I have a feeling I’ll regret asking but what made his “patronizing demeanor” sound “quite sexist”? I just don’t see it.
Nice thing to do.
And sheesh re discussion, good attempt trying to derail it into the offensive-everything realm.
More important questions I’d have. For the beginning:
- Kind of projector, cost
- Kind of lens
- Light source, wattage
- Projector-building distance
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Um, sorry to be continuing this. . . let’s put that picture into full context.
At the time, Obama was on vacation in Hawaii, and on his way to work out at the gym - not to have his portrait done. So while the graffiti artist may be capturing an existing image, it’s not an image of Obama in, let’s say, work clothes. Instead, he’s being represented as “street” - which is insulting when you consider he holds the highest political office in our country. It’s designed to lower him. The hat was definitely a dig - especially when you consider that Obama has been quoted as saying this:
“Here’s a general rule,” he declared. “You don’t put stuff on your head if you’re president. That’s politics 101. You never look good wearing something on your head.”
Whether or not the artist was making a racist statement, and it looks like that’s possible, he definitely was making a deliberate attack on Obama himself as well as the NSA.
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I think he looks fantastic in that picture.
Propagandists are propagandists and they excel at manipulations – they use sleight of hand and misdirection – and right now, people are pointing at the sleight of hand and I am pointing at the wires and smoke and mirrors and I get called stupid and racist for pointing out the obvious. I have seen this game before and I will see it again.
If you want to be willfully blind – have a blast running into traffic, but you do not know me and never will.
And it is not what you call me, but what I answer to; so deal with it.
Quite frankly, I don’t care what you pretend to think to allay your deepest fears – that’s your business, not mine – but it is a very ugly mood in America – and there is so much infighting among people rich, poor, Left, Right, that it is too easy for competing interests to play mind games with the lot of you – and they do not care what kind of American you are – they think you are all equally inferior to them and they now see a weakened nation being dragged down by a divided people and it is a ripe time to forge ahead.
I saw these same games before twenty years ago – it was different country all eager to divide as others conquered them. The only difference now is those interests believe they have their sights set on a bigger prize.
So scream, shout, knock yourself out if that’s how you get through another day as you tremble in your boots – your enemies will love you all the more for it…and I will go on seeing things as they are…
Actually, it is a statement about Americans, with their current leader as a symbol.
That a certain type of Music and/or language is associated with a specific skin color and/or upbringing in the United States is something that barely registers over here these days.
Sorry, from this side of the pound, y’all are Yankees and you’ll have with that, like Scots with the assumption that they live in England and Northern Germans with stereotypes of Oktoberfest.
I’m not saying it’s a bad picture of him at all, so don’t interpret it that way. 
I’m saying that the illustration both takes advantage of him doing something he himself has said makes him look silly (wearing a hat), and he’s not wearing the standard attire of his office. Instead he’s wearing street gear. The person using the image was probably well aware of both those facts.
[quote=“retepslluerb, post:27, topic:37463”]
That a certain type of Music and/or language is associated with a specific skin color and/or upbringing in the United States is something that barely registers over here these days.
[/quote]So you’re saying the artist just accidentally decided to use multiple racial stereotypes about African Americans in an image of Obama? While avoiding any of the non-applicable American stereotypes? Yeah, I totally buy that.
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This is brilliant. And to the people calling racism. Oh please! Someone draws a backwards cap on a black man and all of a sudden, those who have never met the artist can proclaim him a racist. I’ve not seen that charge levelled at Ed Piskor’s hip-hop family tree.
Let’s keep it on-topic which is about massive, illegal surveillance. To try and play the racism card when there isn’t any says volumes more about your state of mind than the artists’ when it comes to bigotry.
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Wait. What are we doing here? Is your issue that it’s “insulting” and “designed to lower him”. Oh boo hoo. The most powerful person in the country, and one of the most in the world and his poor little feelings are hurt? It isn’t respectful? Give me a break.
And really? Wearing a hat backwards is somehow still considered “street”? LOL. Considering everyone does it, I don’t see that is still possible. Which was partly my point of the photo. Lampooning Obama with a backwards hat is pretty weak, and I don’t want to live in a world where someone gets all bent out of shape because it’s considered a “racist caricature”.
As for Obama’s quote on wearing a hat - that sounds like a personal preference combined with the fact that hats aren’t as popular as they once were. Presidents still wore hats formally not that long ago, and a few of them are iconicaly remembered for their hats - such as Washington’s tricorn and Lincolns stove pipe hat. Bush wore a cowboy hat on vacation all the tie. That said - Obama wears hats often when he is “off the clock” (which is perfectly fine).
Yes, given the setting it’s the likiest explanation.
Do you seriously assume that a German is aware of your silly hat rules? Or cares about them?
I wasn’t pulling an “oh boo hoo” - where did you read that in my statement? I was just putting the image into artistic and historical context. Obama has actually brushed off offered hats on several occasions, and it has become a bit of a joke for anyone who knows about it. People sometimes still deliberately offer them to him.
Like I said, I don’t think there’s anything majorly wrong with the image as a picture of him, but I do think that the artist deliberately chose a laid-back image to make a political point. Yes - “street” - when compared to the attire normally seen on world leaders. Basically, compare this image to the now-world famous HOPE poster - where he has a serious face, no hat, and is in a suit. Here he’s been seriously dressed down, and to say it isn’t intentional is a mistake. Not because of any offense, but because it means you’re ignoring the artist. The artist worked for that effect - just look at Obama grinning broadly next to “NSA in DA House” and an A-OK sign, and realize that’s how the artist sees our President - and wants you to see him, too.
This is an excellent example which illustrates nicely your problem to understand: Germans, as a rule, do not know about fried chickens and watermelons being associated in any way which racism or even stereotyping.
None. Zero. Zilch.
Same with the cap and the language. Over here those are, if at all, American things. Not African-American things.
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The joke is (ugh) old hat, and has followed Obama all over for years. Here’s a 2004 story where an acorn hat was added to his head in a picture of him. Seriously, all I was doing was giving context to the image.
You might think people don’t know about this, but there are entire books written about why men (and politicians in particular) do/don’t wear hats anymore. In fact, it was Kennedy, who was young, good looking and had great hair that broke the tradition of the hat - for most men in America!
Hell, Australians don’t and we even share the same language. There was a bit of fuss a couple of years back over a KFC advert during the West Indies tour. For me, backwards-baseball-cap says bogan kid rather than black.
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[quote=“catgrin, post:35, topic:37463”]
I wasn’t pulling an “oh boo hoo” - where did you read that in my statement?[/quote]
Honestly I was confused by your angle and point. Which was why I lead with, "Wait. What are we doing here? "
Oh I agree with that. One is pro-propaganda where he is presented in an ideal, fantasy setting. The other is anti-propaganda,where the veneer is stripped and the reality that behind the suit Obama is just like any other goober is exposed.
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I guess you thought I was taking issue, but really I was just calling propaganda what it is. It is “insulting” and “designed to lower him” - because that’s how it works. I wasn’t making any emotional statement - you read one that wasn’t there.
My point is that both are propaganda - so all I was doing was putting this piece into context. There was a lot of racism talk going on, and I felt it would be good to let people know where the image came from, and why it might designed to bother Obama. When you responded the way you did, I figured I’d better also mention the classic poster - even if the German artist isn’t aware of the other issue (the hat thing) he’ll definitely have known about the look of it. 
I assure you that the vast majority of Germans - even though they don’t wear hats - do not follow American news about presidental hats that closely. So no, “people” do not know this.
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This is stupid. Seriously, I am anti-NSA, and yet this does us no favours.
It makes no statement. It just says ‘NSA’. If it said ‘NSA BAD’, then at least it would be saying something. The word NSA is simply not in itself an anti-NSA message. Projecting it anywhere is meaningless.
And it isn’t even funny unless you think vaguely racist caricatures are funny.
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