And to that I add: Ditto.
via: American Thinker, NRO
Wednesday, August 05, 2009
If Obama Is The Joker, Who Is Batman?
The couple of posts I've seen with these Obama-as-Joker "socialist" pics all say the same thing: it's a striking image, that's making it way around not only on the internet, but in The Real World (so much as Los Angeles can be called The Real World), but no one knows or has any sense of what it means.
And to that I add: Ditto.
via: American Thinker, NRO
And to that I add: Ditto.
via: American Thinker, NRO
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From an artist stand point. Its creative and grabs your attention.
ReplyDeleteFrom an activist stand point. What's the other side of the coin? Who is Batman? I need more.
Is socialism how he got those scars?
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's not supposed to make sense. Just provoke thinking. Art.
ReplyDeleteSocially-acceptable way for conservative white America to make racist visual commentary about O., via art in the minstrel tradition? Looks to me like an inversion of blackface.
ReplyDeleteDamn it, you already said that. Of course.
ReplyDeletesomeone at WaPo decided to take on the challenge
ReplyDeleteblackface: okay well maybe. but i'm not sure that someone who believes in the cultural relevance of heath ledgers joker draws as quickly on blackface to make social commentary.
ReplyDeletebatman vs. joker: the opposite of the joker is not batman. batman and the jokers are brothers in chaos. one is the id, the other the ego. both go to dark places. the opposite of the joker is the buttoned up upper crust of society that the joker attacks.
"the opposite of the joker is not batman. batman and the jokers are brothers in chaos. one is the id, the other the ego"
ReplyDeletehmmmm, interesting ....
obama would seem to be someone who aligns with anything across the room from chaos though, right?
obama might be aligning himself with anything across the room from chaos however his administration's approach to the fiscal crisis and healthcare shows a tendency towards chaos.
ReplyDeleteAs a white guy, I have to interject that we really miss Heath Ledger.
ReplyDeleteHeath was kind of black (dark, aloof, misunderstood ...uh-oh) when not acting/in joker/white-face.
ReplyDeletewhich is to say, black folks miss heath ledger also. aww
(well, unless, you're emphasizing the fraternity of caucasian male element. which, y'know, is fair enough....)
I like how you're not even considering the fact that Heath Ledger's "actual" race figures into the equation...
ReplyDeleteabout the "whiteface" thing:
ReplyDelete. . . I don't think the concept of performing race is actually that alien to these 'birther' people. It's not a stretch to analyze this image as a racialized one.. I mean, how could it not be?
The impact of the "joker" face is that he is "smiling" and would ostensibly perform as a figure of amusement -- a clown, or a joker -- but as we all know, he is actually Evil. That's what makes him scary, when his make-up is smudged -- the sinister quality. Now, if you think about the premise of the fanatic/radical right's "critique" about Obama, it has been paraphrased as a "Muncharian Candidate" figure -- a spy, a double agent, a master infiltrator. Obama is a socialist/"Jihadist" plant, to these people - he wants the government to take over, he is a "secret Muslim' (I wonder if that term will be in the history books 50 years from now). Underneath that, though you might not hear them say that, is the belief that the president's intelligence/education/calm and thoughtful demeanor, etc. his transcendence of their stereotypes, are an act.*** They paint him as an imposter, a sinister figure. Who just barely succeeds in fooling the rest of us that he is as 'civilized' as a white man...Plus, he's not even an American Citizen! I bet they have terrorist Muslims in Kenya, too!..' A barely convincing act of "whiteface" -- you can't look at that image without thinking about the way the extreme right has been presenting him -- the message they've chosen to market. Sinister. Imposter. And it's all about marketing, you know, in politics...
*Manchurian
ReplyDeleteI'm with Joanna and Julia. It's their ironic joke, painting him in the opposite of blackface.
ReplyDeleteTheir racism is often (when it doesn't make the occasional break - free of it's shackles) just beneath the surface, taunting the rest of us -and Obama himself in particular - to "go ahead, play the RACE CARD"