NAACP in a fit over "racist" Obongo e-mail

Topic starter

Have we no sense of humor?

If we cannot make fun of "our" leaders, then who can we make fun of?:o

Education appointee email ignites firestorm
NAACP plans protest tonight over what it calls racist jokes forwarded by a CEC member

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- An email ripe with racist slurs -- crudely presented as a mock debate between President Obama and Sen. John McCain -- sent by a member of Staten Island's Community Education Council to dozens of recipients, including other members of the public schools' parent advisory board, is stirring outrage among African American leaders, who anonymously received a copy of the offensive communiqué and plan to take action.

The mock photo strip, sent Jan. 4 by Salvatore Ballarino, the borough president's appointee to the volunteer board, features cartoon-like speech balloons drawn out of McCain's mouth referencing lynching African Americans and equating African American babies with excrement.

The widely forwarded email also questions black fathers' ability to support their families and states Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles are always smiling, because they did not know they were black.:hflol After each "punch line" the cartoon-like strip shows a photo of Obama's face, positioned in such a way to make him look stunned and dumbstruck.

Dozens of African American parents, school children and educators are expected to attend the meeting of the Community Education Council tonight at Petrides Educational Complex, Sunnyside, to question how somebody charged with representing all Staten Islanders could find the material funny, and then have the bad judgment to forward the email around.

"Jokes are jokes, but this goes beyond what you might regard as a harmless joke. This is very offensive," said Edward Josey, the president of the Staten Island NAACP, noting the group decided at its meeting last week to make their feelings known publicly. "If he's telling jokes of this nature, how sincere is he about educating all the children of Staten Island?"

[...]

Ballarino said he similarly forwards jabs at other communities. "I get jokes and I send them. I get redneck jokes. I get Irish jokes. I get Italian jokes."

[...]

"The voices of minority concerns in public schools are oftentimes overlooked," wrote Tammy Greer Brown, the chairwoman of the NAACP education committee, in an email organizing tonight's protest. "This email potentially violates all educational and civil rights laws that are currently in existence."