So, I could go into long detail about the e-mails I've received from my father. Usually they're not overtly racist -- I didn't get the Obama as a witch doctor e-mail, or the watermelon patch in front of the White House, or the food stamps. I figured that my dad was just too ignorant to notice the more subtly racist content of the other ones. My bubble was popped today.
The body of the message was this:
Got this from a friend of the White House photographer. She said that after the Ball some fashion critics suggested that the attire could be questioned by some and therefore a lid was put on all photographs. This one happened to make it to my email, however, and I’m passing it along to only a select few. Please don’t let this fall into the wrong hands.
Note that the originator of the message knew that what was going to happen was exactly what is happening now, but that didn't stop this e-mail from going out. And, oddly, it didn't stop my dad from sending it to me, although my response is utterly predictable. I'm posting the picture on a well-read liberal blog.
I mean, gee, how could anyone possibly ever think that this photoshop was done as a joke because (flicks eyes back and forth to make sure there are no minorities around) the President and First Lady are black?
All that said, that is a really nice suit, and if someone were to buy it for me I would not hesitate to wear it. And I'm pretty sure Michelle is in better shape than that.
I should add that prior to Obama's rise to the national stage, I had never heard any inclinations towards racism from my father, although the subject had never come up. It's almost as if the racism lay dormant for decades waiting to shit on this moment in history.