly, they truly thought it was cute, not racist.

16. Blogsvine

    June 19th, 2008 at 1:47 pm

    16

    Racism at its finest - The Sock Obama toy | Politivine.com…

    Just when you thought that America had made giant leaps forward in bridging the racial divide by electing Barack Obama as the first African-American presidential nominee, we find this little gem hidden in the weeds………

17. Anthony S.

    June 22nd, 2008 at 10:15 pm

    17

    I think that the “shame” in all of this is you pathetic, left-wing bedwetters who find it impossible to laugh at yourselves!!!!

    I am of Polish descent, and when I was growing up, I hear more Polish jokes than you could possibly imagine…. It used to bother me, but then I got over it and today I can tell a Polish joke with the best of them. I can laugh at the humor in it. I can laugh at myself, which means, I CAN LAUGH AT YOU!!!!!

    Don’t really care if you like it or not, but that’s the way that it is.

    By the way, not all liberals are extreme left-wing bedwetters, just those of you who have no sense of humor, and who like to pull out the race card whenever you can…..

    Good luck in life, because if you continue to believe and behave the way that you do, your life will remain as miserable as it is today….

18. Cory Perry

    June 22nd, 2008 at 10:25 pm

    18

    @Anthony S.:

    Sorry you disagree, but I don’t find racism very funny. The fact that you do find it funny tells me most everything that I need to know about you. I can certainly see why you would be against a “liberal” ideology, as that would squash the bigotry that you love to carry around so much.

    –Cory