From My Brown Eyed View 10/19/08

State GOP Chief Warns Against 'Hostile' Images

(h/t to blacknewsjunkie)

I have just reached the point mentally where I could deal with this whole food stamp issue. Enough is enough and too much is simply vulgar.

Here's a recap of the first part of this story.

Inland GOP mailing depicts Obama's face on food stamp

11:39 PM PDT on Thursday, October 16, 2008
By MICHELLE DeARMOND

The Press-Enterprise

The GOP newsletter, which was sent to about 200 members and associates of the group by e-mail and regular mail last week, is drawing harsh criticism from members of the political group, elected leaders, party officials and others as racist.

The group's president, Diane Fedele, said she plans to send an apology letter to her members and to apologize at the club's meeting next week. She said she simply wanted to deride a comment Obama made over the summer about how as an African-American he "doesn't look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills." MBEV Sidebar(Notice she didn't mention apologizing to Obama)

"It was strictly an attempt to point out the outrageousness of his statement. I really don't want to go into it any further," Fedele said in a telephone interview Tuesday. "I absolutely apologize to anyone who was offended. That clearly wasn't my attempt."

Fedele said she got the illustration in a number of chain e-mails and decided to reprint it for her members in the Trumpeter newsletter because she was offended that Obama would draw attention to his own race. She declined to say who sent her the e-mails with the illustration. MBEV Sidebar(WTH? Obama doesn't look like any of the other presidents on or off of the currency!)

She said she doesn't think in racist terms, pointing out she once supported Republican Alan Keyes, an African-American who previously ran for president.MBEV Sidebar: (Here's the scapegoat answer, that one black person that seems to pop up during times like this.)

"I didn't see it the way that it's being taken. I never connected," she said. "It was just food to me. It didn't mean anything else." MBEV Sidebar(Is she in step with McPhalin or what?)

She said she also wasn't trying to make a statement linking Obama and food stamps, although her introductory text to the illustration connects the two: "Obama talks about all those presidents that got their names on bills. If elected, what bill would he be on????? Food Stamps, what else!" MBEV Sidebar(This is the moment when we all become Boo Boo the Fool!)

This portion of the story was enough to make me want to just holler out in sheer angst! Until I read this portion of the story about the African American whistle blower, Sheila Raines.

Sheila Raines, an African-American member of the club, was the first person to complain to Fedele about the newsletter. Raines, of San Bernardino, said she has worked hard to try to convince other minorities to join the Republican Party and now she feels betrayed.

"This is what keeps African-Americans from joining the Republican Party," she said. "I'm really hurt. I cried for 45 minutes." MBEV Sidebar(Slaps of reality hurt Sheila, really they do). (source)

Then I discovered the follow up to this incident that has made me feel there are still rational people within the ranks of the GOP.

State GOP Chief Warns Against 'Hostile' Images

By MICHELLE DeARMOND

The Press-Enterprise

LOS ANGELES - The California Republican Party chairman warned his members Saturday about racism in politics, pointing as an example to an Inland GOP newsletter he dubbed "intensely hostile to Barack Obama's race."

Chairman Ron Nehring spoke at the California Federation of Republican Women's fall conference in Los Angeles, where he railed against a number of threats -- including racism -- to the Republican Party. He specifically addressed the Inland GOP group's newsletter, released this month, that showed an image of Obama on a fake $10 food stamp with a bucket of KFC chicken, a slab of ribs, a pitcher of Kool-Aid and a slice of watermelon.

"As political leaders, we must be absolutely clear that any material that attempts to make an issue of race or ethnicity has no place in our party or in our politics,"

Nehring said to the packed ballroom at the Marriott Los Angeles Airport hotel. "No American should feel they are unwelcome in a political party because of their culture, religion, race or ethnicity."

Nehring drew a strong round of applause from the room of a couple hundred women, the majority of whom seemed to be familiar with the outcry over the newsletter produced by the Chaffey Community Republican Women, Federated. The Chaffey club president's use of the so-called "Obama Bucks" illustration, which she said she took from a chain of e-mails she had received, sparked widespread condemnation this week and drew attention from as far away as Israel and Great Britain. (source)
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Maybe it is me, but if you spoke out prior to the newsletter being sent out and was ignored, isn't that a clue about what your conservative women friends think of our race? The fact that you are the only member of your group that spoke out says a whole lot.

Also if only one member has contacted you since this story broke into the national limelight~it seems the other 198 women are sending you a message.