Tell me. Does this tweet strike you as the least bit racist?
Much to my surprise, I opened Facebook this morning to find this on my feed from a friend involved in Democratic politics in Indiana. And, much to my disappointment, I found "liberal" folks questioning how this could possibly be racist.
If you follow me past the curlicue, I think that you'll agree that it perpetuates a racially pernicious stereotype of African American women.
Unlike the SAE mess, this is an example where racism exists in the subtext, not the text. Unless you're attuned to the cultural clues, you could almost be excused for missing the dog whistle.
A quick trip to the Jim Crow Museum should disabuse you of this pretense of innocence.
Meet Mammy.
The mammy caricature implied that black women were only fit to be domestic workers; thus, the stereotype became a rationalization for economic discrimination. During the Jim Crow period, approximately 1877 to 1966, America's race-based, race-segregated job economy limited most blacks to menial, low paying, low status jobs. Black women found themselves forced into one job category, house servant. Jo Ann Gibson Robinson (1987), a biographer of the Civil Rights Movement, described the limited opportunities for black women in the 1950s:
Jobs for clerks in dimestores, cashiers in markets, and telephone operators were numerous, but were not open to black women. A fifty-dollar-a-week worker could employ a black domestic to clean her home, cook the food, wash and iron clothes, and nurse the baby for as little as twenty dollars per week. (p. 107)
...Mammy was "black, fat with huge breasts, and head covered with a kerchief to hide her nappy hair, strong, kind, loyal, sexless, religious and superstitious" (Christian, 1980, pp. 11-12). She spoke bastardized English; she did not care about her appearance. She was politically safe. She was culturally safe. She was, of course, a figment of the white imagination, a nostalgic yearning for a reality that never had been. The real-life black domestics of the Jim Crow era were poor women denied other opportunities. They performed many of the duties of the fictional mammies, but, unlike the caricature, they were dedicated to their own families, and often resentful of their lowly societal status.
Now I'm sure that some amongst us, are thinking to themselves, "I'm not down with Jim Crow, but what does this got to do with that?"
Compare and contrast.
For those who may have had doubts, do you really doubt now that the purpose of these two images do not invoke the same stereotype?
Teachable Moments
Unlike the obvious case of the SAE chant, in which the racism is literally in the text, this is a case where the racism is in the subtext. David Ober is a 27 year old representative from a county where less than 0.5% of the population is African American. In all likelihood, Rep. Ober is simply reflecting the racial attitudes of the people he represents, inflated with the ignorance of youth. The fact that Rep. Ober's day job is to promote Noble County as a tourism destination further argues this is the case.
So, where do we go from here?
It's easy to say that Rep. Ober should resign from his House Seat, and be dismissed from his public sector employment day job.
Instead, I would suggest that the best way to counter ignorance is education.
Luckily, it's a short drive down IN 3 from Noble County to IPFW an IU/Purdue branch campus located in Ft. Wayne. Rep. Obey is a Purdue alum, and IPFW offers a course which Rep. Obey could take in order to counter the ignorance that led him to send out a tweet which perpetuates a harmful racial stereotype of African-American women.
AFRO A210 - The Black Woman in America
A historical overview of the black woman’s role in American society, including family, social, and political relationships.
Cr. 3.
Subject Area
[US] - [US] United States [WE] Western Europe [OW] Other World
If you'd like to encourage Rep. Ober to educate himself on the issues of race surrounding the tweet he sent out, you can
reply to his original tweet.
And by all means you can tweet @INHouseGOP, House Speaker @Brian_Bosma, and Ober's bosses his day job @visitnoble to encourage them to support Ober in his efforts to seek out education to counter the ignorance that lead him to send out a racist tweet.